Palliative care is medical care that is non curative. This is care that can alleviate or lessen the symptoms of a disease process but do not cure the disease. Often palliative care plans may be for animals that are aging but do not have a specific disease diagnosis. At this point owners may still have quite a bit of time with their pets and they just want to improve the nature of that time and improve quality of life. This may include pain management, infection control, nutrition management and other quality of life improvements as the disease or age takes its course. Palliative care can take many forms from traditional medicine to complementary care (grooming, massage, acupuncture, etc). Some typical things we may consider are;
- Pain management
- Managing clinical signs
- Hygiene
- Nutrition
- Mobility
- Safety
- Environment