What do you do if a pet dies at home?

[Anonymous]

I haven’t been in this situation, but I am curious because I have a sickly senior dog. I live alone, and I realize I’d have no idea I’d know what to do.

If it was during the day, I’d take her to the vet, I suppose. What if it happens in the middle of the night??

I’m in Fairfax County, if you have any specific recommendations.


Thanks.

[Anonymous]

If your dog is old and sick, why not put her to sleep? We had to make a hard choice to put our dog to sleep because I didn’t want the scenario you are asking about.

[Anonymous]

When my dog died we took her to the vet to be cremated when the opened after she died.

[Anonymous]

You wait until morning, then take her to the vet to arrange for cremation.

I’ve had half a dozen dogs in my life, and only one has died at home. Mostly dogs will be euthanized during a last painful illness so they don’t suffer. So it’s unlikely you’ll face this scenario (though a pet passing in their sleep is a pretty good way to go).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You wait until morning, then take her to the vet to arrange for cremation.

I’ve had half a dozen dogs in my life, and only one has died at home. Mostly dogs will be euthanized during a last painful illness so they don’t suffer. So it’s unlikely you’ll face this scenario (though a pet passing in their sleep is a pretty good way to go).

Agree.

Thank you to those with helpful comments.

[OP]

[Anonymous]

If you don’t want to wait, you can take them to a 24-hr emergency vet. That’s what we did with our cat. It was probably more expensive, but I didn’t notice it being appreciably more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don’t want to wait, you can take them to a 24-hr emergency vet. That’s what we did with our cat. It was probably more expensive, but I didn’t notice it being appreciably more.

You know, I was thinking this would work. Glad to know others do this, too.

Thanks!

[OP]

[Anonymous]

If you are worried about them being sick at night - 24 hour vet. If they actually die at night - bury them in your yard the following day. At least that's what we do. But only small pets here.

[Anonymous]

You don’t have to take to vet for cremation. Vets ship them out via a private company to a crematorium. Research animal crematoriums now and call them to see what they suggest. We had our dog put down at home ( in MD) by our vet but then took her ourselves to the cremation in Frederick area. We wrapped her in a blanket put her in the back seat of the car and drove up there.

[Anonymous]

We had our cancer stricken cat euthanized at home, in my arms - because being brought to the vet was an awful stressful experience for him and we didn't want that. I arranged for him to be cremated- our vet let me have a small animal "body bag" (for lack of a better term) and I just brought him to the crematorium the next day. It was actually really helpful for our other cats, as I let them inspect his body and see that he had passed- that way they didn't just wonder where he had gone and never returned from.

[Anonymous]

We took the pet to a pet cremation place like others suggested.

It’s the same as taking them to the vet other than the vet arranges for the body to be transported to the crematorium place.

[Anonymous]

If you live in Montgomery County you can drop them off in Gaithersburg for a $5 fee and they'll take care of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you live in Montgomery County you can drop them off in Gaithersburg for a $5 fee and they'll take care of it.

Where is that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you live in Montgomery County you can drop them off in Gaithersburg for a $5 fee and they'll take care of it.

Where is that?

I think it's the animal shelter on Muncaster Mill Road.

Owners may also bring their deceased pets to the Animal Shelter for a $5.00 disposal fee. This does not include livestock/farm animals.

[Anonymous]

If it’s in the middle of the night you can try calling a 24 hour or late night emergency vet and ask if you can have them take and cremate the body. That’s what I did when I had my Yorkie die at 3am (we were heading to the emergency vet anyway and she died right before we got in the car). Otherwise I was told I could either place body in a towel and then trash bag and place it in the freezer and bring it to the regular vet in the morning for cremation.