Fredericton needs an emergency vet clinic, area resident says, but there's a problem

A Fredericton-area woman says an emergency vet clinic is badly needed in the capital city, after spending hours on the road to get help for her pets in other communities.

Victoria West lives in Burton with her partner, their five dogsand one cat. She's had to travel to Saint John or Riverview three times in the past year for emergency care for her animals.

One of those times was earlier this month, whenher dogstarted acting strangely.

"He was swaying.He didn't seem to focus. He was flinching. He was shaking. He didn't want any treatsand it looked like he was drooling, which made me think that there was some sort of toxin that he had been poisoned with," she said.

West called her veterinarian who was unable to fit them in on short notice. Their sister clinic was also booked solid. West then drove around90 minutes to an urgent care clinic in Riverview with her dog on her lap.

"I didn't want him dying alone in the crate," she said. "I had him on my lap, pressed against my chest with one arm, driving with the other."

By the time they arrived at the clinic, the dog's symptoms had improved. West said they got lucky. But when there's a likelihood you need to drive a long distance, she saidwaiting it out isn't an option.

The Riverview Animal Health Centre and Port City Emergency Veterinary Hospital are the only two clinics in New Brunswick that offer 24/7 care for companion animals.

In other areas of the province, there is often a shared on-call service where clinics take turns working after hoursand treat patients from other clinics. They usually have one veterinarian and one technician on hand. So if an urgent matter arises, they might send patients to one of the 24/7 clinics instead.

It's not an ideal solution, but the prospect of opening up new emergency clinics here or elsewhere in the country runs up against one key problem: there aren'tenough licensed veterinarians.

"We are moving in the right direction to try to correct that lack of access. But it's going to take time. So in that time frame, please be patient, please be kind," said Nicole Jewett,the registrar for the New Brunswick Veterinary Medical Associationand head ofthe Douglas Animal Hospital inFredericton.

While there is enough demand for another 24/7 clinic in the city, she said, finding theworkers to staff such a facility would be achallenge.

"Would people come? Absolutely. Would people use the service? One hundred per cent,I think they would. The issue is going to be to find the workforce to man these hospitals," Jewettsaid.

"We don't have enough veterinarians and registered veterinary technicians in the province of New Brunswickbut not just New Brunswick, but the entire country. So we have a national workforce shortage, so it'd be hard to staff those hospitals adequately. Not impossible, but it's a challenge."

Jewett saidshe expects the situation to get worsebefore it gets better. She saida lot of the veterinarians are approaching retirement age, and there aren't enough veterinarians graduating right now to meet the current need.

"We need more funding for subsidized seats at our local colleges," she said.

New Brunswick currently funds 13 seats for students at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island and two seats in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Montreal the same number of seats it has funded since 1990, Jewett said.

CBC New Brunswickrequested an interview with the Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries, but did not receive a response by publication time.

Tim Arthur, a companion-animal veterinarian in Ottawaand the president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association,saidhis organization tries not to dabble in provincial politicsbut he admits New Brunswick is falling behind.

There are five veterinary schools in Canada, and provincial associations have been working hard at the provincial level to increase the number of funded seats for Canadian students. But Arthur saidhe doesn't see the problem correcting itself without outside help.

"We figure right now we're about 1,000 short. So if we increase seats at veterinary schools by, let's say, 100, that still leaves us in the hole."

That's why Arthur saidthey're also focused on making it easier for foreign-trained veterinarians to get into Canada and fill the gap.

Graduates of an accredited school are required to pass the North American Veterinary Licensing Association test before they can practise in Canada.

Those coming from a non-accredited school go through a lengthier process, which includes four written tests and a three-day practical exam. Currently, that'sonly being offered at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon.

But the collegeand the University of Saskatchewan have put together a proposal to build a national testing centre on campus to move more people through the program.

Arthur saidthey're lobbying on Parliament Hill to make it happen.

"They could probably bring in 50 new veterinarians a year by doing this.We need those veterinarians."

It's a $10-million request, and he saidit's one of the most important things they're talking about right now.

CBCNew Brunswick has reached out to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to see if it supports the proposal. It plays a role in animal health at the federal level with its own team of veterinarians.

As for West, she says the veterinarians she sees are doing the best they can under the circumstances. And so is she, as a pet owner.

"I can take my animals wherever I need to go. I have transportation, I have time. I don't have children. I can just pick them up and leave," she says. "But that's not the case for many people."