The House Vet

19/08/2025

I am now on extended leave until Monday 8th September, latest. Please see website for updated availability.
Over this time, if in need of a pre-booked appointment weekdays please consider contacting my lovely colleague Kate at
https://www.pawsinpeace.co.uk/contact
Kate is based in mid Devon but may be able to help where her availability allows.

02/08/2025

A beautiful piece.

Our short stay in the country ended in heartbreak. If there’s a best way for an animal to die, I can’t say I’ve found it

03/07/2025

10/06/2025

Veterinary palliative care isn’t just for terminal conditions. It can provide dedicated support to help pets with chronic, progressive illnesses live comfortably for as long as possible. Early introduction can improve both your pet's quality and length of life.

By focusing on pain relief and symptom management, this approach ensures the comfort of your pet whilst guiding you to make well-informed decisions that strengthen the bond you have with your companion.

From July I will be offering online Quality of Life Consultations and from September Veterinary Palliative Care Consultations in the home.

As the only CHPV qualified veterinarian working here in the South West, with thirty years of veterinary clinical practice experience, five of those dedicated to the end of life, I look forward to working with my families and primary care to together provide exceptional end of life care for your much loved companions.

With 30 years of veterinary clinical experience and unique training in end of life care. A multi-disciplinary team approach to exceptional care.

04/06/2025

‘In all the places we used to go’

Even after all this time, I still find you in the quiet corners of my days.
Where your paws once pattered across the floor.
Grief is not always loud. Sometimes, it’s just the way I pause at a doorway or glance to my side on the footpath we once walked together

This painting was born from that soft ache, the kind that lingers in the places you loved most.
You’re no longer here, but somehow, you still are, in all the places we used to go.

https://www.ladybugart.co.uk/product-page/you-re-in-all-the-places-we-used-to-go

20/05/2025

David Kessler is one of our greatest experts on grief.
This kid shows a pretty deep understanding too ❤️

21/04/2025

Weeding to make way for some wildflowers for the bees-and this pops up. It’s a patch that’s been dug over lots over the last 20 years and my dogs are buried there.
A tiny piece of glass, smaller than my thumbnail, it says, ‘Gone but not forgotten’.
7 months today since I lost my cat. And the pain has been immense.
Call me daft…but I love these signs ❤️

18/04/2025

When even some large pet bereavement support groups still imply caregivers should always stay, I’m so pleased to see Dawn Murray highlighting this harmful myth.

Just a quick reminder of our next webinar -

Leaving your pet alone for Euthanasia - The Myth behind 'that' article with Dawn Murray

Date: Thursday 17th April 2025
Time: 7pm - 8pm BST
Venue: Virtual Zoom Event

Event: In this webinar Dawn Murray takes a look at the news article which has circulated for several years now detailing why pet owners should not leave their pets when they are being euthanised, and the actual harm to pet owners this article may bring. To register for this event please email [email protected]

09/03/2025

Quality-of-life scales. Are they all they're cracked up to be?

QofL scales are utilized in human medicine for end of life care.

The QofL scales used in human medicine tend to be disease specific.

The QofL scales in human medicine are validated.

In addition, QofL for people is broken down in to consideration of physical and emotional aspects.

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We have a few QofL scales to reach for in veterinary medicine.

BUT QofL scales in veterinary medicine are NOT validated.

As importantly they are mostly based on physical quality of life.

Consider that as vets we are trained to focus on physical quality of life for our patients. In contrast, as pet owners, chances are your focus may be more on the emotional quality of life of your pet.

So is there the risk of an incompatability in how we approach the decision making for end-of-life care from opposite sides of the consulting room table?

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As vets we use QofL scales to assist you, the caregiver, in deciding on the right time for euthanasia.

QofL scales can be used objectively to correctly identify a sadly deteriorating situation for your companion.

But emotions are understandably at play. So QofL scoring can also be subjective, with risk of the score being manipulated.

Perhaps as a caregiver you will skip over, and overlook, and cross things off in its completion. Because to do otherwise would lower the final score.

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The other thing to bear in mind is that QofL scales do not take in to account the whole scope of end-of-life care.

They do not take the client's quality of life nor the animal's will to live in to account, all of which should be part of the palliative care or euthanasia decision making.

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Veterinary end of life care is in its infancy, so much so that we don't have the research behind it as yet, the backing of evidence based medicine we love so much in all other fields of veterinary medicine. Because of this, by necessity, a lot of our practices are extrapolated from human end of life care.

We need an improved validated scale for veterinary palliative medicine to provide assessment not only for the quality of life but also your pet's:

⦁ will to live and ability to live (autonomy is a natural condition for animals in the wild).

⦁ emotional quality of life and ongoing desire for human interaction.

