A Peaceful Goodbye at Home: What In-Home Pet Euthanasia Looks Like

Episode Title
A Peaceful Goodbye at Home: What In-Home Pet Euthanasia Looks Like

Host
Amy Castro

Guest
Dr. Jack Murray, DVM

Summary
In this short companion bonus, Amy Castro continues her conversation with hospice and end-of-life veterinarian Dr. Jack Murray to focus on the practical side of in-home euthanasia. Dr. Murray explains what these appointments can look like, how they differ from clinic or emergency euthanasia, why many families find them calmer and less stressful, and what decisions may help to think through ahead of time. 

Links
Show: The Pet Parent Hotline
Guest: Dr. Jack Murray, DVM
Instagram: @drmurrayhospicevet

Recommended Resources
CodaPet in-home euthanasia directory

Affiliate Disclosure
Some links mentioned may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through them, at no additional cost to you.

Veterinary Disclaimer
This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional veterinary advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your veterinarian or another qualified veterinary professional with questions about your pet’s health or medical care.

Transcript Note
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity, grammar, and readability while preserving the substance and intent of the original conversation.

Chapters
00:00 What a Peaceful Goodbye at Home Can Look Like
01:27 How In-Home Euthanasia Works
04:49 How to Find an In-Home Euthanasia Vet
05:33 Why Planning Ahead Helps
06:51 Thinking Through Aftercare
09:19 Final Thoughts on Preparing Ahead

Transcript Lead-In
What does a peaceful goodbye at home actually look like, and what should you know before you ever need to make that call? In this short companion bonus, Amy Castro talks with hospice and end-of-life veterinarian Dr. Jack Murray about what in-home euthanasia can look like, how it works, and why thinking through a few decisions ahead of time can make a heartbreaking day a little less overwhelming. 

TRANSCRIPT

Amy Castro, Host (00:00.236)

does a peaceful goodbye at home actually look like? And what should you know before you ever need to make the call?

Amy Castro, Host (00:11.81)

You've reached the Pet Parent Hotline, your lifeline to practical solutions for your toughest pet parenting challenges. I'm your host Amy Castro, and I'm here to help you cut through the noise and turn expert advice into step-by-step strategies so you can stop chasing your tail and start enjoying life with pets again.

Amy Castro, Host (00:36.61)

This is a short companion bonus to my conversation with hospice and end of life veterinarian, Dr. Jack Murray. In the full episode, we talked about how to know when it's time to let your pet go. In this short segment, we talked about the practical side, what in-home euthanasia can look like, how it works, and what it might help to think through now so you're not trying to make every decision in the middle of an already heartbreaking day. So let's pick up the conversation where I asked Dr. Murray how these appointments work.

So obviously you're going to people's homes to do this. you tell us a little bit more? Because I think, number one, it's becoming a more prominent thing. I never really thought about it much, about the distress factor of bringing the animal to the vet and how the alternative might be better. But can you just share a little bit about the home euthanasia experience and how that works?

Dr. Jack Murray, DVM (01:27.79)

Yeah, so it's kind of like you said, it is most certainly becoming more popular. And I think, you know, if you're able to plan for it, pet parents that have done it in the past, they said they would choose it 10 times again, if of course they have the choice and are able to plan for it again, just because it's a little bit different of an experience. also work in an emergency center a couple days a month here currently. So I truly do experience, you know, on both ends, but I would say, you know, compared to in the clinic.

Your pet is usually brought in through in the car. Some pets don't always love a car ride. that part, especially cats as well being put in the carrier and then into the car can be first one level of stress. And then they're usually brought in each clinic and each doctor does things a little bit differently. But sometimes then they're taken to the back and they have a catheter placed and that can be stressful to poking. They're separated from their owner for a period of time. There are other clinics that place the catheter in the room or give some medication beforehand.

kind of a, like I said, a spectrum there. Right. And then, you know, you're kind of coming in and especially on if it's an emergency basis, then, you know, you're meeting a doctor for the first time and it's usually a pretty quick process, you know, both medications through the vein. Where compared to in the home, you know, it's extremely calm, it's not rushed, not rushed at all.

