When was the last time you needed to take a dog to the veterinarian after regular business hours – you know, in an emergency? In the past few years alone, I’ve taken dogs (foster and my own) to the closest hospital providing 24-hour emergency services at least a half dozen times, for a puppy with a suspected broken leg (it wasn’t), a puppy with an injured eye (remember Odin? He eventually had to have the eye removed, despite prompt and lengthy treatment), and several times for my dog Woody, who has had after-hours treatment for lots of things.
NOTHING happens to Woody during regular hours! He’s needed stitches (cut his back legs on something while skidding to a stop playing fetch), swallowed a small tennis ball (they made him vomit it up), had a suspected bloat (he had gotten into the foster Great Dane puppies’ food and ate way too much, but was able to start pooping and get relief while we waited for service), and one night, he tanked with a sudden fever and vomiting and diarrhea (not sure what that was, but he was hospitalized overnight on fluids and antibiotics and recovered).
It’s been a couple of years since he’s needed emergency care – KNOCK WOOD – but if you have an accident-prone dog like Woody, take note: Many veterinary hospitals who ordinarily provide 24-hour, emergency services have begun suspending those emergency hours and overnight service. In my area alone, the closest three hospitals I could take a dog or puppy to in the middle of the night have suspended overnight service indefinitely. All three are citing staffing shortages as the reason for this. If something happened to my dog tonight, I’d be driving about 80 miles to the closest emergency vet hospital still operating overnight – and, presumably, so would a lot of other people whose hospitals did the same. The domino effect here, alone, is terrifying to ponder, with so many cases flowing to a few concentrated emergency-care providers.
I was first alerted to this by a friend who forwarded an email that one of her training clients had received from the emergency care provider in our area, stating that the hospital was closing at 9p.m., and no longer available for emergency care until 7 a.m. Since my trainer friend also provides boarding services, and needs to be able to take clients’ dogs for care in case of an emergency, she started calling around to see if the next closest emergency-care providers were available. That’s when she discovered that two more had followed suit and suspended their overnight emergency services. All three hospitals are citing staffing shortages as the reason for the suspension.
Shortly after I learned this, I saw an article (linked here) posted on a friend’s Facebook page, discussing the suspension of emergency veterinary services by a BluePearl Pet Hospital in North Seattle. Several friends of my California friend commented that the same thing was happening in their towns – in Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon …
So, just a heads-up: It might be worth a call to whatever veterinary hospital you usually go to in case of an overnight emergency, to check to see if they are still providing service after regular business hours. If they are not, it’s better to know now, so you’d know where to go in case of an actual emergency without a last-minute panic.
And also: Has this happened in your area? If so, please post a comment here.
There are two 24-hour emergency hospitals in my area and one top-rated veterinary hospital an hour away without traffic that was treating my dog for bladder cancer for 2.5 years. One Friday night recently, my little girl developed edema in her back legs and the lymph nodes in her groin were swollen. My husband and I were in a panic and called the one hospital closest to us – they said there was a 4-hour wait and directed us to the other hospital that is 25 minutes away – so I called them, they told me they were not accepting any patients, then referred me BACK to the hospital I just called. We decided to speed down to the main hospital that was treating my girl. So I call them ahead of time to tell them we’re coming…I’m placed on hold for 10 minutes when I called the Emergency line…someone tells me, “There’s no way we can see your dog, we’re really busy”. We get to the hospital and I run into the emergency area…and there was NO ONE waiting at all…NOT ONE PERSON, NOT ONE ANIMAL. They ended up treating my girl and we took her home, but I called her oncologist and told her what happened…what if other people were calling and being told the same thing? She was upset as well and promised to get to the bottom of the matter. Very upsetting.
Our 24-hr. emergency hospital in Rochester, NY will still be seeing critically sick or injured animals 24 hrs. The rest will be triaged. They said they will be doing video calls also. We have an urgent care available on Sat. and Suns. The waits are usually hours. Very tough to get in appropriately at my regular vet. I thought the situation was horrible until I read some of these others. I’m not sure why this is happening? I had no idea there was a shortage until recently. Now it seems out of control. Very worrisome. And costs are horrendous. Thankfully I have pet insurance now. Best thing I ever did.
Emergency services “centralized” on Vancouver Island some years ago. There is an Emergency Clinic in Nanaimo that services the entire mid island region. For it is a drive of about 1 hour, depending on traffic, over a mountain pass which can have snow and ice in the winter. I’ve recently heard that in the last few days, they are understaffed and trialing cases.
One local vet clinic had two vets, both have retired, sold the practice to a vet who is on her own. Big shortage of Veterinarians and Vet Techs all over Canada.
Yes, this is happening in the Upper Valley and Lake Sunapee regions of NH.
And the local actual ER clinic was even turning away patients recently due to lack of staffing. Scary times
Yes. Happening here on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It’s an hour drive and a trip over a toll bridge now.
It has happened also in rural northern Il. My vet stopped providing after hour care for small animals, but will still do after hours equine care. Closest E.R. is 50 min away with subpar care at a great expense. If I have another emergency I will make an hour and a half drive to a small er vet that provides great care and has reasonable prices. I think it’s a shame that we cannot rely on local business to take care of us, esp when we’ve been clients for 30 years +, but to be fair, my vet has had problems getting another vet on staff
After spending 7 hours in our local emergency clinic in Lancaster PA on July 4th I learned from someone in the car next to me that other nearby clinics weren’t accepting patients due to the overflow. I also learned that in Philadelphia the wait at the 24/7 clinic that I have used for specialists had an 8 hour wait and they are experiencing the same thing all over Philadelphia, even at the Veterinary schools. No one has just one answer, but it appears that we are short on veterinarians and other staff at these clinics. And the protocols are getting more difficult to enforce and the staff are very stressed.
My dog injured his paw (possibly broken) recently and the first appointment I could get with my vet was 2 weeks out. They did manage to see him 2 days after the initial call as they had a cancellation. I checked emergency clinics/hospitals in the area after the fact. One had shortened hours so no middle of the night (closed at 10pm). One indicated they were extremely busy as another hospital in the area had closed (north Seattle?). The third indicated they were 24 hr emergency. However, on NextDoor, someone was looking for an emergency vet and had been turned away from that hospital. These are the 3 located closest to me in Snohomish County (north of Seattle/King County). I feel my vet hospital is for wellness only as there are no same day appointments available, but in the past it was usually 1 week out, definitely not for emergencies.
Same here in Dixon, IL . It doesn’t matter if you have been a faithful client for 30+ years. You will need to drive from 1-2 hours from your home. And then wait at least 1-2 hours after being evaluated depending on how “critical” your pet is. To an owner, that’s upsetting!
i feel like this is an emergency, i could not find a vet to see my dog on an emergency basis and the few that were taking animals there was a 4-6 hour wait, with no guarentee your pet would be see. I had to take my dog home after going to three emergency hospitals and hope he got better. I did make an app. with his vet, even in an emergency, it was a three week wait.