ST. JOHN’S VETERINARIANS STAYED BY THEIR PET PATIENTS DURING STORM

‘They’ve been incredible,’ says dog owner

JOHN’S, N.L. — Maggie Brown-Bury knew the forecast was dismal, so when she went to work on Thursday she packed everything she would need to spend the night.

The emergency veterinarian at Veterinary Specialty Centre (VSC) on Topsail Road didn’t get home until Saturday.

Stormbound at the clinic, Brown-Bury and a veterinarian technician cared for a full ICU of six dogs and one cat. Usually there’s a team of five people to carry the workload.

“Working Friday night was a bit of a challenge because obviously we couldn’t get a lot of staff in with the state of the weather, and the state of emergency,” she said.

They took turns keeping snow shovelled away from the entrance to ensure anyone who showed up with a pet could get into the building, and to provide an outdoor space for dogs who wanted to go outdoors to do their business.

“If one of us was out shovelling, or taking a dog outside, then the other one was in (ICU) alone, and if anything — if one of the patients were to have an arrest or need CPR, that’s really a more than one-person task, so it was a little bit stressful.”

Their determination didn’t go unnoticed by the people whose pets weathered the storm at the clinic.

St. John’s resident Michelle Ryan’s puggle, nine-year-old Oliver, has been at VSC since Thursday evening.

Ryan got home from work Thursday to find Oliver had eaten an entire bag of chocolate chips. She brought him to the clinic right away.

“They tried to give him some of the charcoal, but he wouldn’t throw up because it was already in his system, and he was just getting sicker. Then, they said that they had to keep him overnight because all the toxins had already seeped in, and he has chronic pancreatitis already, so they were afraid of him having an attack.”

Ryan said she got a call from Brown-Bury on Friday, telling her that she would be sleeping at the clinic overnight, and would be there the next day to care for Oliver.

‘They’ve been so good to him’

By Saturday afternoon, Oliver was healthy enough to return home, but St. John’s remained under a state of emergency. Ryan couldn’t drive to pick him up.

Even if she was allowed, her car remained buried under the record-breaking snowfall.

Oliver remains in regular boarding at VSC, and Ryan receives regular updates from the staff. By all accounts, he’s enjoying himself.

“They’ve been incredible,” said Ryan, a sound of relief in her voice.

“They’ve been taking him outside, he’s been playing in the snow. They’ve been so good to him. So good to us.”

While Brown-Bury was able to return home on Saturday with a shift changeover, she said there were a couple of staff members who spent 48 hours at the clinic. And those who arrived on Saturday stayed until Monday.

Still, she said there was no question about remaining open during the storm.

“For a lot of people, their pets are their children,” she said.

“As the storm started, we had patients who definitely needed to be in the ICU, and so we’re not going to tell those owners, ‘Sorry, you have to take them home because we’re going to close.’ And we’re certainly not going to leave those patients unattended.

“We’re always, always going to be open, just like the human emergency department would be.”