Looking After the People Who Look After the Animals: Supporting Grieving Pet Owners, While Looking After Yourself Too

Supporting veterinary teams as much as their clients, with practical tools for difficult conversations and for looking after their own wellbeing while doing this work.

Ann Harris spoke at The VET Expo 2026 at ICC Sydney on 9 September, presenting a practical session focused on the emotional weight veterinary teams can carry when supporting grieving pet owners.

The session explored simple, practical ways to support clients through the loss of a pet they love, stay steady when grief presents as anger or blame, and look after your own wellbeing so you’re not carrying every difficult conversation home.

Created for vets, vet nurses, practice managers, reception teams and animal care professionals, the session focused on building confidence in difficult conversations while recognising that the people who care for animals need support too.

Looking after the people who look after the animals.

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What the talk covered

☑️ Veterinary teams stand beside pet owners on some of the hardest days of their lives.

☑️ A client may be facing euthanasia or the shock of a diagnosis, or trying to leave the clinic after saying goodbye to a beloved pet

☑️ The right words, and a simple pathway to offer after a pet dies, can change how a client remembers that day.

☑️ Practical communication tools, and support options a clinic can offer grieving clients

☑️ The toll this work can take on vets, vet nurses and the whole team, and practical ways to look after yourself.

"Looking after grieving clients and looking after yourself go hand in hand."

Designed to support clients and your team

The talk shared simple tools, clear language, and an after-care resource clinics can offer when a client needs support beyond the clinic.

You can offer a compassionate next step.

That means your team can feel more confident in difficult conversations, while knowing clients have somewhere to turn after they leave the clinic.

The 6-Step Pet Loss Support Pathway

As part of this work, Ann has created a free pet loss support pathway that clinics can share with grieving clients.

This pathway is designed to support pet owners after loss, while also helping veterinary teams feel that they have offered meaningful care beyond the appointment.

The 6-Step Pet Loss Support Pathway, free for your clients and free for your clinic.

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About Ann Harris

Ann Harris is a Certified Grief Educator, trained under world-renowned grief expert David Kessler, and the author of PerPETual Love: Forever In Your Heart. With more than 35 years working alongside animals and the people who love them, she understands how deeply pet loss is felt, and the weight veterinary teams carry when they walk clients through it.

Her work is designed to complement the care your clinic already provides: practical, grounded, and always within scope.

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Learn More about Ann

Ann at The VET Expo Sydney

Watch highlights from Ann's presentation at The VET Expo, Sydney, September 2026.

Invite Ann to speak

Ann speaks to clinics, conferences, universities and vet nursing students on both sides of pet loss: supporting grieving clients, and looking after yourself in this work. In person or online.

Enquire about a talk

Please Note

Ann Harris is a Certified Grief Educator, not a counsellor or psychologist.
PerPETual Love provides education and support, not counselling, therapy or clinical care.

💜 For Pet Owners