Veterinary Care in the Time of COVID-19: One Vet’s Perspective

It was Monday, March 16th, at 12:36pm, when I first heard the term “shelter-in-place.” One of my veterinary assistants texted to ask me if we were going to be closed the next day: “.... just to confirm, will we be open tomorrow? I heard that there is going to be a ‘Shelter In Place’ order for 4 counties starting at midnight tonight?”  

She was scheduled to work the next morning and would need to drive over the bridge from Contra Costa County, by way of San Francisco County, to work with us in San Mateo County.  My first thought was, what the heck does shelter-in-place even mean?  Clearly, I had some catching up to do. So I googled it. 

Veterinary care was listed in the mandate as “essential work,” but clinics were asked to limit services to emergency care only and cancel all elective care. I asked myself whether we were truly an essential care facility as a physical rehabilitation and holistic wellness center.  Were my patients critical or could they wait a few weeks between treatments?  

I wanted to do my part and follow local health officials’ pleas to ‘ #Stay At Home/ Help Save Lives’.  I listened to live news briefings by the Mayor of San Francisco who shared the podium with the director of the Department of Public Health and I heard them loudly and clearly: all businesses not essential to the operations of the city were to close immediately to flatten the curve. It could mean the loss of countless lives if we did not.  

Truthfully, I was blindsided. It hadn’t occurred to me that I personally would be asked to cease my work, close my practice, and stay at home in order to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.  I quickly surveyed my rehabilitation colleagues to see what they were doing.  I learned that those associated with emergency care facilities remained open, while others, including rehabilitation services at UC Davis, were closing. 

Then came more questions. If we stayed open for essential rehabilitation services, what was safe enough?  How could I best protect my staff, my human clients, and myself if we continued to see clients in person and handle patients?  Could the virus spread on animal fur?  Could we contract it from an asymptomatic client?  Could I unknowingly carry the virus myself and transmit it to a client who became seriously ill or, even worse, died?  

With all this in mind, would it be the right decision to remain open? I had to say no. Three close friends had already lost loved ones to COVID-19 and I myself had lost a veterinary school mentor who contracted the virus early in the pandemic and quickly died from it. These terrible losses felt too close to home to say, ‘Oh, it couldn’t happen to me.’

Then came the ever changing guidelines regarding masks.  Should we require our clients and staff to mask up?  Was a six-foot social distance safe enough, along with extra hand sanitizing?  Was it selfish for me to keep and wear the N95 masks I had left over from volunteering at the Camp Fire when front-line human healthcare workers were running out of these and clearly much more at risk of COVID-19 exposure? I grappled with these concerns during the early days of Shelter In Place. 

Then, on March 23rd, I learned that I’d been exposed to a client who had unknowingly been exposed to a co-worker who tested positive for COVID-19.  We immediately closed our clinic doors joining other veterinary specialty services who had already deemed themselves elective or not “essential to the immediate survival” of their patients. We knew our care improved and often extended our patient’s lives, but for most, we could not say that it was essential to their survival.  

It was a relief to make this decision and do my part to protect my staff, my family, and the larger community. Yet at the same time, I was concerned as the owner of a small independent practice. Each time, the shelter-in-place order was extended, I wondered how we would weather the closure.

During the two-and-a-half months we were closed, our practice continued to offer patient care through contactless prescription refills, phone calls, and video conference appointments.  Once we officially reopened along with other elective medical providers, we adopted strict COVID-19 safety protocols, seeing our fur-bearing patients inside the clinic while their humans waited outside in their cars or observed from an outdoor waiting area. For those patients who do best with their humans at their side, we even created an outdoor exam room on our patio.  

The biggest challenge going forward continues to be the separation of our animal patients from their humans.  We have implemented new ways of providing ‘fear free’ care to our animal patients.  We take great care not to restrain our patients for treatments and had previously relied on clients to assist in maintaining their animals’ comfort during appointments. We now spend more time building trusting patient relationships, especially with new animals, providing them with extra treats, playing fun games, and allowing them to participate in therapy at their own pace. This has reduced the number of daily appointments, but allows us to safely care for our patients, clients, and staff.  

Another big challenge is the significant increase in requests for new patient appointments at a time when we’ve reduced the number of staff on site for human safety and social distancing. And it’s not just our own practice. Across the board, the demand for veterinary services has spiked with many more people now working from home and a growing number of pet adoptions. 

We continue to offer video conference appointments allowing initial mask-free face-to-face conversations, followed by in-person evaluation and treatment of our animal patients. Their humans watch from outside our gated facility, similar to parents watching a child’s ballet lesson from outside the dance studio through a window.

As long as we are able to remain open, we’ll continue keeping our animal patients comfortable, mobile, and living their highest quality of life for as long as possible. At the same time, we’ll stay vigilant in protecting our human clients and ourselves from this highly contagious and deadly respiratory virus.  

Stay safe and stay home unless you must go out, and then please wear your mask.  Together we will beat the coronavirus and live to see the other side of this global pandemic.