Pet Hospice Care Update: Remembering my Beloved Mikey

[soliloquy id="399"]This is a blog post I prayed I wouldn’t have to write. I had to put Mikey down last Friday. I’m heartbroken. He was in rough shape after his second round of chemotherapy, but I was hopeful that he was just fighting off an infection. That didn’t come to pass. I met with his oncologist on Thursday and she gave me a look. I knew that look. I’ve given that look. It’s not a look you ever want to be given. Mikey had an advanced case of lymphoma from which he wasn’t going to recover. I tried to manage his pain with medication, but that did little to ease his suffering. Normally he follows me wherever I go, but all he wanted to do was curl up alone under my daughter’s bed. Clearly, I was not managing his pain. I couldn’t allow him to suffer, so I gave Mikey the only gift I had left to give.I would be lying if I said that there haven’t been any tears. The past week has been filled with them. I’m an animal lover and have had my fair share of pets. I’ve loved each and every one of them, but Mikey was special. He’s been there for every major milestone in my adult life. He was there when I finished veterinary school. When my first daughter was born, Mikey had to make space for another baby in the house. He had to do it again when my second daughter was born. And he was there to comfort me every time I came home from a long day of consoling people going through what I’m going through now. This one is going to hurt.Though I’m deeply saddened by the loss of my Mikey, I’m overwhelmingly grateful for the time I had with him. It’s a simple fact; pets have a much shorter lifespan than we do. Inevitably, most pet lovers will have to experience this ultimate loss. While that pain can be agonizing, it’s SO worth it. I wouldn’t give up a single second I spent with Mikey. I truly believe he was a gift that was given to me. He taught me compassion and unconditional love. He made me a better person. I hope that his spirit of love and compassion will live on through me so that I can share it with others experiencing loss.

3 Stages of Pet Hospice Care: Update on Mikey

In September, I explained the various Stages of Pet Hospice in a 2 Part Blog Series referencing a personal experience with my sick cat, Mikey. I wanted to provide readers a vivid narrative of my experience so they could better understand the process. When we left off, we were actively working to manage Mikey’s quality of life. Since then, his health has taken a turn for the worse. Last week we discovered a mass in his small intestine, which we’re actively working to treat. Here is an update on the series of events that have followed since:Thursday, October 1st: We discovered the lump in Mikey’s small intestine and decided to treat with chemotherapy.Friday, October 2nd:Mikey began his first round of chemo.Saturday, October 3rd:Mikey battled a rough bout of nausea for most of the day as a result of chemotherapy. It was really tough to watch him suffer, but later that evening he seemed to respond to the treatment. He appeared to have taken a positive turn, acting like his old self.Tuesday, October 6th:Another bout of severe nausea overtook Mikey.Wednesday, October 7th:Mikey received a second round of chemotherapy. Beforehand, we ran tests, which revealed an elevated white blood cell count. This is typically occurs when an infection is being fought. He was in rough shape, but I gave him some pain medication so he could get some much-deserved rest.As of today Mikey is continuing to battle while we keep close watch on his condition. It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions, but we’re doing everything we can to help his fight. You may think that dealing with this type of situation everyday would make it easier for me, but it doesn’t. What does provide comfort is being able to share Mikey’s story with you. My sincerest hope is that my story can be a benefit to anyone caring an ill pet.

Part 1: What Are the 3 Stages of Pet Hospice Care?

