Overview of companion animal palliative care approaches and their welfare benefits.
Companion animal palliative care provides a welfare-focused framework for supporting animals with terminal or serious chronic conditions. Pain management, nutritional support, and quality of life monitoring are core components. Home palliative care reduces the welfare stress of frequent veterinary visits for animals with serious illness. Owner communication support helps humans navigate difficult decisions in a welfare-focused way. Palliative care planning improves welfare quality throughout the final phase of life.