Mixed Practice

What's the real difference between two cases? The owners. One day I had highlighted this for me. I had a moderately unwell looking dog with cancer. It wasn't its usual self and it was losing weight and so the owner decided it was the kindest thing to put him to sleep. I agreed, chatted for a while about how good a dog he used to be, put a catheter in and then he passed away quickly and painlessly. He went back home to be buried and the owner was nearly in tears, despite his gruff exterior.

Later that day, I had a woman come in with a dog that had severe cancer, was barely breathing and couldn't stand up properly. She didn't want treatment, or for it to be removed (which had been offered a while ago, when the chance of success was still high). She was worried that the yelping in pain overnight would disturb the neighbours, so she over-medicated it with a human drug, which meant I had no options for pain releif. She was not interested in euthanasia, she only wanted to know if there was something else I could do, and just to check whether her medication choice was justified. There was nothing I could do. As she left, she said "Well, this was a waste of time" to which I smiled sweetly and replied "Yeah, I'm sorry about that."