Pet End of Life Care with Coleen Ellis

Your Pets, Our Pets: Conversations about companion animals, animal health, and the human-animal bond.

In this eposide of Your Pets, Our Pets podcast, Scott Buttz, President & Chief Operating Officer of Regency Pet, speaks with Coleen Ellis, Director of the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care, also known as IAAHPC. Coleen is a renowned lecturer and educator on pet end of life for both veterinarians and pet families. She’s an entrepreneur owning many companies and is an accomplished author and well-recognized thought leader on the subject of pet death care.

Coleen discusses why she wants every family to think the end of life care for their pets was perfect and the services the IAAHPC provides to ensure this. She shares what she thinks has been the most instrumental change in the industry and where the industry is going in the next decade. She also talks about what was the most exciting thing about the recent IAAHPC virtual conference and what to expect at the upcoming VMX 2022, hosted by North American Veterinary Community (NAVC).

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• Why she wants every family to say “The end was perfect.”
• What is the IAAHPC
• The most exciting thing about the conference and upcoming IAAHPC events
• What to expect at the upcoming VMX 2022
• The most important message Coleen wants to deliver to veterinarians and their staff regarding end of life
• What’s been the most instrumental change and where she sees the industry going in the next decade

QUOTES

• “What’s the beauty of our industry and in our profession right now, Scott, is what do we do with the end of life walk? And my goal and the flag I carry when it comes to this subject is I want every family we work with to turn around and look at us and say, ‘The end was perfect. I have no regrets.’” -Coleen Ellis [05:02]
• “We live in a death avoidance society. We live in a society that says, ‘If I die.’ We live in a society where we work with families who say ‘If my pet dies.’ And then on that really bad day because we didn’t want to think about it, because we believed if we thought about it, we would make it happen quicker, and then all of the sudden, we get put in this position and it happens with us with our human loved ones too. We don’t want to believe it's’ going to happen, and it’s a when. It’s not an if. It is a when.” -Coleen Ellis [07:14]
• “Everything within IAAHPC is all about what is it the pet parent wants as far as the end walk, and how will we as professionals insert ourselves into help with that walk.” -Coleen Ellis [13:33]
• “It’s time to think differently” -Coleen Ellis [25:31]

TIMESTAMPS

• [00:13] Intro
• [00:25] Meet Coleen
• [02:21] Is Coleen a cat or dog person?
• [03:28] The end was perfect
• [10:33] The IAAHPC
• [14:41] Exciting thing about the conference
• [16:15] Upcoming IAAHPC events
• [18:40] NAVC and VMX 2022
• [23:29] Coleen’s advice about end of life care
• [25:43] What’s been the most
• [28:35] Lighting round
• [30:18] Outro

RESOURCES

• North American Veterinary Community
• VMX 2022
• The Human Animal Bond Research Institute
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

CONNECT

• International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care
• Regency Pet website
• Regency Pet on Facebook
• Regency Pet on Instagram
• Regency Pet on YouTube
• Regency Pet on LinkedIn