BluePearl Specialty and Emergency Pet Hospital today announced it has acquired PetHospice, a California-based end-of-life services company focused on telehealth and education as well as in-home care for pets, their owners, and veterinarians. The company name will transition to BluePearl Pet Hospice. Through this acquisition, BluePearl—a leading provider of specialty and emergency veterinary care with more 95 practices across the U.S.—will offer in-home hospice, palliative care, and euthanasia for pets in San Francisco, Marin, Napa, and Sonoma California counties.
In addition to in-home end-of-life services for pets, BluePearl Pet Hospice offers nationwide telehealth services, professional grief counseling, free online education, and community support. As a tertiary care provider of essential veterinary services, treating more than one million critically ill and injured pets each year, BluePearl aims to expand its scope of veterinary services to provide a more complete system of care to veterinarians, owners, and their pets as the end of life nears.
“This marks a huge shift for the end-of-life landscape in veterinary medicine, and for us at PetHospice. In addition to launching the first hospice and palliative care service integrated within a specialty hospital setting, we were also the first to launch a nationwide telehealth platform dedicated to quality of life and end-of-life support,” stated Shea Cox, Founder and CEO of PetHospice. “By joining the BluePearl family, our team will be better positioned to fulfill our mission of making every pet’s end-of-life journey as meaningful as the life they’ve lived, and we will lead the expansion of these vital services nationwide. My hope for the future is that we’ll continue to broaden the scope of end-of-life services and provide integrative care to families across the U.S.”
BluePearl plans to expand in-home end-of-life services to markets nationwide. Through BluePearl Pet Hospice, support for pets is available from the moment a terminal diagnosis is made or a decline in quality of life is seen, and it continues beyond pet loss to include pet owner grief support. Each BluePearl Pet Hospice client is assigned a dedicated hospice doctor, nurse, care coordinator, and pet loss specialist who assists in navigating the complex end-of-life process.
“Now more than ever, the human-animal bond plays an integral part in pet owners’ lives. Understanding this, BluePearl Pet Hospice focuses not only on end-of-life services for the pet, but also on the human component of care,” remarked Darryl Shaw, CEO and Co-founder of BluePearl. “Along with our mission to provide remarkable care to pets, our hospitals seek to improve pets’ quality of life as end of life nears—whether this mean days, months, or years. With BluePearl Pet Hospice support throughout the end-of-life process, pet owners can spend less time worrying and more time enjoying the time that remains.”