Does A Veterinarian Take Care Of End Of Life Services For My Dog?

Your animal health team can help you with details about that type of care.
Having a vet come to your home to do a pet euthanasia is more expensive than doing it in a vet facility. Our veterinarians can recommend pet euthanasia to make sure that your pet is not continuing to suffer from severe pain. As your pets health deteriorates, you can choose to care for your pet at home -- under veterinary care -- or you can choose to end her suffering through euthanasia.
Palliative care is focused on keeping your pet as comfortable and happy as possible, not prolonging his or her life at any cost. If you choose palliative care for your pet, you will be the primary caretaker of your pet, working together with the vet to ensure that your pets final days are comfortable and peaceful. Palliative care involves managing pain, providing care, and essentially whatever it may take for your dying pet to remain comfortable in his or her final days.

Hospice care, which is focused on providing support and comfort for dying pets and their families, is available both in clinics and at-home settings, though at-home care may cost more.
Rather than focusing on treating or curing underlying medical conditions, hospice care for pets is focused on pain prevention first. When considering hospice care, pet parents must take great care to avoid prolonging the suffering of pets that are suffering from pain or experiencing a low quality of life.
Hospice care requires active engagement and consistent oversight by the pet parents, working together with the veterinarians team, in order to ensure that the pets life ends in the comfort of their pet parents. With dogs, hospice generally seeks to offer a release for suffering, and involves providing comfort for both pet and family members during the end-of-life process, and leading families through post-hospital care and disposition of their pets remains. Pet hospice, also called palliative care, is the care provided for pets diagnosed with a life-limiting disease for which there is no treatment.
While euthanasia has long been considered the more humane option for elderly or terminally ill pets nearing their end, the growing fields of animal hospice palliative care and pet hospice care offer options to dog owners that may prolong both the quality of your companions life and the amount of time you are able to spend enjoying him.
The AVMA views veterinary hospice care as providing care that allows a terminally ill animal to live comfortably in their home or at a suitable facility, and this includes the option of euthanasia. The comfort and quality of life of the animal should always be considered in providing veterinary end-of-life care. End-of-life care personnel must be aware that when using the term "end-of-life care," it is usually understood to mean providing palliative care (including medications) during the remaining time in a pets life followed by humane euthanasia should acceptable quality of life cease to be maintained.
For many pets who are suffering from a terminal illness, your pets euthanasia is the most humane option once all of your care options have been considered. Euthanasia provides a painless, peaceful ending to a pet that otherwise will continue to suffer.
This type of euthanasia provides a painless, peaceful death for dogs. Euthanasia comes from the Greek good death, which is meant to put an end to suffering by providing a peaceful, dignified death to pets that are terminally ill or suffering.
This procedure is performed by your veterinarian, through the use of a large dose of anesthesia--this way, your pet feels as though he is falling into a deep sleep, without experiencing any end-of-life pain. During the process of dying, your vet injects the sedative drug, followed by the specific medicine, into the pet. The animal does not feel awareness of its own end--euthanasia is similar to being under a general anesthesia for surgery, which takes approximately 10-20 seconds.
Our veterinarians listen to the pets heart through a stethoscope to ensure it has passed. The most important aspect of hospice care is to educate yourself on your pets medical conditions, which is where our veterinarians will invest most time.

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