Euth by heart stick

[wildo]

Noticed this expression in this urgent rescue thread and didn't want to go off topic in the thread: http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum...eartstick.html

What is a heartstick? Is that just a shot of some substance to the heart? Does it essentially induce a heart attack? I've just never heard of it.

And just as a point of clarification- your typical "humane" euth process is still injection of some substance into the veins- but I am not sure what this substance does. I guess I would have assumed it also stopped the heart.

Can anyone shed some light on these things?

[gagsd]

What is heartstick euthanasia? - Yahoo! Answers

[wildo]

Geesh. I didn't even think about googling it... duh. Thanks!

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

There are still shelters that use gas chambers and ones that use heartstick. My understanding is that in a vet office, for a pet, it is sometimes used when a dog is sedated if they have trouble finding a vein for injection.

More here: Former employees report heart stick horrors | PoconoRecord.com

It hurts if it's not done right.
A poison-filled syringe is jabbed through an animal's chest wall. The needle punctures layers of nerves on the way to the heart. If the syringe pulsates, it is in the heart.
If not, the animal gets another sharp stab. Once on target, a press of the plunger injects "blue juice" (sodium pentobarbital) into the heart of an unadoptable animal.

The dead animal is thrown into a garbage barrel with others and put in the freezer. Later, cast-off cats and discarded dogs are taken to the dump.
This is how the heart stick procedure works when a trained veterinarian technician euthanizes an anesthetized animal.
At the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Philadelphia, the procedure is sometimes done, according to former employees, with two horrific differences.
They say the animals are awake.
And they say the people injecting the blue juice are not properly trained.
Not so, according to the PSPCA.
"Any PSPCA employee using a heart stick on a nonsedated or conscious animals is doing so without approval from the PSPCA," the nonprofit group wrote in statement.
Most animal advocates consider the heart stick a cruel procedure.
"No one in their right mind uses heart stick on animals that are awake. It's lay people who don't have medical credentials who are doing something that is extremely stupid and extremely cruel," said Lise Lund, a veterinarian who contracted work with PSPCA for five years.

However, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association’s 2007 Guidelines on Euthanasia, “Intracardiac injection is acceptable only when performed on heavily sedated, anesthetized, or comatose animals. It is not considered acceptable in awake animals, owing to the difficulty and unpredictability of performing the injection accurately.”.

from this blog (some language): Heart-stick in the heart of Columbus | buzzardnbigdog.com

So sadly there are still shelters doing this, and gassing dogs and cats in chambers (gassing: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Take-A...31864610227124). They are not using the heartstick in the way it is intended to be used.

[jocoyn]

When I worked at a shelter years ago they did it for puppies because it would take the chamber too long to kill them and you could not get a vein easily.

[LaRen616]

This is absolutely heart breaking.

It makes me sick and angry.

[Anja1Blue]

I witnessed first hand my own cat being killed by heartstick years ago - she was so far gone, and her blood pressure was so low, there just wasn't a way to use a vein. My vet at the time was a very experienced guy - but he was so upset at having to go that route that he missed on the first try. I will never forget how awful that was - it still haunts me, and I feel sick thinking about it. (I try not to mostly.) MatsiRed's elderly rescue Millie was PTS this way, a harrowing account which should be in the Archives. When someone from HSUS called me recently looking for money, I told them they wouldn't get a cent from me until they addressed these barbaric forms of killing - the woman said she had never even heard of it. I told her you've heard of it now.
_____________________________________________
Susan

Anja SchH3 GSD
Conor GSD
Blue BH WH T1 GSD - waiting at the Bridge

[msvette2u]

I am a euthanasia technician and I can tell you that on a heavily sedated animal (surgically sedated) it's no more painful than any other place you would insert the solution (eg., vein).

I believe (or want to) that the shelters that perform "heart sticks" (intracardiac injections) perform it in accordance with the guidelines in place for humane euthanasia and only perform it on unconscious, sedated animals.

[Samba]

I want to believe it too. I think a vet comes to the kill pound our town has. They do this procedure.

[msvette2u]

If a vet is performing it, I'm sure they use the correct technique of pre-sedation.