The delivery of palliative care can vary widely and depends on the goals of the practitioner, staff, hospital, and patient/client needs.1 Veterinarians often consider palliative care to be synonymous with hospice care, although neither is firmly defined in veterinary medicine. The World Health Organization defines palliative care as “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families… through prevention and relief of suffering… by early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual.”2 In veterinary medicine, palliative care embodies an individualized treatment philosophy that encourages a comforting, nonconfrontational treatment style. The existence of veterinary hospice is controversial, as many believe that suffering will accompany a pet’s natural death, despite all levels of intervention. The American Veterinary Medical Association defines veterinary hospice as “care that will allow a terminally ill animal to live comfortably at home or in a facility, and does not believe that such care precludes euthanasia.”3 The author would argue that euthanasia is the ultimate palliative measure, while hospice implies a scenario of natural death.
Related Article: Veterinary Hospice: Medicate, Meditate, Mitigate