There are many reasons a vet visit could be needed, but when does your pet need emergency animal care? We’ll talk about a few of those reasons here, but if you are ever concerned for the safety of your pet, you can always call or visit your local emergency pet clinic just to be safe. It’s always better to be on the safe side than risk the health and safety of your furry friend. Just as humans have emergencies, so do our pets, and they deserve to be taken care of and protected, day or night.
Reasons Your Pet Would Need Emergency Animal Care
- Persistent Vomiting and Diarrhea – Sometimes animals eat things they shouldn’t, and it results in a little diarrhea or vomiting it back up, but if you find that your pet is continuously vomiting or has diarrhea that continues, they need to be taken to your local emergency pet hospital immediately. Especially if there’s blood, the vomiting and diarrhea could be an underlying sign of something more serious, so getting your pet to the emergency vet as soon as possible will help the veterinarians figure out what the cause is for this reaction.
- Seizures – Seizures for pets can be especially dangerous for so many reasons. They have no way to communicate that they don’t feel well beforehand and don’t understand what’s going on when they wake up. They also can’t let their human know if this has happened before when no one was around. Be careful when your pet has a seizure as it can scare them into biting or becoming aggressive, even if that isn’t their normal behaviour. The best course of action is to safely get your pet to the emergency animal care as soon as you can so the veterinarians can run tests to find the cause of the seizure.
- Slow or Labored Breathing – If you find your furry friend is having trouble breathing, you should head to the emergency animal hospital immediately. This could be caused by a number of reasons, a few of which being: swallowing a foreign substance, food caught in the throat, a broken or fractured rib, and the list goes on. The sooner the veterinarian can run tests and check on your pet, the sooner they can find the problem and fix it. You never want your pet going long periods of time struggling to breathe.
- Major Injury – This may seem more obvious and not as much a question, but of course, if your pet has a major injury of any kind, you should get to the emergency pet hospital immediately. Accidents happen, but no matter what time of day, your pet deserves treatment right away. Whether it’s a car accident, another animal attack, falling from up high or any other unforeseen event, any type of major injury should be taken care of quickly by your local animal hospital.
- Swelling – There are different types of swelling in animals depending on where the swelling occurs, but if there is swelling around any major organs, take your pet to the emergency animal care to be checked. Especially around the stomach and brain, swelling can be extremely serious and need immediate attention. Sometimes swelling by the stomach may just come from something being eaten they shouldn’t have or small things, like swelling in the foot could be from a splinter, but if there’s swelling around major organs, there may be serious underlying conditions that need to be addressed immediately.
There are so many reasons your pet may need emergency animal care, and we would never be able to specifically address every one of them, but we hope this list covered a lot of them overall. Ultimately, if you think your pet should go to the emergency vet clinic, take them. If it isn’t an emergency, you’ll be able to rest easy and set an appointment with your veterinarian when they’re open again. Our pets feel pain and emotion just as we do, so let’s take care of them as best as we can.
“When I look into the eyes of an animal, I do not see an animal. I see a living being. I see a friend. I feel a soul.”
- A.D. Williams -