County vet offers a kind of pet hospice

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: November 30, 2008

For Albemarle County veterinarian Liz Palmer, death is as much a part of life as birth, but that doesn’t mean it should be as traumatic.

Palmer, formerly with Old Dominion Animal Hospital, spends much of her practice now making house calls, checking on the health of aged and dying companion animals and to performing euthanasia at the pet’s home.

Consider her practice sort of a pet hospice.

“I practiced for 27 years and was always coming across people who couldn’t make the decision on whether to euthanize a pet,” Palmer explained. “When things would get busy, and I’d run from treatment room to treatment room seeing pets I was trying to help or perhaps save, I didn’t have time to focus on helping people make those kinds of decisions.”

Those decisions, Palmer said, are not only important for the pet but also painful for the person.

“For a lot of people, their pets are part of their family and it’s hard for them to accept a pet dying,” Palmer said. “It’s also hard to know how much pain or discomfort your pet feels because it can’t talk to you. That makes it hard to know their quality of life.”

Disheartening experience

One disheartening event Palmer saw as a vet was a grieving owner putting a pained and uncomfortable friend in the car and driving to a strange and stressful environment to put the pet down.

“It was painful for the animal and stressful for the animal and just as hard on the person,” she recalled. “The problem was that, in a daily practice, you have so many demands and schedules that you couldn’t go to someone’s home to make things easier. You didn’t have the time.”

Local vets and animal hospital managers agree that it’s good to make house calls for end-of-life treatment. They also admit that it’s not always possible.

“Our vets will often try to find time to visit a patient’s home and will do it on their lunch or right after work, especially if it’s a long-term client or someone with a close doctor-patient relationship,” said Wanda Hurley, of the Animal Medical Center on Pantops.

Idea has support

Several veterinary schools, including Ohio State University, support the idea of animal hospice and in-home euthanasia for reasons similar to why Palmer took up the practice. Studies, most of which are using data a decade old, show that 82 percent of owner-requested euthanasia is performed on ill or aged pets

Vets are encouraged to ask questions to determine if an animal is suffering. Those questions compare the dog’s life now to its healthy past in terms of comfort, fun, discomfort and whether the pet owner would change places with the pet.

Most of Palmer’s referrals come from vets who have determined that a patient is nearing its life’s end.

“Most of the time, their regular vet has already got the person thinking about those things before they refer them to me. The questions become more orientated to whether the animal is dehydrated, in constant pain or responsive,” Palmer admitted.

Calling Palmer for help, however, does not necessarily mean calling for the final shot. Her specialty is end-of-life care, a calling that includes pain management and quality of life assessment to keep elderly or terminally ill pets purring.

“People are spending thousands of dollars at the end-of-life for their pets because there are so many more techniques and methods that can be used to treat pets,” Palmer said. “The problem is that a pet may live longer, but with osteoarthritis or other conditions, that pet could be in a lot of pain.”

A member of the Albemarle County Service Authority’s board, Palmer has lived in the county since 1996. She’s active in water issues, provides medical service to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and is in contact with pet loss support groups.

Difficult decision

Often an owner will recognize the need to euthanize a pet, but find it difficult to make the decision.

“It’s not something you can rush. You can explain the condition of the pet and how it’s feeling but it’s important to understand how the person feels as well,” she said.

Death, she said, is a scary concept.

“We avoid death in our society. Nobody wants their pet to die or to make that decision, but death is just as normal as being born,” she said. “It’s important to understand that death’s a natural process. Sometimes, even though it hurts, it’s best to let go. Life is hard enough and we should try to make death as painless and comfortable as possible.”