Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals: Principles and Practice

Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals: Principles and Practice offers the first comprehensive reference to veterinary hospice and palliative care.  This complete guide to caring for sick and dying animals provides both a thorough understanding of the core concepts of the field and a practical resource for providing high–quality service.  The book covers the history and philosophy of hospice care, comparisons with human hospice, palliative care recommended practices, information about supporting pet owners, and recommended business practices. 

Taking an interdisciplinary team approach to the topic, the book is written and edited by experts in hospice and palliative care, with backgrounds in clinical work, veterinary nursing, human mental health, bioethics, animal behavior, and thanatology.  A companion website offers client handouts for use in practice.  Hospice and Palliative Care for Companion Animals is an essential purchase for any veterinarian offering hospice and palliative care service. 

Key features 

Presents the first thorough resource to providing veterinary hospice and palliative care Offers practical guidance and best practices for caring for sick and dying animals Provides an interdisciplinary team approach, from a variety of different perspectives Gives concrete advice for easing pets more gently through their final stage of life Includes access to a companion website with client education handouts to use in practice

Amir Shanan, DVM, is the Founding President of the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care, www.iaahpc.org, and the owner of Compassionate Veterinary Hospice, a veterinary practice dedicated to providing end–of–life care services, in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Jessica Pierce, BA, M.Div., PhD, is a bioethicist and Faculty Associate at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University of Colorado Denver, Anchutz Medical Campus, in Denver, Colorado, USA.

Tamara Shearer, DVM, CCRT, CVPP, CVA, is the owner of Western Carolina Animal Pain Clinic / Shearer Pet Health Hospital in Sylva, North Carolina, USA.