Sonoma County veterinarians adapt amid coronavirus pandemic

For Santa Rosa resident Katy Reihl, the cough that plagued her petite gray cat, Ninja, on and off for the past four years remains a mystery.

Antibiotics given to her by a veterinarian at the onset of Ninja’s illness weren’t a permanent fix, and a $1,000 worth of tests to find out what was wrong were financially out of reach, said Reihl.

But when Ninja’s cough appeared to have progressed into something more serious late last month, making it difficult for her to breath, Reihl, 26, made the difficult decision to euthanize Ninja, her companion of 16 years.

It was a process Reihl hoped could be done at home, though she was concerned that social distancing requirements intended to stop the coronavirus’s spread would make the option difficult to come by.

“I kept saying to my sister, ‘I wish this wasn’t happening at all, but I really don’t want it to happen right now because I want her to have a peaceful end to her life,’?” Reihl said.

After calls to local animal clinics, a mobile veterinarian agreed to squeeze Ninja into his schedule to perform the procedure last week after hearing her symptoms. Instead of giving Ninja the heart-stopping injection inside her home, however, he asked to do the procedure on her front porch. It was one of several precautions he took to protect both himself and Reihl, including separating Reihl from her cat as he gave her the final injection, she said.

“I feel the way she was able to pass was the best scenario it could have been at this time,” Reihl said.

Ninja’s procedure is just one example of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the veterinary profession, a job regarded as an essential business in California during the statewide shelter-in-place orders.

For example, recommendations by the American Veterinarian Medical Association, the California Veterinary Medical Board and the state’s department of public health all urge veterinarians to limit treatment to clients with urgent and emergency cases during the pandemic.

The guideline serves as a means to limit the risk of exposure to the virus among veterinary clinic staff and their customers, said Dr. Lisa Schweid, co-owner of Wikiup Veterinary Hospital and president of the Redwood Empire Veterinary Medical Association. Serious cuts, rashes and signs of intestinal issues are types of cases her office is still seeing, while appointments for services like nail-trimming and routine health checks have stopped for the time being, she said. Staff members wear masks throughout their shifts and regularly wash their hands.

The guideline also reduces the amount of medical supplies and personal protective gear, such as masks and face shields, that veterinarians use during the pandemic, items currently in high demand at hospitals treating people with the coronavirus, Schweid said.

“Lots of the (personal protective gear) that human hospitals are using are the same that would be used in veterinary procedures,” Schweid said.

Schweid’s practice implemented a curbside service for the patients she and her staff are treating, a trend she’s seen adopted by veterinarian offices throughout Sonoma County since mid-March, when the local shelter-?in-place orders began, she said.

The process begins when a person pulls into the parking lot of her office and phones staff to let them know they’ve arrived for their pet’s appointment. Masked veterinary technicians then collect medical history and information about the pet’s visit curbside, while the person is in their car, before bringing the animal inside the building for their exam. After the exam, the veterinarian who saw the pet either calls or meets with their owner outside to debrief them about what happened during the exam and the next steps.

Dr. Shannon Cloninger, co-owner of Sebastopol’s Analy Veterinary Hospital, is also using curbside service. While it was important to minimize the risk in contracting the virus among her staff, there were some downsides to the new process, because veterinarians can gain helpful insight from talking with the pet’s owner face to face during an examination. Those meetings often serve as an opportunity for veterinarians to share crucial information that help clients better understand their pet’s ailment.

“We spend a lot of time in exam rooms drawing pictures, or running to a computer to pull up a picture,” Cloninger said. “We don’t have access to that now.”

Cloninger also noted that, unlike the use of telemedicine for human patients, which has seen a surge since the pandemic began, regulations by the California Veterinary Medical Board on virtual examinations have made it difficult for veterinarians in the state to take advantage of the technology in the same way, Cloninger said.

The current rules allow veterinarians to treat patients over phone or video only if they’ve examined pets in the past year, and only for the same issue, she said.

“If I saw a dog six months ago for an ear infection but now it’s limping, I cannot do the (virtual) exam,” Cloninger said. “Telemedicine, in my opinion, has some limits, but right now it would be nice to be able to use it more than we do.”

Both practices have seen a decrease in business since the local shelter-in-place order took effect March 18, most likely a result of restrictions around nonurgent or emergency services, Cloninger and Schweid said.

Schweid estimated the number of appointments they have on any given day has dropped by about 20% compared to before the pandemic.

At the Analy Veterinary Hospital, veterinarians have cut down the number of days they work per week from four to three due to a decline in appointments.

“We have been able to keep everyone employed,” Cloninger said of her staff. “But I have a lot of friends who have had to lay off their staff.”