CAETA

Dr. Kathleen Cooney has been practicing advanced end-of-life care since 2006. In 2017, she founded the Companion Animal Euthanasia Training Academy (CAETA) and is now the Senior Director of Medical Education, plus she has owned 3 end-of-life businesses. Dr. Cooney is well-known for her work in companion animal euthanasia and has authored two books on the subject along with numerous articles and book chapters. She has collaborated in end-of-life training for the AVMA, AAHA, NAVC, IAAHPC, and the Fear Free Program, plus is a past-president and board member of the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care. Dr. Cooney is a strong advocate for best practices in all aspects of end-of-life care and speaks nationally and internationally on such topics. She is Board Certified in animal welfare, and is Affiliate Faculty at Colorado State University where she teaches end-of-life topics and animal welfare. She loves all things old and gray.

Celine Leheurteux, DVM A graduate of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Montreal in 1999, and in the practice of small animals since then. Like many veterinarians, she had to euthanized thousands of animals. Having suffered from the lack of training in euthanasia, she is committed to share her knowledge and clinical experience with veterinary teams to improve the experience of euthanasia for everyone involved in the process. In the last 5 years, she has attended international veterinary conferences and is on a mission to share the best of what she has learned in lectures on end-of-life and communication and in the clinic. She is also completed the CAETA training in 2019 given by Dr Kathy Cooney, the KOL in veterinary end-of-life. Her focus is on how to structure the customer approach and promote the veterinary team wellbeing. Training teams on how to map the euthanasia experience, properly sedate patients, use safer alternate routes of providing medication and teach how to express empathy and deliver bag news. All potential sources of stress for families and veterinary teams.