As your dog or cat ages or is diagnosed with terminal illness, hospice care could provide invaluable support in keeping their beloved furry friend comfortable for as long as possible. As pet parents learn what hospice care entails as well as how best to provide it and whether or not it’s the appropriate solution, pet hospice is something they should explore as an option for keeping their beloved friend at ease during his or her final years.
What Is Pet Hospice Care? Hospice care, often referred to as palliative care, offers comfort to pets as they near the end of their lives. While no cure may exist for an illness, hospice care offers pet parents tools for managing symptoms, keeping their pet comfortable, and prolonging happiness for as long as possible. Hospice care aims to keep an elderly or sick pet comfortable as they transition towards the final days; although not a cure or replacement for euthanasia; rather it delays deterioration and the need for either option before having to consider either option (euthanasia or natural death).
What Are the Treatments and Services Provided in Pet Hospice Care? mes Hospice care for pets typically occurs in their own home rather than at a veterinary hospital, where they feel most at ease. Hospice companies can come into your home and create the ideal environment to give care to each specific animal as well as work closely with a veterinary team in administering necessary medications and treatments as required. Hospice can also give families time to say their goodbyes in peace while offering closure and comfort both ways.
Hospice care for animals may involve treating various medical issues and illnesses that the pet is currently facing, so the specific treatments provided vary greatly from case to case. Hospice can include:
Regularly administering fluids, injections or oral medications; providing additional padding or raised beds; manually emptying bladder and/or extra sanitary cleaning, providing assistance for walking or standing up, muscle strengthening exercises as needed and changing diapers (Syringe feeding or hand feeding if necessary); providing extra padding/ raised beds when needed and manually clearing urinary tract. In some instances, providing extra sanitary cleaning or extra bladder expression might also be required; extra padding could also help as would providing extra padding or raised beds;
Hospice care treatments cannot treat disease directly; they aim instead to keep a pet comfortable and delay the need for euthanasia.
How Can You Determine Whether Your Pet Is Appropriate for Hospice Care? If you’re uncertain whether your pet is suitable for hospice care, begin by discussing its needs and prognosis with your vet. Since hospice care provides additional comfort care and services for pets in their senior years or with terminal illnesses may make for ideal candidates. Hospice care pets may also be referred to as special needs, high maintenance or medical care pets – although such titles don’t always reflect true readiness; in such instances longterm hospice care may not provide sufficient support.
Even when euthanasia is inevitable, pet parents who may need additional time to say their goodbyes may still find temporary hospice care to be beneficial in the short-term. There’s no set length of time hospice care must last – each pet’s needs vary widely and hospice care exists solely to offer extra comfort during this difficult period of time. Hospice care’s purpose is simply providing that comfort while giving time and space for grieving.
How Can You Assess Your Pet’s Quality of Life? There are various questionnaires and scales available to you and your vet that can assist in the assessment of the quality of life for your pet, such as those provided by Lap of Love, The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center, Dr. Alice Villalobos and other sources – these should all make you reflect upon both mental and physical well being in terms of how your pet is living their life.
Detect signs that your pet’s quality of life is declining with regular visits to their vet and open and honest conversations regarding its wellbeing with your own. When discussing with them what their quality of life might look like for their own good.
How to Decide between Hospice Care and Euthanasia
While hospice care may offer extra comfort for certain pets that need additional support, some animals won’t benefit from hospice care regardless of your best efforts; these might instead need humane euthanasia procedures instead.
Euthanasia can be difficult for pet parents to discuss, yet unfortunately unavoidable in many cases of illness and older pet care. Hospice care may temporarily help preserve your pet’s quality of life before becoming worse – yet ultimately euthanasia might be best as an act of compassion from an owner to their suffering pet. Assessing their quality of life with their vet is the best way to make an informed decision between hospice and euthanasia; financial, physical, and time constraints should all also be taken into consideration before choosing one option over another.