UPDATE:
Grey Bruce Pet Hospital says that they’ll be doing a trial for emergency on-call vet care.
Earlier this month, pet owners were faced with the news that they would not have access to a veterinarian outside of regular business hours.
The clinic sent an email to clients on Sunday afternoon, which Bayshore News has obtained.
Starting on November 15th, Grey Bruce Pet Hospital will have the on-call after-hours service available between 5-9 p.m. on weekdays, and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on weekends and holidays by calling their emergency services number.
The after-hours service is only available to existing clients.
Dr. Debbie Boyd from the Grey Bruce Pet Hospital also said in an email to Bayshore News “We felt we might be able to cover about 75% of the number of emergencies our clinic receives but we would be overwhelmed very quickly if we accepted emergencies from all the other clinics.”
Any emergency care needed outside of those hours outlined would still have to be directed to the SmartVet Telehealth triage line.
The new after-hours access is on a trial basis, until December 31, 2023, according to the email.
ORIGINAL STORY BELOW:
Pet owners throughout Grey and Bruce Counties are now worrying about their pets after an announcement was made for the end of 24-hour emergency pet care in the area.
Candice Christian, who is the owner of Just Woof It Rescue Grey Bruce, says that she’s worried, as she typically takes in animals from owner surrender that tend to be senior animals and pets that have health issues.
“I’m very afraid, especially in my line of business. A lot of the animals [I take in] have never had vetting, or I take in senior dogs or unhealthy dogs.”
She says when she found out that all eight local vet clinics would be ending after-hours care, she reached out the the College of Veterinarians of Ontario and spoke to the person who is the head of the complaints committee.
Christian says she was told that Grey and Bruce are not the only regions that are facing the end of round-the-clock emergency vet access and that anyone who wants to voice their concerns can do so by contacting the CVO complaint committee.
The CVO is the governing association for veterinarians in Ontario, which they must be licensed through.
She says that another issue in the region is that of the eight local clinics in the area, none are known to be accepting new patients.
This means that any pet owners who have a new pet that has not yet been to a vet’s office will not be able to find a clinic that can see them.
Christian says this has been the case since the start of the COVID pandemic and is made worse considering that although many people were adopting pets during the pandemic, local shelters, including Just Woof It, are at capacity.
She says that more needs to be done to recruit more licensed veterinarians to the region.
She also says at one point, the CVO offered $50,000 to any vet that wanted to settle in the area for five years.
“I’d love to see a 24-hour clinic open up [in the region]. Owen Sound would be central to everywhere — it could pull people from Collingwood to Kincardine, and as far south as Shelburne.”
Clients of local clinics recently received a letter stating that after-hours care would not be provided locally as of November 15th. The letter also gives the addresses of the next closest vet clinics, which include businesses in Guelph, Barrie, Mississauga, and Toronto.
Bayshore News was sent copies of the letter in question, which outlines the steps that pet owners would need to take in order to get care for their furry friends.
The email was signed by Port Elgin Veterinary Clinic, Southampton Pet Hospital, Sunset Strip Veterinary Clinic, Owen Sound Veterinary Clinic, Grey Bruce Pet Hospital, North Heritage Animal Hospital, Wiarton Animal Hospital, and Sauble Beach Pet Hospital.
In the event of a medical emergency, owners should call their local clinic, and if the clinic is closed at the time, they need to get into contact with an emergency triage service, which is the pet equivalent of TeleHealth Ontario, where they speak to a Registered Veterinary Technician.
From that conversation, they would either be referred to a veterinarian that has 24-hour service, and pet owners would need to then get their pet to that facility, which could take one to two hours to drive to.
“When that email was issued and I received it, not only was I in shock,” says Christian, “My first thought was ‘Is this going to deter people from adopting older animals, or maybe animals that have had previous health issues?’” she says.
Christian says that many of the people she’s spoken to through her work tend to be elderly people, who are unable to drive and do not have access to a friend or relative with a vehicle.
“A lot of people, especially elderly people, have said to me that [their current pet] will be their last pet, given the fact that if there was an emergency, they don’t have the ability to jump in the car and drive two to three hours.”
She adds that with the inability to access after-hours emergency vet care, pet owners should take precautions to have a first-aid kit for their pets, for example, asking their existing vet to provide an extra prescription of medications their pet may need, and asking about what sort of over-the-counter drugs can be used by pets, such as antihistamines and pain relievers, as well as appropriate bandaging supplies to dress a wound in the event of an emergency and while waiting to get their pet to a vet’s office.
Bayshore News reached out to a local veterinary clinic for comment but did not receive a reply.
