Companion animal hospice and palliative care is an emerging field that supports animals and their owners during the end stages of terminal illness. These approaches prioritize quality of life and peaceful death over life extension at any cost.
Companion animal hospice and palliative care represents the application to veterinary medicine of a philosophy that transformed human medicine: that a good death, experienced in comfort and with loved ones present, is as important as fighting disease. For animals, who cannot express preferences verbally, quality of life assessment tools help owners and veterinarians identify when suffering outweighs remaining life quality. The availability of euthanasia as a humane option when quality of life cannot be maintained is a genuine welfare advantage animals have over human patients in many healthcare systems. The emerging field of companion animal palliative care is developing evidence-based pain assessment and management protocols, addressing undertreatment, and supporting owners through end-of-life decisions — recognizing that the human-animal bond makes companion animal death a significant grief experience.