Palliative and Hospice

Palliative care is specialized medical care for pets with serious and chronic diseases.

The goal of palliative care is to improve the quality of life for the pet and its owner; thus, it is focused on providing pets with relief from the pain, stress and symptoms of serious illnesses.

By helping to relieve symptoms such as pain, dehydration, loss of appetite, nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath and constipation, palliative care assists our pets in maintaining their daily lives and routines. It also increases their ability to tolerate the treatments that they are receiving to cure their disease.

On the whole, palliative care can be administered at the same time as treatment that is employed to cure your pet.

Dogs and cats have different diseases that respond to a number of treatment options. Also, each pet is a unique individual. One of the major advantages of palliative care is that the treatment can be modified and tailored to meet the individual needs of each patient, thus providing each pet the best quality of life during an illness.

Hospice care is different from palliative care in that is focused on pets that are terminally ill. Hospice care always includes palliative care, but it is administered to pets that are expected to live for only a short period of time.

When Dr. Packer is treating your pet with hospice care, he will carefully work with you to monitor your pet’s quality of life and discuss his evaluations with you to assist you in making the decisions regarding your pet’s end of life.