Picture it: it's a lovely weekend afternoon and you're at the park, tossing the ball to your favorite four-legged pal. He or she returns to you and you notice blood. A lot of blood. Aside from panicking, what do you do next? Let's discuss. Last weekend, we had a scare with Pike. I opened up his crate to take him outside like I always do, but what happened next was far from routine. He was able to get up and walk out of his crate, but he couldn't move after that. He stood, rooted in that spot, just looking at me with his beautiful golden eyes. I responded in the way any normal pet owner would: I had a meltdown and started to hyperventilate. You see, he'd been to a pool party the day before. It was a daycare-sponsored event that I'd been so excited about. But had that event done something to make him sick? Did I unintentionally kill my dog? (I did not.) Was swimming in a chlorinated pool toxic to dogs? (It is not.) I was scared and could not shake the thought that I was somehow responsible for the situation we found ourselves in. It was 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. I knew that any area vets with weekend hours would start to open up at 8:00, so I sat down and began to compile a call list. I didn't limit myself to vets in the immediate area, either. I broadened my search to a 45-minute drive radius. And, for good measure, I created a backup list of vets that opened at 9:00. While I was making my list, the d00d was able to get Pike to allow an all-over physical exam. We found the issue pretty quickly—his feet were a bloody mess. And I mean that literally, not just in the British sense. He had chunks of skin missing and his pads were raw in places. As soon as the clock said it was time, I started calling. "Hi! Do you happen to have any openings this morning? Our dog has some pretty severe open wounds on his feet and can't move." I repeated this same message at least 25 times. Sometimes the person on the other end of the line was polite before telling me they could not help. Others would cut me off, tell me they weren't accepting any new patients, and would just hang up. Feeling hopeless and deflated, I did one final Google search. I'm not sure if I used different keywords this time or what the difference was, but I got a search result for a vet I was familiar with. When Beezy was a young pup, she went to daycare at a place located about 10 minutes away from my office. Part daycare, part boarding, part vet—they had it all. And now they had an Urgent Care Clinic! One quick call and we were on the schedule. Hallelujah!
Once we were home and I'd had time to decompress, I realized that the situation could have been so much less stressful had I been prepared. I mean, you can never fully prepare for an accident or emergency situation, but you should at least have a plan in place in the event one happens. When I chose our current vet, I'm pretty sure they had different, longer hours. And I'm almost certain they were open on Saturdays. But over the course of the last few years, those hours have changed. They're open super early in the morning, but close early in the afternoon. They're also closed on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, which, you know, leaves a lot of time for bad things to happen without any available coverage. Why not just change vets? Good question, and one I have actually considered. I live in a fairly small, rural area. Most of the vets are on the older side. There's not a lot of young blood moving in. And through my emergency calls, I heard over and over that none of them are accepting new patients. So I have to have a Plan B. And that Plan B is The Cleveland Road Animal Hospital located in Wooster, Ohio. Yes, it's an hour away from us, but that's a small price to pay for peace of mind. In addition to their new urgent care, they offer after hours emergency consultation services from a licensed veterinary professional, which will help determine whether you need a trip to an Emergency Vet, or whether a trip to the urgent care will be all you need. The one thing I want to point out is that there's a difference between urgent care and emergency care. It's sort of like with people. Sometimes there are medical situations that require urgent care—think hives, suspected UTI, or sprained ankle. But there are times when you need emergency care—suspected stroke or heart attack, a fall from the roof, or a bad car wreck. The same is true for dogs. So if you find yourself with a sick or injured dog, try to stop and assess the situation. Is it urgent or an emergency?
You should have an urgent care facility's information, including their address, phone number, and hours of operation posted somewhere that makes sense. Somewhere you can see it without having to search for it. Because when you're panicking, you will not remember "that place where I will totally remember putting it." You should also have an emergency clinic identified and have their information posted in the same location. As for us, we're all doing fine. Pike has resumed his daily walks, although we're holding off on any running sessions. He'll go back to daycare this week and burn off some built-up energy with his friends. And I feel a little better because I know that we have some emergency resources in our back pocket if we ever need them again. But fingers crossed that we don't. Until next time ... WOOF! Associated song: Urgent by Foreigner
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