We opened a London-Port Stanley Housecall service in 1997. Our vision was to practice veterinary medicine on the beach of Port Stanley, but we soon became too busy in London. Very quickly the amount of clients grew too big to attend to all the patients in a timely fashion.
Although the housecall practice "idea" is wonderful, it's impossible to help my patients without a "home base" within which to treat them. I still enjoy the change of pace, and I know my housecall clients appreciate the convenience.
As far as the pets are concerned, it still doesn't generally matter to them where they see me. Some don't like the needles regardless of where they see me!
Housecalls are available when time permits. However, a few hours are reserved on Friday afternoons for this purpose. In order to be productive, we strongly recommend healthy animals be seen routinely, as we cannot predict what is required when attending to a sick animal.
An exception to this rule is in the case of euthanasia. If a beloved pet needs to be euthanized, we must consider the best interests of the pet and it's family. Because of this, we perform many enthanasias in the home. It's a sad part of our job; however it may make that final time a little easier on the pet and their family.
