I am sorry for your loss, it is always hard to have to do this, but it's the kindest thing for your animal.
Put your mind at ease, two hours after the vet declared the end of life you can be assured that he is gone.
I have had to do this final act quite a few times, had the grave prepared ahead of time and laid my friend to rest as soon as I returned from the vet.

I'm so sorry.

Many years ago, the same sort of dread haunted me, & I called the vet blubbering.

She reassured me that my dog had been "gone" within seconds of the injection.

thank you so much for replying, i just don't understand why he was warm 2 hours after. I checked the internet and it said a body goes cold in about 15mins so just felt frantic.

I have put many beloved pets to sleep. I always stay in the room while the vet gives the medications/injections. My vet gives two injections-the first relaxes them and puts them into an unconscious state, the second stops the heart. The vet always listens for heart activity afterwards. I have had some animals cremated, others are buried in my yard. I like knowing where their remains are buried. My condolences. You've lost a member of your family. Some non-pet owners do not understand.

I think all of us who have had an animal euthanised have had this thought after the fact. No, they are not going to wake up in their graves and suffer. The vet will listen for a heartbeat after the procedure and it's quite possible for the body to feel warm if it is wrapped, it takes awhile for the internal temperatures to cool, they are protected by body fat and fur, both insulators. The dosage is calculated by body weight and more than ample dose is given to assure it is enough. Suppose it wasn't dead just to play devil's advocate (but it was, so I'm just reassuring you further)if it were comatose, it would pass quickly anyway when interred from lack of air without ever gaining consciousness and still have a gentle death. Putting an animal to sleep is a very, very hard thing to do, and many people question the whole procedure after the fact. What if/what if/what if. That's not daft, it's normal. Ultimately, you provided a kindness and it's the last gift you can give a suffering animal companion. I waited 'too long' once or twice with a pet and their deaths weren't so easy as nature took its course. Some are, some aren't. I regretted it.

thank you calliope, much appreciated i needed someone to be really blunt about the stuation as this is what is in your head, thanks x

This post was edited by toast66 on Thu, Jan 24, 13 at 13:13

I didn't know of any simpler way to address it, toast. It's the kind of question gnaws at you, and often most folks are afraid to ask other than to someone they are very close to, for fear of being silly. I'm glad you were brave enough and I just 'knew' this was what you meant when you asked. I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm no stranger to death and dying since I was a nurse in my past life. There is such a mystique about it and so many questions you don't even think to ask during the experience, but haunt you after the fact. I had a friend who trusted me enough to finally break down and describe to me how her husband died, since he passed away before emergency care could reach him. She was worried that he suffered a lot. It was such a relief to her when I described what was happening to him and explaining to her, to the best of my knowledge what a physician should have explained to her and it put her mind at rest. Please forgive me if I took a too direct route.

xxx

Hi Toast, I, too, am sorry that you have lost a family member. I have had to take four dogs in for a final vet visit, and sometimes I was not expecting that this was what was going to happen when I drove my furry friend there. When my bigger dog, Meggie, died, it was due to cancer. She had gone to find my father-in-law in his room and was crying and hardly able to walk. He called me at work, and I left to go home to her. When we finally got to the emergency vet hours later, they took one look at her and told us that she was probably bleeding internally (signs and symptoms showed that) and we agreed that they would operate that night. If it was something they could fix, they would do so, but if she had multiple tumors and that was causing the bleeding, they would put her to sleep during the surgery. That turned out to be the case. I arrived back at the vet's about a half-hour after she died. She was still warm. I stayed with her, breathing in her scent and feeling her soft fur, for some time before she started to feel stiff or cold. She was such a good girl. I still miss her, even though we had two other dogs at the time and have had two more in the family since.

We have never had the land to bury our pets, so we have used cremation. I don't pay the extra to get their ashes back, either. I still have not sprinkled my mom's ashes, and she died before any of my dogs did!

I hope that going to visit your dog's gravesite brings you peace and a feeling of closeness to your friend.

:-(

So sorry.

I am so sorry, Toast. I can't imagine. I may have to go through this for the first time as I have two elderly dogs and your question and the replies helps me prepare.