My few quick 2 cents....

Always demand to let your ferret get gassed before being put to
sleep unless it's screaming and/or in horrible amounts of pain (ie,
thrashing). I can't imagine a situation like that....most ferrets dying
whimper, are in pain but are able to be masked and gassed (as if going
to sleep for a surgery).

THEN you can use a heart stick or IP injection. Why make the ferret
feel a needle in it's heart, or the fire/burning and pain of an IP
stick.....when they can just be masked and put to sleep. For ferrets
who have had surgeries in the past, the mask is not scary, and you
have to trade off between weird gas smell or pain at the end of life.
Most ferrets are not terrified at all of masks, and quickly go under.

You can also have them place the sick ferret in an aquarium with the
gas and it will go to sleep. If the ferret is very ill, just place the
whole sleepsack in the aquarium, and when the ferret is under, you can
hold it in your arms and have the vet euthanize it.

This will cost more for the gas, but IMO it is worth the price. I had
a vet do an IP injection without anesthesia once. I will never do it
again. I felt very bad, but a lot of vets think the gassing is very
drawn out and all. It depends. If a ferret is suffering a lot as I
mentioned before, then yes....but some ferrets, you decide to put them
under when they are actually feeling good, because they are terminal or
have only a day left of their life...these ferrets, like her, will feel
the pain of the IP injection. Did she die quickly? She struggled after
the injection, as if in a lot of pain, and then succumbed. Do I like
that her last moments in my arms were painful? No....

So it's up to you....yes gassing draws out the process...but once a
ferret is asleep, they feel no pain, and you can hold them while they
are put to sleep. Gassing DOES make the euthanasol work slower, though,
so you will have to wait longer for the ferret to actually pass away
once injected. The most I have seen is eight or nine minutes after
injection.

Laryssa

[Posted in FML 6535]