My (unemployed and broke) friend’s cat was diagnosed with advanced cancer of the tongue/throat, and she has been caring for her, getting her the best food, etc.
But time has about run out. She has found that the Humane Shelter will charge $75 to put the cat to sleep by appointment, or you can just drop it off and they’ll get to it later. The cat is going to hate the trip and be stressed, regardless.
Can she give the cat a pill at home? There is available some pills: one choice is “generic tylenol #3, acetaminophen w/codeine”, and another is “generic for vicodin, hydrocodone /apap 5/500”.
We just want the cat to go to sleep and not wake up. We don’t want to make a mistake and have the cat end up stressed or suffering.
Lend her the money, nothing is worse than a suffering cat/dog. At the vets they do it as nicely as possible. Quick and painless. I personally believe in being with the animal, especially if you are the caregiver. It really really really sucks, but you will feel better in the long run. If you can’t come up with the money, drop it off and if the cat is in real pain they will take care of it quickly. I think that is better than trying to toast the kitty using over the counter poisons, that could possibly backfire and cause it more suffering.
You do not want the trauma of trying to stuff pills down this poor creature’s throat, or feeding it fresh tuna with crushed up pills and then watching it suffer the terrible effects of acetaminophen.
Why don’t you call some of the rescue groups in your area, and ask if they know of a vet that might be willing to do this for monthly payments?
Most vets don’t charge much, if anything, to euthanize a case they’ve been treating. Many places will even do free euthanasia for cases they haven’t been treating, just to keep the animal from suffering. Start calling around (especially whoever diagnosed the cancer), and see if anybody can help you out, or drop the cat at the Humane Society.
Whatever you do, do NOT start feeding that kitty pills. You’ll throw it into liver failure. It’ll die, all right, but it’ll be a slow, nasty, extremely painful death.
Our vet just charged us $35 for a similar situation. Call them back and ask if the $75 covers handling of the body and can you get the cost reduced if you agree to take the body after they’ve given it a shot.
(And our cat who hated every minute he ever spent in the car made his final trip very peacefully. I don’t have any belief that “they know,” but I do think that in the last stages, a trip in the car is low on their sources of stress.)