Mandurah Wildlife Rescue has teamed up with local business Your Mobile Vet to bring the first regular vet service to the Dawesville-based centre.
As part of the partnership, Your Mobile Vet team members Terrence and Tyrie McGlade will visit the centre every Friday morning to check on the animals and assist the volunteers.
The wildlife centre managed to secure a $40,000 grant through the state government’s Royalties for Regions program earlier this year to fund the service, which started two months ago.
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“It came a the perfect time, because we were desperate for funds and we really, really wanted to bring this vet service in but we couldn’t sacrifice money to feed the animals to put it across to the vet bill,” centre spokesperson Jane Danzi said.
“That money came in just at the right time and that meant that we could bring a really valuable service onto the site.
“We don’t have enough volunteers to be constantly running to the vet, so to have them on site providing that service saves our volunteers hours and hours and hours of running around.”
Although the vet service will now be at the centre every week, Ms Danzi said they were trying to encourage residents to take any rescued animals to a vet hospital before dropping them at the centre.
“They need to be vet-checked first, and then the vets will call us,” she said.
“They vets will see the animals for free, and they won’t charge the rescuers.”
Your Mobile Vet team member Tyrie McGlade said the team was happy to work with the rescue centre on a regular basis.
“To be honest, [the volunteers] are all quite switch on and clever, a lot of them know what they are doing for the most part, they’ve been doing it for a while,” she said.
“For us it is just to provide that extra step of expertise and knowledge and just to help provide a little bit more of a helping hand when it comes to knowledge that they may not have.
“It’s beyond me that all these people through all these years have donated their time, they’ve not been paid for it, that’s an effort, it’s pretty amazing.”
Mr and Ms McGlade, a vet and vet nurse respectively, started Your Mobile Vet two years ago, to provide a vet service on demand to people who couldn’t take their pets to a hospital.
The team operates mostly in the Mandurah area, but their services also extend to Coolup and Rockingham.
Call out for volunteers
Mandurah Wildlife Rescue spokesperson Jane Danzi said the centre was in urgent need for more keen volunteers.
In a bid to encourage more residents to give up their time at the facility, Ms Danzi said the centre was holding an information session at 1pm on Sunday.
Attendees to the session will be able to tour the facilities, learn more about the tasks volunteers carry out and get a taste of what is it like to become a carer.
To join the event, register online at Mandurah Wildlife Rescue website.
The centre is also constantly looking for financial donations to pay for utility bills.
For more information call Mandurah Wildlife Rescue on 95823938.