humane cat solution

If you feel strongly about the kids seeing the cat after it dies a death likely to be bloody why not let it disapear(sp) and let them think it left or ran away. That is what alot of animals do when they are ill. They wander off and die alone.

You can then let them have a nice little memorial service for a loved cat with a speech and a song or two and a little treat etc... We used to sing church songs (from Sunday school) and dress up the whole thing. Let them write a story about the cat if they are old enough or draw a picture. Then get on with life. Kids a remarkably resilient and this too will pass until it becomes a fond memory.

Redneck Pete, The easiest way to humanely put the cat down would to be to put her in a closed box. Hook a hose to the exhaust of your car. Put the other end of the hose through a hole in the box and run the motor about fifthteen minutes. The carbon dioxide will quickly put her to sleep. Running the car that long will make sure she is dead.

No one likes to think about euthanasia but it is a fact that sometimes it is necessary in the case of sick. old suffering animals. Pioneers shot horses with broken legs and rabid dogs. There weren't any vets then.

Modern people get attatched to pets and have a harder time when euthanasia is necessary. Where we live the vets no longer treat farm animals. So we have to do all things ourself.

A 22 gun held close to the head will kill dogs, cats, or goats instantly. One pop and it is over. If it sounds cruel just remember people go deer, moose and elk hunting and think nothing of it.
I am sorry tou are in this predictment and my heart goes out to you and your children. Take care. Linda

P.S. I think freezing an animal to death is alot crueler than shooting them. Also about overdosing; I knew someone who tried to overdose a dog. The dog wobbled and vomited the drugs. He wouldn't let the person near him again and they had to call someone to shoot the dog. Dogs have a different digestive system than humans. They eat gross stuff we could never eat. So human drugs may not work on a dog and in the end cause the animal more suffering and anxiety. Get something from a vet if you choose to overdose. Poison also is a cruel way to put a dog down.

I hope everyone realizes I am only talkig about animals that are too sick to get well, too old to walk or are suffering from an accident or disease when speaking of euthanasia.All other deserve to live in my humble opinion.

We found a vet about 15 minutes away who will charge only $35...think that's the way we'll go! Thanks for all your advice!

Chandra

A good choice, Chandra. It is a hard decision we all must face if we are going to have pets.

Thank goodness! It's the best for sure. PAM

tailpipe gassing is very irritating to the lungs pumped into a small box....

I had to put down another one, but i cant shoot anymore.. its just weirding me out.
I am not handling old age well.

anyhow... if anyones interested in what i found that works quietly and easy....
chop the top of a polar water jug off, so that it fits back on tight [they have ridges, so if yoy cut along the inside of one it will fit tightly back together with a little trim of the bottom half... experiment)
next up, a valve stem off a tire, on a hole drilled in the bottom edge, push it thru so the stem is tight in there, just like in a tire.
now go to the sprting goods store. find the little co2 crackers you use to blow up bike tires and ATV tires.

place weak sick kitty in jug, place lid back on jug and snug it in.
kitty will be a little weirded out but will calm down and start drinking the little cup of milk you put in there.

take out your wal mart CO2 powerlets in the 5 pack you got for 3 bucks, screw one in the tire inflator and screw that to the tire stem.
plug the jug with a rag.
about this time kitty is relitivly happy albeit weirded out.. but not scared.
slowly... empty the CO2 cartridge into the bottle with kitty....
kitty seems a little high at first, acts a bit dizzy. now this takes a while so if you can hack it leave the room. one cartridge will freeze up and seem empty... in a few min it warms up (or you can take a cup of warm water and pour over it) and it will blow a lottle more co2 in the jug, where the kitty now is sound asleep, and breathing.
in about 5 min it will stop breathing.

leave kitty in there for a while so a rush of fresh air doesnt shock them alive again.

and when you take the lid off, DONT get your face in the way or a large cloud of Co2 will rise around your head and youll inhale it like I did.... its a really really odd feeling, Kinda like passing out... that means you need fresh air and you will be dizzy for an hour.

kitty has fell eternally asleep with a mouthfull of milk.
why I didnt engineer one of these things years ago I have no idea.

