It is super-weird. It’s like I wandered into a Cutco sales pitch or a TV ad from the 1970s: “This axe slices, dices, and juliennes! You never know when you may need to dispatch your pet when the vet is closed, and it also cuts through the toughest steaks like butter.”
I mean, the average person is more likely to injure themselves with an axe without taking proper precautions and then you’ll end up with a drive to human urgent care.
As a small animal ER vet, I suggest asking your GP vet to show/discuss what conditions are emergent and what are not. I’m sure not many horse people are going to do this, but we have any number of non-emergent “but there was so much blood” things show up in our ER ie a torn toenail, laceration on ear from dog bite, etc. Those can be fixed or at least held over till morning at home with pressure and common sense. Know your animals normal gum color, capillary refill time, temperature, and heart and resp rate. Touch your pets belly and push in, know whether they tolerate that or hate that on a normal day, know how firm their abdomen usually feels. Ask either an equine vet or small animal vet to show you how to check those things at an appointment.
Basic first aid for wounds is great - flush with saline or even water (not hydrogen peroxide). Clip fur if you’re able. Cover if you’re able (but in small animal if you’re bandaging a leg, you have to bandage to the toes to not cause distal limb swelling). Put a cone on the pet to keep them from licking the wound. Don’t give your dog or cat ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen. There are dog safe Meloxicam dosages, but dogs are dosed on weight, so your Aussie isn’t getting the same dose you are. NSAIDs have higher risk of nephrotoxicity and GI effects including ulceration and perforation in dogs and cats, so we dose on body weight and like to know kidney values before giving. You also can NEVER use two NSAIDs or an NSAID and steroid simultaneously in a dog or cat. Never. Dogs and cats can take gabapentin and tramadol, but check with your regular vet ahead of time to find out an appropriate dose.
Heat stroke will kill dogs very, very rapidly. They don’t know when to quit playing etc. If you suspect heat stroke (or know it is), cooling the dog off by hosing off then blasting the AC while on the way to the vet increases their chances of survival.
Please, please, if your animal has a chronic condition or abnormal bloodwork, get copies of records and bloodwork and keep them on hand either digitally or in print form. It is amazingly useful to either not have to repeat bloodwork that was done less than 24 hours prior OR to know that the elevated liver enzymes are chronic and are not related to the current problem. Your regular vet not being open to send us the info and us not being able to access the info are not cause to be mad at us or them. It’s just the way the world works, be prepared instead of pissy.
Along those same lines, work up a problem WHEN you notice it with your vet. I unfortunately diagnose a lot of diabetics once they are in diabetic ketoacidosis. They are then much less likely to survive and much more expensive to treat. Most owners have noticed a few week history of increased thirst/urination and even weight loss leading up to presenting in the ER with a pH of 7.0 and a glucose too high to read. Same story with kidney disease. Dental care as well. The reason your GP recommends a dental is to address issues before they become emergent. Untreated periodontal disease can lead to a painful tooth root abscess. Then your pet stops eating. All I can do on ER is antibiotics and pain meds and recommend you schedule that dental with your GP to get the tooth extracted. If you notice a change, make an appointment before it becomes an emergency. Your pet and wallet will thank you.
There are two pet poison services available if your pet eats something weird. You have to pay for the service, but they’ll tell you urgency and possible signs of toxicity. If you don’t have access to an ER vet, ask your vet ahead of time for a hydrogen peroxide dose, knowing that hydrogen peroxide causes gastric and esophageal irritation and erosion, so you literally may need to pick your poison.
Some legit, cannot wait till the morning or Monday emergencies…
Things that can wait…
If everyone with the bleeding toenail/limping/scratching/chronic diarrhea could stay home from the ER then everyone with true emergencies could get through much faster. But this is symptomatic of the bigger problem of vet shortages ie the UTI and ear infection. It doesn’t need to be treated in the next 12 hours, but it sure needs to be treated before the next available appointment in 2 weeks, so there you are in the ER.
