Providing care for both ends of the leash

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Being a pet owner can be such a rewarding experience for people. However, with owning a pet comes with a lot of responsibility, especially when it comes to financial responsibility. Unexpected life events for clients, or patients, can create a financial burden that can fester to the point where clients can no longer afford to give their animals the care or food that they need. Seeing a need to help provide support to both the client and patient, Rand Wachsstock, DVM, created the Compassion Animal Project.

On this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, host Adam Christman and guest Wachsstock discuss all the work that the Compassion Animal Project, how it was created, and how veterinary professionals can get involved

Below is a partial transcript

Rand Wachsstock, DVM: When I owned my own referral center, I initiated this program to increase the morale of my own staff. Because all too often we were euthanizing pets and the estimation is up to two-thirds of pets that are euthanized, are due to financial constraints. And there we were, euthanizing pets that we had the ability to treat. We had the skills, everything was right in front of us the people just didn't have the money. That was just heart wrenching and it really weighed heavily on us.

And so now being able to actually do the work, we find that the morale in hospitals that we deal with is just skyrocketing, that people feel great that they're able to reunite these pets with their owners, they're able to use the skills that they were trained to have. They remember why they got into this profession to begin with. And hopefully, we put a dent into the mental health struggles, the compassion fatigue that we see in our profession and right now, there's quite an exodus from our profession, because of the stresses involved, and hopefully this will make a small progress in alleviating some of those stresses.