Animal Lovers Web Forum

A veterinary team in Texas has created a service to help pets and their families with end of life care.
They will come to the home when it is time and euthanize the pet in its own surroundings with its family around it.

They go further. They take palliative care to the home and have a clinic that provides support services for geriatric pets. 

http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/cyfair...778089.php

This is a valuable and compassionate service. Many humans find the need of seeking medical help outside the home, very tiring and stressful. If some of the services are available at home it helps ease the strain. Bringing services to a pet in the home makes the last months more peaceful and more comfortable. 

They provide support for those who, have lost pets as well. This is a very caring and loving approach to the end of life situations we face with our pets. 
I hope the idea spreads to other cities. Even having some of these services would help people face the end of a pet's life in peace.

This is a wonderful service. Many animals who have technically been diagnosed as terminally ill, still have a lot of life in them. And often even the quiet ones have capacity for enjoyment sometimes to the very end.
It's stressful for an anmal to have to make a trip to the vet. So it's great that this care is being provided at home. It is helpful for their caretakers too, as they will know what to expect and there will be less panic and rash or hurried decisions under stress (which almost always cause guilt.)

Quote:It's stressful for an animal to have to make a trip to the vet. So it's great that this care is being provided at home. It is helpful for their caretakers too, as they will know what to expect and there will be less panic and rash or hurried decisions under stress (which almost always cause guilt.)

It is wonderful what we can do for our pets now.  There are medications to ease pain and therapies to help arthritic pets. 
They may be old, but they can still enjoy life and we can still enjoy having them with us.

What I do with the neighbour's cat is a sort of end of life care. Her kidneys failed years ago. The injections of fluids I gave twice a week were enough to keep her going. She has been doing very well. Now things are failing and I give her the injection every day. I am also injecting something every two weeks to help keep her red cell count up. She also gets a blood pressure pill, but her people are able to do that. There is no way she could go to the vet every day for the fluid injection. She would be very unhappy. I just pop in from next door and she knows me so I really don't upset her even though I am giving an injection. 

I don't think there is much more we can do if she starts to fail. We are doing as much as we can. I think we will be making a decision within the year. We won't let her die slowly of kidney failure. I give her the fluids now so that doesn't happen. 
We are taking it day by day. She is an amazing cat and we will want her to have a peaceful end when the time comes.

Every pet should be able to have a peaceful end. End of life services can really provide that. There are more and more vets who will at least come to the home when the pet needs to be euthanized. It is too hard to deal with losing a pet and making decisions while standing in a doctor's office. You are right, at home we can handle things better.