A new service is stepping in to try and ease the burden on Island pet owners and the dwindling number of Vineyard veterinarians.
All Pets Medical Center, a veterinary practice in Bourne, plans to visit the Martha’s Vineyard once a month to provide pet care to Island residents at the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard. The center made its first visit to the Island earlier this month, aiding about 20 cats and dogs.
The addition will likely be welcomed by animal lovers on the Vineyard. There are only a handful of veterinarians left on the Island, and one retired earlier this year, stretching the remaining services.
Lisa Dawley, the animal shelter manager, said the July 12 trial run with All Pets Medical Center’s new care went off “beautifully.”
“People were in tears to have another option,” she said.
All Pets Medical Center now plans to come to the Island monthly. Pet owners should contact the center in Bourne to set up an appointment. Once a pet owner gets in the system, they can become regular clients and also access services at the Cape Cod facility.
Many pet owners have turned to mainland practices in recent years and in the wake of My Pet’s Vet closing earlier this year. Vista Vets, a recently opened Falmouth clinic, said in February that about a quarter of its clients were from the Vineyard. All Pets Medical Center has about 40 Vineyard patients and it decided to reach out to the shelter to see if it could help with the Island’s shortage.
“We knew that there was a need and we’ve had some residents of the Island give us a call because they couldn’t get vet care,” said Jenna Goonan, the practice’s manager. “We just want to really be able to help the pets on the island.”
Ms. Goonan said the center plans to provide care for almost everything but surgeries while on the Island. Ear infections, hot spots, urinary tract infections and similar ailments can all be handled here.
“We’re bringing everything we have here except surgical equipment,” she said.
Despite the new service, urgent care on the Island remains a concern and many emergency cases will still send owners to the mainland.
For years, Island veterinarians have banded together to run on-call after hours urgent care. But with veterinarian Kirsten Sauter’s retirement this year, there’s one less veterinarian in the on-call pool, taxing the other veterinarians, who are also inching closer to retirement.
The whittling down of primary care has led to more urgent issues, said C. Rogers Williams, with the Vineyard Veterinary Clinic.
Four of the remaining Vineyard practices are working to provide as close to round-the-clock emergency coverage as possible. They’ve started using a telehealth service to try and limit the number of after calls that absolutely can’t wait, but any inpatient care has to go to an off-Island hospital.
“[T]he veterinarians here who are trying to help with urgent care have already been doing so 24/7 for 20, 30, 40 years,” Island veterinarian Dr. Michelle Jasny told the Gazette earlier in July. “We hope pet owners will appreciate that many of us are seniors ourselves now and we can only do what we can do. Needing to travel to the mainland for certain kinds of state-of-the-art medical care, be it human or veterinary, is a fact of Island life.”
