Meet some on-the-go animal docs who make house calls

Ask Sue Spezza why she employs a veterinarian who makes house calls and she'll respond: "Do you have cats?"

Spezza has two — Smokey and Berf the Wonder Cat — and both pets and owner breathe easier since Spezza discovered a mobile vet service about eight years ago. While not a substitute for trips to the clinic, especially in emergency situations, Spezza prefers home visits for routine checkups.

"Taking (Berf) to the vet is as stressful on me as it is on her," Spezza said. "By the time we get there, the vet can't examine her. She's spitting, she's biting, she's hissing. ... It's just very difficult to give her her shots or have her teeth looked at because she's already mad."

By contrast, when Dr. Mikel Oswalt visits Berf in Spezza's West Seattle home, the 18-year-old cat sometimes thinks she's being pampered instead of examined. At least, until it's time for her shots.

Oswalt, a Mercer Island-based practitioner, is one of a growing number of veterinarians across the country with mobile practices. Though house calls were once primarily made in rural areas for large animals, these vets now make visits to high-rise apartments, suburban split-levels and everything between.

"These people are very highly revered by their clients. They really do serve an essential service," said Charlie Powell, spokesman for the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association. "People really bond to a vet that's willing to come and treat an ill pet in their home, especially if it's an older pet."

There are no hard facts or figures about how many traditional veterinarians offer house calls, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. The American Association of Housecall Veterinarians, however, currently has nearly 390 members in 39 states and anticipates 500 by this summer.

There are generally two types of these on-the-go veterinarians: Mobile vets drive a truck or van complete with tables to perform surgery or dentistry; house-call vets travel in a regular car but carry a large bag of supplies, and refer clients to standing practices for complicated procedures.

By this definition, Bothell-based Dr. Tina Ellenbogen would be considered a house-call vet — she carries "the equivalent of a doctor's black bag" in her Subaru Forrester but doesn't perform surgery. Most of her calls involve routine examinations, vaccinations, consultations and geriatric animal care.

"Often, you can assess (the animals) at home better than in an office — for instance, how they traverse the stairways or slick floors," Ellenbogen said. "We try to collaborate with people's regular vets, so you have expanded care. It's almost like being referred to a specialist."

From a business standpoint, there can be unique challenges to running a mobile practice.

"When you consider travel time, particularly in an urban area, that's time when a vet is essentially not making money and not serving clients," said Powell, the WSVMA spokesman. "If they can serve 10 clients a day by staying in an office or two in a morning by traveling, it makes more sense (financially) to have an office-based practice."

Carin Smith, a Wenatchee-based consultant who wrote a how-to book for mobile vets, said pet owners should be aware of scheduling and fees associated with in-home care.

"The client needs to understand that if I go to their section of town on Wednesdays and you want to see me on Thursday, I might have to charge a little more," said Smith, who no longer practices veterinary medicine.

"If I see your pet at your house instead of my hospital, you're going to have the same exam fee, but in addition you're going to have a trip fee."

Oswalt, the Mercer Island vet, can manage about four house calls per day, depending on how many animals she sees at each stop. One client has 12 cats and a dog — "that's half a day," Oswalt said.

"The majority of my patients are geriatric cats, because many cats hate to travel," she said. "By the time they get to be middle-age, the owners have pretty much said, 'I'm not gonna make you do that again.' "

A large part of her practice, as is the case for many in-home vets, is euthanasia for dying pets. An emotionally drained Oswalt once considered dropping out of the business after a particularly hard week of such visits.

"It had been all I had done for a week and I was very depressed," she recalled. Still, she recognizes the value of the service she provides.

"It's like hospice euthanasia," she said. "Many of us would prefer to go in our own homes with the people we love around us. For cats and dogs, it's the smells and the sounds that are important to them."

Ellenbogen, the Bothell-based vet, fields her share of euthanasia calls as well. But after an in-home visit, she sometimes can offer suggestions to help ill pets feel more comfortable at home awhile longer instead of putting them down.

"I think all house-call vets have seen animals that have lived a year or two longer than anybody thought," she said.

But it's those cantankerous cats that drive both veterinarians' mobile practices.

"People always say, 'I promised my cat I would never take them to the vet again,' " she said. "They don't promise their dogs."

Information from Newhouse News Service is included in this report. Pamela Sitt: 206-464-2376 or psitt@seattletimes.com