From:
poof242@aol.com
Date: 2001-04-18 19:02:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Digest Number 137
<< I'm sorry and yes, it is normal. Would love to hear a medical explanation
but we generally see the "bottlebrush tail" at the last second.
-------------------------------------
We should question the whole procedure, as is still being practiced by some
vets. Why can there not be a simple subQ injection that will let them go to
sleep peacefully and never awaken? Why do they have to be hurt one more time
before they die?
>>
It has been explained to me that when a cat's or ferret's tail bushes out,
that it is those particualr muscles contracting as the nerves are doing their
last firings. Some animal will do the tail thing, some will have parts of
their bodies quiver for a few minutes, some will go into agonal breathing.
In all of these cases the brain is dead and the heart is no longer beating.
It's sort of like the chicken running around with its head cut off. At the
clinic I work at, we give a sedative before the actual euthanasia, so the
animal is already "out of it" when the euthanasia drug is given. The
euthanasia drug is an injectable anesthesia, we just give an overdose of it.
We give it IV and the animal is usually gone before we are even done
injecting it.