Taking care of sick and terminally ill family members takes a toll on the caregiver, but until recently, the extensive research on the subject only applied to taking care of human family members. Now, the same burden has been documented for people taking care of ill pets in the study “Caregiver burden in owners of a sick companion animal: a cross-sectional observational study”.
This research investigating the strain on caregivers was conducted by Mary Beth Spitznagel, a professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State University, along with several collaborators. Spitznagel was inspired by her own experiences caring for her dog Allo, who was suffering from serious health issues. She realized that she herself was suffering in the same way that people caring for human family members do.
via Whisker Therapy