Will your vet see you during an emergency?

I'm just curious, I've been mulling this over.

Will your normal vet see your dog during an emergency, or do they refer you to an emergency vet? Do you expect them to see you? Either during an extreme emergency, or as a very urgent need to be seen sometime today emergency.
How many vets work at the clinic you go to?

Generally, for me, yes. They will see me both as "omg I need to get in right this moment" and as a same-day client. They generally keep a certain number of slots open, for clients that wake up and find their pet is sick and needs to be seen that day.

There are five vets at the office, though I'll see three of them happily, and one will step in if absolutely needed. (for ferrets) I've never seen the fifth.

That said, **** happens, and I have no doubt that one day, they won't be able to fit me in when I need to be seen. For that reason, I have files at two other vets for "back up". One of which isn't an emergency vet, but always has spots open for emergencies.

Recently, the emergency vet near me stopped charging an emergency fee for clients, and I'm also a client there.

Our new vet has an E clinic attached to their main building, and the pet's main doctor can be on call for it.

I've never (knocking on wood here) had an emergency, but this is how things worked at the clinic I worked at:

Yes, actually the first time Feist even went to the vet with me was for an emergency, a couple days after she came home, the dramatic burr incident occurred.
It wasn't a 'RIGHT NAOW' thing, they got her in an hour later. But she was drooling profusely, like buckets of drool, and trying to vomit and had liquid poop coming out her butt (yes, it was beautiful), and I was thinking I had managed to let my puppy contract parvo 5 seconds after getting her, in an area with pretty much 0 parvo incidence except for about 2 shelter dogs imported dogs from the south.

And about five vets, I think.

At work we always fit people in. Obviously if it's the end of the day we'll send you to the emergency clinic. Or if it's a Saturday and we're only here a couple hours and we know we can't provide the treatment you need. But otherwise if your pet is hit by car, eats something it shouldn't, you get home from work and they're not moving whatever... we'll see you.

Most people can get in same day even with non - emergency things.

We only have 1 doctor on at a time.

I wouldn't expect to get seen right away, and I'd be okay going elsewhere just as long as I had somewhere to go. The clinic we used before I started working at clinics was always really good about just having us come on up if something was going on, though.

I'm not really sure what they do. I don't think they refer unless they are closed. They would probably get me in either RIGHT NOW or this day if it were necessary. They trust my judgment call on concerns. That said, I don't really expect them to. The E-vet is closer and better at dealing with emergencies, since it's all they do. No bedside manner, but better equipment and knowledgeable staff. I've never thought about going to my vet across town during a worry. My clinic has 6+ Doctors on staff, I don't recall the actual number, but I only see two of them.

In short: yes.

If your animal is in distress, you can just run into the clinic and be seen immediately. Hit by cars, choking, heat stroke, etc. We would only refer to the emergency clinic if we couldn't provide the appropriate care, or if we're about ready to close/are closed.

If you have an ill pet that isn't dying, but needs to be seen sooner rather than later, if you are a new client we will probably refer you. Otherwise, we would do our best to work the pet in to the schedule and just let the owner know that they may be waiting longer than normal. If at all possible, we would have them drop the animal off so we could work it up in the moments we had down time.

I don't think we ever turned anyone that was a client away, unless we were concerned that the issue needed much more involved care than we would be able to do with the time we had.

Nope. They won't even tell you what to do for something simple like if your dog's eaten chocolate. You have to call the emergency vet, who will need you to come in because they don't know the dog.

This is another reason why I am changing vets. There are only two vets (that I know of) at my current clinic, so I highly doubt they could handle a walk-in emergency. But, this is an extremely tiny clinic anyways. You can't expect much from a clinic that size in such a large town- they're always booked at least a week in advance, so it's rare that you can get in the same day.

I do really like the e-vet I went to when Roxie had her allergic reaction- they got us in right away, and were just overall awesome. So I may use them, since they also function as a regular vet.

Our first vet, yes absolutely.
But since he retired, we've bounced around in hopes of finding a vet with comparable services to him. Still searching.


The vet I most recently went to, is open 24 hours. And "emergency" fees only apply on Sundays. I called them at 5:45 on a Friday morning, and they said they would see him as soon as I got there.
Not sure how many vets are there, but they have 3 or 4 locations in the area and apparently they rotate locations.

Yes, my vet will see me after hours. He owns his own practice, though he recently added a second vet. He has a building for his small animal and small farm animal patients, but he also has a truck he works out of for house calls and farm visits. He also spends one day a week at the animal sanctuary I work at. If I have a non-emergency thing I need him to see my dog, cat or horse for I just wait till 'vet' day at work and he sees my animals, too. It's a nice work 'perk'.

He doesn't live too far from me. Back in January when my older dog, Bernie, was in the final stages of living with an aggressive liver tumor he told me he'd answer a call from me any time after hours and would come right to my house if I felt it was time to make the call to put Bernie down. Fortunately it didn't come to being an emergency thing, but I felt relief knowing he would help me take that final step for Bernie rather than taking him to an ER vet that we didn't know.

