Dr. Anya Yushchenko: End Of Life Care| E44

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Pet Care Report podcast by PetSummits. Here's your natural dog healthcare host, Alora McKinley. Well, g'day guys. It's nice to have you joining me again for another episode. Today, I'm chatting to Dr. Yushchenko, a veterinarian with a lifelong passion for animals and medicine

[00:00:43] who has always embraced homemade diets and natural remedies for pets. She quickly transitioned to holistic veterinary practice after moving to Canada and becoming re-certified in 2007. Currently based in Hawaii, Dr. Yushchenko runs her veterinary practice, Path of Bliss Hawaii, offering holistic consultations, herbal and homeopathic treatments, and animal communication.

[00:01:09] Hi, Dr. Yushchenko. Thanks for joining me on the podcast. Hi, Laura. It's a pleasure to be here. Now, animal communication. Can you just tell us how you got started in that? Is this something you've always been interested in?

[00:01:20] You know, it's something that I remember the first time I've heard about it. It was maybe about 10 or 15 years ago. A friend of mine had a horse and she said she invited an animal communicator to speak

[00:01:30] to her horse to find out how the situation was in the barn. And I thought it was a scam, you know? I was like, for sure, you know? Like, I think for sure somebody is just ripping you off, you know? Just telling your stories is like sound truthful.

[00:01:44] But my friend said, no, there's no way she would have known what she said, you know? She provided such detailed information. And I remember just stuck on the back of my head, but I never thought I would be the one doing it ever.

[00:01:57] You know, I'm such a down to earth, more physical kind of person, you know? Like that seems just a little out of reach, you know? That you can read animals' minds for God's sakes. You know, who can do that?

[00:02:08] And then I started working myself with the psychic healers. And it blew out of my mind because the people were able to read my body like they're living in it. Like they knew more about me than I was aware of myself.

[00:02:24] And so I was opening up to more possibilities. I said, well, it's possible, you know? And then one day I was doing a massage on the dog. And all of a sudden I started getting these images of this dog when she was a puppy.

[00:02:37] And I was like, whoa, what was that? You know, this is so unusual, you know? But I think the key is that I was being really still. When I was doing massage on the dog, I had to ground myself and be really

[00:02:49] comfortable and really quiet and really still. And when you're still, you start getting that information. So the key first is get yourself in the most relaxed, comfortable position possible. The second one is calm down your thoughts and not be the thinking.

[00:03:04] So kind of clear space where information can come in. And the three is when information does come in, trust it. Because it seems so bizarre. So at first you want to just dismiss it. So I just imagine that, you know, it just didn't happen. Doesn't make any sense.

[00:03:18] You know, it's too weird. But what I did, you know, I memorized the information that I was getting from the dog and I told the owners about it because I didn't know enough of the dog to confirm whether it was true or not.

[00:03:31] But when I told the owner what I was seeing, she confirmed every single image or emotion that was going through this dog mind that she was communicating with me. And I said, oh my God, this is something else. You know, this is just open the door.

[00:03:46] After that, I just couldn't stop listening. So on the same family, I'm working on the second dog. And she's like this little scruffy little terrier they found on the side of the road. And she's telling me she's a princess.

[00:03:58] You know, she's just like, oh, princess, like she wants golden cushion and she wants this and that. And she wants to talk about food. You know, she gave me a list of food that she likes.

[00:04:06] And I still remember it was green beans, was beef, it was omelets and vanilla ice cream. I'm like, what on earth? You know, and then I finished the session and I tell the owner, hey, what about green beans? She says, oh, she just had them for breakfast.

[00:04:21] I'm like, what about beef? What's her favorite meat? What about the omelet? Or we make it for for Sunday breakfast. And she really loved it. I was like, but vanilla ice cream. And the owner says, oh, I used to have ice cream shop in tourist area

[00:04:35] in Waikiki and she would come with me and always share this ice cream together. I'm like, get me out of here. This is just too strange, too weird. But at the same time, it was really interesting.

[00:04:44] So I just kept on listening and I kept on listening, kept on listening. And the more you listen, the stronger the voice going to get. So everybody can do that. Yeah, we're absolutely all capital world psychic. We're just not trained to use this part of us.