you might not think one cartridge will do it, but it does take a while for it to put them to sleep and kill, and remember, enough gas to inflate a large ATV tire to 7lbs has filled the jug... thats a lot of co2.... its heavier than air and will sink to the bottom of the jug so when they lie down they are breathing in the highest concentration of the gas, and as long as the jug is plugged up, on air goes in or out, and the co2 concentration is quite high, as I discovered when i opened the jug top and got a lungfull by mistake.... one is enough.

its clean, quiet, and painless. no mess, no blood no thrashing around while their nerves decided if they are really dead or not.

total cost, $22 bucks in parts and I have 4 cartridges left.
another cat has recovered well, one is almost there and the last one is still not eating but not runy nosed and moping around, they were all out running around today.

the one I gassed was just to sick to walk right and wasnt getting better...

I hope that was the last one. but now I have an easier cleaner way to deal with it.

if you need photos of the jug, i can send em to whoever wants them to see how it was done.

Nope... I didnt enjoy it, not one bit. But I hope when I get that bad someone has a giant gas jug to put me out with.

Wow....wipeing the tears from my eyes. I hope that you find a vet that will do the putting down for you free. You know the vet fee there is very high I would be willing to send a few bucks to help with the fee....maybe others would also. That is the only humane solution that I have to offer.....Sky

So glad you have found something humane!

If only large animals were that easy. I had a horse that needed to be put down quickly because of the pain she was in. Called several vets, but I guess they don't like being disturbed at 6 in the morning. I ended up having to shoot her

I'm very grateful you had this posted on here, CN (and everyone else in this year-old discussion). This seems like the week that the warranties on my pets are running out... Got one fixed up, but the other one...

Had an old, sickly cat. Wouldn't have taken him to the vet even if we could afford it, because he hated the car and the vet with the heat of a thousand white-hot suns. Could not see putting him through that on his way to die. Besides that, he was our responsibility, and it was only right that we step up.

Wolfie had a couple of seizures on Saturday, and it was time. We rigged up a container and used the CO2 tank from our paint ball markers. Took your advice about taking it slow, and it went surprisingly fast and well. Wolfie fell asleep, and he didn't wake up.

Now he's buried under an apple tree, with the biggest catnip plant I could dig up growing on top of him. Kind of fitting for a cat who used to make a bed of the catnip I'd bring in for him.

Once again, I found the information I needed here at HT.

Thanks, folks.

Pony!

On a follow up. We didn't take the cat to the vet. I gassed it with CO2 from a soda bubble cylinder I had around. Worked like a charm. I put it back beside the wood stove for the kids to find the next day. It seemed that the cat had died while snoozing beside the wood stove as she always did. The kids had a chance to say goodbye, then we buried her in the backyard.

Pete

Sounds like your cat had a good life right to the end.
I'm sorry it had to end for you all, but I'm glad you found a way.

I did discover a tiny flaw in the co2 method you have to be careful of.

if you see them asleep and open the lid, once they breathe fresh air for a few min they wake up. So the animal should be left in the gas filled tank/jug until its stiff.

since this was started a long time ago I have had to whack a few more cats, and a vibrant healthy cat will resist a good deal of co2, but will go to sleep if you provide it with a container that isnt goingto hype them up with adenaline.

I found a fish tank with a tight flat lid works better, a large meal of warm milk in the tank, with a soft pillow to take a nap on after seems to convince the cat, that its incarceration isnt "so bad".

a reasonably heathy cat takes all 5 co2 cartridges and about an hour to eat, relax and take a dirt nap. but it goes along pretty quietly after they accept the tank and setttle in to digest the meal.

those of you who had co2 tanks for paintballing did it better, and fed the tank with a nice steady rise in c02 concentration going slowly. the little co2 cartridges do not hold enough to do it "right" but they do it.
I am going to buy a tank to keep on hand...

