Leveling up end-of-life care: Excellence, compassion, and the future of veterinary hospice
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On this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, invited special guests Tyler Carmack, DVM, CVA, CVFT, CHPV, CTPEP; and Chelsea McGivney, DVM, from Caring Pathways to chat about issues related to end-of-life care and how to make this painful process as easy and comfortable for clients and patients. Throughout the episode, they discuss why referrals for euthanasia can help maintain relationships between clients and veterinarians, the need for more geriatric pet education for clients, and the American Animal Hospital Association.
Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity
Chelsea McGiven, DVM: We know that regular vet clinics, regular GPS, they don't have the time to have these slowed-down, extended, you know, conversations with these families, whereas our average appointment time is 1 to 2 hours to have one conversation with a family about: Where's your pet out now? What are your goals for them? What are your goals for yourself? And what plan can we put together to make sure that we're supporting everybody, always keeping that pet's quality of life front and center? so absolutely, sometimes we end up referring back to the regular practitioner based on the client's goals and how their pet is doing. So it truly is. We approach it as a partnership and just wish that more people would think of us as those end-of-life care specialists, right? If you've reached the end of your knowledge with regards to how to support this pet, send it over. Send it over to the specialists,
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Right? And hopefully, with a podcast like this, and all the great education that Caring Pathways is providing, will help move that momentum a little bit further, because it definitely needs to happen and... I'm curious about the human-animal bond. It has changed, I think, for the better, with where we are now, like we really have such great joy with it, but it can be significantly stressed or sometimes reinforced during end-of-life care, and this can open or close doors to future pet adoption. So, share with us your thoughts on that.
Tyler Carmack, DVM, CVA, CVFT, CHPV, CTPEP: I think the human-animal bond is is such a powerful force, and when emotions are so high and we're dealing with so many different family members with the same pet and so many different relationships, it can be really difficult, because everybody takes in information, makes decisions differently, and so part of our role is to try to get that family on the same page. So usually the primary caregiver is the one that may feel that human-animal bond being really stressed, and maybe even other relationships in the house being stressed because of the amount of caregiving that they're they're having to do for their pet.
We really want to look at what we can do to change our treatment plan, to incorporate things like massage and some hands-on therapies that can help reinforce that bond and provide comfort to the pet, but not put additional strain on that that primary caregiver, and help open communication about that, because we hear so much either at euthanasia appointments, but even during this caregiving process that at the time, families are not willing to go through this again because it's so hard.
They pour so much love and so much effort and and so much time into these pets. And when we do have a strain on that relationship, it can be hard to justify doing that again. And so if we can help lessen that burden and create a bit more closure and make this a true end-of-life experience for the family, instead of an event that they remember in a traumatic way, I think we can. We can help with that grieving process and maybe make them a little bit more open to going through that for future pets and other family members will be open to that in the future.