That being said, I do live about 15 minutes from a wonderful ER vet hospital that I wouldn't hesitate to take my pets to if my vet were unavailable for some reason.

My two old vets, yes. I had their cells and could reach them any time. New vet I am not getting that vibe from! In general they can get you in quick though.

Well I work there That said, we do see emergencies on a walk in basis as well as phone ahead. and we do have someone on call every night

My vet is at my beck and call 24 hours, but she's kind of a bitch so that's good and bad.




Our clinic sees emergencies for our clients during normal business hours. If it is close to closing time and we think the patient will likely need to be hospitalized and/or it's likely we will transfer the patient after an initial assessment and/or stabilizing for more specialized care/critical care, we offer for them to go directly there or come to us for the initial exam, their choice. After hours, we are not on call. The advantage of living in a metro area with several ECs.

The vet clinics here rotate emergency calls so, yes...and no lol.

Yep, they're really good. There are three vets at our clinic and I really like them all. About a week and a half ago Paris ripped her rear dew claw and I thought it was going to have to come off. I called them the next morning and they scheduled me in right away and were super accommodating (and it didn't have to come off, in case you're wondering ).

Yes, critical issue during the day, they will get you in immediately. It is why I am back with that vet.

The story played out a bit on here, and I got some great advice at the time, but a recap: Not long after I got Gusto, I left the vet I had used for a long time strictly over prices. I had zero complaints about their services or care, but Gusto needed to be neutered and Meg needed her teeth done, and they were quoting nearly twice what any other clinic was. I simply couldn't afford it. I tried to get in with a vet several friends use, but the best I could do was another vet in the practice she owns.

When I got a call at work at 3:00 pm that my mother had gotten home, there was vomit and poop all over, and Gusto couldn't walk, I told her to go straight to the vet and I would meet her there. I called them as I was walking out of work and they said "we can get you in at 3:45". I said "No, this is critical, and the dog is on the way." I tried to call my mother back to tell her to go to the emergency clinic (which I had never used, and doesn't officially open until 5 pm but is staffed 24/7) but she had left already. She got him to the vet by 3:15, I was there by 3:20, we were seen at 3:35. For a dog who was basically non-responsive, couldn't stand, swallow, or see. They did send us to the emergency clinic, where we were treated fantastically.

When we went back for bloodwork the next week, I brought up my concern over how long it took to be seen, and the vet basically brushed it off as "well, you could always just drive to the emergency clinic". I was so upset by how blase he was about it that I just moved back to the other vet. I can find the money to pay their prices for the reassurance of a vet who will see them right away (and not argue with me about vaccines, and honor my request to not take my dogs in the back for blood draws).

Wow, this thread makes me love my vet even more.

My vet takes walk ins except for elective surgeries. You have to schedule spays and things like that.

if your dog has an obstruction or got ran over you can just walk in and they will do everything they can. If something happens to your dog after hours they always have a vet on call. I think they just rotate who has to handle the emergencies every week. The office call/exam is marked up to $95 and it seems like hospitalization and meds are slightly more. I really really really love my vet.

My vets office is open 7 days a week, 7am to 10pm Monday through Saturday, 8am to 10pm on Sunday. Currently their website lists 9 vets on staff, there are a few vets (father and son vets) who have been there since I started going there and the rest change over a lot. I see whoever is available when I call.

95% of my appointments are made by just calling saying I need a sick appointment when is the next available appointment. Sometimes they have an opening in 20-30 minutes usually within 1-2 hours tops. Occassionally I call from work a few hours before I'll be home and just ask for the first available after 6pm with no trouble.

They do take emergency cases, possibly refer to an e-vet if they are closing soon. Though when Jubel had a bloat scare I called about him puking again (had been in the day before for similar symptoms) a little before 9pm. If you call as an emergency they add a $20 charge, they didn't charge me because they had an opening and didn't have to push anyone else. I live about 5 minutes down the road from the vets office. The vet ended up putting a tube down Jubel's throat and draining his stomach that was 4 times the size it appeared on x-rays the day before. He stayed and didn't send us on to the e-vet but did end up staying past 10pm to treat him. Even called me when he was done around 11pm to update me. Love my vets office.

Honestly I don't even know where I'd go if I needed an emergency vet in the middle of the night. I'd have to panickedly search google which isn't good. Looking at my vets website right now they recommend contacting a specific e-vet about 20 minutes from here for an after hours emergency. So I guess that's where I'd go.

Non-emergency but still time sensitive issues (like upset tummies, coughing, etc.), my vet has walk in hours every day, so I'd just go in between 3:30 and 5p. I'm usually seen within 20 minutes.

Emergency during regular hours, just show up and your dog gets care right then. Z had an allergic reaction and she was seen, treated, and I was checking out in under 40 mins. They rock.

No additional charges for either of the above scenarios.

Emergencies after hours go to the e-vet. I have two within 35 mins of me.