Pet Euthanasia
At The Finchley Vet, we provide compassionate euthanasia services to support you and your pet during this difficult time. Our skilled veterinary team ensures a gentle, respectful process.
Compassionate pet euthanasia in Finchley
Losing our pet is by far the hardest part of being a pet parent. Whatever the reason, if and when the time comes, we promise to make this difficult time as easy as possible for our pet patients and for you, their owners.
Caring, compassionate and highly skilled, our team is dedicated to your family’s needs and wishes as we proceed with this care. We recognise just how heartbreaking it is to even consider this procedure, and we are here to offer empathy and support as well as veterinary service. Rest assured that we do not take this care lightly and will proceed only when we are confident your needs can be met.
What can I expect if my pet is euthanised in the practice?
- For planned euthanasia (booked in advance), we will try to see you at the end of a consultation run, this will reduce the number of pets in the waiting room when you arrive. We will also light a candle to ask other customers to be quiet and respectful at this hard time.
- We will try to make a consultation room available, where you and your pet can wait in private until your appointment time.
- The vet will talk with you about the process and the decision, you will read and sign a consent form and discuss options for your pet’s remains (see below).
- Depending on your pet’s needs, a sedation will sometimes be given as a brief injection into the muscle – this is to ensure your pet is as relaxed and stress free as possible for the next steps. This will take 10-20 mins to take full effect.
- An intravenous cannula will be placed (usually in one of your pet’s forearms), this ensures that the final injection can be given smoothly and that any small movements that your pet makes will not result in medication going outside of the veins ( where it can cause some pain). This is a small scratch, but usually, due to the sedation, pets
will not seem to feel this happen. - The vet will give an injection of a medication which will initially make you pet get very sleepy, then as the injection continues, your pet’s heart will often stop immediately, or within a few minutes of the injection and they will pass away. This is usually a very peaceful process, not unlike watching your pet fall to sleep, however, very rarely, pets may have a reaction to the medication and can vocalise or appear distressed for a brief moment, before they succumb to the injection. While this can be very distressing, it is sadly a risk which we can not completely eliminate. Thankfully, this is very rare.
- Once your pet has passed away, you may notice a deep breath, some shivering of the paws, or ear tips or sometimes passing of wee or poo. Although this may appear distressing for us, this happens after death, as your pet’s body is shutting down, so your pet will not know that this happened.
- Depending on what you have decided to do with your pet’s body (see below), we will either then keep your pet’s body, or will help you respectfully prepare them so that you can take them to your car or back home.
What should I know if I want my pet euthanised at home?
Reducing stress for our pet patients is vital. If you want, we will do our best to arrange euthanasia at home. Please give us as much notice as possible—home euthanasia takes one vet and one nurse out of the practice for usually over 1 hour, so it is vital that we can make sure we have the staff in place for the slot that we arrange for you. We will usually give you a 2–3 hour window, but will let you know in more detail in the morning of the appointment and then call you when the vet and nurse leave to head to your house.
The process for euthanasia at home is almost identical to euthanasia in the practice in all other respects. However, some of our team will come in their own car or by taxi, and although we will do our best, we may not be able to transport your pet’s body back to the practice. If you elect cremation for your pet, please discuss this with us when booking the euthanasia and we will work out logistics with you.
What will happen to my pet’s body afterwards?
You have 4 options:
- Keep your pet to bury at home
- Communal Cremation: Your pet will be cremated with the other pets, ashes will be scattered by our partner crematorium
- Individual Cremation: Pets are cremated individually and the ashes can be returned to you in various urns or containers, to be kept or scattered by you.
- Bespoke Options: These may include private services, burials at a pet cemetery, etc. Please ask us and we will put you in touch with our partner crematorium who can help you arrange this.
When is payment due for euthanasia and/or cremation?
For home euthanasia: We ask that you pay in full for the euthanasia when we confirm the booking with you.
For in-practice euthanasia: We ask that you pay at the latest, before you leave after the procedure. However, many of our clients opt to pay on booking or when they arrive for the appointment in order to allow them to just leave when the procedure is completed.
For cremation: We ask that you pay when you have chosen and confirmed the option that you would like—ideally at the time of euthanasia. If you have been unable to decide, then we will ask you to pay for communal cremation at the time of euthanasia and if you would like to have a different option, then please contact us in writing (email is fine) to decide and settle the difference, within 7 days of the euthanasia.