Pet Therapy Makes a Difference

Imagine this. You’re ill and in the hospital. You’ve left your beloved pet in the care of family and friends. You don’t know if you’ll make it out of the hospital, but you know that seeing your animal friend would help you feel better about things.

Dee (Racing Name: Cee Bar Denise)

Or, you’re someone who has always loved animals and you’re alone in a nursing home – maybe with visitors, maybe without. Then again, maybe you’re fighting an illness but you can’t see past today or you’re literally on death’s door, receiving hospice care.

Oscar (Racing name: Answer to Chevy)

Now imagine a program that allows you to have your own pets or registered pet therapy pets visit you. How much better do you think that will make you feel?

If you’re a pet lover – usually that will make you feel much, much better.

There are pet programs throughout North America, but some facilities still fight them, thinking that they don’t have a place in helping heal someone or ease someone’s pain. But anyone who has known the love of a pet can argue differently.

Rox - our Golden

Researchers in Boston looked into how pet therapy can help patients and they found that this type of therapy doesn’t cost a lot of money but it can reap big rewards.

Published in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice , the study looked at 59 patients who were in a hospital. Using various testing methods, the researchers found that patients who participated in a pet therapy program had less pain, lower breathing rates, better moods, and felt that they had more energy.

So if someone you love is ill and missing his or her pet, why not check into if you can bring the pet or have a pet from a therapy program pay a visit. It can’t hurt.

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Images: Marijke Vroomen-Durning

Dogs loved and never forgotten