Common Questions

In order to quickly assess each patient and determine stability, monitor any changes in the status of your pet, decrease wait times and provide a safe work environment, we do all examinations, diagnostics, treatments and surgery in our treatment area without the client being present. Emergency cases can be very traumatic for clients to see and having clients in the treatment area would inhibit patient care for all our patients. We are a very busy practice with cases that often come in unexpectedly, and there is simply not enough room to have every client sit with their pet while we treat them. If your animal is stable, and you would like to wait with your pet in an exam room, please inform the technician and we will have you wait there until a doctor is available. This can increase your wait time at our hospital, but we will do our very best to treat your pet as quickly as possible.

Just like a human emergency room, we do not take appointments. This means that many patients can arrive all at once and that can cause delays in the treatment of stable patients when critical animals come through the door and require immediate life-saving care. Each patient is triaged as they arrive and although we try to treat each patient on a first-come, first-served basis, this is not always feasible when a less stable patient arrives at the hospital.

All pets are triaged to see which patients are more critical than others. If another patient has been moved ahead of your pet, that patient has been found to be less stable than your animal and may require life-saving efforts.

An emergency hospital is very expensive to maintain. The hospital must be fully staffed with emergency trained veterinarians and technicians, whether two patients come through the door or twenty. Maintaining this state of readiness and a state-of-the-art hospital with the latest equipment to treat every possible emergency that comes through the door is very costly. We do our best to offer affordable emergency services but emergency care is typically going to be more expensive than your primary veterinarian for these reasons.
This hospital is not government owned or subsidized (like county hospitals). We are a private business. We must charge for the services and care that we provide in order to stay in business and provide care for all our patients that need us.