The plight of a St. Helena woman who watched her family’s dog die as she anxiously — but vainly— sought emergency medical help has raised an important question: Are Upvalley pet owners fighting the odds when it comes to getting prompt animal care when it’s needed most?

Wolfe’s dog Sasha showed signs of disorientation and illness for hours while Wolfe sought professional help and tried to help her. The dog died after two difficult hours, according to a letter Wolfe wrote to the St. Helena Star.

Her experience raises the question of whether getting a pet to a veterinarian under critical circumstances is more difficult Upvalley than it is in the southern part of Napa County.

Another indicator is that the number of vets in the more populous Napa area vs. the Upvalley is off-balance. The SBC Yellow Pages list 24 veterinarians in the Napa area as compared to seven in St. Helena, Calistoga, Rutherford and Pope Valley combined.

“It can be improved, absolutely it can be improved,” Dr. David Gold, of St. Helena Veterinary Hospital, said of the state of emergency care in the Upvalley. “It does get frustrating with the emergency stuff. Sometimes I get calls (from pet owners) who want to come in at 2 in the morning when they can’t get help anywhere else. If I get an emergency message, I call back; I don’t believe I’ve ever not called back. I do as much as I can.”

“It’s not that I don’t care,” Gold added. “But I can only do so much,”  

Wolfe criticized Gold because his emergency number provided only a recording that told her that if he did not call her back in five or 10 minutes it is because the pager malfunctioned (which he said he has “no way of fixing”).

“… If you have not heard from us after calling three times it may be because we are already in emergency,” Gold’s recorded voice message continues.

Wolfe then tried to call other vets, but could not reach one in time to save Sasha, who was an older dog.

Many vets offer home or emergency services, but few are on call 24/7.

There are, in fact, two emergency pet hospitals accessible to Napa County residents that provide care at all hours of the night. The Animal Care Center-Sonoma County responds to emergencies 24 hours a day, has a staff of 19 veterinarians, including a cardiologist, neurologist and a team of specialists and offers K-9 conditioning hydrotherapy. The Solano-Napa Pet Emergency Clinic keeps an all-night vigil, opening 6 p.m. and closing at 8 a.m. Monday through Friday and around-the-clock on weekends and holidays.

But there are degrees of accessibility.

Silverado Veterinary Hospital’s voice message referred Wolfe to the Cordelia facility, as it does all owners of sick or injured animals who call during off hours because. Office manager Jan Lazzara noted Cordelia is only 20 minutes away from its location in Napa.

“One of the reasons we like to do that is if we have a dog that is in labor and has to have a C-section you have to have a lot of hands to handle puppies and equipment,” Lazzara said. “The emergency clinic is set up to do stuff like that and is fully staffed.”

 Which doesn’t mean a lot to Gold, who said he can’t refer to the Cordelia hospital because it is 45 minutes from the Upvalley and pet owners would complain. Although five miles closer, the Sonoma County hospital takes even longer to reach than Cordelia.

Lazzara was sympathetic to both Gold and Shelley Wolfe.

“I can understand Dr. Gold,” Lazzara said. “He’s not picking up because he’s only one person and sometimes you can’t talk to people right away.

“But I also understand (Wolfe’s) frustration,” she added. “Whether she could have made it to Cordelia where they might have been able to save her dog I don’t know the answer. Maybe she could have gone to Santa Rosa, which is a half hour away. Depending on how bad (the dog’s condition) was, it might not have made it anywhere.”

Wolfe, however, insists that if she could have gotten a veterinarian’s response during the more than two hours she held her dying dog in her arms, Sasha would still be alive.

There is no immediate solution in sight.

“I think there are 10 animal hospitals in the valley,” Lazzara said. “It wouldn’t be financially feasible for any of them to open an emergency clinic.”