According to one study in human medicine, the leading reason for seeking medical care is relief of distress. The effort to minimize distress is often described in the medical literature as the act of providing comfort. Comfort means “to strengthen” and is most often described as a physical, mental, and/or emotional state of ease or well-being. Offering comfort is the most important part of supporting your clients’ grief after pet loss. In a 1998 commentary in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Dr. Franklin McMillan suggested that comfort, not health, is the “primary and central objective of medical practice.” Dr. McMillan… Continue Reading
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Take and Bake Containers Make Your Job Easier!
If baking ClayPaws® prints is what is standing in your way of trying our process or you feel like it takes up too much of your staff’s time, consider our Take and Bake Containers! Rather than switching to a paw print kit of lesser quality that is less versatile and more unpredictable, just simplify your ClayPaws Print-Making Process! We designed our Take and Bake Containers to eliminate the step of baking prints onsite while still allowing you to send prints home safely the same day. Today, we are announcing the launch of our NEW Large Take & Bake Containers. These… Continue Reading
Client Retention for Veterinary Teams: A Powerful Tool
Use ClayPaws Kits post-death to support grieving clients, empower veterinary teams, structure time and client exits after euthanasia and ensure client retention for veterinary teams. Euthanizing a beloved pet is never easy. It’s even harder when the pet’s grieving family is present during the procedure. Yet, family-present euthanasia can be one of the most powerful client retention techniques veterinary teams can us. Especially when they pay close attention to how their client’s final goodbyes are facilitated. After a pet has died, a client’s exit from the veterinary clinic (or the removal of a pet’s body after home euthanasia) presents one… Continue Reading
Anticipatory Grief
Your clients facing pet loss will be affected not only by the normal grief that follows loss but also by anticipatory grief. Anticipatory grief occurs prior to an actual death. It often begins with the diagnosis of a terminal illness or injury. A client may begin to exhibit any or all of the manifestations of normal grief as soon as they sense that a beloved pet may die. How Anticipatory Grief May Manifest As the pet’s condition deteriorates, the client must adjust to the changes. The pet’s appearance, personality, and physical capabilities may change as a result of treatments or… Continue Reading
A Healing Ceremony for Your Clients: Decorating & Baking Prints At Home
You may not be able to decorate or bake your client’s ClayPaws® prints onsite. That’s okay! It is more important that the print go home as soon after a loss as possible, the same day if it can. Don’t let baking stand in the way of sending pet parents home with their prints. The experience of decorating and baking ClayPaws prints at home can become a healing ceremony for them. When you present it this way, pet parents see that you are providing the opportunity to honor their pet in their own way. The benefits to you of making ClayPaws… Continue Reading
Veterinary Grief Support
Please note that the following blog is copyright protected and may not be altered, sold, reprinted (republished), or reproduced without the author’s permission. Veterinary grief support has come a long way since the field emerged in the mid-1980’s. Then, grieving clients were often thought of as “overly sensitive,” and providing pet loss support was considered extreme. Today, providing end-of-life care via Client Comfort Rooms, veterinary hospice programs, and client-present euthanasia is standard practice. The commitment to providing grief support for clients is due, in large part, to a growing recognition of the role the human-animal bond plays in people’s lives…. Continue Reading
Not One More Vet Offers Support for Veterinary Mental Health
Not One More Vet (NOMV) is a 501(c)(3) public charity and is the leader in veterinary mental health. We are proud to help support their mission to transform the status of mental wellness within the veterinary profession so professionals can survive and thrive through education, resources, and support. According to the NOMV website, 1 in 6 veterinarians consider suicide at some point in their career. Veterinary professionals are at increased risk for death by suicide compared to the general public. Unfortunately, we are all too aware of this devastating fact. Like many of you, members of our team have lost… Continue Reading
Pet Memory Box Now Available!
We have exciting news! Our long-awaited new product, the ClayPaws Pet Memory Box, is now available exclusively through Veterinary Wisdom! You can learn more about our Pet Memory Boxes on our website, but we’d love to tell you where the idea for these boxes came from. A baked ClayPaws print is a linking object. A baked ClayPaws print is meant to be touched and held. Many pet parents tell us that they keep their ClayPaws prints in their purse, car, or even under their pillow in order to feel close to their beloved pet. They do this because ClayPaws prints… Continue Reading