Vindaloo
Well-Known Member
Firstly Kimr, if you are tempted to read this DON'T.
Right, this may be a little long winded but please keep with me, I could really do with some advice.
My elderly horse recently has had a few veterinanry issues. I get a call to say my chap is not looking too great so I arrange to meet the vet at 15.30 at the yard.
She turns up and during the check he falls in the stable and despite our best attempts to get him up he stayed down.
He was letting me know in the only way he could that at the grand old age of 27 he had, had enough.
I said to the vet it I thought it would be a kindness to have him PTS which she agreed so with a heavy heart I wait with him stroking his face and kissing him while she tries to put the injection in his neck. Well after about 15 mins of poking and prodding the injection goes in. So we wait, and wait. The area around the site blows up like a balloon. He's still with us.
We try raising his head to get things moving, nothing. The vet decides he'll have to have another shot but this time in the other side of his neck so, with the pair of us pulling and pushing to try to get him up a bit she goes under him to get to the other side, AGAIN he is jabbed and jabbed but every time she found the vein it was lost as the syringe was attached to the needle.
EVENUTALLY all the drug is administered and we settle down to wait. He gradually loses consciousness and drifts off. I cannot begin to tell you how hard this is to re-live and I am not going into how much I broke my heart but once he was gone I just broke down. The vet did all the checks and said it was all over.
I said I would wait with him until the lorry arrived to take him away. The vet is making to leave when I heard the horse make a noise! I asked if this was normal and the vet said that it was just muscles relaxing. THEN he took a breath! I am NOT kidding, I just froze, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Called the vet over and we both waited, sure enough, there was another, and another and another, then his blink reflexes came back (albeit slow).
I was just stunned, it couldn't be happening. Even the vet was shaken and said it wasn't possible.
The problem was, she didn't have the gun with her OR any more drug so, for the next two hours I sat with him while he struggled to live until finally I had to have him shot!
There is a LOT more to this than I can possibly write and no one could imagine what it was like but my issue is this....
I have just had my bill which is £600 ish for the euthanasia and then the removal of carcass for cremation, now I do not have an issue for paying for a job well done however I would have thought that they would not have charged me for euthanasia when it clearly wasn't administered properly. The vet admitted there was enough in him to take down 4 horses. BUT he was eventually shot by the cremation company!
In addition, I was never given the choice of how he was to be PTS. I just feel that the whole episode was a shambles, my poor horses last moments should have been calm and pain free and I am not at all sure that was the case.
Should I take it up with the practice or simply put it all down to a terrible, terrible experience?
Right, this may be a little long winded but please keep with me, I could really do with some advice.
My elderly horse recently has had a few veterinanry issues. I get a call to say my chap is not looking too great so I arrange to meet the vet at 15.30 at the yard.
She turns up and during the check he falls in the stable and despite our best attempts to get him up he stayed down.
He was letting me know in the only way he could that at the grand old age of 27 he had, had enough.
I said to the vet it I thought it would be a kindness to have him PTS which she agreed so with a heavy heart I wait with him stroking his face and kissing him while she tries to put the injection in his neck. Well after about 15 mins of poking and prodding the injection goes in. So we wait, and wait. The area around the site blows up like a balloon. He's still with us.
We try raising his head to get things moving, nothing. The vet decides he'll have to have another shot but this time in the other side of his neck so, with the pair of us pulling and pushing to try to get him up a bit she goes under him to get to the other side, AGAIN he is jabbed and jabbed but every time she found the vein it was lost as the syringe was attached to the needle.
EVENUTALLY all the drug is administered and we settle down to wait. He gradually loses consciousness and drifts off. I cannot begin to tell you how hard this is to re-live and I am not going into how much I broke my heart but once he was gone I just broke down. The vet did all the checks and said it was all over.
I said I would wait with him until the lorry arrived to take him away. The vet is making to leave when I heard the horse make a noise! I asked if this was normal and the vet said that it was just muscles relaxing. THEN he took a breath! I am NOT kidding, I just froze, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Called the vet over and we both waited, sure enough, there was another, and another and another, then his blink reflexes came back (albeit slow).
I was just stunned, it couldn't be happening. Even the vet was shaken and said it wasn't possible.
The problem was, she didn't have the gun with her OR any more drug so, for the next two hours I sat with him while he struggled to live until finally I had to have him shot!
There is a LOT more to this than I can possibly write and no one could imagine what it was like but my issue is this....
I have just had my bill which is £600 ish for the euthanasia and then the removal of carcass for cremation, now I do not have an issue for paying for a job well done however I would have thought that they would not have charged me for euthanasia when it clearly wasn't administered properly. The vet admitted there was enough in him to take down 4 horses. BUT he was eventually shot by the cremation company!
In addition, I was never given the choice of how he was to be PTS. I just feel that the whole episode was a shambles, my poor horses last moments should have been calm and pain free and I am not at all sure that was the case.
Should I take it up with the practice or simply put it all down to a terrible, terrible experience?