Supporting Pet Owners Through Grief : A Veterinarian’s Guide to Loss

An empathic and emotional exploration of the inevitable subject of grief that veterinarians will regularly encounter throughout their relationships with clients on their journey through the care and management of animal patients.

The authors take an informed and supportive look at the philosophical and psychological impacts of grief, emphasizing the individual experiences of clients, while also addressing the impacts on the veterinarian and veterinary team.

Chapters cover:

• the importance of the human-animal bond
• unique circumstances relating to grief
• practical tool-kit approaches that help the vet work alongside the client in a way that is supportive and practically helpful
• self-management resources for a veterinary-centric view of managing the process of euthanasia, death and grief.

Supporting Pet Owners Through Grief provides practitioners and students alike with tools to better understand grief and its impact on the human-animal bond. Veterinary team members will also learn how to navigate their own mix of emotions as they themselves experience and process recurrent grief that can contribute to compassion fatigue and burnout.