Pet Cremation & Celebrating Your Pet's Life
In this episode of ER VET, Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT talks to Dr. Mary Gardner, hospice veterinarian, about quality of life, euthanasia and what you need to know about pet cremation. Cremation isn't a topic we talk about often, but you want to tune into to learn about how to best celebrate and honor your pet's life and what the options are with your pet's body.
BIO:
Dr. Mary Gardner loves a gray muzzle! She is a small animal veterinarian, speaker, consultant, author and inventor. But Veterinary Medicine was not her first career choice. After graduating from the University of Miami, she began working for an enterprise wide retail order management software company where she was a software designer and focused on order management/fulfillment, inventory management and forecasting, drop ship management, cross-channel fulfillment and supply chain management.
However, in a twist of fate, she decided to return to school to pursue her doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Gardner graduated from the University of Florida in 2008 and began working at a general practice in South Florida. In 2010, she left general practice and co-founded Lap of Love International with Dr. Dani McVety.
Bringing those 10 years of software experience into the veterinary industry, Dr. Gardner led the development of Lap of Love's proprietary practice management software (Sunshine), which is specific for veterinary hospice and euthanasia services. In 2013 she developed The Pet Hospice Journal, an online interactive Quality of Life Assessment program, which is free to the public.
She is responsible for all internet and social media marketing as well as developing, constructing and supporting company-wide enterprise applications. When not working, Dr. Gardner is passionate about her furry brood of 2 dogs and 3 cats - all in their senior and geriatric stages.
Dr. Gardner writes and speaks for professional and lay audiences on all aspects of end of life care, including Veterinary Hospice and Euthanasia. She is also fluent in internet & social media marketing, search engine optimization and a variety of other topics. She has spoken at NAVC, AVMA, WVC, State VMA's, IAAHPC, professional sales meetings, veterinary schools and animal hospitals around the country. She was also honored with presenting the keynote address to the graduating Class of 2014 Oregon State Veterinary Medicine students.