Idaho vets must keep pets — and people — healthy during pandemic. Here’s how they do it
For Boise veterinarian Dawn Sessions, euthanasia appointments have been the hardest part of the coronavirus pandemic. Not that they’re ever easy — watching someone say goodbye to a beloved pet is always emotional — but social distancing guidelines and concerns over virus transmission have turned a difficult part of the job into a heart-rending one.
She’s had to implement a new euthanasia policy: procedures take place outside in the backyard of Broadway Veterinary Hospital, the practice Sessions owns, and she can only allow a single family member to be present to reduce social contact.
“It just tears your heart out,” Sessions said in a video interview. “(Owners) want to be present, but there are people dying alone right now.”
It’s one of many changes that Sessions and other local veterinarians have had to make in recent weeks. Deemed essential businesses, vets have worked to keep Idaho pets healthy as other businesses have had to shutter. Now veterinarians are also tasked with keeping themselves and their human clients healthy and safe from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
No leashes, lobby entry as Idaho vets try to curb coronavirus spread
Sessions closed the lobby of Broadway Veterinary Hospital, 350 E Linden St., about two weeks ago.
“I can’t tell you the sense of relief I felt,” she said. “The staff is really at ease.”
Instead of having clients come into the practice with their pets, Sessions set up several kennels outside the building. Clients drop off their dogs in a designated kennel, remove the animal’s leash and collar (which could potentially transmit the virus) and return to their vehicle before calling the office to let staff know the dog is there. An employee then retrieves the dog using an in-house leash and collar.
A doctor or veterinary technician will phone the client to discuss results or treatment options remotely, and payment is done electronically. Sessions said the majority of her clients have been understanding.
“Young folks are used to doing things over the phone,” Sessions said. “We’ve had a little bit of pushback from elderly folks … and the mentally ill. They just do not understand (the restrictions).”
Many other clinics, like Settlers Park Veterinary Hospital in Meridian, are doing “curbside” dropoffs.
“We’re meeting everyone in the parking lot,” Kristy Moreland, a vet tech at Settlers Park, said in a Facebook message. “With cats and small dogs in carriers we’re having them set them down on the sidewalk in front of the building. With large dogs we’re bringing out our own slip leashes, we loop those around the neck and the owner then detaches their leash. All of our employees are wearing masks for the exchange.”
The Idaho Humane Society is also doing parking lot handoffs for pet patients visiting its in-house clinic — though spokeswoman Kristine Schellhaas said that may need to change if restrictions continue when the weather warms up.
“We worry about how this will continue to work as temperatures rise in the Treasure Valley,” she said. “We are cautious of leaving animals and people to sit in hot cars.”
Schellhaas said the Humane Society clinic, like many others, has pared down its services to the essentials.
“We’re not doing routine care,” she said. “We’re not giving vaccinations unless they adopted a puppy from us.”
Instead, they’re focusing on emergency care, including dogs hit by cars, injured in fights or with intestinal blockages from eating foreign objects.
Sessions is still offering puppy vaccinations, as well as spay and neuter surgeries, at Broadway Vet. She said she thinks those services are essential and could potentially prevent an emergency visit in the future.
And though Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Wednesday announced he’d extend Idaho’s stay-home order through the end of April, Sessions said she’ll be more cautious before reopening her practice completely.
“We contact 40 pets a day, sometimes with entire families (at the appointment),” she said. “If my lobby has 100 people a day, the potential for exposure for my staff is huge. So I think I’ll do this another month.”
Many local vets take euthanasia appointments outside during pandemic
Like Sessions, veterinarians across the Treasure Valley have had to make tough choices regarding euthanasia. Moreland said Settlers Park is allowing clients inside if they’re at the clinic to euthanize a pet. Local emergency clinic WestVet is among the businesses that has limited how many family members can be present or how long they can be in the facility.
Anneliese Hall had to put her family dog, Minnie, to sleep at WestVet on Wednesday. She said the clinic was “amazing,” but her family wasn’t able to be with Minnie until it was too late.
“I’m just extremely saddened by the world today and that she had to fight alone when she was used to having her family nearby,” Hall said in a Facebook message. “Minnie was my son’s best friend and my husband and I’s baby girl. She will forever be in our hearts. She left a mark on everyone who met her.”
Celena Auger has worked as a vet tech at WestVet for 12 years. She said the choice to limit visits is hard on staff, too.
