Human hospice care has set the standards for a kind and compassionate end of life experience for many people with terminal disease. Hospice care provides a supportive structure for the family as well as for the patient during this very difficult period for everyone.
Veterinary medicine is following the lead of human medicine, and many veterinarians and veterinary technicians are on the leading edge of providing end of life care to pet hospice patients.
Questions you might have about Pet Hospice Care:
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- Are there specific places that people take their pets, like with human hospice care?
- Who are the people who are trained to provide pet hospice care, and what kind of training do they receive.
- How do you get in touch with someone in your area who can provide you and your pet with this kind of service?
Read on and these questions will be answered.
What is Pet Hospice?
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Pet hospice, unlike human hospice, is provided only in the home of the pet hospice patient. There are no specific facilities dedicated to pet hospice care as there are with human hospice facilities, although 80% of human hospice care occurs in the home.
Hospice is not a place you take your animal; rather, it is an approach to end of life care. Death is accepted as a natural and inevitable process, and not something to battle against. Instead of trying to fix an animal’s problems with surgeries or other interventions, the focus of care is on keeping an animal comfortable and maximizing the quality of his or her remaining time on earth. It is about doing everything we can to keep an animal free of pain and suffering, and full of joy and love.
[/mk_blockquote][mk_blockquote style=”quote-style” font_family=”none” text_size=”18″ align=”left”]…for animals, hospice really needs to take place at home. This is partly because there are no hospice facilities for pets. But even more important is the emotional well-being of the animal: our animals don’t understand the concept of going to a new, strange-smelling place, and
stress is exactly what we want to avoid with an ill or dying animal.[/mk_blockquote]
Who Provides Pet Hospice Care?
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For some….hospice will involve some trips to the veterinarian, but many people (and animals) prefer to have a mobile hospice vet (or pet hospice-trained veterinary technician) come to the home. One of the best things about hospice care for animals is that it stresses the value of home: dying animals are often most comfortable at home, in the presence of their family, and in familiar surroundings.
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Excerpts from blog-site, accessed 8-31-15:
http://jessicapierce.net/?p=200
