ABSTRACT: A rapidly growing specialty in the USA, animal hospice care is finally mirroring the human hospice movement in offering comfort-oriented care at the end of life, most often incorporating a gentle euthanasia. In the second of a two-part series, The Hospice Vet, Dr Susan Gregersen MRCVS, describes the emerging speciality of animal hospice or end-of life (EOL) care, and why it has an important place within regular veterinary practice. Based on her experiences helping more than 6000 pets during the past decade, Susan also discusses the role that specially trained veterinary nurses can play in animal hospice and palliative medicine.

Author

Susan Gregersen DVM MBA MRCVS

Susan studied in her native Denmark and since 2005 she has been an entrepreneur; in-home hospice vet and co-founder ofVets2Home GP Mobile Vets, re-launched in 2012 as Peaceful Pet Goodbyes – the first fully dedicated in-home animal hospice service in the UK. Susan is the programme consultant for Compassion Understood www.compassionunderstood.com and the founder of Sunset Pet Solutions www.sunsetpet.solutions, a veterinary consultancy supporting forward-thinking veterinary practices in redesigning their end-of-life approach. Susan has two dogs and two cats, all rescues, four guinea pigs and two collections of aquatics.

E-mail: susan@thehospicevet.uk

To cite this article: Veterinary Nursing Journal • VOL 31 (09) • September 2016 pp271-275

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