On the comeback, Northway Animal Clinic expands hours for emergency pet care; also 25th anniversary

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

Northway Animal Emergency Clinic in Moreau is marking its 25th anniversary — but perhaps more importantly, it is finally nearing its original mission of providing off-hours emergency care for pets and other animals.

Covid “almost decimated us,” says veterinarian Michael Verra, president of the clinic’s Board of Directors.

Open only weekends since after Covid, the clinic will now be open nightly except Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and open all day and night on weekends and holidays.

“We want to be open the majority of the hours that the regular vets aren’t, and we’re now making that move again,” said practice manager Cindy Becker.

Dr. Verra said the clinic, just north of Northway Exit 17, was founded in 2000 by about 40 regional veterinarian-shareholders who together put up the funds for the stand-alone emergency care facility.

It opened in 2001 in what was previously Country Roads Saloon.

Dr. Verra says, “Our purpose is to be an extension, not a competition, for regular veterinary practices.”

He said all the shareholders are veterinarians within 70 miles of the clinic, most with their own practices.

The clinic lets vets tend to their practices without having to be available at all hours for patient emergencies, he said.

“It’s a quality of life issue, as well as quality of animal care,” Dr. Verra said.

At the time of Covid, the clinic was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Covid created tremendous burdens on regular practices,” Dr. Verra said.

With social distancing and other rules, he said the time required per patient doubled from 15-30 minutes to 30-60.

More people working from home got pets. “If I remember right, the statistics increased by about 40%,” said Dr. Verra.

“Regular practices were turning away people who needed their services because they physically didn’t have the time, and their staffs were being burdened, burned-out and lost.”

When they couldn’t get in to their own vets, pet owners would come to the clinic.

“We tried to make it a policy not to turn people away,” Dr. Verra said.

“That was probably not the wisest decision we could make. We ended up paying a severe price for it.”

Mrs. Becker says, “We lost a lot of staff. It was true burnout.”

“We never closed, but we steered the ship in a different direction to try to accommodate” — first shifting to days only, Monday to Friday, then being open only on weekends, she said.

“It’s been a roller coaster,” Mrs. Becker says, “trying to piece it together, where we could find people and what we could do, and it just wasn’t benefiting the community the way it needed to.”

The next nearest 24/7 animal clinics are in Latham or Burlington, Vt.

“Thank God they’re available,” Mrs. Becker says, but “it’s been so frustrating” to have to send so far for care.

Mrs. Becker said they see animals from about a 100-mile area. Patients come from as far as Lake Placid, Vermont and “from Latham-up,” including “the whole surrounding area: Corinth, Stony Creek, Warrensburg,” plus out-of-town travelers.

“It’s a win in the right direction,” Dr. Verra says of the added hours. “We have phenomenal staff; they’re very dedicated. It’s just the sheer number of staff that we need” that limits their hours.

“Ultimately our real goal is to go back to 24/7 care,” he said.

“Like so many small businesses Covid decimated ours. We’ve not given up. There were times we wanted to, but we were determined to go back to provide the level of services we wanted when we first started. That’s still our goal and still our commitment to the community.”

Mostly cats & dogs, but that’s not all

“We see cats and dogs, and depending on the veterinarian, any of the reptiles, birds, bunnies, hamsters. It’s a specialty, they call it exotic or pocket pets. So that depends on the doctor.” says Cindy Becker, practice manager of Northway Animal Emergency Clinic in Moreau.

“We do also help out with North Country WildCare rescued wildlife,” Mrs. Becker says, in emergency situations, not rehab.

“We had a mama snapping turtle. Boy, was she big. They guesstimated to be about 30 years old. She was loaded with eggs. We saved all the eggs, but she was really damaged. She got hit by a car. That was tough.

“We’ve had a crane. We’ve had hedgehogs, raccoons. One time, the lady brought in the biggest crate I’ve ever seen. Both doors had to be propped open. It was a fawn, a middle-sized deer. It had gotten hit by a car.” — Cathy DeDe

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