Today in Pet News I found this article from Fox business. Read an excerpt before I say more:
Introducing pet hospice
A growing movement toward hospice or "pawspice" care for pets is catching on as owners demand more emotional support and options for end-of-life care such as pain management, alternative medicine or palliative radiation treatments for terminal cancer, said Dr. Alice Villalobos, a veterinary oncologist and director of Pawspice in Hermosa Beach, Calif.
"Professionals know there is a cry out there for more home care and more instruction on pets that are treated more like family members than anything," she said. "It's a natural next step."
Many times hospice is as much about serving humans' needs as those of the animal, Villalobos said. "People really want to have an extended farewell just like they did with family members and parents."
Americans appear increasingly willing to pay for it. Pet owners spent $24.5 billion on vet care in 2006, up from an inflation-adjusted $21.6 billion in 2001, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, which represents 85% of U.S. veterinarians, in Schaumburg, Ill.
Hospice programs can help pet owners deal with their anticipatory grief and discuss options for managing the pet's pain in its last days, weeks or months. The vet can help people determine what signs indicate that a dog or cat is in pain, Strubel said.
Euthanasia is still an option to prevent suffering, and deciding when to do it can be the hardest part for people, she said. "Once the decision is made, often it's a huge sense of relief."
The movement toward pet hospice encourages vets to improve their bedside manner, Villalobos said.
I had a tough time with Chuck who was finally euthanized in 1997. On the one hand, I think I kept him alive well beyond the time where quality of life was an issue. On the other hand, it was a decision I really couldn't make on my own without validation.
I couldn't bring myself to stay with him for the injection, and I didn't claim the remains, since there were no other animals in the house who needed to adjust to the new situation. The vet's office sent a bill with their sympathy, and that was that. I think some of the issues raised in this article are as necessary for the comfort of the human as they are for the comfort of the pet, since that wasn't actually that. It became a situation that I have to deal with privately.
Our society still has a long way to go. We classify one animal as "pet" and another as "food", but even there, great progress is being made. I haven't eaten veal, for example, since I saw a presentation from a classmate in "Presentational Speaking" in college. She made a convincing argument against veal based on the way the animals are raised.
But society changes slowly, and we need to be satisfied with small gains. And where pets are concerned, "pawspice" is progress for them and their human protectors.