Guiding Pet Carers Through End-of-Life Decisions
As a vet, guiding and supporting pet owners in making challenging decisions is one of the hardest aspects of working with end-of-life patients. As a pet carer, it can be even more challenging due to the existing strong human-animal bond.
Open Communication
Open communication and honesty are crucial to end-of-life discussions. As a hospice and palliative care vet, I help pet carers by providing clinical knowledge and experience, helping to assess quality of life and providing information regarding the options available.
The decisions pet carers make at the end of their companion’s life matter not only to the pet but to the whole family. Being left with feelings of guilt or unresolved grief can have an impact on their lives for years to come.
The Hardest Task
Pet carers are given the hardest task at times of often great emotional struggle. Making life-and-death decisions can be incredibly confusing and complex, involving both trying to understand what they want for their pets as well as for themselves.
Our team specialises in animal hospice and palliative care, and we are trained to help pet carers make decisions they can feel as comfortable as possible with.
In the Best Interest of Everyone
Our role is not to make the decisions for them but to help provide realistic solutions that are in the best interest of both pet and family. We consider aspects such as quality of life, pain levels and “will to live”, and guide pet carers through the very complex and emotional decisions of end-of-life care.
Just like us, pets have social, emotional and physical needs that must be met for them to have a fulfilling life.
Making sure you give them the best support at home
At Dignipets we try our best to keep pets out of the hospital and to give pet owners the tools and knowledge to care for their pet in their own home environment. Hospice care would involve a home online assessment, disease education, what to do in a crisis, crisis kits and and attaining a preparation for the passing of your pet.
Because a significant difference is that for pets, at the end, we can choose to let them go in a peaceful manner. In my experience, most pet carers will choose euthanasia over natural death. As a lot of conditions are not developing into a peaceful natural passing. It helps giving us control over how the experience will be for our pets by giving them the biggest chance of passing gently and with dignity. And to do this where they feel best which is at home.
For me, the journey of hospice care gives opportunity to make more memories before having to say goodbye. It is a time to do all those things on the bucket list, and really appreciate just being in the moment.
Being a hospice vet has taught me so much about the human animal bond, and I always feel so grateful being a part of someone’s journey. Our team offers hospice consultations as well as quality of life assessments, for more information or to book an appointment please contact us at enquiries@dignipets.co.uk
This article is written in memory of a much loved cat x
