What is a Veterinary Emergency?

What is a Veterinary Emergency?

by Jim, - Manager, Bellalago Veterinary Hospital

Did you know we see emergencies during our normal business hours?  Many people don’t.  I wanted to take a moment to put a spotlight on this because when time counts, you don’t want to be traveling great distances or wondering where to go. 

We are a full service veterinary hospital and have a full treatment area and surgical suite in the back.  Most people don’t think that we’re that big because of how small the front looks, but half of our hospital is actually out of sight behind the exam rooms.  We can stabilize and treat many emergency conditions right here. 

Some people become aware that we take emergencies when they come in for an appointment and we’re running behind.  Unfortunately, there is no way to plan for emergencies.  If there was, then would it still be an emergency?  Most people understand the delay, but some people do not.  However, if you really think about it, you’d want the same priority treatment of your beloved pet if it was having severe problems.  For that reason, we always take real emergencies before appointments.

This brings me to my next point which is what is a real emergency?  Anyone with children probably already know what a real emergency is as the list is very similar.  Emergencies include

• severe vomiting and/or diarrhea,
• inability to urinate,
• uncontrolled bleeding,
• heat stroke,
• difficulty breathing (check your pet’s gums, are they pink or are they turning blue?  If they’re turning blue, it is an emergency!),
• anything with the eyes, and
• the ingestion of poisons. 

It also includes problems that aren’t common with children such as

• severe trauma (hit by car, blow to head, etc.),
• severe fight wounds, and
• a pet in labor for more than one hour without puppies or kittens being born. 

What isn’t an emergency is when you forgot to plan or are in a rush and need an appointment immediately when there are no appointments available.  We get people who want to be seen immediately even though their pet is not in life-threatening danger.  We’ve even had people that have demanded to be seen as an emergency to receive normal vaccines.  While we recognize that everyone’s time is valuable, we want to assure people that we will not take a non-emergency before your appointment. 

Emergencies cause enormous disruption to our normal schedule – hence the delays to our appointments I mentioned above.  We often times try to reschedule appointments and warn possibly effected appointments about the delay when possible.  This can be hard as some people have already left the home to travel here.  Additionally, some animals are sick and need to be seen.  Those animals cannot be easily rescheduled.  Because of these factors, emergencies can occur early in the day and have an impact on appointments hours later. 

We charge an emergency fee (when this was posted $85 normally, $100 in the last hour we are open) which we use to pay extra staff members, for staff to work through their lunches, or for staff to work late or into overtime to treat your animal.  This oftentimes changes their plans and keeps them away from the family longer than anticipated.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank our staff for graciously changing plans at the last minute to provide life-saving treatment to emergency patients.  I cannot overstate how thankful we are! 

Occasionally, we have people who demand that the emergency fee be waived.  Simply put, you’re asking us not to pay our staff for making these sacrifices to save your pet’s life.  That is simply not acceptable.  We understand that some people are distraught and funds can be tight; however, we are not charging this fee to make extra money or to take advantage of a situation.  Suggesting otherwise does not help the situation your pet is in and delaying your pet’s treatment while you argue is preventing timely treatment.

We all hope that you never need our emergency services, but you now know we’re here if you need us.  Check back for future posts about emergencies including how to prepare for them and what actually happens!

Stay tuned for future posts about preparing for emergencies and what happens behind the scenes during an emergency!

For more information - 

The AVMA's Emergency Care Links

AAHA's "When is it an emergency?"