FAQs on Emergency & Preventive Care During this Historic Time

As you’ve heard and likely experienced, the pandemic has dramatically increased the demand for all types of veterinary care, from emergencies and urgent care to preventive care and puppy/kitten visits. We’ve had to make some tough decisions over the last year, but all of these have been made with our patients’ and community’s well-being in mind.

My pet is due for his vaccines but I was told you don’t have any appointments available for several weeks? Unfortunately this is the reality across the country. Because we’re seeing so many sick and injured pets in need of immediate care, we must reserve the majority of our appointments to help these pets get the treatment they need right away. Doing this has allowed us to continue seeing daytime urgent care and emergencies, unlike other practices that have had to refer out all urgent cases, which helps your pet’s ability to access care if needed. But this does mean that routine preventive visits are consistently booked out roughly 4+ weeks, so please give us a call as soon as you receive your pet’s reminder email or postcard to get an appointment scheduled or book online!

My pet needed emergency surgery and you referred me to Dove Lewis. Why? We do need to occasionally refer complicated cases to traditional ER facilities, particularly when emergency surgery or ICU care is required or when we’re at physical capacity for the number of patients we can treat in the hospital. If this happens to you, it means we’ve evaluated your pet’s condition and determined another facility is best suited to provide their needed care.

I thought you were a hospital? We are a hospital that provides daytime emergency care, as well as all the other preventive and illness services your pet needs, during business hours. We are not a 24/7 ER/ICU like Dove Lewis or Cascade Veterinary Referral Center, who have the facilities, veterinary specialists, designated ER/ICU staff and equipment on hand to treat all critical cases. While our doctors are skilled clinicians and surgeons, taking on certain critical cases would require us to reschedule an average of 6-10 appointments for other pets that need urgent care. Since all veterinary practices are overwhelmed, these pets would have a difficult, if not impossible, time finding care in a timely manner. Ultimately we believe that the best medicine is to refer 1 patient to a facility best equipped to handle their care rather than refer 6-10 that we can help immediately.