What To Expect

What to expect upon arrival.

Upon presentation, a member of our nursing staff will assess or “triage” your pet to assess his/her stability and for any evidence of obvious discomfort. We work off of a “triage” basis, working to stabilize more critical patients first, followed by arrival time. We strive to have your pet assessed by our nursing staff and emergency doctor and communicate a diagnostic and/or treatment plan to you within an hour. We have the ability to perform most diagnostics and treatments within our hospital, but some tests take can take a bit of time before results are available. We will keep you updated throughout the process.

What does my pet look like in the hospital?

The majority of the pets in hospital have a shaved place on one or multiple limbs for both sampling blood when necessary and for intravenous catheter placement for administration of medications and fluids. Some may even have their abdomen shaved for additional diagnostics, such as abdominal ultrasound, or treatments, such as abdominal surgery.

More critical pets may have multiple tubes and lines in place when they are in the hospital.  There are many variations of the tubes and monitors required for various ailments.  Most of these devices are only temporary and removed when they are no longer needed.