Departments

Emergency

Emergency medicine in Veterinary Medicine closely parallels emergency medicine in the human field. Emergencies commonly arise from the same types of sources: Trauma such as dog fights, cat bites, being hit by a car, falling off a deck or balcony; Medical emergencies such as a diabetic crisis, seizures, severe dehydration from profuse vomiting and diarrhea, or toxicities: either accidental or environmental: overdosage with medication, pets ingesting household products or human medications, etc. Acute, severe changes in a pet’s status: heart failure, bleeding internally, etc.

The process of treating the emergent patient is therefore much the same as you have seen in an ER: triage, diagnosis and treatment. When a patient presents to the CARE Center ER, they will first be triaged to identify how critical they are. Patients will be treated in order of criticality, NOT in order of presentation. So the first thing that must be done is to determine IF they are critical. The patient is then examined in the appropriate order, and a diagnostic and treatment plan formulated. The emergency veterinarian will then discuss this plan with you, and cover any questions you may have.

If admitted, the emergency staff will call you if there is a change in your pet’s condition, or if there is new information to be discussed with you. Because we are fully staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you are always welcome to call in to ask about your pet’s condition, and our nursing staff will be happy to give you an update.

The ICU (Intensive Care Unit)

The major difference between our facility and a human emergency room is that CARE Center functions not only as an ER, but as an Intensive care Unit (ICU). At all times, our facility is not only receiving new emergencies, but also monitoring and treating the critical cases that have been admitted to our hospital. Some of these cases came in as emergencies, others were referred to us because of our critical care capabilities. So while you may have been the only client in our waiting room at 3a.m., the ICU was full of critical patients, keeping our staff busy.