Pet Euthanasia: Making the Hardest Decision

And is that because this is one of the things that you feel like owners keep coming to you with questions about and don't know?

Yes.

So this topic, I think, is not being spoken about so commonly.

Even when we're thinking to do it, we're like, should we do it? Is it too upsetting? Like, is it too depressing?

And for example, whenever I meet new people and they know I'm a vet, I always hear like, I wanted to be a veterinarian as well, but I can never put down an animal.

So people don't understand why we do it, how we do it.

When is it the time to do it? And I think we need clarity on the subject.

Out of curiosity as well, because people always say that.

And I've spoken to a lot of vets about like, would you say that's the worst part of your job or not even necessarily? It is

the most emotional part of our job.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

So euthanasia is such an emotional topic for pet owners.

How do you explain its role in veterinary medicine? So basically as vets,

our job is to treat our patients, to make them better.

But sometimes when we've tried everything and we see that this pet, our patient is suffering and there is no other way, euthanasia is the only option.

It's never the first option.

It's always the last option.

But it is a step that unfortunately, in some cases, we have to face.

And when people ask, are vets for or against euthanasia, how do you kind of answer that?

It's not a matter of with or against euthanasia.

Is euthanasia appropriate in this situation? Is it for the better of the pet or is it not? And if the question is yes, this is our only option, yes, the pet has reached this level, then I would say I'm with.

We're far from there.

There's other things we can still do.