Peaceful home euthanasia explained: A Gentle Goodbye

As a pet parent, the most challenging decision you will have to make is to euthanise your pet. It can feel like a roller coaster of emotions especially if your pet’s health is up and down – it might feel like you’re making the decision too quickly, or perhaps too late. At a time like this, we feel that it is important to be in your own comfortable home, offering you and your pet a stress-free alternative to having this done at a veterinary clinic.

Home euthanasia is a service where a veterinary surgeon comes to your house to create a calm and comfortable euthanasia experience for your pet and your family. There are many reasons to choose home euthanasia notably for the privacy, allowing you to grieve and say goodbye in a personal setting. The stress of the car journey is also eliminated, allowing your pet to feel more relaxed and comfortable with their bed, toys and blankets around them.

Before the visit, we discuss your pet’s history via a phone call, sometimes for weeks prior, to guide you through the decision-making process. This process is based on your pet’s quality of life which we guide you in assessing, ensuring that the ultimate decision for humane euthanasia is not rushed. We then plan a date and time for our vet to come to your home to perform the euthanasia. Sometimes, this may happen last minute and we do our best to get to you as soon as possible.
We recommend setting up a comfortable space for your pet like ensuring there are blankets in their bed or they are on their favourite couch spot. If their favourite spot is in your arms, we ensure that this is safe for you and your pet before progressing. To ensure that your pet feels no pain or discomfort during the euthanasia, we give a sedative beforehand. The sedative relaxes your pet to allow our vet to place an IV catheter or give the final drug into your pet’s abdomen. Your pet will not feel any pain during this process and will pass away gently and peacefully while they are sedated.
 
Once your pet has been peacefully euthanised, we give offer paw prints and/or fur clippings for you to keep on the day. It is completely up to you whether you would like these. We then give you time to say a final goodbye to your pet and confirm cremation options. If you aren’t sure which urn or casket option you’d like, you can take your time to decide, and we will follow up with you a few days later. We organise all aspects of the cremation process for you, so that you don’t have to face any further stresses. Once we have your pet’s ashes back with us, we will hand deliver them to you, utilising the time to check in and discuss grief resources with your family as needed.
 
We also leave a small token memory booklet to help guide you through the grieving process, recounting precious memories and cherished moments. We then invite you to post a picture on our website to honour your pet with a remembrance paragraph – a little legacy for us to remember them by. You can send these to us at info@pawprintsvetcare.com and we will upload them to our page. It is a great support for others and lovely to see the beautiful memories you shared.
 
At-home peaceful euthanasia respects the bond between you and your pet allowing you the time and space to make the choices that feel right for you both.