Also for:

⦁ the caregiver's quality of life and the caregiver's ability to provide the nursing care involved.

⦁ the quality of the dying process.

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In further posts I will discuss QofL scales in more detail but, having stated their significant limitations, I will also look at where the current leaders in veterinary palliative medicine are preferring to turn to assess patients at end of life.

Pic of Bob who joined our family from the Cinnamon Trust in his old age along with his sister Zak ❤️

04/03/2025

I qualified Certified Hospice & Palliative Care Veterinarian (CHPV) in 2021 (having gained my veterinary degree in 1995).

I am currently working towards offering veterinary palliative care as referral to primary care veterinary practices and their families throughout the South West. As CHPV, this will be a unique service in the South West.

My practice will continue to offer in home euthanasia (IHE). When commitments take me elsewhere I have a trusted colleague locally, who has also been providing IHE for many years, who we can recommend.

There is quite a bit of foundation work, mostly paperwork, informational sheets and IT, that needs putting in place first but I am hoping to have completed this by the end of April to allow me to start offering veterinary palliative care by early summer.

Palliative care is a multi-disciplinary endeavour. So as well as GP primary care vets and veterinary nurses we’re talking veterinary referral specialists including dedicated veterinary pain specialists, physical therapists & rehabilitators, mental health professionals (pet bereavement counsellors and veterinary social workers), colleagues offering spiritual support, groomers, pet sitters and aftercare providers. I’m sure the list isn’t exhaustive.

An awareness of the services available is of importance but it is entirely up to each family who they choose to engage to work together in supporting both themselves and their pet.

I’d be grateful for any personal experience of, and recommendations for, colleagues offering any of the above to add to my directory of local providers for my families. And any post shares throughout the South West to get the ball rolling in raising awareness of this new service.

I am always happy to discuss in more detail what palliative care involves and how it benefits our families to interested colleagues.

Thank you 😊

Certified hospice and palliative care veterinarian. Providing gentle & compassionate at home euthanasia in Exeter, Plymouth, Torbay, Newton Abbot & South Devon.

17/02/2025

🐾Palliative care is an emerging discipline in veterinary medicine.

www.thehousevet.co.uk/veterinary-end-of-life-care/

Providing gentle, compassionate at home euthanasia for cats and dogs.

03/02/2025

The House Vet-Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Veterinarian.

As advances are made in end of life care within the veterinary profession and caregivers are made more aware of what options are available for their pets at this time, more and more in home euthanasia services are becoming available

Many clinicians offering these services will by now have undertaken training with the U.S. based Companion Animal Euthanasia Training Academy (CAETA) and maybe UK’s Compassion Understood.

Our at home euthanasia practice is a little different. Over the last 10 years I found an increasing interest in veterinary end of life care and in 2020, already having completed both of the above courses, I undertook further postgraduate study with the International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care (IAAHPC) to become a Certified Hospice and Palliative Care veterinarian (CHPV). There are only a small number of UK vets who have completed this post graduate training and, to my knowledge, I am the only veterinarian with this qualification in the southwest.

Both human and veterinary palliative care are still very much in their infancy. The first human medicine speciality in palliative care was established here in the UK in 1986. There is not yet an equivalent speciality in veterinary medicine and worldwide CHPV is the only post graduate qualification offered in the veterinary palliative care field.

The first CHPV intake graduated in 2017 & I graduated with the class of 2021.

CHPV follows a comprehensive continuing education curriculum approved by the Registry of Approved Continuing Education (RACE). It includes approximately 100 hours of coursework: CAETA’s training module in advanced euthanasia techniques, which I found hugely beneficial to repeat, alongside modules in advanced pain management, advanced palliative medicine and hospice care. Palliative medicine’s goal is comfort: symptom and pain management to improve quality of life without trying to cure the patient. It can be applied to any advanced, progressive chronic disease not just terminal illness and so there is no time limit-it can be ongoing for months, sometimes even for years, supporting current medical treatments. In human medicine the term hospice is used for terminal illness only and often when the patient is no longer seeking medical care outside of palliative care. Hospice is generally defined as 6 months or less to live with hospice care addressing the needs of the dying.

As well as the coursework I was required to attend both the IAAHPC conference and a live communication workshop, submit a case report that could be considered for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and sit and pass the final examination which I did in the summer of 2021.

Since qualification I have been lucky enough to continue learning with a growing number of colleagues worldwide who are advancing hospice and palliative care (HPC).

For me, this advanced study in HPC has been invaluable in my work. I hope it helps me to help you be guided through the conversations we have about your pet and the decisions we make for your pet at the end of their life.

Gentle, compassionate, private at home euthanasia for cats & dogs in South Devon & beyond. Certified hospice & palliative care veterinarian. We want only the best for you & your pet & we strive to maintain the human-animal bond at this difficult time.