Responsible home burial and pentobarbital hazard

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On this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, sits down with Celine Leheurteux, DVM, CEO and founder of EUTHABAG, to discuss a crucial aspect of veterinary care that is often overlooked: responsible home burial and pentobarbital hazards.

Within the episode, Leherteux breaks down her professional evolution that led her to creating EUTHABAG, the veterinarians role in comforting and supporting grieving pet owners, and how veterinary professionals can educate clients on a proper burial place for their pet that does not impact the well-being of wildlife, and other pets, while also legally protecting the owners and veterinary team.

Below is a partial transcript.

Céline Leheurteux, DVM: The clients are not provided with any instructions and they do their best... for home burial, we let the clients leave with basically what is a biohazard. And other pet full of [pentobarbital] that could poison another pet or wildlife animal? So it's just a nonsense here. So I finally was like, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna contribute to my professions education and well-being because what is worse than a professional complaint? I wouldn't blame a pet owner wanting to sue somebody if he was not provided with the information that could have been. This is pretty basic, we make them sign discharge for things that are way less dangerous than that.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: I never really thought about [because] I didn't have this experience, [and] I still don't so far, but it's out there. You know, I've heard about it so, what happens? I'm curious now that you're mentioned is what happens with pentobarbital in the soil over time.

Céline Leheurteux, DVM: It's so surprising, and we don't know. We don't think about it, because we were not provided with such critical information. So because nobody told us about it, we're like, 'well, it must be fine.'