ABSTRACT: Animal hospice and end-of-life care are emerging specialties within veterinary medicine which hold considerable potential for development by veterinary nursing professionals. In the first of a two-part series, Dr Susan Gregersen shares what she has learned over the past 10 years of helping more than 6000 pets and families face the challenges of end-of-life care at home. This article explains the importance of focusing on end-of-life care in veterinary practice and explores the experience of pet euthanasia from an owner’s perspective.

Author

Susan Gregersen DVM MBA MRCVS

Susan studied in her native Denmark and since 2005 has been an entrepreneur in-home hospice vet and co-founder ofVets2Home GP Mobile Vets, relaunched 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 re-designing their end-of-life approach. Susan has two dogs and two cats, all rescues, four guinea pigs and two collections of aquatics.

Emails: susan@thehospicevet.uk, susan@vets2home.co.uk

To cite this article: Veterinary Nursing Journal • VOL 31 (08) • August 2016 pp241-244

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