FOR two Portland dog owners, the worst happened on Saturday – in separate incidents their pets were bitten by a snake and when they called the local vet clinic they were told there was no-one on call.

The Heywood clinic was similarly unattended, so both owners were told that they needed to drive about an hour to the nearest working veterinarian.

For one owner, Michelle Davey, her blue heeler/kelpie cross Hutchie, given the circumstances, was lucky and has since returned home on the mend from the Warrnambool clinic she was sent to for treatment.

Cal Carmichael headed to Hamilton with his dog Mason but did not arrive in time, he said the vet told him that if they had been there 10 minutes sooner, there would have been hope.

A representative of The Vet Group, which owns the Portland and Heywood clinics along with four others in the region, told the Observer that the company “deeply regrets” what happened, and blamed worker shortages for the gap in their after-hours roster.

In the days since their dogs were bitten, both Mr Carmichael and Ms Davey said they have felt angry and distraught at the situation they were left in, and have struggle with understanding how it is that a city of Portland’s size does not have all hours emergency vet care.

For the most part, they want to make sure that the public is aware of the situation.

Mr Carmichael said he and his partner were in disbelief as they drove to Hamilton just after 11am, from a friend’s farm outside of Heywood where Mason had been bitten, trying to keep him still to keep the venom from moving quickly.

“I just think that it’s not right that people can’t trust that their pet can get looked after here on the weekend,” Mr Carmichael said.

“We are heartbroken, we’ve lost a family member who could have been saved if we could have called out a vet.

“It’s not about money, we would have paid anything, it is just really poor when this is the norm for a town this size and the repercussions for a failure like this is that you lose your pet.

“I don’t believe it was a one off either, not from what I have been told.

“I hope that we as animal lovers can do something about this never happening again, it doesn’t do anything for our grief but hopefully it will save anyone else having to go through this.”

Ms Davey got to her partner’s house in Tyrendarra at around 6.30pm after a day in Portland, and noticed Hutchie looking unwell before eventually finding evidence of what had happened.

“I went around the back of the house and saw it, a four-foot tiger snake that had been killed,” she said.

“It was pretty confronting; I rang the vet straight away.”

“She said ‘we don't have any vets on call, you’re going to have to go to Warrnambool’.”

“I told them that I only have a pretty short time frame, at that point I didn’t know if the other dog had been bitten too, and she said that she understood that, but couldn’t do anything else.”

“If they had been open, it would have been 20 minutes and I would have felt pretty sure that they were going to be ok, but instead I was looking at an hour’s drive the other way.”

Neither Mr Carmichael or Ms Davey question the care from the vets and other staff who helped them that day, they are confident that local vets are doing their best given the circumstances, but they are both upset with The Vet Group that those circumstances arose.

According to Julie Tippett, general manager of the six clinics, the recent departure of a vet from Portland left holes in their vet on call roster.

She said that those gaps have now been filled in, but there was a larger issue the industry is facing.

“We need vets in the Portland area desperately, and we're looking at it very seriously - what's happened that's been very heartbreaking to us.

“We're doing everything to endeavour that we get somebody there.

“It's not been easy, and it's hard to work to see the unforeseen situations that we just wouldn't want to happen to anybody.

“We definitely want to have that roster covered for our after hours, there's no doubt about it, and that's why we're doing the two months in advance, so it's all locked in, and if we have gaps, then we've got it in advance to organise what do,” Ms Tippett said.

“The only solution we had on the weekend was at least have a vet on the other end of the phone that could talk to him that was on call in our Warrnambool office.

“But that’s not ideal obviously, it’s not even sustainable.”

Particularly in Portland, The Vet Group are struggling to fill vacant positions, running currently with two full time and two part time vets.

“Seriously, if we could have four full time it would be a huge difference to looking after the well-being of the animals.”

Ms Tippett said that if they could find the staff, this is something that the company would support.

The Vet Group have been advertising positions at the Portland clinic but have struggled to sell Portland as a desirable destination in what Ms Tippett said is a global shortage of vets.

The Vet Group took control of the Portland clinic four years ago, and has been unable to fully staff it throughout and have limited opening hours to weekdays only.

“We wouldn't have even entered into Portland if it wasn't a case that there was opportunity for getting there and doing bigger and better things.

 “It's just I can't get (vets) there, and I can’t get them to stay.”

“It's right across the board, we have to go above and beyond to look after the vets to make sure that they want to stay.

“We have shortages over the other side (of the region) where we've had to do exactly the same thing.”

For now, the Portland clinic remains closed on weekends and public holidays, with emergency care teams on call outside of opening hours.