Unlike human ERs, we have a right to refuse service even if that means sending you on a 4+ hour drive to the next closest ER. So if you come in and start screaming at people, you will be handed your animal and asked to leave. We lose so many support staff because of the environment clients create. My priority is taking care of your pet, but if you are a dick, unfortunately your pet loses because I will choose to support the people I work with by asking you to leave.
Similarly, if you have the where with all when you’re leaving the house, grab any of your pets meds, a book and phone charger for you, and a snack for you.
Alright, hopping off my soapbox now. I hope some of this info was helpful.
Thank you @LittleMare very helpful post. I never considered keeping a copy of my older kitties bloodwork on me digitally, but it makes a lot of sense.
That was an awesome post, @LittleMare. I don’t know if we still have pinned posts on the forum, but that would be a great one.
Several years ago (when there was a PRINTED newspaper!), there was an article saying that “local” vets would no longer take after-hour emergency calls. Instead, we pet owners were directed to an emergency clinic about 50 miles away (from me). I have had call to use that clinic twice, one for a 70-lb. dog that suddenly collapsed and couldn’t walk (I carried her across a ballfield) and another for a cat who had gotten her leg caught in my kitchen table and dislocated it. (I thought it was broken.) The dog had recovered by the time we got there, and the cat’s leg was put back in place and wrapped.
Blue Pearl has another emergency clinic in the same area. My cousin, whose dog was experiencing distress, took her dog there because of her vet’s recommendation. Blue Pearl was happy to offer my cousin coffee from their Keurig machine but weren’t happy to have to call in a staff member to diagnose her dog’s problem. My cousin stated that the results were nothing-to-write-home-about, much more expensive than the other emergency clinic, and the put-upon attitude of the staff, well…
My cousin and I have decided that our option will always be the other emergency clinic, although Blue Pearl is supposed to open a clinic soon about 15 miles from where I now live. And for what it’s worth, Blue Pearl is open Sunday-Friday, closed on Saturday, open from 7AM-10PM. So much for “after-hours” emergency care.
I live close to our downtown. My house is about 20’ from my neighbors on either side. If I, as someone said upthread, were to pull out a gun to euthanize a pet, the local police would be on me STAT. Again, like someone else said, the euthanization might be seen instead as an act of ‘animal cruelty.’ On top of it, it is Highly Frowned Upon to bury a pet on your property in our city. Having an only 40’ x 140’ lot, there isn’t a lot of room anyways, especially as someone who owns multiple pets.
If I HAD a gun, I supposed I could take my pet out to, say, where i board my horse and shoot it there (although my BO is EXTREMELY tender-hearted). However, I would still need to dispose of the body. (I’m pretty sure my BO doesn’t want a pet cemetery on his property.) There is a mortuary 4 blocks from my house that, also, does pet cremation where most of my pets have been taken after dying. I’m not sure what its reaction would be if I brought in an animal with its head blown off.
Luckily, most of my pets have died either on their own (expected and not) at home, or I have been able to bring my pets in to my vet during regular clinic hours. The worst that I have had to wait was for a horse three years ago. We all knew that he was dying. It came to a head when he peed out a gallon of blood on a Saturday. I called the vets’ answering service, and I was told to wait until Monday. Highly unusual, as they are there immediately for other life-threatening instances (as when the same horse coliced BADLY a couple of years before). Maybe because this same horse had lived 9 months with his terminal cancer, they didn’t consider it an emergency.
Just my stories and viewpoint.
This is probably exceedingly rare but my dog actually had a case of cellulitis with limping.
One thing I’ve learned that may help someone is that, at least as of a few years ago, if your dog had a Home Again microchip, you can call the ASPCA Poison Control hotline for free. They have veterinary toxicologists there. At one point my dog ate a plant and threw up. I called and they had me send a photo of the plant and told me what the plant was and that the plant was not toxic but could cause GI upset. I will register every microchip with them from here on out because it is so useful. I was able to avoid a confusing trip to the ER with probably a lot of tests.
I believe it is only if you have the membership with them, not just it being registered.
LittleMare, I love you.
Don’t bring your lame dog to me on the ER service either.
Awesome! Thank you! Publish this as a blog on coth!!
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
