Now that hospice and palliative care has become mainstream in human medicine, a similar development might be occurring in veterinary medicine.
Kath Dyson, a former veterinary surgeon, writes that veterinary palliative care, while a relatively recent phenomenon, has been growing in stature, particularly in the United States. A joint Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and British Veterinary Association project, about the fact that an increasing number of UK vets offer hospice care. However, she also notes differences between palliative services offered in human and veterinary medicine as well as debates within the profession over the advantages and disadvantages of palliative care versus euthanasia.
Kath Dyson said: “In animal hospice it is the pet’s owner who takes on all the financial, practical and emotional costs involved, whereas human patients have a lot more support available. Euthanasia is always an option in veterinary medicine, and indeed euthanasia of an animal can legally be carried out by anyone, so long as it is done humanely.”
Overall she argues that additional expertise from veterinary surgeons in end of life care will help the profession be “even better able to provide truly lifelong care to all their animal patients.”