Researchers from the Michigan State University have developed a tool wherein pet owners can assess the quality of their pet's life during terminal illnesses.
The relationship between an owner and his or her pet is very sentimental and most often than not pet owners have a difficult time assessing the extent of a pet's suffering during illnesses and deciding on when it is the right time to let go.
Researchers from the Michigan State University have developed a survey that can help pet owners assess the quality of their pet's life during terminal illnesses such as cancer.
Researchers reveal that while veterinarians are skilled and trained to assess the quality of an animal's life by conducting certain tests and treatments, pet owners don't have that luxury and have to depend on their instincts to decide whether their pet needs to be put to rest due to its deteriorating health conditions.
Lead author Maria Iliopoulou, an MSU-trained veterinarian and a doctoral student in the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies, says this tool helps pet owners better understand how their pet is feeling because animals can't tell for themselves if they're not well.
The tool helps in gauging what changes one should look out for in the pet's behaviour in order to make harsh decisions under the challenging circumstances of cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Researchers asked dog owners to complete a questionnaire at the time of diagnosis about how the animal was behaving then and how they typically behaved six months prior. Follow-up questionnaires filled out three and six weeks later documented changes in behavior as the dogs underwent chemo. Meanwhile, the veterinarians filled out shorter surveys based on their observations.
"We wanted to see if the owner and the clinician would agree," Iliopoulou said. "The owner knows the pet, and the clinician knows the science. That's what the survey is all about, to identify components of a good quality of life and verbalize them in an understandable way to facilitate client and clinician communication regarding patient-care decisions."
The researchers found that responses to the questions by owners and veterinarians matched each other's quite a bit and so researchers concluded that questionnaire could be a helpful way to find common ground for treatment decisions.
