Dealing with pet emergencies

If you're a pet owner in or around Watertown, an animal emergency could be more complicated than you might think. "Historically, veterinarians would provide emergency service for their own clients," said Dr. Diane P. Ferry, a veterinarian at J.W. Ferry Veterinarian in Adams.

Since 2005, however, a shortage of doctors has caused veterinarians to collaborate on emergency services.

"There's just fewer and fewer doctors coming to the area," Dr. Ferry said. "Pretty much all the clinics are understaffed."

"It works pretty well," Dr. Nina M. Harff, a veterinarian at Animal Doctors in Watertown, said about the collaboration. "We have four clinics that are involved currently and we split up the year so that each clinic takes an equivalent amount of call time."

The clinics, which include Watertown Animal Hospital and the North Country Animal Health Center of Watertown as well as J.W. Ferry and Animal Doctors, rotate being on call every week and provide care for the other three clinics' patients as well as their own.

"It basically saves us being all on call at once," said Dr. Christopher J. Jank of Watertown Animal Hospital.

Dr. David M. Plante of the North Country Animal Health Center said the system is a relief for veterinarians as well as for pet owners who have emergencies.

"It helps because it prevents a lot of burnout," he said.

The downside to the arrangement, however, is that there is no one to continually tend to sick animals during nights and on weekends and holidays.

For constant attention, north country residents can take their pets to the Animal Emergency Center in Syracuse. A separate service, the Veterinary Emergency & Critical Care Center, operates nights and weekends only in Baldwinsville.

Cornell University's Veterinary School in Ithaca is a more long-distance option for serious emergencies.

Dr. Ferry likened the Animal Emergency Center to a hospital for humans with round-the-clock care.

"They're just better equipped," she said. "The downside is they're more expensive."

"Syracuse is more expensive than we are in general," said Dr. Plante. "That definitely holds some people back."

One of the causes of this increased cost is the fact that the Animal Emergency Center offers more advanced services for pets. High-caliber blood analysis machines, board-certified specialists and diagnostic imaging such as magnetic resonance imaging are all offered at the Syracuse center but not in Northern New York.

"The more critical cases that require immediate surgery would be more likely to be sent there at night," said Dr. Harff. "Sometimes we don't even see them (in the north country); we just tell them to go right (to Syracuse)."

Estimates of how many pets are sent to Syracuse ranged from one a month to four or five a week.

Pet owners in the four clinics' coverage area, which spans towns from Pulaski to Gouverneur, are therefore faced with the difficult decision of where to take their animals during nonbusiness hours.

Dr. Ferry advises that people at least contact the on-call doctor in the Watertown area before driving to Syracuse.

"It depends how bad it is," she said about pet emergencies, giving the example of deadly bloat in large dogs as a case that requires Syracuse care.

"Those dogs need serious intensive care, including surgery and heart monitors," she said. Still, pain medicine can sometimes be administered and bloat can be somewhat decompressed at a local office before a dog has to travel.

The bottom line, said Dr. Jank, is that the matter is situational.

"It depends on the nature of the emergency and whether we think we can handle it with our on-call vet," he said.

Veterinarians from all four clinics had the same feelings about starting a 24-hour emergency service in Northern New York.

"We talk about it all the time. I'd love to get one. The problem is whether we have enough work up here to support it," said Dr. Plante.

"We would love to do something like that," said Dr. Ferry. "The trouble is, we just don't have enough veterinarians. It's also hard to fund."

"It would be great because we've all been practicing for many years and we're tired, but I don't see it ever being very realistic," said Dr. Harff.

"It'd be wonderful, but I don't think there's the population and the business enough to make it worthwhile," said Dr. Jank. "That's been talked about many times."