Mobile animal wellness clinic brings services to families without access to a veterinarian

A new mobile animal wellness clinic has been moving around Greater Sudbury this summer, providing veterinary services to families without the means to take their animal to a local veterinarian.

The Ontario SPCA and Humane Society has partnered with Greater Sudbury Animal Services, and earlier this summer they launched their Mobile Animal Wellness Clinic.

The mobile vet clinic travels to a different location each month for its Animal Wellness Days. Through pre-booked appointments, the clinic provides general wellness examinations and vaccinations for cats and dogs and, when necessary and requested by a family, end-of-life care.

The appointments are reserved for those who receive government subsidies or have an Indigenous status card, and do not have a relationship with a local veterinarian.

"We're trying to move [the unit] around the city and cover all our geographical locations where our services might be needed — so, the Flour Mill, New Sudbury, and we're working on a south end location to try and make it accessible to anybody," said Hope Lumbis, manager of the SPCA's Mobile Animal Wellness Services.

Lumbis said the wellness days take place over two to three days, and at a recent event in August, they were able to help 25 to 30 pets a day between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

She added the number of pets has increased since the pandemic, but veterinarian numbers haven't changed or diminished in some areas, meaning some families haven't been able to access veterinary care.

"It definitely is a big problem not only here, but around the country, to be able to access vets in a timely manner to make sure [pets] have those boosters in a designated amount of time to be able to be protected against the diseases around town," explained Lumbis.

Some families can't access veterinary care due to high demand or the inability to travel; others can't afford the service due to various circumstances.

Lumbis said the mobile wellness clinic gives qualifying families a chance to give their pets the care they need in a more accessible manner.

"We had quite a few at our last event, people that I don't think would have been able to provide veterinary care for their pets without having the unit there, whether it was people coming with their cats in a carrier in shopping carts or on scooters that didn't have the means to be able to go to a local veterinarian, and had to make the choice between feeding themselves or their pets."

She said the wellness days have made a difference in the community and they hope they can keep holding the events over the next few months.

"We kind of knew that this was needed around the city but you never know how it's going to be received or how it's going to go, and I think people have taken it really positively, and I think it's helped a lot of us kind of change our perspective on things too, especially the last event, as far as how we work with people in the city and what we can bring to them," Lumbis explained.

"So it's just been a really positive experience and it makes you kind of feel good at the end of the day to be able to help out."

The next Mobile Wellness Days event is set for Sept. 14 to 16 at Morel Park in Sudbury.

Lumbis said they're planning October dates to be at a location in the city's south end and more dates may be scheduled for November, depending on the weather. The unit will wrap up appointments by the end of the year.

When not holding wellness days in Sudbury, the mobile unit is parked in the Capreol fire station.

At the fire station, the unit performs up to 25 spay and neuter surgeries once a week on cats and kittens that are up for adoption.

"A lot of our animals that we're doing right now are from the local SPCA. We work with the city shelter and a lot of other rescues in Sudbury and also northern areas that don't have access to veterinarians at a high volume, so we have some that come as far as Timmins or Kirkland Lake," said Lumbis. 

The Mobile Animal Wellness Services Unit started in 2019 from money established from Pet Valu's Companions for Change grant. Lumbis said the unit was previously in eastern Ontario before making its way to Sudbury at the start of summer.

Lumbis said the City of Greater Sudbury has been supportive of the SPCA, giving them access to the Capreol fire station to park the mobile unit and working with the organization to find locations for them to hold the wellness days.

"During surgery days, we have a city shelter worker that comes and helps us. They've offered a bunch of employees as well for the event days to help with something as simple as carrying around carriers or helping the public out, so they've been a great support to us to offer whatever resources we need."

Lumbis added they currently rely on the work of one to two veterinarians for the surgery and wellness days, either locally or from southern Ontario, who travel to work. She said they hope to expand their service days to help more people and pets, but would need more veterinarians to help them with the clinic.

 "Our goal would be to be able to support, as best as we can, shelters, rescues and people who just don't have the means to be able to bring their pets in."