Pet hospice is everywhere: What you need to know
episodePreviously titled “The rise of pet hospice means more choices, better goodbyes” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 6, 2026
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What is pet hospice and how has it expanded in recent years?
Most people are familiar with hospice. It's a compassionate, holistic approach to caring for someone who's terminally ill, who has no chance of recovery. But did you know there's also hospice for our furry loved ones? Well, not exactly a new trend. The availability of pet hospice care and end-of-life options dramatically expanded in recent years, giving families greater control over how their loved ones' last days are spent.
Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, July 29th, 2026. Joining me to talk about this shift in end-of-life care for the animals in our lives is Dr. Becky Frank, a veterinarian with Lab of Love, a nationwide pet hospice organization. Thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Frank. I'm happy to be here.
Glad to talk about my passion and my work.
When did pet hospice begin and how did Lap of Love grow?
It's not often that we hear the words hospice and pet in the same sentence, but pet hospice as an available service has become much more mainstream in recent years. What is it? What isn't it? And how long has it been around?
Well, Pet Hospice started probably in the late 90s, but our organization started around 2008 with two doctors in Tampa who saw a need for this end-of-life care. And they kind of went out on a limb and started this company, which in turn exploded. They had so many calls that they had to start hiring other doctors to do this. And they didn't want to just do in-home euthanasia, but also hospice. And a lot of hospice in pet medicine is a lot of guiding. So in human medicine, you can only enter hospice if you are terminal, you're likely to die within the next six months. And many people don't actually enter hospice until the final weeks of their life. In pet hospice, it's a little bit more fluid. We have a lot of conversations where
you've gotten this diagnosis of cancer, congestive heart failure, et cetera, and then you don't know what to do. You know your pet is going to die, but you're not at that step of euthanasia yet. So you want to focus on comfort care. Just like in human medicine, you want to make the best of of those last days. So we have that very common goal of keeping pets comfortable throughout that terminal diagnosis. What isn't is really invasive care. We're not going to be putting IVs and feeding tubes and everything else with your pet. We are going to do our best to keep them comfortable until euthanasia usually occurs.
How does pet hospice differ from human hospice in eligibility and goals?
When you're advising families about whether or not to engage hospice care for their pets, what kinds of issues should they consider? Are there some breeds, some illnesses, some temperaments that are better suited to hospice care than others? And then how do quality of life considerations play into the decision?
A lot of that goes towards, A, is my pet going to be amenable to me doing things with them? Both my dogs, really easy to do stuff with them. My cats, not so much. There's very much a give and take with knowing the personality of your pet and what they're going to allow you to do to keep them comfortable. And then the flip side to that is what is the disease process? I tell families all the time, there's three things I don't love to wait on. Breathing, heart, hemangiosarcoma, simply because when they decline, it can happen really, really fast. And it usually ends up being an emergency. So saying goodbye a little bit sooner and maybe shortening that hospice process a little bit is usually in the best interest of that pet, even if it's tough for us.
All of us here on the podcast team at USA Today, we're all pet owners. So we each know personally how difficult it is to even consider the passing of our pets. How important is planning here, though? Many people might think, why not wait until I really have to?
It really depends on your goals at end-of-life care. A lot of people don't want to be in a situation where it's an emergency. When it becomes an emergency, that's when true suffering is happening. You know, your dog, your cat doesn't wake up in the morning going, well, I have congestive heart failure and I need to take it easy.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is pet hospice and how has it expanded in recent years?
0:07–1:08
2
When did pet hospice begin and how did Lap of Love grow?
1:08–3:19
3
How does pet hospice differ from human hospice in eligibility and goals?
3:19–5:24
4
What factors should families consider when choosing hospice for their pet?
5:24–9:41
5
How can owners recognize pain or declining quality of life in pets?
9:41–14:46