“But at the same time, in order for us to continue to provide the services we do provide, emergency-wise, we have to make sure our staff is healthy,” Auger said. “If we do get sick, there’s no emergency clinic. There’s no one to do that middle-of-the-night surgery.”
Auger also works at Gentle Goodbyes, an in-home euthanasia service run by veterinarian Laura Lefkowitz. Gentle Goodbyes performs on-site euthanasia, operates its own crematorium, delivers cremains and picks up remains of pets that have died in their homes. Lefkowitz said her routine has changed during the pandemic, too, but her in-home approach has allowed for flexibility when it comes to social distancing.
“We are now asking that appointments are done outside to minimize any contact or exposure, and of course we’re wearing masks and gloves as we can,” Lefkowitz said in a phone interview.
“We certainly questioned what we should do or how we should go about doing it, and we made changes to be able to do it in as safe a manner as possible,” she added. “I think owners are even more grateful now that we haven’t closed our doors. … We’re really grateful that the vets are recognizing how important this is and are continuing to refer people to us, particularly if they realize they can’t do the euthanasia with the owners and the animals together.”
Lefkowitz said Gentle Goodbyes has been able to allow entire families to be present when a pet is euthanized — including a large family this week that brought Auger to tears.
“They had five kids and Mom and Dad, but they all wanted to be present,” Auger said. “It was something their entire family needed to be able to be there for (their dog) Marley. Not just one of them, but all of them needed to be there.”
Auger said the family was grateful that Gentle Goodbyes offered an alternative when their vet clinic wasn’t able to allow them all to be at the euthanasia. Boisean Meredith Perkins-Hotchkiss had a similar experience with Compassionate In Home Pet Euthanasia, which is run by veterinarian Lana Roberts. In March, Perkins-Hotchkiss said, her family made the tough decision to euthanize their elderly Chesapeake Bay retriever, Grover, just a few months after their other elderly dog, a Scottish terrier named Basil, was euthanized at their vet’s office.
“I’m immunocompromised, so I was scared to take him to an animal hospital,” Perkins-Hotchkiss wrote in a Facebook message. “I’m a nurse and I figured it was his time.”
She called Roberts at Compassionate In Home Pet Euthanasia, and the veterinarian arrived right away. Perkins-Hotchkiss and her family were with Grover in his final moments, and Roberts and her husband took the dog to be cremated afterward.
“Through the entire process, Lana was compassionate, caring and professional,” Perkins-Hotchkiss wrote. “We appreciated being with Grover during his last minutes at home in his bed. He did not have to suffer needlessly by traveling.”
Pandemic upends how pet parents spend and vets earn a living
In-home pet euthanasia may not be an option for everyone, particularly those who have lost their jobs in the pandemic, Auger said. It’s a more expensive service.
“Some people can’t financially afford that luxury of doing it in the home,” Auger said.
And Schellhaas, the spokeswoman for the Idaho Humane Society, said she’s noticing some Treasure Valley residents may not be able to afford care at the regular vet clinic.
“Most of our visitors are low income, that’s our target market and who we primarily serve,” Schellhaas said. “We’re really starting to see people who weren’t low income before who have lost their jobs and are now in that bracket. We know those numbers are going to continue to grow as this goes on.”
Schellhaas said the shelter clinic offers grants and payment plans and tries to provide emergency medical care regardless of an owner’s ability to pay. But as pet owners’ finances suffer, veterinarians’ could, too.
Sessions, the owner of Broadway Vet Hospital, said March was a record month for her practice financially as people anticipated a coronavirus-related shutdown and sought care. But now, with most people hunkered down and many out of work, Sessions’ revenue is down. She’s worried the economic downtown could affect her industry the same way the Great Recession did.
“In the recession, it hit veterinarians in Boise really, really hard,” she said. “It took years and years to catch up financially.”
She’s already seeing a few differences that make her hopeful, though. Bill collectors are showing more leniency, and Sessions said she thinks many pet owners today are more willing to spend more or make financial sacrifices to provide for their pets.
And there’s been another silver lining: Schellhaas said the Idaho Humane Society has seen “really great numbers” for adoptions and fosters out of its shelter, though its intake has been limited during the pandemic.
“We are adopting our dogs within a matter of hours,” Schellhaas said, adding that more than 150 animals have been placed in foster homes since the beginning of March.