[00:04:58] We kind of shut down our intuitive voice that says, oh, don't take the road. Take this road. You know, don't do this. Don't take this job. Take that job. You know, we're just not trained to think with our intellectual brain, not with our intuitive brain.

[00:05:12] You know, and I think if we were to tune that intuitive, our life would be better and we could serve our pets better because they are in the intuitive brain. You know, they are going with their emotions. Yeah, that's amazing.

[00:05:22] And you've done lots of practice in this now. And now you specialize in animal communication in terms of end of life care for animals. And we're going to be talking about dogs specifically. Can you explain how it benefits dogs, especially during that end of life stage?

[00:05:37] So I found that, you know, at any stages of life, know what your pet is thinking is so valuable. It's so liberating. It's so important and it's such a room for connection there. So just bringing it in at any stage of your dog's life,

[00:05:54] I highly recommend it because it will just open your mind to your own life. First of all, because they love you unconditionally, care for you so much. It would relieve so much of the pressure of the pet owner that thinks,

[00:06:05] oh, I'm not doing enough or I'm not good enough failing my pet. I should be doing this and that. And the pets are just just relax that I'm all right, you know, just take it easy. So for the end of life, it's such a difficult time,

[00:06:20] you know, in the pet owners life, because for some reason in our Western world, we decided that we are the one making decision when the pet is going to go. And that decision just tortures people, you know, it just it just so much pressure,

[00:06:35] you know, am I doing it too early? Am I doing it too late? We're kind of playing gods here, you know, and what I'm doing is bringing the power back to the animals and saying, hey, you know, your pet wants to go on their own term.

[00:06:47] They don't need you planning for it. They don't need your schedule for it. They don't need you stressing about it. It's a normal part of life. And animals have so much more acceptance of dying than we do, you know, in our societies, we're scared of death.

[00:07:03] The death is hidden. You know, we know nothing about it. And the death perceived as a complete failure. So if somebody dies or something dies, it's it's a disaster to be avoided at all costs. So that's how we perceive the death in the Western society and Western medicine.

[00:07:18] You know, the hospital is trying so hard to save, you know, pets and people make them live as long as they need to. That's not what your pets want. They don't. They neither want heroic measures trying to save their life

[00:07:31] unnecessarily, you know, they pay an enormous amount of money doing the surgery when they're like really sick and advanced. That might or might not help. They don't want that. And they don't necessarily want to be put down before they actually ready to go.

[00:07:44] So given that insight to the pet owners, I think this alleviates so much pressure. And a lot of the time it. Corresponds with what the owners are feeling themselves intuitively. So they say, oh, you know, it doesn't feel like a right time.

[00:07:57] And everybody's telling me I have to put her down. Doesn't you know, doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good because it's not the right time, no matter what everybody else is saying. You know, it's our perception of all we have to avoid pain or discomfort,

[00:08:11] or we have to avoid debilitation at any cost. Well, the pet says, you know, I'm OK being the way I am, and I would rather be still alive as is than to death. So have you found in your your communications that this kind of reassurance to owners

[00:08:28] really helps the grieving process? Absolutely. It just it's just you know, lift the burden off from, you know, beating yourself up for years that you failed your pet to feeling over just on this journey together. And my pet has an extra left anywhere. You know, they're still here.

[00:08:46] You know, the fact that you can connect with them even after they transition gives you that sense of relief. It's like, oh, nothing, nothing bad happened. Nothing wrong happened. You know, a lot of the time they come back as butterflies or or birds.

[00:09:00] So they just, you know, they just give you different signs. Oh, look, I'm still there. You know, or they might even come back, you know, as another animal in your life. Not always, but sometimes they do just seeing that the death is not the end.

[00:09:12] It's just a stepping stone. You're transitioning because the energy is never, you know, the energy is never disappearing, just changing forms. So I'm changing form from being this puppy to being this energy. There's going to be something else. You know, I've seen some animals that just said

[00:09:27] they're ready to move on the human life. You know, they like they've gained enough wisdom. They're done with this dog life. They want to be like person or they've been a person and now they have this animal experience. And just there's so much to it.

[00:09:38] Wow. Have you seen, are there some signs or behaviors that dogs maybe exhibit when they're nearing the end that owners can better interpret and understand? I find what usually happens with dogs at the end of life, they start they start withdrawing. So when your energy diminishing,

[00:09:57] when you know, when you're nearing the end of life, you don't have enough resources to engage in active play or show a lot of emotion. So they start withdrawing and it's normal and natural. And it's good to give them space.

