Hospice Care For Pets Is Now Available
I have often discussed the issue of euthanasia and your pets.
Unfortunately, many companion animals are euthanized every year when they are abandoned, lost or otherwise separated from their owners.
In addition, some pet owners chose euthanasia when their pets incur life threatening injuries or diseases.
However, now many pet owners are now opting for another choice; that of hospice care for their pets.
In a movement lead generally by veterinarians, more and more pet owners are learning about and using hospice care for their dying pets.
Veterinarians can provide many different comfort techniques to be used in the home where both the family and the pet are more familiar with their surroundings and also subscribe pain lessening drugs or medications for the animals in their final days.
We will review some of the professional hospice care facilities that may be available for you and your pets in the next couple of days to give you some background information on this phenomenon.
Hospice Care For Your Pets
Hospice service for humans has been available since the 1960’s.
Now, hospice care for pets is a growing field.
Like its counterpart, pet owners who see their companions as important members of the family and deserving of a peaceful end, welcome the veterinary or animal hospice.
The goal of palliative care is to relieve the pain, symptoms and stress of serious illness, whatever the diagnosis or prognosis.
Pallimed , recently wrote in its website;
"Yes, there is a small but growing veterinary hospice/palliative care movement. There is even one pet hospice foundation that is an associate member of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. It is an interesting topic of discussion for several reasons. Obviously, euthanasia has always been a part of veterinary medicine and a mainstay of veterinary "palliative" therapy. However, as some pet owners demand ever increasing levels of high-tech medicine for their pets (pets that are often treated as nearly human members of the family), veterinary specialists have dealt increasingly with issues of futility and aggressive treatment efforts at the end of life….
There are also a group of owners who decline euthanasia, and veterinarians must either provide palliative care (for which we have little training and some degree of ethical quandry) or leave owners to do what they can and watch and wait for their pets to die "naturally" at home."
There are many forms of pet hospice and the fees vary greatly.
However, if you find yourself in this position of having a pet with little hope of recovery from a serious illness or disease, you might consider this alternative form of assistance and comfort.