And you know, we're in their pet's favorite space. So that'd on the couch, in the backyard, on the owner's bed, kind of wherever you're choosing where the pet spent all of its life. think that's truly the beauty of it. So going in, I love to talk, you know, with the owner about their pet's favorite things to do, their favorite memories. and just kind of, you know, talking and learning more about the pet because more often than not, is the first time one, I'm meeting these people and two, the first time I'm meeting this pet. So.

I love to get a little bit of a background and kind of experience that, you know, and learn more about their loved pet first. And then, like I said, each veterinarian does things differently, but the way I do it is I give them first a small injection kind of under the skin in their back leg.

Dr. Jack Murray, DVM (03:24.158)

And that will actually, after about five to 10 minutes, put them into a deep sleep, almost an anesthetic type of state. So it's a very, very slow process where they'll slowly get tired. They'll slowly lay down or lower their head and kind of curl up and fall asleep. And then they're honestly under a plane of anesthesia. So it can be, you know, that kind of slow process can be really, really peaceful and kind of

helpful for pet owners because there's no thrashing, it's not very sudden, it's like as it takes about five to 10 minutes. So we're still sitting there, we're all petting with the pets, sometimes they're still eating, up until I had one that was eating chocolate muffins and it fell asleep literally eating. So it was kind of not funny, but kind of comical that the pet had chocolate muffin pouring out of its mouth as it was falling asleep. So it did provide a little bit of laughter.

And then I always give or typically give the second medication through the pet's vein, just off of a little needle. So I'm not placing any, any catheters or anything like that, kind of limiting the pokes that your pet is experiencing. And, know, usually this, this process takes, you know, about anywhere from 30 minutes up, up to an hour, depending on the flow of, of what the pet, pet parent and pet owner, you know, chooses to do some.

want to move more fast than others, others just like to take their time and give it more treats and things like that. So I truly leave that part up to you guys on, you know, in terms of the length of the appointment.

Amy Castro, Host (04:49.806)

And obviously you're not flying all over the country to do this. So how does that work? I'm here in Texas, you're somewhere else. What are my options from that perspective?

Dr. Jack Murray, DVM (05:00.194)

Yeah, so I'm based here in the Chicago suburbs. I honestly, my radius is fairly large. So I do a large portion of the Chicago, a little bit, and I don't go downtown, but a little bit of the Chicago area and then most of the suburbs. But I have partnered with Codapet In-Home Euthanasia Group. Codapet is a platform that helps connect pet owners to in-home euthanasia veterinarians to help provide this access to care and access to in-home euthanasia across the country.

So it's an incredible platform in my experience. It is really great for pet owners to help find access to this care.

Amy Castro, Host (05:33.166)

Okay, yeah, and we can put a link to that too, because I think, you you could be planning or at least doing your homework way before. I mean, I've got a 15-year-old cat named Pickles, and she is having issues with her kidneys. She's still spry, still eating, still jumping, you know, very active, but it's not gonna be five years, you know? And so I'm already thinking through how I want that experience to be.

because I've been on the other end of the spectrum and I don't want it to be like that for her now that I know that there's a better way to have that end experience happen. So hate to say it's never too early because you you don't necessarily have to start planning this when you get a new puppy. But you know, as your pet ages, I think it's good to think about those things and I think it's good to have those conversations with your family members too.

Dr. Jack Murray, DVM (06:21.026)

You can, yeah, planning can most certainly, you know, take the rest of the load off of your plate. Like, and just even thinking, you know, would I want my pet's ashes back versus not? Would I want a paw print? What type of urn do I want them in? You know, little things that when you're making them in a rush or right at the end can seem extremely overwhelming and decision fatigue definitely does play a role into this. trying to think about these things, you know, beforehand can, I don't want to say make this experience easier, but help guide this process and help this transition become a little bit lighter for you.

