A new equine euthanasia service on the Vineyard is being championed by Island horse owners who say gaps in care have widened over the years due to the lack of veterinarians.

A trio of veterinarians on the Island recently started the new on-call service, providing coverage from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily for horse owners looking to ease horses into their final moments. In a message to the Island horse community, Dr. Cheryl DeWitt, Dr. Amy DeLisle and Dr. Corinna Barry said they wanted to cover this need as the Vineyard looks to bolster its care for larger animals.

“At the very least, we can see that there’s an euthanasia service,” Ms. Barry said in an interview with the Gazette.

Animal care has been harder to get in recent years after two veterinarians retired and closed their practices, leaving a small number of medical experts to handle the remaining Vineyard pets, horses and livestock.

The issue has been particularly hard on horse owners, who often rely on visiting doctors and need more planning to get their animals off-Island in an emergency. Ms. Barry moved to the Vineyard in the fall from Michigan and, after hearing pleas from the Martha’s Vineyard Horse Council, linked up with Ms. DeWitt and Ms. DeLisle to provide the new emergency service.

Laura Plunkett, a member of the horse council, said the new service is a relief for horse owners and can help take the strain off the veterinarians’ already overwhelming caseload. The horse council provided a grant, helping pay for the drugs, equipment and call forwarding service for six months.

“The situation has been really scary,” Ms. Plunkett said. “We don’t want any animals to suffer from any kind of delay.”

Many horse owners can recall their own horror stories of horses becoming injured and having few avenues to be put down. Animal control officers have been enlisted in the past, but it can be emotionally draining for everyone involved.

“It’s hard on the people doing it,” Ms. Barry said. “They are doing it out of mercy, but it’s hard.”

Sarah McKay, the executive director at Misty Meadows Equine Learning Center in West Tisbury, said end-of-life care for horses is something she thinks about a lot as someone who is responsible for an entire stable.

“It’s very reassuring,” she said of the new service. “It’s not a pleasant thing obviously, but knowing the support is there makes a huge difference.”

While the new service is getting up and running, the horse council has been putting on first aid trainings for horse owners. Ms. Plunkett said the next step to shore up equine care is to get more veterinarians on the Island. She said there are efforts to create a teaching hospital here where interns could care for horses while learning the ropes.

“We hope to bring resources together to fix the problem,” she said.

Horse owners looking to use the Equine Euthanasia Service of Martha’s Vineyard can call 508-906-6010 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The number will reach one of the veterinarians on duty.