Helping caregivers support aging pets

In this video, Mary Gardner, DVM, cofounder of Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice, discusses how supporting mobility for aging pets doesn't have to involve expensive equipment. She explains how simple household items can be used to keep senior dogs and cats safe and comfortable at home.

Gardner also addresses the critical issue of caregiver fatigue, highlighting the physical and emotional toll that comes with managing a large, immobile, or incontinent pet. By giving clients practical tools and strategies to handle these daily challenges, practitioners can improve a patient’s quality of life and help owners navigate difficult end-of-life decisions without feeling overwhelmed by physical guilt.

Below is the video transcript, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

Gardner: So, it's not just really expensive things, it's how we can take typical household products and make them work a little bit easier to keep them safe and comfortable and help them walk around a little bit.

I think another really important thing to recognize with dogs and cats with mobility issues—and really any issue as they get older—is the caregiver fatigue that happens. When you're dealing with mobility issues, especially with dogs, they're heavy and you've got to lift them up. Oftentimes they're incontinent or they're getting soiled and you have to clean them.

It's hard to see our friends get that way and then have to make end-of-life decisions, because they're usually still eating and wagging their tail, they just can't move around as much, and it really pulls on the heartstrings. If we can support them by keeping them moving as best as we can and giving them physical things to help the caregiver manage their pets a little bit better, we may get them living longer and better, which would be great. But we are also supporting them in those end-of-life decisions so they don't feel guilty that they can't actually physically help their pet.