Euthanasia, Sudden death: How Do Veterinarians Cope?

Coping with Pet Loss: Insights from My Veterinary Practice

Someone recently asked me, “How do vets cope with pet loss? How do you handle it when a client’s pets die, and what about all the euthanasias? How do you make sense of all that?" After nearly 20 years in veterinary practice, here’s what I’ve learned.

The Reality of Veterinary Practice

Fortunately, most of the time, veterinary practice is pretty positive. We get to see happy dogs like Pippy, but it’s not always the case. Sometimes, things go wrong. Animals die unexpectedly, and some need to be euthanized. There are emergencies and animals that we just can’t save. I don’t think a week went by where I didn’t have to perform a euthanasia. Most of those were older animals who were in pain or suffering, so it often felt like the right thing to do.

The Challenges of Euthanasia

Not always, though. Sometimes, these were dogs or cats with owners who simply didn’t have enough money. That was the harder part of euthanasia—euthanizing what seemed to me a relatively healthy young animal due to financial constraints.

Day after day, you develop a bit of a thicker skin because you have to learn how to cope, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect you deeply or that it ever becomes easy. I can think back to many clients where we had really complex, involved cases. You get to know these dogs and cats well, like Hipster here. You get to know the people really well, and then something happens—your dog gets a type of cancer that unfortunately we’re unable to treat and cure.

Making the Hard Calls

It comes down to the point where you’ve exhausted all options, and then you’ve got to make the call. As a veterinarian, I think, “Now is the best time to euthanize your animal. He or she is in pain; he or she seems to be suffering." But it’s still hard, especially going ahead and doing that. Sometimes animals die unexpectedly too, such as young, healthy-looking animals under anesthesia for routine procedures like dentistry, which fortunately is very uncommon.

Coping with Loss

So how do you cope with all that? How do you make sense of it? From the point of view of euthanasia, I really tried to keep what was in the animal’s best interest first. If a dog was reeling in pain, really suffering, and we really exhausted all of our resources, I thought, “If this were my dog, this is what I would feel is the best advice." And that is to have your dog or cat euthanized.

Having a dog or cat die unexpectedly during surgery—that’s hard to cope with. I went through some of those stages of grief: shock, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, even though I didn’t talk a whole lot about it. I don’t actually remember being taught much about dealing with pet loss, either as an individual or how clients cope, or even how you as a veterinarian cope. It probably would have been beneficial if I had talked more to my colleagues or even my wife about how pet deaths were affecting me.

Life After Practice

Now that I’m no longer practicing, I can see that there’s stuff coming up now that I’m not active in the field. My final euthanasia was hard. I do not like seeing animals die at all. We have chickens, and one stopped eating. I thought, “Maybe I should speed this up." But no, I decided to put a heat lamp there, give her a comfy bed, and place water and food nearby. After about a week of hospice, she perked up. This chicken stayed in hospice, indoor chicken care, for a long period, and recently, unfortunately, she did pass away, but it was on her own terms.

A Message to Pet Owners

My point in all this, especially relating it to personal experience, is that pet loss affects many veterinarians much more than many people are even aware of. If you have a great relationship with your veterinarian, let them know if they’re having a bit of an off day, perhaps they’ve just gone through a pretty intense euthanasia or an animal dying. So, be nice to your vet.

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