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Post by tanzanyte on Dec 13, 2023 16:29:12 GMT -8
I’m hoping this isn’t going to be controversial as I’m really wanting different opinions for future consideration. I have just had Mymble put to sleep. I feel terrible but I know she had a tumour as all of the signs pointed to it. I’m pretty sure the tail biting was down to that because she knew but couldn’t get to it with it being internal. She changed shape over the last few months and became very pear shaped and had a hard abdomen.
Yesterday my insanely active gerbil barely had her eyes open and felt quite cold and then just lay on the heat pad. She was still eating and drinking but everything was laboured and she didn’t know what to do with herself at times. She looked really ill a few days back and I wondered if she’d make it through the night and the following morning she was much brighter and her normal active self again but this time she seemed totally different. So after a good cry I made the call.
My problem is that it caused a lot of stress taking her away from her cage mate. I didn’t have an apt and they were squeezing her in so I didn’t know how long it would take as the only vet in was already in surgery. Mymble seemed so frightened once we got there. It’s freezing outside atm so despite having a smaller heat pad in the carrier and a blanket over the top she was out in the cold from home to car and car to the vets. I can’t decide if it would have been kinder leaving her to see if she could go naturally snuggled with her cagemate than putting her through that trauma.
I lost Pepsi on the way back from the vets the other month. I know he was ill but I do wonder if the stress of taking him and having him poked with needles was too much and trying to save him made him worse and prolonged his suffering. I’ve made the call before as I’ve always believed it’s worse to see them suffer and they seem to hang on longer than you’d ever expect. Only now I’m trying to think from their point of view - would they rather stay in their cage with their cagemate/s and be left in peace? If the vets came to the house I’d totally agree but if I was ill and being dragged places I’m not so sure how I’d feel (and I’m on board with human euthanasia in end of life care).
I’ve also noticed that the gerbils I’ve had pass away at home always look more peaceful than the ones I’ve had euthanised. Does anyone have any thoughts on the whole thing? There’s no judgement, I am just wanting different opinions and thought patterns in the hopes of making a more informed choice next time as I still have 2 gerbils over 3 so I have a feeling I’ll be down this road again soon.
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Post by yeti218 on Dec 14, 2023 6:39:27 GMT -8
I'm so sorry to hear about Mymble & Pepsi.
It's hard to say which choice would be better without knowing how things would have gone if you kept Mymble home. Maybe it would have been quick and peaceful, or maybe she would have held on and suffered more, or been brought to the vets at a later time.
We try to make the best decisions we can for them and make peace with those choices, and some decisions rest easier on the soul than others.
I consider quality of life and vet assessment when making those kinds of decisions. As far as letting a dying animals stay at home instead of being euthanized, I haven't personally been in a situation where that seemed to be quick enough and with good-enough pain management to be preferable to me.
I've had a similar situation to Pepsi. The vets suspected my elderly hamster had an eye infection based on physical symptoms, so we treated for the eye infection. She got worse and when I took her back to the vet they sedated her to do a more thorough examination and she had a tumour near her eye, causing the eye infection symptoms. It was also causing her a lot of other pain & distress, and due to lack of any treatment options she was euthanized. But she spent her last 2 weeks being harassed by me, sticky from the eye drops and medication, and in increasing pain.
I've also had situations where we've made an educated guess at to what to treat without going through diagnostics so the animal has less stress & to avoid the risk of sedation and it's completely worked out.
So, back to my original thoughts, we make the best decisions we can for them at the time. Sorry for your loss.
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Euthanasia
Dec 17, 2023 11:38:42 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by tanzanyte on Dec 17, 2023 11:38:42 GMT -8
Thanks Yeti, I’m sorry to hear that you had a similar incident to Pepsi with one of your pets. It doesn’t sit easy during or after. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, I just wish I was better at working out when the time is right. I know other pet owners that cling on and it’s clear the animal is distressed and it feels cruel. But then I felt cruel dragging Mymble out of her cage and to the vets on her own.
I never find it an easy call but when I had Bubbles euthanised I knew it was the right thing. I was in bits over having to wait before I could take her as they squeezed me in later in the day. She wasn’t comfortable and I couldn’t keep her with her cage mate as Vanilla kept trying to groom her and was causing her more distress as Vanilla would catch her aural tumour. It’s certainly been easier when I haven’t had to make the decision when a stroke has been involved and they’ve died before I’ve even completed the drive to the vets.
