[Gpdd] [HEALTH] GP Euthanasia

[DebJonSara at aol.com]

Bethany, I really feel for you. I have been in a similar position myself  
over the past month or so with Red Dandy. He has now seen 6 different  
professionals and had all kinds of diagnoses, and all the while he has been  syringe 
fed. At first he fed willingly, but as time has progressed he has become  less 
enthusiastic and it has been a battle to keep finding different food mushes  
that he will eat - I have spent all the time when not actually syringe feeding  
in the kitchen trying to concoct stuff he will eat. I was supposed to be 
getting  in 50ml per day, but was only getting in 40ml, and he was losing weight. He 
is  officially my daughter's guinea pig, and after what Hermann posted a 
while back  saying a piggie that had lost more than 30% of its body weight could 
never  recover, she agreed with me that if his weight dropped to below 70% of 
its  normal weight, he should be euthanased.
 
Well, it did, the day before my birthday. But I could not bring myself to  
make the appointment. He was still eating a little - just 10ml short of what he  
needed to maintain his weight. He was even eating a little grass when 
offered,  and soft bread. It was obvious to me that he wanted to eat, it was a 
problem  with his mouth preventing him. When I picked him up and towel wrapped him, 
he  was sniffing around in eager anticipation of what might be on offer, 
because  sometimes it was nice. What was nice one feed he didn't like the next, so 
it was  very hit and miss, but he wanted to eat. When I put him on the floor 
amongst my  girls he toddled around making that little noise they do. He didn't 
 just curl up in a corner. To me he didn't seem like a piggie who wanted to 
die.  I felt he trusted me to try and make him better. He still wanted cuddles 
and  loves. I felt if I took him to the vet for euthanasia I would be killing 
him. It  just didn't seem the right time for him. So instead I drove for 6 
hours and  crossed the Channel and took him from here in France to a place in 
England where  the volunteers specialise in piggies with dental problems. They 
are trying to  save him - I left him in their care.
 
I don't know if he was in pain, but he did sit in a hunched up position.  The 
inside of his cheek was cut by his teeth; they'd been inspected and trimmed  
several times, but either not been done thoroughly enough or grown again. A 
few  times I gave him infant Calpol, recommended by a rodentologist. I think he 
was  uncomfortable. He didn't make a pain sound, as you describe it. Is it a 
sound a  bit like a newborn puppy's whimper? I heard that sound when other 
piggies of  mine were dying.
 
When I had my rabbit euthanased, he was in a comatosed state already, and  
the vet had no idea what was wrong with him. When I asked her if she thought  
he'd survive, she said she'd be surprised. I was given the option of an  
anaesthetic before the lethal injection, which of course I did opt for; that way  he 
went gently to sleep and knew nothing of the lethal injection. I was allowed  
to hold him whilst he went. I have to say it took a long time before he  
stopped twitching, and I found it extremely traumatic. I do feel a rabbit-savvy  
vet could have saved him, but no one I could get to could, and I was sure he  
must be suffering - he hadn't eaten for 48 hours, and couldn't walk. I wasn't  
even sure he could see.
 
I have always used willingness to eat as an indicator of whether an animal  
wants to die or not. In my opinion, if they stop eating, it's their way of  
asking to go. But if they are eating, they want to stay. Does your piggie still  
enjoy a cuddle? Does she still vocalise? Does she seem to relate at all to the 
 other piggies?
 
Bethany, I hate to see anything suffer. It really makes me feel physically  
sick to observe an animal in pain. At the end of the day, it must be your  
decision, and you will know when it's time to say good-bye. But I can't help  
thinking that when your little Precious stops eating, that will be her way of  
asking permission to leave for The Bridge. And when I have had very poorly  
piggies, I do talk to them about The Bridge, and the piggies they know who have  
already gone there. Red Dandy's mother and two sisters are already there - but  
he just didn't seem ready to go yet.
 
Incidentally, whilst I was at the piggie hospital place, I met a couple  
who'd had a piggie with dental problems whom they'd syringe fed, and she had  lost 
half her original body weight, yet still made a complete recovery once the  
dental problem was sorted. So there is still hope for our Red. Has Precious 
lost  much weight?
 
Big hugs to you and Precious
 
Debbie and her Dolly Mixtures  

"The animal  shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete 
than ours they  move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the 
senses we have lost or  never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. 
They are not brethren,  they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught 
with ourselves in the  net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour 
and travail of the  earth". 

Henry Beston