re: How did y'all deal with putting a dog down

My neighbor and good friend does many of these surgeries every week. They are as you said very expensive (he's told me before and I don't remember the number so I don't want to try and throw something out there that is completely wrong).
He might be one of the best in the country for them.

He is however in Memphis. He has a very high success rate on them. Be careful though of vet offices that don't do these regularly. He has as many dogs that come in where a vet that doesn't have the experience completely screw a procedure up and my buddy has to try and fix.

As to how did I cope with putting mine down. Really not very well at all. I cried like a baby. I still tear up sometimes thinking about it.