[00:10:12] You know, sometimes the owners like to fuss around, you know, the down pedal and this and that and that. And just sometimes just leaving them alone is all they need and having respectful communication at the distance, maybe time together, but not so much in their face.

[00:10:25] You know, I think that would be really helpful. Just give them a little bit more of their own perspective, you know, and they just step back because we're put, you know, we're so worried about them dying. We're putting all our words on their body while they kind of

[00:10:37] actually going through normal process. And I find a good sign for the pet owners to know the animal is ready to go is when they stop eating. So that's a key. You know, if your pet is still eating, no matter how sick he might look,

[00:10:52] they still want to go. They still want to live. If your pet stops eating, they're telling you, you know what? Soon I'm preparing to departure, but it still might take weeks and weeks. So just be patient with it and know that the all

[00:11:06] these are all parts of the natural process like the body has to die some way. You know, if you're constantly eating until the last day, it's the body just not going to shut down. You know, you got to give it time to shut down.

[00:11:17] So just knowing the physiology of death and dying is really important. You know, and then what to expect. And the very last stage is if you say, for example, going through the natural death at home all the way through,

[00:11:28] you need to know what to expect in the really final stages when they go through this last agonizing breath. And then, you know, it looks it looks traumatic for the owners. Well, you know, it is the way the body is just going to discharge itself.

[00:11:41] You know, a lot of the pets, they howl or the whole body goes into the studs and it's quantic studs when they like extend their their front legs and back legs. And you think, oh, my God, they're suffering.

[00:11:51] But this is just how the body is going to transition from life to death. Now, this is not like a bad thing. So just being prepared helps it to be aware and not panic. I can imagine this would be particularly hard

[00:12:04] maybe if a dog was younger, because we all think of death. You know, we grow old or animals grow up and then they pass away. How have you helped maybe owners of a younger dog with their transition? Well, with younger dogs, usually something traumatic, right?

[00:12:20] Because they're not they're usually not dying from from natural, you know, from natural causes. Usually something happened with younger dogs. It's usually my work been to help the owners to accept things as they are. So the accidents, you know, the accidents and never accidents.

[00:12:37] There's there's a deeper meaning to it. You know, you forgot to close the gate. Your dog ran out, gets hit by a car. Who how do you live with that? Right. So like tuning in into the dog spirit, telling the owners

[00:12:49] why it happened and, you know, where the dog is at right now is really helpful. It just it just, you know, it gives you that gives you that piece. You know, the feeling of peace that you haven't done anything wrong. There's a bigger force in play.

[00:13:02] The things we're lying in the way we need to lie. Just I think we're like as humans like to control everything. Well, you know, the universe is much more powerful than we are. So surrender and it is like the biggest lesson they can have in our life.

[00:13:14] So whatever happened to your pet, even for example, you've done these in Asia, if you like, early, come to terms with it. You see, you can go back and change it. You've done the surgery for your dog that they died from, you know,

[00:13:27] just just let go of the guilt feeling. You cannot go back to the past and change it. There's something else live in play that you could not predict that you couldn't, you know, you've done the best you could at the time.

[00:13:38] Just letting go and relaxing and knowing that, you know, we're not like we're not holding all the strings. We're just we're just like a part of the bigger web and just allow ourselves to to be pulled in these different things. Maybe find empowerment.

[00:13:52] So, for example, if you have a young dog die from cancer, take on this journey, like educate people how to prevent cancer. You know, like, you know, start the blog, you know, like the search put in this information out there, go rescue a dog.

[00:14:06] Like what's what's the beauty in it? Just find something beautiful and bring it on. You know, that that will help you go and then we'll make your pet happy, the one that transition because they'll know like, oh, you're not stuck in great.

[00:14:17] The nothing the past one year is to be sad and angry and beating yourself up. It just they just never required. They just never, never needed, you know, from from the past. They just they thrive when we're happy. They thrive on the positive emotions.

[00:14:36] They remind us that comes quite often at the end of life from the past. It's like, hey, you're going to die too. Why why are you wasting your time? Now your life is not like endless in this, you know, in this body, like enjoy it.

