Hospice care is not just for pets with cancer! 

As your pet reaches an advanced age -an age where you would consider a senior diet- a conversation regarding their comfort associated with natural aging conditions and more pathologic ones become paramount. Understanding what signs to look for and when end-of-life discussion should be had is not always easy to identify and certainly not emotionally easy to handle. Of course, the diagnosis by your veterinarian of a terminal condition such as cancer quickly precipitates a conversation regarding appropriate medical care involving surgery, oncology services and medical management of the specific cancer based on location, severity and prognosis. However, some older pet ailments are not as straight forward and leave families with difficult decisions to consider as the disease processes progress. Chronic kidney disease in cats and cognitive dysfunction (dementia) in dogs are two of the more common conditions that fall into this category. As these progressive degenerative conditions develop, their toll on the quality of life of the pet and of family members and caretakers can be quite onerous – physically, mentally and emotionally. Cats may lose interest in foods they once loved, may experience intermittent vomiting or progressive weight loss. Dogs may develop abnormal sleep patterns, periods of disorientation, getting stuck in odd places or positions, blankly starring at walls and head pressing into corners. Both may start having urinary or fecal accidents that leave both them and caretakers frustrated with increased anxiety. These are all situations that arrise as disease proccesses adavance and the end of life starts to become a reality. BY no means do the presence of these signs mean that the end is iminent but they do warrant a conversation about how to maintain and elevate a quality of life that identifies and controls medical, environmental and therapeutic parameters to ensure that the comfort and dignity of the pet is always being considered and addressed and the acceptance and emotional well being of family members is easier to achieve.