Visiting vets give Iqaluit pets a tune-up

JOHN THOMPSON

Maggie Lalonde is a 16-year-old with an abscessed tooth. Last week her cheek bulged out, and when she flashed her green eyes, everyone knew the pain she felt.

Just ask her owner, Chris Lalonde, who held the squirming grey-and-white cat in his arms on Monday afternoon as he left Iqaluit’s Nunavut Research Institute.

Meet Dr. Don Floyd and Dr. Susan Roleau, two veterinarians from Montreal who have visited Iqaluit since 1984, twice a year, on the invitation of the Iqaluit Rotary Club. Over the last week, the two vets set up camp in the institute’s cramped lab space.

How many pets have they seen this visit? “I have no idea,” said Floyd with a laugh — although the hallway outside is crowded with pet owners and the cages of cats and dogs, and the two have worked overtime for the last four workdays.

Inside the small lab room, Floyd inspects Allie, a plump border collie owned by Andrew Malloy.

“Allie’s going to go on a little diet,” Floyd said.

Floyd and Roleau spent most of their visit performing spays, neuters and routine check-ups.

Nothing too unusual, said Floyd, other than a cyst the size of a golf ball from the foot of one dog.

As for Maggie, she checked out fine. Earlier, Lalonde had given her antibiotics, and the swelling has gone down. Floyd wants her to return during their next visit, in six months, to see how she’s doing.

Lalonde hadn’t settled the bill, but he isn’t worried. “Whatever it is, it costs less than flying her south,” he said.

Pet owners in Rankin Inlet also have a vet who visits twice a year. No such luck in Cambridge Bay, although the bylaw office does provide free rabies vaccinations.