Veterinarian Daren Miller takes a closer look at one of the puppies at the Humane Society of Sullivan County on Thursday in Sullivan. Besides providing care at the facility, Miller is operating Valley Mobile Veterinary Services, which provides at-home veterinary care for Terre Haute and surrounding areas. Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza
In early August, Carrie Garner’s 12-year-old dog, Richard, began having violent seizures about 11 p.m and she made several calls looking for local emergency veterinary care.
She was unsuccessful, and even if the family took the boxer mix to Indianapolis, it would still involve five hours of waiting, she was told.
Out of options, “I laid with him all night on the floor. We’d go through the seizures, and I’d hold him and try to get him through it,” she said.
Garner and her daughter took the dog to their vet at 8 a.m. the next morning, and by that time, Richard couldn’t walk.
While the veterinarian wasn’t immediately available, a staff member contacted the vet and received directions on what medication to administer to address the seizure.
The family went home, and later the vet did attend to the pet, but Garner learned nothing could be done and Richard, the family’s beloved pet, had to be put down.
She doesn’t know if immediate treatment would have kept him alive, but the worst part was watching Richard suffer through the night, Garner said.
“I felt so helpless. It’s not fair for them to suffer like that,” she said. Garner said she believes there is a need for local, after-hours emergency veterinary care.
Some local veterinarians do provide emergency, after hours care for their clients. In other cases, those with emergencies might be referred to two services in Indianapolis, Airport Animal Emergi-Center and IndyVet. When asked about the need for such a service locally, Heidi Mitchell, executive director of the Terre Haute Humane Society, responded: “THHS definitely recognizes that there is a need for emergency, after-hours care for pets in the community.”
New service might help
One new veterinary service in the Wabash Valley is hoping to provide some relief.
In mid-August, Daren Miller began operating Valley Mobile Veterinary Services, which provides at-home veterinary care for Terre Haute and surrounding areas. But in addition to regular clinic services, including vaccinations and wellness visits, Miller also offers 24-hour emergency care that does not involve intensive care such as surgery or administration of IV fluids, he said.
Miller said he can treat such things as lacerations or seizures, or when euthanasia becomes necessary, such as a dog being critically injured after being hit by a car.
He can provide triage services and stabilize a pet until it can get further necessary services the next day or business day, if it can wait.
“It’s another option rather than just having to drop everything and go to Indianapolis,” which can be costly and something some people can’t afford, Miller said. There may be times he does triage over the phone, and after learning the circumstances, if he believes the pet needs to go directly to Indianapolis, he will tell that to the pet owners, Miller said. The service he provides “is something I think has been needed around here for a long time,” Miller said.
Miller has been a veterinarian for 13 years and graduated from the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine.
Valley Mobile Veterinary Services can be found on Facebook. His service includes use of the PetCare app as well as an online pharmacy with home delivery.
Some after-hour care available
Taylor Bullock, CEO of Happy Tails Animal Rescue, said there are veterinary services in the area that offer emergency after-hour services for their clients. “I feel there are options for people if they want to be a client” of clinics offering those services, she said. “I personally don’t mind going to Indy if it’s an emergency.”
Happy Tails is a 501c(3) home and foster-based rescue.
Bullock understands the concerns of people facing after-hours emergencies with their pets, but also recognizes that veterinarians who already put in a full week with traditional business hours need personal lives as well.
“People need a break,” she said, and it’s not realistic to expect them to be available 24/7 on top of their regular workday practice.
“I just think personally, everyone is entitled to their personal life as well as their work life. We can’t expect people to drop everything, even though it’s an emergency situation to us,” Bullock said.
For Happy Tails, she does have access to veterinarians and can send them photos or videos on weekends to consult about situations.
“They’ve been really helpful to kind of just advise me,” on whether a situation is an emergency or can wait until a business day visit, Bullock said. “I know people don’t all have that luxury — that has been helpful for us.
Purdue studying under-served areas
Bret Marsh, dean of Purdue University’s prestigious College of Veterinary Medicine, says that with regard to veterinary emergency services, “This has been an ongoing challenge in communities across our state and country. “
Purdue offers a 24-hour emergency and critical care facility that provides services to a large geographic area, he said.
In some communities, veterinary practices have combined resources so that there is a single emergency site rather than all of them attempting to provide that kind of care, Marsh said.
But in other communities, “It’s difficult to establish that service,” from a staffing and financial standpoint, Marsh said.
The Purdue College of Veterinary Medicine is involved in some ongoing studies “on why we have under-served areas of our state and how we might address them,” he said.
Already, the college is responding with an “intensified look” at in-state applications to its competitive Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program. This year’s number of in-state students is higher than last year’s, he said.
For the average pet-owner who may face an emergency, after-hours situation, Marsh offers the following advice: Having an ongoing relationship with a local veterinarian is important, so that the vet knows the pet involved and its owner, Marsh said.
With that relationship established, the vet is in a better position to provide a recommendation, even if it’s over the phone and the vet can’t immediately see the pet.
In an after-hours, late night emergency situation, it’s more difficult to provide specific medical instructions if the veterinarian is not familiar with that pet and owner, Marsh said.
“Having that relationship in advance I think is going to be extremely important, particularly in instances where there may not be emergency services ongoing in a community,” he said.
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