After death of west Quebec veterinarian, Ontario vets hope to help owners of large animals there

Standing next to his pickup truck packed to the brim with a portable X-ray machine, surgical kits and medication, veterinarian Dr. Eastman Welsford is hoping to drive his office on wheels into Quebec very soon.

A veterinarian at two clinics just outside Ottawa, Welsford makes house calls to properties across parts of rural Ontario.

But since the fall, alongside his colleague Dr. Jean Cyr, he's spent months working toward getting his licence to practise in Quebec.

Submitting the final paperwork — a take-home exam — this week, they are hoping to get the green light to help hundreds of Quebec animal owners in the coming months as they deal with a long-standing large-animal veterinarian shortage, intensified following the death of Dr. Andrea Kelly last year.

Welsford says Kelly's suicide played a big role in why they began the licensing process.

The young vet, who was only 36 when she took her life, was the only Ontario veterinarian who served the Quebec side of the border — taking on close to 600 clients all on her own.

"It's absolutely heartbreaking and devastating to lose what really is a colleague and, to so many people, a friend," said Welsford, who is four years out of veterinary school.

"Hearing about Andrea and the struggles that she had been through, [I know] that at any point it could be anyone of us that faces a similar dilemma and feels that way."

One of Kelly's former clients and the president of the Pontiac Equestrian Association, Andrea Goffart, says that since the veterinarian's death, she's had to load her horses up on a trailer — pay $150 for gas — and drive them an hour to the nearest clinic that would take them, in Russell, Ont.

"I just do what I have to do, so I don't really think about it," said Goffart. "[But] knowing that there's somebody there that's on call [who] can legally come over would make a huge difference."

A few weeks ago the equestrian association organized a vaccine day — when a veterinarian from another Quebec region drove around to properties in western Quebec to give necessary spring vaccinations to animals without a veterinarian.

Pascale Leclerc-Sirois accompanied the veterinarian to all 19 properties, where they vaccinated 56 horses.

"I would say that from their 56 horses, probably 51 were Andrea Kelly's patients," said Leclerc-Sirois, adding that, faced with the shortage of local vets, many clients have been choosing to ship their horses to Ontario for care.

"But if your horse can't ship or is in a state where you can't ship, then you're stuck."