Clinic a real animal house Busy Brewer facility aids pets after-hours

BREWER – Sailor and Blossom had a rough Saturday night.

The furry brother-and-sister team raced into the woods behind their Brooksville home and were rewarded with faces full of white porcupine quills – for the fourth time.

“They’re not very bright,” the dogs’ owner, John Powell said, settling in for a long night.

It would have been a much longer night for the twin Labrador retrievers and their owners, John and Dee Powell, if the new Eastern Maine Emergency Veterinary Clinic hadn’t been open, its doors glowing brightly in the dark Twin City Plaza in Brewer.

The clinic serves pets from throughout eastern Maine every night, and around the clock on weekends and holidays, giving a sense of security to worried owners, and some much-needed rest to the local veterinarians who own the clinic. It opened for business in mid-June and has been hopping ever since.

“They’re like kids – they always wait until the weekend to have a problem,” said Roanne Marzilli of Orono, who brought her Lab, Diesel, to the clinic with an infected ear Saturday night.

“If you think it’s something serious, but you’re not absolutely sure, you used to have to wait until Monday morning,” Marzilli said.

“The only other option was to get a vet out of his or her home,” added her husband, Vince.

Twenty-one veterinarians, scattered from Mount Desert Island to Lincoln, own the clinic, and direct their clients to it when their own offices are closed. Anyone with a sick or injured pet is welcome.

The clinic employs a full-time veterinarian, Dr. Elisabeth Broussard, and member vets fill in the additional shifts. Business has been so brisk, however, that the clinic is searching for a second vet to hire.

Early Saturday evening – with the two quill-riddled dogs, a Japanese chin named Toshi with gastrointestinal problems, and a sick basset hound puppy named Chester – was relatively slow.

“In about 20 minutes you’re going to see us beginning to rock the house,” said Elizabeth Strout, a licensed veterinary technician who commutes to work from Waterville.

By 9 p.m., she was right. The clinic had a full house. Every cage was filled with an ill pet.

“When it really gets busy, you’re doing like 20 things at once,” Broussard said.

In the next 10 seconds, Broussard zipped around the small room giving a shot to Chester, a pat to her own dog and official clinic blood-donor, Gypsy, and a kiss on the head and a gentle rebuke to a sorrowful, sore Blossom. “Oh you silly dog. You lost a battle,” she said.

“I like to be busy. I like to kind of keep things rolling,” Broussard said. “There’s rarely a day when you’re hanging around with nothing to do.”

As the phone rang continuously, the staff soothed frantic pet owners, giving advice and always inviting them to bring the pet to the clinic if they were worried.

“Something might not seem like an emergency, but do you really want to hear your dog coughing all night?” Strout said. “Most of the animals that come really need to be here.”

Worried owners drive their pets several hours to reach the clinic. Maine’s only other pet emergency rooms are located in Portland and Lewiston.

And the full gamut of medical problems has come through the clinic doors, from a critically ill diabetic cat shivering under a blanket, to the anesthetized Sailor and Blossom, sprawled on the floor snoring as Broussard and Strout plucked hundreds of quills from their mouths.

“They know, no matter what, they’ve got someone here able and willing to help,” Broussard said.

In just one evening, more than a dozen pet owners rushed in, then headed home for a good night’s rest – sleep they would have lost worrying about their sick pet and waiting for Monday morning.

“I hope I never see you guys again,” said Broussard, as Toshi and his owners headed home.

“Well, I can see you in the grocery store,” she added with a smile.

The Eastern Maine Emergency Veterinary Clinic is open Monday through Thursday evenings from 5:30 p.m. to 8 a.m., Friday evenings at 5:30 p.m. through Monday morning at 8 a.m., and holidays from 5:30 p.m. the evening before to 8 a.m. the morning after. The clinic is located in the Twin City Plaza in Brewer and can be reached at 989-6267.