We lost our beautiful senior cat Coco a few weeks ago. It was a very stressful evening watching her slowly suffocate to death with no local vet available at that time of the day.
Home phone numbers for the vets that we know could not be found on Canada 411 and calling 911 only got us through to the RCMP who could not help our situation.
Yes, there is an emergency animal hospital in Nanaimo, but being a senior myself and with my husband not able to drive anymore, getting to them at night was not an option considering the distressed state I was in.
In memory of Coco, and for the sake of all feline and canine family members in our local area, I am begging all vets to get together and create an on-call service for after-hours emergency care — preferably providing home visits as necessary.
We have so many local vets who could pool their resources and skills and rotate to provide this service so each vet would only be on-call a few times a month.
There are so many seniors in this area who have pets that are their primary family members now. It is heartbreaking to know that we only have vet coverage during the day for emergencies — only about nine or 10 hours out of 24.
If you are a vet, please start a conversation with other vets in the area to get an on-call service going. If you have pets, please encourage your vet to provide 24-hour coverage. For peace of mind in the short-term, get your vet’s home phone number.
Dianne Anstey
Qualicum Beach