Dr. Andrea Wells of Advanced Veterinary Specialists in Santa Barbara keeps her distance while meeting with a client and her dog outside the emergency veterinarian facility near downtown. “We ask clients to either call us from outside or from their car when they arrive,” she says of the new COVID-19 protocols. “One of our trained staff immediately meets them and their pet to obtain patient information and in emergency cases, rush their pet right back to the ICU while the client waits in their car.” 
Jaqueline Ramirez of Your Pals Pet Hospital in Santa Barbara collects a patient sample from a temporary lockbox outside the clinic. 
An Advanced Veterinary Specialists assistant waits with a patient. 
Your Pals Pet Hospital in the Magnolia Shopping Center has suspended full veterinary services during the coronavirus crisis in favor of telecommunication and limited interaction with patients.
Santa Barbara County veterinarians and animal health professionals quickly adjusted the way they operate in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several Santa Barbara-area veterinary practices changed check-in and examination protocols, modified business hours until further notice, and are postponing routine appointments like annual examinations, vaccinations and elective surgeries.
Others are using cellphones or telecommunication tools, and boosted sanitation and cleaning practices because of the novel coronavirus.
Advanced Veterinary Specialists, a 24-hour emergency and specialty hospital at 414 E. Carrillo St., sees more critical pets with complicated, urgent or multiple ailments, so staff are accustomed and prepared to see these animal with a full support team seven days a week — even amid the COVID-19 crisis, said Dr. Andrea Wells, a veterinarian and the clinic’s owner.
AVS instituted curbside service for pets to comply with social distancing guidelines aimed at reducing the possibility of transmitting the coronavirus between people.
“We ask clients to either call us from outside or from their car when they arrive,” Wells told Noozhawk. “We also have an intercom at the front door that links to our phone system and can speak directly to our staff when they arrive.
“One of our trained staff immediately meets them and their pet to obtain patient information and in emergency cases, rush their pet right back to the ICU (intensive care unit) while the client waits in their car,” she continued.
Wells says the clinic also has intensified its “already comprehensive cleaning.” AVS staff follows a checklist to keep things clean multiple times a day, and commonly used equipment and surfaces such as pens and medical clipboards are sanitized repeatedly.
Social distancing steps that AVS had been taking before Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order include communicating on the phone or outside at a distance.
Staff are equipped with gloves and use separate leashes for the pets.
A few weeks ago, Wells said, AVS elected to postpone elective procedures in an effort to conserve medical supplies and personal protective equipment so medical professionals treating humans would have more equipment.
AVS also is prioritizing critical cases while still addressing more chronic and stable patients, she said.
Medications are being prescribed as usual, she added. The clinic has in-house labs for more immediate test results, but main reference labs also are open, she said.
Wells said AVS is following local, state and federal guidelines, as well as recommendations of the California Veterinary Medical Board and American Veterinary Medical Association American Board of Veterinary Specialties.
“We have the same caring, trained staff and doctors,” she said.
According to a March 27 report from the American Veterinary Medical Association American Board of Veterinary Specialties, “While two dogs (Hong Kong) and one cat (Belgium) have been reported to have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, infectious disease experts and multiple international and domestic human and animal health organizations agree there is no evidence at this point to indicate that pets spread COVID-19 to other animals, including people.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “does not have evidence that companion animals, including pets, can spread the novel coronavirus,” according to its website.
Although there have not been reports of pets or other animals becoming sick with COVID-19 in the United States as of Sunday, the CDC recommends people sick with the coronavirus limit contact with animals until more information is known.
Veterinary practices are listed as “essential services” under the California Department of Public Health and state Department of Food and Agriculture, so the services can remain open during the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the state Veterinary Medical Association.
Your Pals Pet Hospital, at 5152-A Hollister Ave. in the Magnolia Shopping Center, ordinarily is a full-service veterinary hospital and grooming salon, but has sharply curtailed its practices — and gotten creative — to keep staff, pet owners and their four-legged friends safe.
As the coronavirus outbreak took hold, Your Pals utilized pet carriers and crates to get animals in and out of the clinic to limit human contact.
Dr. Bonnie Franklin, the clinic’s owner and Noozhawk’s pets columnist, said the procedure required pet owners to place their animals in the carriers and step back at least six feet, at which point staff would bring the animals inside. When the examination was complete, the process was reversed.
“We had a big rolling cage that they could put large dogs in,” she said, adding, “I decided after about a week and a half of that, we were just going to telecommunicate, which is what the CVMA (California Veterinary Medical Association) is recommending people do now.”
While full veterinary services are suspended, Franklin consults with pet owners over the telephone and staff handles medications, samples and food refills through a lockbox and temporary station.
Your Pals Pet Hospital is taking the precautionary measures because some of its staff have family members who are considered in a high-risk group for COVID-19, Franklin said.
“This is to protect the clients and the staff,” she said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
