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Biographical Sketch for Robin Downing,
DVM
Since graduating from the College of Veterinary
Medicine at the University of Illinois at ChampaignUrbana in 1986, Dr. Downing has been blazing
her own trail within veterinary medicine. As the
first woman veterinarian for a 100-mile radius in
Worland, Wyoming, Dr. Downing brought
sophisticated companion animal medicine into the
homes of pet lovers. In 1991, Dr. Downing
purchased Windsor Veterinary Clinic, a stagnant
practice in small-town Colorado. Achieving
American
Animal
Hospital
Association
accreditation in 1994, Windsor Veterinary Clinic,
PC, was named one of the first ten Practice of Excellence Award® winners in the United
States that same year. Her practice was featured in the January 1995 issue of
Veterinary Economics® Magazine.
Dr. Downing is also committed to personal excellence. She was the 1995 Colorado
VMA’s Up and Coming Veterinarian of the Year, and the 1996 Association for Women
Veterinarians’ Outstanding Woman Veterinarian of the Year. In 1999 she received a
regional Entrepreneurial Excellence Award® from Working Woman® Magazine, and
was named the Hill’s Animal Welfare and Humane Ethics Award winner for the year
2000. In 2001 the World Small Animal Association presented Dr. Downing the
Excellence in Veterinary Healthcare Award (Small Animal Veterinarian of the Year).
Dr. Downing is an outspoken advocate of the precious nature of the Family-Pet Bond
when the pet faces special challenges like chronic illness, cancer, or a physical
disability and presented this topic to a pet-loving audience at the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, DC. Dr. Downing is a pain management consultant and lectures
internationally on the importance of pre-emptive pain management in the
compassionate care of companion animals.
Dr. Downing is a regular contributing author to Veterinary Economics® and FirstLine®.
She has been a featured weekly columnist in the Denver Post®, answering the
questions of concerned pet owners. She authored a selection in Chicken Soup for the
Pet Lover’s Soul®, and in 2000 finished a book for animal owners whose pets have
cancer, Pets Living With Cancer: A Pet Owner’s Resource, published by the American
Animal Hospital Association Press and translated into Dutch. Dr. Downing has been
quoted in such popular magazines as Cat Fancy, Dog Fancy, and Reader’s Digest as
well as in many newspapers around the United States.
Dr. Downing is a trustee for the Morris Animal Foundation. She is an affiliate faculty
member at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and is Past
President of the International Veterinary Academy of Animal Pain Management. Dr.
Downing is one of a handful of veterinarians in the world to hold the Diplomate
credential in the American Academy of Pain Management, the largest interdisciplinary
pain management organization in human medicine. She is also credentialed as a
Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner, having trained at the University of
Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, and is also certified in Veterinary
Acupuncture.
Dr. Downing shares her home with eleven cats, three dogs, and a cockatiel—all castoffs, slated for euthanasia or abandonment—but all thriving within a microcosm of
unconditional love.
Abstract for Robin Downing, DVM
Title of Presentation: Pharmacology in Multi-modal Pain Management for the Veterinary
Hospice Patient
As Christine Longaker, influential in the human hospice movement, has stated, “Pain is
inevitable; suffering is optional.” Veterinary hospice patients need and deserve to be
comfortable enough to “live until they die” and to enjoy the time they have left with their
human companions.
A pet owner’s greatest fear is that a beloved pet will suffer, whether we are addressing
the acute pain of a surgery or the chronic pain of osteoarthritis. Pet owners’ anxiety
about their pets is at its greatest as we approach the end of an animal’s life.
This presentation will focus on the need to take a multi-modal approach to managing
pain at the end of life. Participants will learn how to construct a multi-modal pain
management plan for hospice patients. Special attention will be paid to articulating
newer applications of available medications. There will be discussion of potential
adverse effects as well as how best to respond.
Veterinarians and their health care teams can and should work with clients to keep
veterinary hospice patients comfortably in their homes for as long as possible.