I first met my beloved cat, Mikey, when I was a veterinary student in Colorado. He had been living at the clinic for about three months after he was brought in with a severe injury to his back foot, an upper respitory infection, and eyes swollen shut. Though he was still on antibiotics, the clinic had done a great job rehabilitating him and I just knew he was destined for a forever home with me.I’ve had several great years with Mikey, but recently he started to experience some health problems and decreased quality of life. It’s truly heartbreaking to see Mikey’s health in decline, but I’m grateful for strides our field has made in palliative pet care, specifically Pet Hospice care. Pet Hospices focus on enhancing quality of life in sick animals while providing support to pet parents transitioning through the 3 stages of Hospice Care. In this piece, I’ll just focus on the first two stages and provide examples of my experience with Mikey, to give you greater understanding of the value these services have to offer.Similar to the 5 Stages of Grief, pet parents go through a series of emotional steps as they come to terms with the idea of saying goodbye. Pet Hospice providers offer comfort, guidance, and expertise as you navigate the following stages:Stage 1: Initial DiagnosisDiagnosis marks the first stage of the process. In many cases, the vet will discover a terminal or debilitating illness in your pet. You experience grief and a whole roller coaster of other emotions. With Mikey, we weren’t able to diagnose a specific problem; unfortunately, sometimes we don’t have all the answers. What we do know is he has a condition that will progressively decrease his quality of life. We’ll need to do our best to manage his quality of life for as long as possible. Understanding this allows us to help Mikey by focusing on the next stage.Stage 2: Managing and Evaluating Quality of Life The focus of the second stage of pet hospice is assessing an ailing pet’s quality of life and coming up with strategies to manage it. In my own experience with Mikey, we’ve had good days and bad. One day he’ll eat and we think things are under control, the next day he wants nothing to do with his food. Your brain is so fried, because you're emotionally stressed out, making it hard to be objective. It’s a really awful and lonely place to be.This is where pet hospice is truly valuable. Having an unbiased pair of eyes to help you make a plan and evaluate quality of life when you aren’t thinking clearly is a godsend. Pet Hospice providers can help you come up with a plan and define parameters for if/when you are going to make a decision of life and death. Luckily we haven’t reached this stage yet with Mikey, but if we ever do it will provide me great comfort knowing we did everything we could for him.

Pet Hospice: What You Need to Know

When a person becomes terminally ill with no hope for a cure, palliative care services such as hospice offer relief to patients and comfort to their families during the final stages of life. These services are instrumental in creating tranquility during a heartbreaking time, and help people focus their attention on enhancing the quality of the life that remains.Many people love their animals as they do their own children and would do anything in their power to ease the pain and suffering of an ill-fallen pet. Once reserved exclusively for humans, these end-of-life services are becoming available to pet owners as animal hospices are popping up all over the country. As these services become more ubiquitous, it’s important to understand exactly what to expect:Pet Hospice Defined: There is some ambiguity in the pet-care industry when it comes to providing a clear-cut definition for pet hospice care. It may seem semantic, but it’s important to address these issues so that set protocols for hospice care providers and expectations for pet owners can be established. Hospice care is essentially the ending of aggressive treatment for the purpose of a cure, with renewed focus on the pet’s comfort and quality of life.

“Making the decision for hospice care is an important part of keeping the family veterinarians and veterinary staff on the same page in regards to purpose and outcome of care.”-Dr. Christina Nutter, Gentle Journey

The Direction of Pet Hospice Care in Arizona:As the industry grows, there are a number of different ways that pet hospice services can be administered. Many of the services offered can be handled at the primary care facility, provided the trip isn’t too taxing for the animal. If the vet is willing to make house calls, this will provide additional support and comfort for the infirmed animal. Alternatively, once the decision to switch focus to palliative care has been established, many pet owners may choose to opt for in-home services, often at suggestion of their family vet.Electing to go with an in-home service has several advantages. First off, it removes any uncertainty regarding expectations for the care provided. The decision has already been made to switch from a curative to a palliative approach, eliminating any ambiguity about the intentions of the provider. The third-party service is there for one purpose: to ease suffering and improve quality of life. Second, in-home care removes the added stress that traveling to vet’s office creates. And, finally, with an in-home palliative care provider the animal doesn’t have the same negative associations they might have garnered through past experiences with their vet.Regardless of the specifics of service, more and more options are becoming available to Arizona pet owners who are caring for sick animals. As more hospice services are made available, pet owners are empowered to minimize the suffering of their ailing pets in a civilized, dignified way.