I want to share with our Nurse Your Pet visitors this story of a patient of mine, Monty, who had bone cancer. Monty had his leg amputated to reduce the painfulness of this type of cancer. Osteosarcoma, known commonly as bone cancer is very aggressive and most animals do not live very long once they are diagnosed. Amputation doesn’t slow…
Palliative care and hospice care are not the same thing, though they are often used interchangeably. Palliation is defined as “relieving or soothing the symptoms of a disease or disorder at any stage of an illness”. More and more people are choosing palliative care and so in this blog article we will explore the concept of palliative care and…
You may have been told that your beloved pet has a terminal illness and that nothing can be done or maybe you are watching your elderly pet start to decline. So many things may run through your mind and your anxiety level may start to rise wondering things like: When will this happen? How will this happen? Why is…
Quality of Life is defined by the dictionary as: “the general well-being of a person or society (or pet), defined in terms of health and happiness, rather than wealth.” As a veterinarian, my greatest concern for my patients is that their lives have quality, that they are not suffering. This is what is called the “Health-Related Quality of Life”…
