Couple calls for better after-hours vet care after Doberman dies en route to Winnipeg

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This article was published 02/05/2024 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon couple is calling for better emergency veterinary care in the Westman area after their beloved Doberman died in their truck on the way to an emergency vet clinic in Winnipeg.

Barb and Donald Lair had to bury their six-year-old Doberman, Tres, after he died while they were rushing him to Winnipeg after not being able to see a vet locally.

“So, within an hour and half (to) two hours, (he went) from perfectly healthy to dead. Nobody is willing to help in this area because there’s no vets,” Barb said.

While Barb said she is aware of the vet shortage in the province, she wishes that there was an option for weekends and after-hours other than a two-hour drive to a dedicated emergency vet clinic in Winnipeg.

The Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association told the Sun that there are only two 24-7 veterinary hospitals in the province, both located in Winnipeg.

“The state of emergency veterinary services in Manitoba, particularly outside of Winnipeg, is indeed concerning, primarily due to a critical shortage of veterinary professionals,” Michelle Kusano, communications and event coordinator for the association, wrote in an email.

April 20 started like any other Saturday for the Lairs and their two Dobermans — Billy Jean and Tres.

Donald, who works in property management, began his usual routine of taking both dogs in his truck to let them walk along the trails of one the properties in the Brandon Hills that he manages.

But after both dogs hopped out of the truck, Donald noticed something was wrong. Instead of his usual exuberant character, Tres was just sitting outside of the truck. When Donald went toward him, the dog was lying on his side struggling to breathe.

He put Tres back in the truck, drove to get better cell service and called Barb to tell her about Tres’ condition, which seemed to have improved slightly. But the couple thought the dog should see a vet because he had been struggling to breathe and had a distressed look in his eyes.

That’s when they started calling vet clinics in the area, only to receive machine-recorded messages about closed offices. The one clinic they did get through to that had an emergency vet line — Grand Valley Animal Clinic — told them that they weren’t able to see Tres and referred the couple to the emergency clinics in Winnipeg.

Deciding not to wait any longer, they hopped in their truck with the dog and began the drive to Winnipeg. But during the drive, Tres took a turn for the worse. He started vomiting constantly and they had to stop numerous times to let him out of the truck and clean up.

After one stop, Tres was sniffing around the ground and hopped eagerly back in the truck. Barb thought it was a sign of hope that maybe the dog’s condition was improving.

But then, just as they were on getting to the other side of Holland, Barb looked back at Tres in the truck and noticed something was very wrong.

“I think something’s wrong — I don’t think he’s breathing,” Barb recalled saying about the dog at the time. Donald pulled the truck over, “and he was gone,” said Barb. “Just like that.”

Barb said the couple could have taken the dog for an autopsy, but they would have had to drive him to Saskatoon. Ultimately, they decided to bury him to have some closure, instead of having to store the body.

The lack of access to emergency care hit the couple especially hard because this was the second time they had no choice but to take Tres to Winnipeg. The first time, though, he survived but needed to get gastrointestinal surgery.

“We’ve had many animals, we knew he needed emergency care, just to get turned away and then for him to end up dying this time,” Barb said.

Grand Valley Animal Clinic practice manager Angela Innes declined to be interviewed, but provided information via an emailed statement. She said that when the clinic receives a call outside of regular business hours, the clinic’s triage service assesses whether it is an emergency.

If it is determined to be an emergency, then the caller will be asked if they are a client of the clinic, and they will then generally refer the caller to their own vet or a 24-7 emergency clinic in Winnipeg.

Innes said that in some “rare cases” when someone who is not a client of the clinic and their vet is unable to see them, Grand Valley may be able to help them if they have a vet available. But Innes noted that the clinic only has one vet available for after-hours emergency calls.

“We understand that the community would like us to expand these services to benefit the broader region. However, like many veterinary clinics across Manitoba, we are facing a shortage of veterinarians and support staff, restricting our ability to extend our emergency services beyond our current capacity,” Innes wrote.

The Sun confirmed through phone calls to Westman veterinary clinics that the only other clinics that have an after-hours vet on call in the Westman region are Brandon Hills Veterinary Clinic and Wheat City Veterinary Clinic. Wheat City’s vet hasn’t been able to hold consistent on-call hours and in both cases, the availability of the service was limited to the lone vet’s capacity and ability to deal with a wide range of emergencies.

Kusano, with the Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association, said the association does not require clinics to provide after-hours care to avoid overworking the already limited number of vets and to avoid contributing to the closure of clinics in underserved areas.

“Many pet owners throughout Manitoba, including in the Brandon area, must travel to Winnipeg or Saskatoon for emergency care during off-hours and weekends.”

She said the lack of financial incentives for vets to work in areas outside of the Winnipeg region contributes to the problem, noting that Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario and the United States offer incentive programs to encourage vets to work in rural and underserved areas.

Meanwhile, Barb acknowledges that she can’t be sure whether Tres would have survived if he had been seen by a vet clinic in Brandon sooner, but said she would have felt like she could have done more for the Doberman if he had been on a vet’s table instead of the back seat of her truck.

“We need to do something to make awareness (about) how many people’s lives could be affected,” Barb said. “I know some people will say they’re just dogs, they’re just pets. But they’re not, they’re family members.”

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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