Idiopathic Issues

The National Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners (NBVME) publishes a percentage based breakdown of what areas are covered on the NAVLE. All of the numerical information in this article can be found at the NBVME website, www.nbvme.org. Most of the rest of the information in this article is either paraphrased or adapted from the NBVME guidelines and if you are interested in the original text, we encourage you to view the NAVLE website at https://www.nbvme.org/?id=26&page=NAVLE+Test+Specifications

The Golden Rule: One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

It’s a simple concept really. By no means am I trying to say that I am perfect and haven’t fallen victim to stress and meanness so don’t go thinking that I haven’t made these mistakes myself. But here is an important lesson that I think you should know before graduation. 

I am the granddaughter of a wildlife rehabilitator. After a career in the military my grandfather, a World War II and Korean War Veteran retired from the Army and joined the US Fisheries and Wildlife Service. He soon became an integral player in the Bald Eagle Reintroduction Project in the state of Maine. To say that I am proud of my grandfather’s accomplishments is an understatement. As a kid I didn’t realize how important his job was, the coolest part about having a grandfather who rescued wildlife was that visiting my grandparents meant checking out all of the cool animals in the barn. He always had an array of birds, transiently living there until they could be returned back to the wild.  He had owls, hawks, ospreys, and herons on a constant rotation.  Seeing those birds up close and personal was absolutely formative to my early childhood love of animals and planted the seed that I would one day grow up to help animals for a living too. I’ve run into many people over the years, most notably a medical doctor, who sighted concepts like “survival of the fittest” as a reason to not help animals.

We all know about hospice care for humans, but what about hospice care for animals? This seems to be more widely recognized now in veterinary medicine. When you think of hospice for humans, you think of terminal patients that have 24 hour nursing care for palliation until death. For animals, it is more of a recognition that an animal does have a terminal disease, and helps to open up a dialogue with owners about what to expect for their pet so they are prepared and have a plan in place to keep them comfortable as long as possible.

Hospice care is based on accepting death as a part of life; helping an owner to make a plan they are comfortable with that encompasses their own beliefs, whether or not that includes euthanasia in the end. Questions that may help owners plan for this decision include:

1. What exactly happens during euthanasia?
2. What are my personal options for the euthanasia procedure? Should I plan for it to be done at home, or at the hospital? If there is a specific doctor I wish to perform the procedure, what days is he/she available? What if I have an emergency? Who should I call?