[00:14:49] It's like we're just spending so much time worrying, you know, obsessing over things like trying to fix things. Well, like we're here to experience joy. And that's animals are teachers. They show us how unconditionally even like in the most

[00:15:02] depilitated state, they'll still look at you the way of their tail. And they still find the biggest presence as they are, no matter what. Well, we as humans, we want things to be perfect in order to be happy.

[00:15:14] Just so reassuring, like even as an owner that's lost a dog, if someone had told me that, you know, that that really helped me grieving. So that must be really lovely that you can tell owners that.

[00:15:25] Absolutely. And as a person that suffered terribly from the loss of my own pet, you know, as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult, you know, I was terrified of death myself. Like, remember first time I found out I'm going to die.

[00:15:38] I think the world just ended right then. I was like, how is it possible it's going to keep on going when I'm not here? It just blew out of my mind. Whenever my pets died, you know, some from traumatic things,

[00:15:47] some from sudden illness like I would just remember when my dog passed away. I was 20. I would not let myself smile for a year. I said, I'm not going to experience any joy for a year because my dog passed and I must have done something wrong.

[00:16:01] You know, that guilt is like somehow. Well, maybe I didn't take her to that early enough or maybe I didn't feed her the right foods. Like something I must have done wrong for the dog to die. And I must be a terrible person.

[00:16:10] You know, that's how I used to feel. So being able to transform it and flip it backwards and say, oh, actually, everything was OK. And that was the time for the pet to go. And I did my very best I could.

[00:16:23] And like telling the owners that they just it just lighten the load so you can keep on going forward. You know, like imagine how many bags of baggage we're carrying with us. You know, always back here. I did something wrong there. You know, I failed.

[00:16:34] But it's like we're carrying this massive load of guilt and shame with us. They can just let go. It will shine much brighter and will bring more good to the world and to the animals. Are there any experiences that you can share with our listeners

[00:16:47] of how you've maybe communicated with an animal and helped the owner? Absolutely. That's my favorite story about Benji. Maybe I'll even send you guys some pictures to illustrate because it's a remarkable story.

[00:16:59] So I get a call from the owner and she says, oh, her dog is getting old. You know, maybe it's time she wants to have this consultation about the end of life transition because she doesn't know how to decide.

[00:17:09] So I get there and Benji is a 15 year old Maltese, you know, very cute, very perky. And we start talking, you know, to the owner. I started, you know, he wouldn't let me touch him. He's just a little grouchy little guy, you know,

[00:17:22] like couldn't put my hands on him to even do an exam. But I said, OK, I'm just going to listen to you. And Benji says that he does not want to die at all. That he wants to go travel,

[00:17:33] that he's been waiting to travel for a long time and he wants to go to California and he wants to go to Europe. He's very specific and he wants to smell flowers in grandma's garden. And he has all this very specific details what he needs to do.

[00:17:46] So I'll tell the owner this. And then we switch with which kind of appointment from the dog to the owner that I spent two hours with the owner doing the same psychic communication, but for her specifically and showing him where she is stuck in her life

[00:18:01] and where she's given up on her life. So the bigger picture is like she kind of shut down her dreams because something didn't work out. She said they're never going to work out. That's the end of it. She'd given up on her life.

[00:18:12] She started neglecting her own food, started feeding like less nutritious food to Benji. And she just had no no inspiration, no things to look forward to. So she's given up on herself and she's given up on Benji. She thought he's ready to die.

[00:18:28] In fact, she already dug a grave for him. Like when I got there, there was a grave they got in the yard for him. That's how ready she was. For him to go. So we have this session, you know, after the session,

[00:18:39] the owner comes out to her front porch, she takes her clothes off and she says, that's how I used to feel. She just like, you know, she just completely revamped, you know, she's like full of energy, like she's such a bright, positive person.

[00:18:51] So three months later, they come in, they get health certificate to travel to California. So then I get this picture. So Benji, he's going sailing in the ocean around California coast. And then this summer they go into they go into Europe.

[00:19:07] So that's you know, that's almost a year after, you know, his grave been dug out. That's crazy. You know, he's full of energy. The owner, you know, she she, you know, did complete check in her life said, hell no, I still have things to do.