Amy Castro, Host (06:51.15)

Yeah, and I think minimize the regrets and minimize the things that you wish you'd done that you can't go back and get a do-over. One of the fairly recent episodes that we did on guilt and euthanasia, because I had to euthanize a horse that wasn't even, I mean, she was mine now, but she was 34 years old and I kind of acquired her when I acquired my home. She kind of came with the property and she did really well for a long time. And then she was declining.

And I had never euthanized a horse before. And I went out and did some research on it. one of the things that apparently horse people do is they take the horse's tail hair and then they either just put it in a braid and hang on to it, or they turn it into a bracelet or whatever else. And it's like, that's one thing that you can't undo once everything is over. So I think it's good to do that thinking, do that planning, do some homework on what other people do. And I'm glad I have that. You know, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.

But I'm going to do something with it at some point, I suppose. Or at some point, you might just decide you don't need it anymore. But I think sometimes having that little remembrance

Dr. Jack Murray, DVM (07:56.654)

Yes, no, and I think, it's definitely something pet owners, a lot of them don't think about. Sometimes they choose individual cremation and they want their ashes back and then a couple days or weeks pass and it's time to get their ashes back. And unfortunately at the vet clinic or at the crematorium, they have shelves and shelves of pets and cremains that the owners haven't picked up just because they're unwilling, they're unable, they don't. It's such, you're kind of reliving that experience over again and maybe they didn't actually want.

want that back or want to relive that experience again. But it's like you said, it's something that you can't unfortunately get back once it's done or you know, once the cremation process has started, you know, we can't get another paw print unfortunately.

Amy Castro, Host (08:36.318)

So, you know, thinking about those things in advance and even with the cremains, if you decide to do an individual cremation and you can afford to do that, it's not horribly expensive, then you can do it and then you can decide later on. If you decide you want the cremains back, you don't want the cremains back, then they can do what they need to do with them at that point. But I think it's better to leave your options open if you think it's a possibility that you might want to do something with them later on.

Dr. Jack Murray, DVM (09:02.786)

Most definitely, some of the most heartbreaking situations are a couple days or weeks after the appointment has passed and owners are reaching back out asking, hey, is it too late to switch my option? Things like that. And those can be extremely heartbreaking because unfortunately, we can't.

Amy Castro, Host (09:19.894)

And it's such a good point to think through not only the whole process up to the point of euthanasia, but the aftercare and what your plans are from that perspective as well. As much as you can plan and as much as you can think through, I think that just minimizes the regrets for sure. Any final thoughts about this whole process? Because it's not great, but I think you can create a good scenario or you can not take any time to create anything and then it might just end up being a not so great scenario for you and your pet.

Dr. Jack Murray, DVM (09:46.88)

Yes, I would say final thoughts would be trying to have a plan in place. It's not always possible for every scenario, but like we've kind of touched on throughout this episode, thinking about these things ahead of time, know, long before your pet is in its senior years, long before your pet ever gets sick can really, really help this process become smoother, you know, talking to your loved ones, your family members and getting everyone's opinion because, you know, we all have free will, we all have, you know, a different thought process inside of our heads on what we truly think is right. So.

having these conversations beforehand before you're placed in a really high stress, high emotional situation, you know, where you're having to decide. Sometimes you only have minutes to decide or 30 minutes, you know, if the pet is really declining, things like that. And you know what, what we should do for, for next steps.

Amy Castro, Host (10:29.398)

Yeah, so that just makes it little bit easier to share what you want for your pet in those moments. I hope this gave you a clearer picture of what in-home euthanasia can look like and why thinking through a few details now can make a really hard day a little less overwhelming. I'll put the resources we mentioned in the show notes. And if you want the bigger conversation about how to know when it's time to let your pet go, listen to the full episode with Dr. Jack Murray next.

Thanks for listening to the Pet Parent Hotline. If you enjoyed the show, don't keep it to yourself. Text a friend right now with a link and tell them I've got a show that you need to hear. And ask them to let you know what they think. And remember, your pet's best life starts with you living yours. So be sure to take good care of yourself this week and your pets.