A VETERINARIAN’S LIFE

The Lost Art of a Good Ending

Losing a pet

I have been a veterinarian since 1980 and practiced small animal medicine and surgery until 2017. I chose this profession because I loved animals and medicine. I recognized the importance of the human/animal bond and was committed to serving BOTH my patients. For decades, even as I had children and managed my busy household, I went to work every day feeling like I had the greatest job in the world.

But one day I woke up and could no longer deny that my world had changed. The days when people got a pet, loved a pet, lost a pet were gone forever.

Death had become an unacceptable consequence of illness or aging.

The advances in veterinary medicine had paralleled those of human medicine and animals had become a business, a BIG business. How could an owner, now faced with so many treatment options, decide what was right.

To service these advances Each clinic was now a fully equipped hospital, including x-ray, ultrasound, lab, surgery, dentistry, and pharmacy, and manned by highly educated and trained staff. Many owners struggled with the cost of care that, in a short period of time, had spiraled.

Perhaps the worst consequence was that people had lost perspective and forgotten the simple truth — their pet's lifespan would always be a fraction of their own. Loss was unavoidable.

Recently, my own sweet little pug died — an unexpected loss.

If he suffered, it was short-lived, and I gently stroked him as he took his final breath.

Yet I’m haunted by that last moment when he raised his head and fixed those brown eyes on me. Was that a peaceful farewell or a look of indignation, asking how could I, of all people, have failed to save him?

Did my loss of faith in the profession I loved for so long affect the care of my own pets? And if so, what of the struggles for all those millions of regular pet owners. How are they to navigate the age of corporate veterinary medicine?

As veterinarians, the role of executioner is ours and our alone. Have we dropped the ball?

Have we forgotten that every appointment in the lifetime of a pet leads to the last and most important one? Have we refused to recognize that the owners’ emotional needs are as important as the animals’ care? Have we forgotten our promise to spare our patients suffering, not judge their owners? Have we failed to remind people that choosing a peaceful death is a gift?

Is a good death a lost art?