An Animal Hospital Serving Maryland

An emergency vet is usually attached to a facility that specializes in emergency veterinary care though this is not always the case, unless it is a designated specifically as a 24 hour emergency vet facility. For the most part, he or she would operate in conjunction with your everyday local veterinarian, spending a lot of time being "on-call".

They can be accessed through a vet referral as well as a walk-in. Walk-ins are the more frequent of the two since animals don't injure themselves or get sick based on a schedule.

The emergency vet hospital is there for the late night, weekend, and holiday visits when your local veterinarian is just not available. Their service is as complete as any and they will provide your regular vet with a complete report upon his or her return. The goal of this is to seamlessly care for your pet so that there is no delay or lapse in treatment while the local vet's closed.

So What Are Veterinary Emergencies?

It's an emergency if your pet has difficulty breathing, is bleeding profusely, has been injured, is disoriented, is experiencing seizures, has difficulty urinating or has a bloated abdomen, (either with or without vomiting). You know your pet, so you'll know whenever there is a drastic change in its behavior or demeanor.

We like to say that any injury that is obviously not life threatening can be classified as non-emergencies. The problem with that is, animals don't complain and they may in dire straights without our knowing. The best bet is, if the animal shows any signs of distress or has been involved in any traumatic incident, have them checked out ASAP.

There is no price on peace of mind, never mind the fact that you may have just prevented an illness or injury from escalating.

How To Locate Emergency Veterinarian Websites and Locations

You have the vast resources of the internet at your disposal, use it. Here is a tip. Google is serving local information at the top of its results pages, so when you search for "emergency vet" on your laptop, Google shows results at the top of the page for vets local to your area. All based upon your computer's ISP (A unique identifying number very similar to a GPS location, though not quite the same).

A pet emergency hospital works on a first come, first served basis, according to severity of trauma. Even the smaller emergency vet clinics operate this way. Emergencies simply don't happen at appointed times. Call them to let them know that you are on your way and what type of injury of illness you suspect and go.

At the hospital, animal patients are triaged immediately upon presentation, priority being given to the more seriously endangered pets. Remember, these evets (as they are sometimes fondly called), veterinary technicians, nurses and admin staff, are specially trained in emergency medicine and triage. Shortly thereafter, a veterinarian examines the patient, provides a consultation treatment care plan and estimate.

The triage system used in these emergency vet care clinics are very similar to those in human hospitals. It enables the clinics to very accurately assess the severity of the problems and determine the treatment that should undertaken. Just as they are in human facilities, this system is a very effective tool for the emergency veterinarian.

As we mentioned before, accidents don't happen on schedule. It is best to locate an emergency vet before they are needed. Visit and get to know them and be satisfied that your pet would be in good hands before adding them to your collection of refrigerator magnets. You pet may thank you one day.