Season 1, Episode 11 - All Dogs Go To Heaven

In this episode we talk with Dr. Faith Banks, a veterinarian who specializes in animal hospice care. She started her own mobile service in Toronto, providing in-home care and euthanasia for geriatric pets. Dr. Banks emphasizes the importance of palliative care for pets, ensuring they receive pain management and other necessary medications. She has developed a quality of life scale to help pet owners assess their pet's well-being. Dr. Banks believes in choosing euthanasia earlier rather than later to prevent unnecessary suffering. She also provides support for pet owners experiencing grief and loss. In this conversation, Faith Banks, a veterinarian specializing in hospice and end-of-life care for pets, discusses the importance of compassionate and supportive care for both pets and their owners during the end-of-life journey. She emphasizes the need for understanding and empathy in the veterinary profession and highlights the unique challenges that veterinarians face when dealing with pet loss. Faith also explains the process of aquamation, a water-based cremation method, and the various memorial options available for pet owners.

About
Dr. Faith Banks graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph in 1996, and has been practicing veterinary medicine in Toronto, Ontario ever since. She opened Toronto’s first mobile veterinary hospice service in 2012 which now includes a team of 7 veterinarians and 11 hospice care coordinators.
She is amongst the first group of veterinarians to be named as a Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Veterinarian (CHPV) through the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care. She has written two chapters in a textbook called "Treatment and Care of the Geriatric Veterinary Patient." She is a guest lecturer at the Ontario Veterinary College for the Art of Veterinary Medicine course on animal euthanasia. She has completed the Pet Loss and Grief Companioning Certification course through Two Hearts Pet Loss Center, in addition to being certified as a Pet Loss Counsellor through the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement.
Two years ago, she opened Toronto’s first pet water cremation service to provide families with an eco-friendly, personalized aftercare option for their beloved pets.
Her goal in providing compassionate in-home palliative, hospice, and end-of-life care is to allow people to strengthen and lengthen the bond they share with their much loved pet.
When not working, Dr. Banks enjoys photography, travelling, reading, cottaging, collecting vintage flea powder tins and spending time with her friends and family. She shares her home with her husband, 3 children, and 3 Bernese Mountain Dogs.

You can find Faith at:

https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.faithbanks...

https://mmvhs.ca/

https://mmvhs.ca/aftercare/

https://mmvhs.ca/end-of-life-pre-plan...

  / hospicevet