Dr Liesel van der Merwe is a small animal medicine specialist. Send her your questions: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Dr Liesel van der Merwe

With all this damp weather these last few weeks, nothing getting dry (I don’t have a tumble dryer) and my dogs peeing in the house rather than on the wet grass, my human-animal bond has been stretched to its limits. My solution: We have a large veranda; they can all just stay outside.

But, in many situations, the solution isn’t that simple. That is not to say that my bunch has accepted the veranda, every open door elicits a determined rush for inside comforts again.

Joking aside, over the festive season I find that we perform more euthanasias than on average. I often cynically say it’s starting the new year clean, but it’s not just that. When people spend more time at home during the holidays, they are faced with situations in their pets, ageing especially, which they can no longer ignore but need to face and deal with.

The reasons for euthanasia are often complex, just as the reasons for not euthanizing a sick animal timeously are complex. Medical euthanasia is the most common type provided by veterinarians. This is performed due to deterioration in a patient’s quality of life due to illness.

Non-imminent medical euthanasia describes situations that may be manageable or curable under different circumstances. These patients will suffer if they do not receive treatment, but the resources necessary are not available. This type of euthanasia is hard for vets because we know we can fix the patient, but above all we need to prevent patients suffering. We learn that if we cannot fix the patient, for whatever reason, we need to prevent suffering.

Non-medical euthanasia describes a euthanasia request that is unrelated to a patient’s medical status, such as behaviour issues (e.g. aggression) or family lifestyle or changes. These are harder to manage because the patient is healthy. In South Africa it is often due to emigration or moving into retirement villages, both extremely stressful events for our clients. It takes experience and empathy for a vet to euthanize pets that are healthy without sometimes judging.

As we get older we realise that life can deliver some hard blows and not all decisions, even though they are the right ones, are easy. In situations like these our client is often traumatised and we need to work to make the process as little traumatic as possible.

Here I find that younger vets want to offer adoption or rehoming advice, when – by this time – all these avenues will already have been explored. It is hard for us vets in these situations. What clients often don’t realise is that they are not alone in these decisions; they may be the second client with that type of euthanasia request that week already.

“The human-animal bond, not medicine, is the veterinary product. Without that clients and patients would not visit practices. When clients request euthanasia they are communicating that the bond is breaking but that they care enough not to abandon the dog or cat.” – Dani McVety, DVM.

Evaluating the pet’s options is most important for the client and the veterinarian.

Adapted from Ethics and Euthanasia, McVety DVM, Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice, Tampa, Florida.  veterinaryteambrief.com, September 2015.