Every Fur Parents' Guide to Veterinary Emergencies

Be prepared for anything! This guide to veterinary emergencies equips every fur parent with knowledge on common signs, what to do, and when to seek immediate vet care.

As certified fur parents ourselves, we know how much you love your fur babies. You’re ready to do everything for your pets if anything happens to them.

Emergencies may rarely happen but when it does, you’re always caught off guard. Even though you’ve prepared yourself a hundred times and told yourself that you’re ready.

That’s why in this piece, we answered some of the basic questions about veterinary emergencies to help you handle these situations better. So without further ado, let’s get straight to the meat of this thing.

1. When is a situation an emergency?

Knowing what’s an emergency and what’s not is an essential skill that every fur parent must have. Because as parents, we tend to overthink things and make situations worse than they actually are. Panic always takes charge and clouds our judgment.

But if you know whether your pet needs emergency vet care or not, you’ll save yourself some trouble and some cash. Because you don’t have to drive in the middle of the night and pay an emergency vet fee for a condition that your regular vet can treat and is probably covered in your pet’s insurance.

There’s a consensus among pet doctors about what’s serious and what’s not. These are only some of the situations that need urgent treatment:

repeated vomiting or diarrhea, especially if there’s blood
very high fever
difficulty in breathing
not eating or drinking for a whole day
seizures
injury in a traumatic accident like fall or crash
injury due to an animal attack
choking with an object
bloated abdomen

Once you see your pets caught in these situations, drop everything and call an emergency vet immediately. It might be too risky if you’re going to wait for the normal hours of your regular vet.

2. What is an emergency veterinary?

If you’re a new fur parent, you’re probably used to contacting your regular vets for routine check-ups. And if an emergency happens, you’re likely to call them first. The problem is that they’re available only during office hours.

This is where an emergency vet service comes in. Since anything can happen, especially during the middle of the night, the best people to call during an unfortunate situation are the emergency pet doctors.

If there’s an urgent health matter that concerns your pet, below are your best options:

Full-service Veterinary Clinics

These clinics are just like your go-to animal centres that offer wellness exams, minor surgeries, and vaccinations. But they also have emergency care services.

They’re normally open during business hours, but they also employ on-call vets to attend to the needs of the pet in serious conditions during after hours.

24-hour Emergency Vet Clinics

These are facilities that are open 24 hours to attend to the needs of your pets. Whether it’s for routine check-ups or wellness exams. They also hire specialists so you can bring your pets that have serious illnesses or severe injuries.

There are also ambulances on standby so they can pick up large pets for medication or respond to urgent matters like injuries or choking.

After-hours Veterinary Hospitals

There are no routine check-up services available in these types of facilities. These hospitals are dedicated only to urgent matters and other emergency cases.

They are mostly open when other regular vet clinics are not. Like during the weekends, during holidays, and during after hours. They’re also open all day long so you can call them during emergencies or bring your pets anytime.

They employ specialists that will attend to the urgent health issues of your pets. They will help stabilize them or treat them if injured. But after the treatment, they will refer them back to your go-to vets for follow-up medications.