Know Your Local Animal Hospitals

When it comes to the most important things that you can do for your pet, one of the most important is knowing where the closest animal hospitals and after-hours emergency hospitals are located. While your veterinarian of choice is based upon how much you feel that they understand animal medicine, their reviews, the facility itself, and how helpful the staff is, the times when seconds count need to be planned on based upon proximity to your home. For this reason, we always suggest making a list of the closest pet health hospital or emergency rooms that treat animals to your home. The fact of the matter is going to be that many emergencies with regards to your pets are going to happen after the business hours of your local veterinarian of choice, and in those crisis situations, you are going to have to have a plan in place that takes as little time to execute as possible.

When you plan for emergencies around your home, you probably made a note of where the local hospitals and emergency rooms are located around your home, just in case a family member was to get hurt and need to be transported to the doctor quickly. Most people will suggest that you keep the address, direction to, and phone numbers of the closest hospitals to your home, posted on your refrigerator or in another convenient location. Additionally, taking a drive from our house to the local emergency room is a good idea so that every family member knows exactly how to get there in the shortest time, just in case, it is necessary. This same logic applies to your pets, so on that same note you might want to put the location of the local 24-hour emergency pet hospital, or if there is no emergency pet hospital near you, put the number of who to call where emergency care can be found. Make sure that each family member knows the location of the emergency pet hospital, and how to contact them in order to let them know you are coming in case of emergency. One thing that people fail to realize when they are planning for emergencies is that in a crisis time when seconds count, you are not going to have time to think straight. It is not the time to consult Google or the phone book looking for which veterinarians may be open after hours. You need to know exactly what to do as soon as the emergency happens, which is why planning out what to do in advance is the best way to go.

Call your veterinarian of choice and ask them what emergency animal hospital they suggest, and map it out to see if it is closest to our home or if there is another facility that offers the same kind of care which is closer. Contact that emergency room and ask about any hours that they might not be open, or what you should do if there is a pet emergency in your home. Put your information on file if you can, just so you can save time in a crisis. Visit the animal hospital and see how long it takes to get there and if they appear to have the ability to handle all critical cases. Ask about their prices, and if there is anything else you should plan on bringing with you if there is an emergency. If you plan for an emergency, sometimes your planning can save your pet’s life. Hopefully, it will never be necessary, but if it is you will be glad you did.