[00:19:21] I still have life to live. You know, she's full of ideas and going to start a new project and she's moving to different place. So that's been like transformative. That's really interesting to see how much the owner, yeah, how much the owner impacted the dog. Absolutely.

[00:19:36] I mean, we're you know, we're intertwined with our pets. Whatever we feel in their feeling, you know, we're down there, down, we're up there, up. It's like they've taken the energy, they're natural healers. So whatever you're feeling, they're going to absorb it,

[00:19:49] trying to help you out, but it's going to hit them harder. And animal communication, is this something that you have to do physically or is it something that you can do remotely? If that makes sense. It can be done remotely. You know, it's unbelievable.

[00:20:02] It's like I don't even need to see like a picture. I mean, picture helps to focus, but it doesn't need to be a picture. Like if you tell me like the pet you're thinking of, I can start seeing that pet.

[00:20:13] I find actually work better remotely because then I'm not so much affected by the energy of the owner when you're like really close to the person, sometimes their own energy is just a little too powerful. Just being on the screen, it just gives me all the information

[00:20:26] I need without me being sucked into the feelings of the owner, because there's an empath. You know, you're able to do it because you can feel what other people or animals are feeling. So if you have like a very dysregulated owner,

[00:20:38] sometimes it's really hard to like keep your balance, you know, during the session. So doing it remotely helps with that, because then you can just channel exactly what you need to say without having necessarily part of that experience.

[00:20:51] So you kind of need to stay a little detached, you know, otherwise. It's an interesting thing because you do get, you know, you do get affected by those feelings. You know, if you have a session like afterwards, you need to do like

[00:21:02] reground and clear and because you're feeling those energies, you know, you are in it. And like subconsciously, you kind of absorb and just like a pet, you start absorbing trying to take this load off the, you know, the owner's shoulders.

[00:21:16] And as a practitioner, you know, you start getting burned out. So just keeping the clear boundaries and clear and stuff out. It's really important in that kind of field. Do you find that sometimes owners contact you, but they're a little bit skeptical? Do you find that that happens?

[00:21:33] Yes, yes. What I would like to offer is that you pay at the end. OK, so like if it's a money guaranteed, you know, if you're not crying the first five minutes, I'm not doing my job. It's usually so like straight to the point

[00:21:48] and it's so precise and so accurate that they just, you know, they usually just grab to the chairs. You know, they just like how that happened, you know, just a couple of times I had the owners, they just did not. I mean, they just came for that stuff.

[00:22:02] They did not want that communication. So those are the ones. And in the past, they used to because I would see stuff. I'm like, this can help you. But they just baffle it. You know, they just say, I don't want it.

[00:22:12] And if the people don't want it, don't bring it up. You know, now I have a clear distinction. If we're doing, you know, the vet work, that's one thing for doing communication. Then you're here to receive, you know, you can't force this information if somebody is not ready.

[00:22:25] Usually the ones that do come, they're ready. What people are unprepared for is like, how much we're going to talk about their own issues and not their pet issues. The thing they're doing, the communication for the pet, but the pet says, I'm fine. Please take care of yourself.

[00:22:40] Like this probably, you need to do this and this and that. And nobody wants to do that. Like everybody just wants to, oh, what can I do for my pet? They say, no, you need to take care of this. You need to go this anxiety.

[00:22:50] You need to quit this job. You need to end this relationship or start this relationship so you feel good and the pet's problems will resolve. They'll be fine. Now back to end of life care. So beyond traditional veterinary care, which is obviously your background,

[00:23:07] what alternative or complimentary approaches have you found effective in supporting dogs during their end of life care journey? You know, there's a lot, you know, there's a lot. It's like, think about like caring for the age relative. Right? So you want to have like nutritious food.

[00:23:24] You want to have comfortable bedding, clean, you know, you have to, the cleaning is a big issue in the life if there's a loss of bowel movements or bladder, it's become like a really big thing. And animals actually not as fussy about as we are,

[00:23:38] you know, but for our own comfort, you know, keep their bedding clean. I find the acupuncture works miracles. You know, if you can get acupuncturists to come in and even learning the acupressure yourself, learn acupressure points can be really helpful in a good bonding time.

