Although not one of the easiest things you want to think about, there comes a time when saying goodbye to your precious pet is the best option available. Holding onto your pet for longer when its time is due to only prolongs its suffering and that too comes with an emotional effect on you.
Here are a few key insights to get you started on the end-of-life journey for your pet.

What does veterinary hospice entail?

Hospice involves providing support and care to a pet that is nearing its end of life. It involves practices like palliation; a process that works to reduce the suffering and pain. Palliative care has many elements and one of them is the use of medication in the management pain.
Hospice care goes beyond caring for the pet and extends to providing emotional support to the pet family. Grief counseling specialists will walk with you every step of this painful journey to ensure your comfort as your pet receives quality sendoff care.

Here are some signs that your pet could be in need of hospice care:

• Intolerance to medical interventions
• Intractable pain which can’t be treated
• Extremely low levels of activity
• Unacceptable levels of hostility towards other pets and humans
• Loss of sight
• Constant seizures
• Incontinence

Some of the regular hospice care practices include cleaning and bathing the pets, administering medication, moistening the eyes of pets and more. You should keep a daily journal where you rate the progression of the terminal illness or other conditions so that you know when it’s time to seek for help.

Euthanasia and what to expect

Choosing euthanasia for your pet that is approaching end of life is the toughest but best decision you can make. It doesn’t mean that you’re a murderer, but rather, you love your furry buddy too much to watch it undergo intolerable and nonstop suffering.

The process of euthanasia will vary depending on factors such as the pet’s species, your preferences and the specific procedure selected. The common practices here include administering initial sedative so that the pet becomes unconscious. The next step is to inject the pet with the euthanasia solution which causes respiratory arrest.

The process is fast, calm and quiet. Experienced vets treat this ceremony with utmost seriousness and accord your pet the respect it deserves even to its last breathe and after. However, the pet might react suddenly to the sedative and it doesn’t mean that the vet did something wrong.
Depending on your preferences, the memorialization options include cremation, burying at home or in a cemetery.