Regrettably it often occurs that we have to put our beloved Irish Wolfhounds out of their misery at a too young age, due to all diseases that occur with this particular breed.

With this article we hope to spare you a painful and bad experience.

We believe it to be useful to explain about euthanasia.

If the decision is made that you have to put your animal to sleep, you believe and hope this it will happen in a peaceful way. Sadly the reality can be different.

Therefore read this article carefully, make a hardcopy and keep it stored.

The fact is that there are still some Dutch veterinarians who use T61 medication for euthanasia. T61 is used after your dog is under general anaesthesia, and is injected straight into the veins or the heart. It is a lethal injection.

T61 can, when injected into the veins, cause internal bleeding. The animal will start bleeding from the nose and sometimes epileptic behaviour occurs.

When injected straight into the heart it is imperative that the needle will go really into the heart, and not just graze the heart. If this injection is given imperfectly, the dog can suffer epileptic attacks and enormous cramps, will bite its tongue and lips between his teeth and scream terribly. To witness this as being the last moments of your beloved dog’s life is terrible.

Our advice is to NEVER let your vet use T61!!!!!

What should you do??

Ask for a good general anaesthetic injected into the veins. Wait at least 20 minutes before the final shot is administered. To check, put your finger on the dog’s eye. If the eye reacts it means that the dog it not fully drugged and will need more anaesthetic fluid.

Only administer the final injection when the animal is completely under narcosis. And again, this final injection should be shot intravenous instead of into the heart.

Don’t be embarrassed to talk to your vet about this. If he or she doesn’t take you serious, walk away and start looking for another vet!

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PS The story above is not some whimsical fairytale, but written as a result of unfortunate experiences of people we know. Also we checked the risks of using T61 with a befriended veterinarian.