Hi,

I wonder if people would like to help me with sharing a mini experience they have had with their vet practice with a loss of a pet.

I'm mindful for this not to become a discussion as it's part of research, I wonder if I devise a questionnaire, would this be the best for people if you guys would like to help.

Also how can I include other pets as well as cats (I tend to stick to this section so not sure where I would post)

The specifics I'd like to find out from the experience is

brief outline of what happened and who did you speak to at the practice, what kind of support was offered and including referrals to pet bereavement proviso, did you have good or not so good experience, either way, what made it good, what made it not so good.

also your view as like they offer counselling inside a GP practice, could you see this as a possible for vet practice and if so, what value would there be in this and or is this going too far, what I mean is for a pet bereavement counsellor to be available to the practice.

Do you think loss of a pet is treated differently to loss of a person in terms of bereavement support?

And is there anything (within reason) you feel vet practice (s) can do to do more, for example, training, resources, if so, be specific with suggestions, ideas.

This is just a skeleton and any input from you guys would help put the meat on the bone, if best way is a questionnaire, do you think it should include any other information

I think for now, if people want to PM me, this would be helpful and keep this separate to being a discussion topic if this makes sense.

Thanks

My previous practise were really good (no experience with my new practise regarding bereavement yet thankfully!).

When my cats were ill & had to be pts (seperate instances) I was having a home visit for this as there was no way I could have gone to the surgery.

Both times the vet who would be coming out called first to tell me he was on his way, explained exactly what would happen, how long it would take, did I want him to take the body for cremation, etc.

It was good to discuss everything before hand as I would have been in no state to have done so once it was all over.

With my first cat they sent a card a couple of days later which in some ways was a nice touch but it did set me off crying again.

Overall the service provided was fantastic, they were so considerate & understanding that it really did make it alot more bearable

I would not have wanted any counselling (it's not my thing tbh), I didn't want to talk to anyone about it but that how I wanted it.

Thanks, I've underlined and put in bold now the request to PM so it's much clearer