update on the mystery cat sickness I had back then. I dunno what it was, I had shot half the cats thinking it was fatal; On further reserch I did find it is "one of those things" they do to prevent it from spreading, vaccinations. But they dont tell you that if you leave the cats alone, most of them recover, and the disease doesnt come back. The new kittens that came along after, a very few got a SLIGHT case of the sniffles and sneezes but all recovered fast, even the runts.Most of them never contracted the odd disease. in hindsight i shoudnt have shot the ones I did, in a few weeks they would have recovered. One or 2 I popped were really suffering gaggin and couldnt drink so they would have died anyhow from that.
overall, they mostly recovered from it.
I've had several litters of kittens here from the badly infected, and recovered mothers, NONE of the kits have gotten sick, not even weepy kitten eyes. actualy the new kittens after the disease hit there are bigger and healthier than any kits Ive had born here.
I think there is something to be said for letting barn cats build a natural immunity to diseases, and culling only the ones who are starving to death from very bad cases of "the disease". [whatever it really was].

the orginal post was to "keep a clean body" for the kids sake.... I am still of the opinion a well placed 22 in the skull, pointed from the top center of the skull and directed down along the brainstem is far quicker, and instant. But it is messy, and they do twitch for a few sec... thats kinda unpleasant.

but I have found a good dose of unpleasant now and then keeps me hardened enough to not choke when I have to blow a raccoon s brains out or whack a rouge tomcat whos beating up the kittens.

I'll save the gas chamber for the animals I know to personally to see them twitch and splurt blood all over the driveway.

anyhow, I can see from the additional posts the CO2 fishtank method works smooth and easy for other people too.
I did see, on a few kitties that pumping the gas in to fast disorients them and kinda seems to upset them, so setting it to trickle in slowly is better for the cat, they get to sleepy to stay awake and then prolonged breathing while asleep kills them quietly.

it does take a while, compared to a shot in the head. But I do not think they suffer at all with the gas, when it was pumped in a ta slow rate, they acted normal and calm, curled up for a nap and they were gone.

ive seen them distressed by "starter fluid eather" [very very bad method] the tailpipe thing [hot and irritating in a small box, very unpleasant] and by pumping the co2 in to fast.

good to see, the ones here that tried it got it right the first time. There is a trick to doing it and that is, do it slow, and dont be in a hurry.

Nobody loves cats more than me, but I don't think that prolonging a life that has very little quality benefits anyone.

I'd take her to the vet. He'll do it for a nominal fee, I'm sure. I took one to the vet once who was dying, and it only cost $25. I guess I could have just "waited" but I didn't want the poor thing to suffer.

donsgal

__________________
Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)

It seems Pete and Chandra have taken care of business so it might make sense to let this thread fade out of respect.
Perhaps people might start a new thread or simply carry on in more general terms. Very informative and thought provoking.

Vet isn't always handy, or financially feasible.

While I am not happy that it was my cat's time, I do feel at peace that I am the one who put him out of his misery painlessly and at home with no strangers around.

Pony!

vets in different areas charge different fees.
I had my horse and donkeys teeth floated the other day, I was preped to pay what the last vet charged me. this lady was here 2 hours, charged me 150. for the whole 2 mouth job.... and she did it better than the last vet who charged me 300.

you have to shop for vets, some really stick you, some are very reasonable.
some are so by the book they make you crazy... some are "easy".
one vet I had [he moved] very "quietly" sold me 2 syringe doese of horse tranquilizer to give to my farrier if I needed it for one horse I had that was a little jumpy.
I havent found another vet yet who would even consider doing that.

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Interesting how this very long thread is mostly about how to kill the cat instead of helping her.

IF... I were a vet.... I'd tell you......

she's probably facing kidney failure as a result of dehydration (skinny boney condition, lack of skin tone) from the diarrhea which is probably from infection originating from the bad teeth.

Clavamox would help the mouth infection. A antacid for an upset tummy. Next a bolice or two of lactated ringers administered thru the delivery needle between the shoulder blades, approx. 200 ml (needle is inserted subcutaneously and you squeeze the bag pretty hard until it starts making a big bump.) That happens once a night for a week or so. Then maybe once every two or three days for another week. That gets her rehydrated and will help her digestive tract.

Soft food with lots of liquid (gravy) so she can eat.

She'd probably end up just like my 14 yr. old cat with the exact same conditions about 3 or 4 months ago.

BTW, Binky is back to being alittle playful, purring alot, friendly, cuddly, but, still old and will probably die soon with a much more comfortable EOL. But then I'm not a vet. every once in awhile I pick up something useful. With 17 cats you kinda run the gamet of maladies.