CAM LIVE: End-of-life palliative care and euthanasia with Caroline Ficker

Caroline Ficker, a home visit vet and palliative care expert joins CAM's Esme Howells to discuss the hardest part of pet ownership; end-of-life care. Palliative care involves symptom control for chronic-progressing or life-limiting diseases as well as support for the owner/caregiver. Caroline guides us on how to decide that the time has come, her view on Quality of Life questionnaires and acknowledges the grief and anticipatory grief involved. Options for euthanasia are discussed as well as how the current Covid restrictions are, in some cases, limiting those options. Dr Caroline Ficker graduated in Veterinary Science from Melbourne University in 1987, and has worked in general practice and in emergency clinics and has held senior vet positions in London practices between 1997 and 2004. Home Visit Vet was established in 2005 to provide general home veterinary care in London. Caroline’s special interests at this time were internal medicine, senior-geriatric medicine and medical ethics. A chance meeting with a palliative medicine specialist in 2008 consolidated Caroline’s focus into palliative and end-of-life care, which she has been devoted to ever since. It was a natural progression to rebrand these to PalliVet (www.pallivet.uk ), reflecting Caroline’s experience, expertise, devotion and compassion in this emerging field. For more information and content check out our: Facebook -   / camarthritis   Website - https://caninearthritis.co.uk/ Twitter -   / camarthritis   Canine Arthritis Management (CAM) is a veterinary driven initiative, set up by vet Hannah Capon who was becoming overwhelmed with the number of dogs she was having to put to sleep having "gone off their legs". This was often seen by the owners as a sudden incident, when in truth that dog had probably been suffering in silence for a long time prior to that day. In fact, we believe that as many as 1 in 5 dogs in the UK, and 80% of dogs over the age of 8, will have some degree of osteoarthritis. Unlike humans, dogs are unable to express their pain in words. Chronic pain is no doubt something most people will understand and empathise with, but it can be difficult to tell when a dog is suffering in the same way. We want to challenge the preconceived notion that "just getting old" or "slowing down" should be accepted in our four-footed companions. Ageing in itself is not a disease! Here at CAM we think that by changing owner, vet and public perception of arthritis, we can improve and extend the lives of dogs.