Beyond Supervet: How Animals Make Us The Best We Can Be by Noel Fitzpatrick

Author:Noel Fitzpatrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion

CHAPTER 7

Kindness

Betsy was an adorable cockapoo who, when she was six months old, was chasing a bird when she was hit by a vehicle, suffering multiple spinal fractures. Fortunately, these did not damage the spinal cord itself, but there was severe damage to the brachial plexus, which is a network of nerves that carries signals to and from her right front leg. Using electromyography (EMG), a type of special nerve conduction testing, we could see that the nerves down as far as her elbow had recovered after intensive physiotherapy, but the nerves below her elbow were permanently damaged and she would never be able to move her right front foot again. It was dragging and had to be repeatedly bandaged. She was also suffering from dysaesthesia, which is an unpleasant sensation of ‘pins and needles’ when tissue has suffered nerve damage. She was trying to chew off her own foot as a result. Inside the bandage, some tissue had sloughed due to disturbed nerve and blood supply and then that necrotic tissue became infected. That’s when I was asked for an opinion on the possible ‘kindest’ next steps.

It was 2020 and Sophie and Dan, her incredibly kind human family, were about to have a baby and at the same time had to choose whether they wanted Betsy to have a life on three legs or four. Euthanasia was also an option, but not for them. This is a difficult ethical decision, since many would argue that the ‘kindest thing’ in such circumstances would be to amputate the limb entirely. Betsy was a small dog and should therefore manage well on three legs. Equally it could be argued that if anything were to happen to her other front leg during a likely long life, then there may be an argument to try to save the injured limb. Many vets would argue against this option being offered at all because full limb amputation has been the gold standard for so long. However, I strongly believe that the technology has now reached such a proven level of efficacy that to not offer it as a treatment option to guardians of animals is no longer the right thing to do. Of course, there are risks, as there are with any surgery. The kindest thing to do is not always obvious, especially when opinions vary, even among people who are intrinsically kind. Sometimes the kindest thing, in the case of an animal in pain, is to end the life of the animal rather than seeking to prolong it. I am obliged to mention euthanasia as an actual ‘treatment’ in most cases, as I did for Betsy, even if it was anathema to me in her case. However, from the point of view of animal guardians, because they generally implicitly trust in the kindness of vets, it is an odd fact that I have been thanked many more times following an act of euthanasia than I ever have been for my surgical successes. People simply assume that all vets make the kindest decision.

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