[00:23:54] But when you're, you know, in your pet, really what's really required is just spend a lot of quiet time together. Just sit in, just not stressing. And if the owner can start like letting go of attachment to this pet, you know, that helps them transition.

[00:24:12] Because if you're holding on tight to them and they know you need them so much, makes harder for them to go. They will drag their feet just so, you know, just so you have some company. So just reassure them that you're okay

[00:24:25] so they can go on their own terms. You know, I like that visual cord cutting exercise. So when you imagine there's like, you know, the symbolical cord between you and your pet and you like imagine or cut it. So you detach yourself from your pet

[00:24:40] because we're so like, we're, you know, we literally have a placenta in our pets. That's how close we are. So like cutting those cords so they can go on their own terms is really helpful. And really just looking for support for yourself. That's what I would recommend.

[00:24:55] Find support groups, go talk to people, talk to therapists, talk to your family. Like deal with your own grief so they can handle the experience. And there are not much required for the pet but a lot is needed for us to come to terms with it.

[00:25:10] So 90%, I would say focus on your own care and 10%. Just provide the needs for the pet. Don't obsess over the details. I have owners that, you know, they'll spend, you know, days and weeks pounding, okay, can I add another supplement or is the water okay?

[00:25:25] Or is the water bowl okay? It's like, it's like all this little thing. You can totally go down this rabbit hole. They just never stop, you know, they just go and it's not needed. It's small to just provide the basics. Take care of yourself.

[00:25:40] And when you're in a calm state, you're more likely to know what is actually needed than when you're like absolutely like spinning out of control, anxiety state where you can't sleep and you wake up and say, oh, maybe I need to do this.

[00:25:51] Like ground yourself, you know, use it as a, as a learning experience that what the life is really is. It's not like, you know, this pretty picture that it's stuck, you know, without change and it's constantly changing. You know, it's constantly changing.

[00:26:05] So accepting the change, accepting the transition. That's our lesson. I think you've summed it up really well, but just one last question. If what is one thing that our pet owners can take away from this episode? Let go of the guilt. Just one thing.

[00:26:21] If you can do one thing, just drop the guilt. Just forgive yourself. Just whatever you've done, whatever happened, focus, just ask the universe, say can I please forgive myself? And whenever the guilt comes back, just slap yourself, say, oh, no, I'm good. I'm good. It's not helping.

[00:26:36] The guilt is not helping. You're not gonna make right decisions when you feel guilty. Your pet is not mad at you no matter what you've done to them. They're extremely forgiven. And focusing on your own happiness is the best thing you can do for your pet's wellbeing.

[00:26:51] Lovely, I love that. So happy. Yeah, happy you, happy pet. That would be my takeaway message. Thank you so much, Dr. Ishenko. It's such a lovely, lovely thing to talk to you and I really appreciate you coming on the podcast today. If our listeners want to find you,

[00:27:07] where can they find you? Do you have a website or social media? Thank you so much. I'm working on my website right now. It just says that I do my vet work. So I wanna transition into the psychic website. It's in the building.

[00:27:20] So at the moment it's my Instagram page at path of bliss Hawaii. That's where I put the latest updates. There it says what I do. I put stories, the story of Benji. If you wanna look on the Benji, he's my hero, from the grave to sailing,

[00:27:37] sailing the ocean. And directly by my phone number, if you wanna give me a call at 808-777-8235. That's two ways to get in touch with me for a moment. And follow the platform please. Pet Summit has been godsend. They provided so much information.

[00:27:55] They just from all different parts, just bringing all these holistic practitioners from around the world. Laura is in Australia. I'm in Hawaii. The founders in Bali, just like, and these people can access it from just anywhere. I think it's fascinating.

[00:28:10] I'm so grateful and so privileged to be on board. So yeah, please follow, subscribe and you'll hear more from us. Yeah, you've summed it up really nicely. All our listeners need to follow it and subscribe so they don't miss another episode. But thank you Dr. Yuschenko.

[00:28:26] We'll put some links to your pages in the show notes and we'll see you next time for another episode. Thank you so much. I wanna make an announcement. We're making the end of life transition workshop in September. So stay tuned for details.

[00:28:39] It's gonna be all of this, but in more details and gonna be Q&A at the end so you can ask your questions and hopefully you'll be empowered and you can help other people too. So you can carry this message forward. That's great. Thank you so much.