Tara, that is a horrendous experience you've had with heart sticks. I
guess the one who had the heart stick was not anaesthetised beforehand?
I'm just wondering if there is any chance of a ferret feeling the heart
stick when it's anaesthetised? My vets have used the heart stick and
also the jugular vein but the ferrets have always had gas and I hope
they didn't feel anything.

Last year we put 2 ferrets to sleep by injecting the euthanasia
solution into the abdominal cavity. It was a very gentle way of putting
the ferrets to sleep. They did not have gas. I always want to put them
to sleep as gently as possible yet my ferrets always hate the gas and
it upset me that they needed gas when they were already suffering and
that the gas and fighting it was the last thing they experienced. The
gas would also be an awful option when they were already having
problems breathing. When the last 2 ferrets were injected into the
abdominal cavity, they just drifted off to sleep. The first ferret was
in a bad way and didn't even notice the needle, the second ferret was
licking some paste while she was injected and didn't feel it.

I guess I'm asking whether anybody knows of a reason *not* to inject
the euthanasia solution into the abdominal cavity. I remember reading
horror stories of animals being put to sleep where the euthanasia
solution worked on the respiratory system first and the animals
suffocated while still being very conscious. Is there any chance of
this happening nowadays with the euthanasia solutions we have now?
That's the only worry I have with injecting into the abdominal cavity,
the ferrets looked like they drifted off to sleep and I didn't see any
signs of (respiratory) distress and hope my vet wouldn't agree to this
method if there was any chance of the animal suffering. The euthanasia
solution we use is Pentobarbital Sodium and each ml contains 200mg,
the ferrets were injected with 2 ml.

Ulrike

[Posted in FML 6531]