Palliative care for companion animals with terminal illness focuses on maximizing quality of life during the final phase, with pain management, comfort, and dignity as the primary welfare goals alongside owner support.
Companion animal palliative care represents the welfare principle that every life stage deserves quality care, including the dying process. Pain management that keeps a terminally ill animal comfortable allows positive experiences — resting with familiar people, enjoying favorite foods, accessing familiar spaces — during the final period. The integration of euthanasia as an option within palliative care rather than a failure of care reframes the dying process as welfare-focused rather than treatment-focused.