Psychology

Vets in mourning

It’s their love of animals that lead veterinarians to their profession. But one of their main responsibilities when they begin their practice is to euthanize healthy dogs and cats. “It’s extremely difficult for them. They’ve been trained to help heal sick animals but, instead, they must often help them die,” explains clinician Anne-Marie Lamothe.

Ms Lamothe just submitted her doctoral thesis on bereavement among veterinarians — a subject poorly understood and completely ignored in the scientific literature — at the Université de Montréal’s Department of Psychology. “Many studies have been done on bereavement following the death of a loved pet, but nothing, to our knowledge, on the emotional experience of veterinarians,” explains Ms Lamothe who, among other things, works with teenage and adult drug addicts in Mascouche, north of Montreal. The emotional state of veterinarians confronted with the death of animals can be devastating. Among some forty “Dr. Doolittles” who participated directly or indirectly in Ms Lamothe’s research, many burst into tears during the interview, and four even admitted that they had thought about suicide during the first years of their practice.

Are veterinarians susceptible to depression? “We don’t have any statistics on this question in Quebec. But in the United States, we know that veterinarians are more vulnerable to burn-out, suicide and depression than the general population,” says Ms Lamothe. For her research, she selected 30 Quebec veterinarians whose practice focuses on domestic animals. Each 90 to 120-minute interview consisted of 94 questions including some very open-ended ones, such as: “How do you feel after a difficult case of euthanasia?” In the content analysis, positive emotions associated with veterinary practice (pride in their expertise or feeling appreciated) were taken into consideration as much as troubling emotions (guilt, sadness, helplessness).

Even though the doctorate student never uttered the word ‘bereavement,’ it was evident that this is what best described the experience of these professionals. “Veterinarians have emotional reactions that are similar to the bereavement process that occurs when we lose a loved one,” writes Ms Lamothe in her thesis conclusion. “Veterinary bereavement is not usually caused by the death of a specific animal, but rather, by many deaths that affect a veterinarian’s emotional stability.”

Various scenarios cause veterinary bereavement, but clearly the most disturbing is having to take life for unjustified reasons. For instance, people do not hesitate to put their dogs to sleep because their fur colour doesn’t quite match the new living room set! Fortunately, euthanasia techniques have become somewhat more ‘humanitarian’ in recent years. A seasoned veterinarian admitted that he has never forgotten his first euthanasia, by intracardiac injection. “It was very violent. Cats would howl. My first euthanasia was a terrible experience,” he confided. The first one is usually the most traumatic because young veterinarians realize in horror that they will be asked to perform more than their share of euthanasias. “Those at the beginning of their careers are often asked to perform euthanasia, and they’re just not prepared for this,” explains Ms Lamothe.

The reality is that veterinarians spend a lot more time with human beings than animals. Men and women, not to mention entire families, who arrive with an injured or sick animal in their arms are usually very distraught. By default, veterinarians become self-taught therapists so to speak. According to Ms Lamothe, veterinarian training has some shortcomings. “Veterinarians must take a psychology course to learn how to interact with their clients. But it is doubtful that one course in five years is really enough.”