Horse’s healing touch
Equine therapy animal Billy brings cheer to patients of palliative care unit
CHARLOTTE TOWN Billy the Norwegian Fjord horse visits the Provincial Palliative Care Facility in Charlottetown every week as part of a unique equine-assisted therapy program, peering into large ground-level windows and greeting patients, their families and staff in the hospital’s green space.
“I’ve had people who have said that Billy made their husband laugh one more time. We have people who leap out of bed who come to see him,” said Dr. Mary Mcniven, Billy’s owner and a professor at the Island’s Atlantic Veterinary College.
Equine-assisted therapy is fairly common, but not in this way, said Mcniven. It’s often used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and victims of trauma.
“I’ ve heard of the odd person take miniature horses in (a palliative care facility ). It’ s fairly unusual that someone would take a full grown horse to a facility,” said Mcniven, adding that the 16-year-old horse does not go into the facility.
“The highlight of seeing billy was that he made me feel relaxed and calm, which takes my mind off having brain cancer ,” Kerry Mckenna, a 58-year-old day-patient at the facility, said in a statement on the provincial government’s website.
Billy — who has a light grey coat and mohawk mane — has been visiting the hospital for more than three years, and has sparked a twopronged research project looking at how the horse’s visits affect palliative patients, and how the visits affect Billy.
Krisandra Cairns, a master of nursing student at the University ofnewbrunswick, is using a tool to assess the patient’s symptoms following Billy’s visit. That includes pain, anxiety and depression.
She interviews patients to gain further insights — all as part of her master’s thesis, to be presented later this year.
Meanwhile, Justine Macpherson, a second-year student in the doctor of veterinary medicine program at the Atlantic Veterinary College, logs Billy’s heart rate throughout the hospital calls — including to and from the facility — and monitors his behaviour.
Macpherson is wrapping up that study and will present her findings at are search symposium at the college in August.
Mcniven said initial data indicates Billy enjoys the weekly interactions as much as the patients.
“When people come out to talk to him, we’ve noticed his heart rate drops amazingly,” she said.
“We’ve had babies that wrap their arms and legs right around his face and he’s just loving it.”