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Post by Markpd on Dec 24, 2023 5:50:50 GMT -8
Sorry for the late reply tanzanyte, I don't seem to get much time for the forums these days . And sorry to hear you've lost Mymble as well . Onto your questions. My problem is that it caused a lot of stress taking her away from her cage mate. I didn’t have an appointment and they were squeezing her in, so I didn’t know how long it would take as the only vet in was already in surgery. Mymble seemed so frightened once we got there. It’s freezing outside atm so despite having a smaller heat pad in the carrier and a blanket over the top she was out in the cold from home to car and car to the vets. I can’t decide if it would have been kinder leaving her to see if she could go naturally snuggled with her cagemate than putting her through that trauma.From your paragraph previous to the above, it certainly sounds like she was near the end of her time anyway, even if she did make a brief/temporary recovery of sorts. I remember when I took Avon and then later Blake to the vets that they were both some what stressed being out of there cage (constantly rummaging around the carrier cage or incessantly chewing the loo roll tubes I'd put in there), anyway, it is a bit of short term stress, but certainly in your case for Mymble it was to avoid some longer term suffering. (As for my boys, it did buy some respite for Avon, but as for Blake, although the op did buy him some respite (for 2 visits), it wasn't long. But his 3rd visit didn't help him at all, and I wished I'd had him put down then (although he didn't look too bad at the time, and only went downhill fast a few hours afterwards!). Also if the carrier cage had a heat pad* and blanket I'm sure she stayed warm in there anyway (unless you had a very long walk to the car), I doubt even a couple of minutes walk would've made her much colder. Re letting her go naturally, I very much doubt that she would have snuggled down with her cage mate in peace, you mentioned that she was already biting her tail, probably because of a tumour. It seems to me more likely that she would have been in increasing pain and seriously chewing her tail to try to stop the pain, so rather than snuggling up in peace, I think sooner or later she more likely would've been writhing in agony. As far as I can see you absolutely made the right choice, you stopped her suffering before it got really bad, I wished I'd been able to do the same for Blake, I will forever remember my poor little fella gasping for breathe and otherwise not moving .... The only small thing you might have been able to differently to lower her stress a little on the way to the vets would have been to bring her cagemate along with her. But then again, although Mymble may well have been happier with this, her cagemate would then be somewhat stressed on the way out, and perhaps a little more so on the way back (being alone). So I'm not sure that's any better? 6 of one and 1/2 a dozen of the other I think here. *I'm curious by your heat pad btw, was it simply an electric one that had some residual heat? Or was it some kind of pad that you bung in the microwave that stays warm for a while? (similar to a hot water bottle).
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Post by mygerbilprince on Jan 10, 2024 21:04:24 GMT -8
Sending love to you tanzanyte, I think you did the best you could with the information you had at the time. Gerbils will fight death for so, so long. There's no way to know how much longer she would have suffered. At least you know that she wasn't in pain when she passed. We're all proud of you for making such a difficult decision, and I'm sure the forum is here if you need anything <3
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Post by tanzanyte on Apr 7, 2024 9:25:24 GMT -8
*I'm curious by your heat pad btw, was it simply an electric one that had some residual heat? Or was it some kind of pad that you bung in the microwave that stays warm for a while? (similar to a hot water bottle). I'm so sorry I didn't respond to this properly. It's a pet safe snuggle pad for small animals and has been the best thing for poorly gerbils. I have had a number of our gerbils use it when they've been unwell. It stays warm for quite a long time. I put a tea towel over the top so that I can just wash those rather than wash the cover constantly. I've been heating it morning and evening for Max to keep him happy as he seemed to want heat since losing Pepsi. I was only doing it once a day to begin with but as I felt he was struggling more towards the end I made sure to keep it warm all day so that he always had the option to relax on it if he didn't want to burrow into his bed. Most of them have stayed on the heat pad when really ill and haven't particularly chewed it, although I don't know if that's more fluke or that the teatowel cops it, but even then that's been left mostly. www.snugglesafe.co.uk/shop/snugglesafe-pet-heatpads/The cheapest place is Amazon but Pets at home do sell them and I'm sure other pet shops will have them as well. Anyways thank you all for your responses to my original question, it was really helpful as I had to make the call again for Hattie. There was no coming back as she'd had 2 strokes in fairy quick succession and wasn't improving. It didn't feel she was as frantic but maybe it really is down to persona as well - Hattie was always chilled out whereas Mymble was the most highly strung gerbil we've ever had. Although I did think your advice helped me feel better about the process, so thank you. I actually used the heat pad again when I went to the vets with Hattie to have her pts and was freaked out as she was still warm when I got her home as they'd just wrapped her up in a flannel and put her back in the carrier. It shows how well it works I guess.
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