Helpless to help: vets and pet owners grapple with after-hours animal health care

Listen to this article

Estimated 5 minutes

The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.

Pet owners in Newfoundland and Labrador are struggling to get their animals in to see a veterinarian, especially after-hours. But neither they nor veterinarians have any easy answers to improve the situation.

Dr. Maggie Brown-Bury, vice-president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, says there are too few veterinarians and too big a demand for the care they provide — and it’s a problem across Canada.

“None of the veterinarians in this province are happy with the situation, but they’re all doing the best that they can. And unfortunately, we’re all only human and there’s a limit to how much one person can do in a 24-hour period,” she said.

Table of Contents

Pet peeve

Pet owners say the cost of veterinary care is a big challenge for them. While many have pet insurance policies in place to help with the expense, they also say insurance doesn’t help when there’s no veterinarian available.

Natasha Lavers, owner of The DogHouse In-Home Dog Boarding in Deer Lake who has four dogs of her own, has daily conversations with dog owners who are frustrated.

“A lot of people are struggling just to see a vet during daytime hours now, so getting in to see an emergency vet is pretty much impossible,” said Lavers.

While they aren’t open 24/7, most veterinary clinics in the province now offer an after-hours triage phone line to try to screen out which animals need to be seen immediately and which ones can wait until regular clinic hours.

LISTEN | Hear more about the challenges of getting veterinary care in our podcast episode:

This is Newfoundland and Labrador22:00Why your pet emergency could go untreated: the reality of after-hour vet care in N.L.

A pet owner’s nightmare can turn even worse when there are no veterinarians available. After regular vet hours, some vets are on-call but that’s not a guarantee the pet will be seen, especially if they live in rural areas of Newfoundland and Labrador. In this episode you’ll hear from owners and vets on the reality of after-hour vet care in the province.

The veterinarian shortage became particularly acute in the Corner Brook area over the summer with the departure of several vets from one clinic.

As a result Dr. Angela Martyn’s clinic, Animal Health Centre, faced increased demand which resulted in displeasure being expressed by pet owners.

“We have received a lot of online negative comments, bullying even. A lot of anger directed at us and my front desk staff especially,” said Martyn.

A woman in a white lab coat with a stethoscope around her neck is crouched on the floor with a dog. She has her arm around the dog. — Dr. Angela Martyn recently saw a spike in demand at her Corner Brook clinic, which has led to people expressing their frustration at staff. (Submitted by Animal Health Centre)

Martyn now requires clients to sign a behavioural contract to acknowledge bad behavior like swearing and yelling won’t be tolerated.

Katie Evans of Steady Brook has two dogs who are patients of Dr. Martyn’s clinic. She understands veterinarians can’t always be available, but she also knows the stress created when her dogs aren’t well.

“The emotions that you feel when your animal is sick, you truly do feel helpless and ‘I don’t know how to help this animal. I just need to get in contact with somebody who can,'” said Evans.

Martyn said being available after-hours all the time is not feasible, and so the three veterinarians at her clinic share time being on-call.

She believes the vet shortage makes it harder to recruit new veterinarians. Martyn said the first question from potential applicants is “What’s the on-call like?”

A woman with a pink top and black pants crouches with two dogs in the leaves. — Katie Evans and her dogs Grace and Penny are regular visitors to their veterinarian (Bernice Hillier/CBC)

Teaching dog owners new tricks

Brown-Bury left regular clinic practice in St. John’s to focus entirely on locum work, relieving other veterinarians who need time off. She has worked at clinics in Central and Western Newfoundland as well as Labrador.

“I’ve seen a lot of my colleagues really struggling with burnout,” said Brown-Bury. “They find it hard to step away if they can’t find someone to step in because they don’t want those pets to be without care.”

Her advice is for people to have their pet on the roster of a veterinary clinic, so that they have somewhere to turn when care is needed.

The bylaws governing veterinary care in this province only require clinics to have after-hours care arrangements in place for their own patients, not all animals.

Brown-Bury also recommends people consult their vet as soon as they have a concern about a pet’s health to avoid it developing into something more serious which would require an after-hours call.

A smiling woman with long reddish hair and glasses is wearing a black top and purple cardigan. — Dr. Maggie Brown-Bury says there are too few veterinarians and too big a demand for the care they provide. (Submitted by Dr. Maggie Brown-Bury)

Brown-Bury said it’s also important for people to know what their vet clinic’s after-hours policy is.

“If you’re in a situation where it’s Friday night and your dog just got hit by a car, that is not the time that you want to be trying to find out what number do you call to start with,” said Brown-Bury.

Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.

link