About Snowshoe Home Vet

Dr. Brenna Sakatch offers both conventional western medicine & evidence-based holistic care on a mobile basis to give your companions a comprehensive approach to their health. We strive to work alongside your family veterinarian – by offering integrative in-home care.

Snowshoe Home Vet provides in-home acupuncture, integrative medicine & home euthanasia services to dogs, cats and rabbits in north Calgary, Bearspaw, Cochrane, Red Deer, Carstairs, Cremona, Didsbury, Innisfail, Olds, Bowden, Penhold, Sundre, Trochu, Three Hills & surrounding areas.

Our Integrative House-call Practice in Central Alberta

Integrative veterinary medicine is a term used to describe using a combination of modern western medicine to treat disease, as well as complementary therapies including acupuncture, supplements, food therapy and emotional enrichment. Integrative medicine includes slow medicine philosophy – investigating multiple aspects of a patient’s life to arrive at the most comprehensive plan for their health, and taking adequate time needed to do so. Acupuncture (a branch of traditional chinese medicine) has a longstanding use for a variety of ailments – pain, skin issues, behavioural changes, immune-mediated conditions, cancers and other ongoing diseases. More information about what integrative services we offer can be found here.

For animals with anxiety and other behavioural concerns, we can offer consults in the home to help minimize the fear and stress animals are affected by when it comes to veterinary & care procedures. We may prescribe pre-visit medications to help further reduce fear and stress for both at-home visits, and future in-clinic visits with your family vet. We follow the AVSAB & ACVB‘s position statements on behaviour, as they follow the most up-to-date science on behaviour and welfare.

Palliative care refers to the practice of making a pet’s final years as high quality as possible. While we know that pets do not live long enough, palliative care provides a means to enjoy more time with our pets while addressing both their physical and emotional comfort before a decision is made to say the final goodbye. We address this through both western medicines and holistic therapies as needed.

For in-home euthanasia, we aim to make your pet’s passing as peaceful as possible. We are flexible in offering evening and weekend euthanasia appointments so that everyone who wants to be present with their pet during their final moments can be. We do not offer convenience euthanasia (convenience euthanasia putting a pet to sleep because you just no longer want a pet who is otherwise healthy). If you are unsure if it is time, you can also request a quality of life assessment before making the final decision. For more information about in-home euthanasia process, click here.

We DO NOT provide vaccines, surgery, dentistry or imaging services. We require that our clients have an ongoing relationship with a general practice veterinary clinic & emergency hospital of their choosing. For a list of nearby emergency hospitals, please click here.