Last night every emergency vet hospital closed their doors on us

[Anonymous]

I think vets should always allow some leeway and keep some times open for emergency care.

[Anonymous]

Not to divert this pissy argument, but what are some of our options? I live in downtown DC and have a Vet practice we very much love. I say practice, because I aim to be really flexible and my pup has seen every vet there and I am not specific on who provides her care. I've even gotten follow up appointments after a spay or fecal sample and the Vet techs seem really competent. If I called them I wouldn't necessarily need to speak to a Vet, they're really good about talking me down from things that could be bad or nothing (bloody stool!)

That said, we had one emergency at Friendship and it was low level emergency. Fine. People here are saying drive 40 minutes to Manassas is no big deal. In a true emergency my dog would probably die in that situation. I don't even know what Uber Pet looks like at 3am looking to go from DC to Manassas, but I am guessing not good!

Could we compile a nice list or something of places we should call in an emergency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's an awful situation. Even though it's awful, they can't care for more patients than they can care for, and if they were maxed, they were maxed.

OP, if they had admitted your dog, would you have been okay if they left your dog to take an unnoticed turn for the worse and die in the corner, just so they could keep seeing more emergencies that kept coming through the door? Would you have said "oh, well," or would you have argued that they had first responsibility to the animals already under their care?

I don’t understand what that means. Why can’t a vet come provide emergency care for a puppy? It’s an emergency

And this exemplifies why you are the type of person who should not have bought a pandemic puppy. If a practice says they're full, it means they have as many patients as they can take care of with the staff in their facility. They can't fit your puppy, if they did, they wouldn't have enough staff to care for her. If there's not enough staff, something might get pissed, an animal may be severely injured or die.

I am so over pandemic pet owners who are in over their heads.

[Anonymous]

The title of this thread is really misleading. Nobody closed their doors on you maliciously or because they didn't like the looks of you, they were at full capacity and weren't able to care for your puppy. HUGE difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's an awful situation. Even though it's awful, they can't care for more patients than they can care for, and if they were maxed, they were maxed.

OP, if they had admitted your dog, would you have been okay if they left your dog to take an unnoticed turn for the worse and die in the corner, just so they could keep seeing more emergencies that kept coming through the door? Would you have said "oh, well," or would you have argued that they had first responsibility to the animals already under their care?

I don’t understand what that means. Why can’t a vet come provide emergency care for a puppy? It’s an emergency

And this exemplifies why you are the type of person who should not have bought a pandemic puppy. If a practice says they're full, it means they have as many patients as they can take care of with the staff in their facility. They can't fit your puppy, if they did, they wouldn't have enough staff to care for her. If there's not enough staff, something might get pissed, an animal may be severely injured or die.

I am so over pandemic pet owners who are in over their heads.

Yeah, they should’ve just let those pets be put down in the shelters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to divert this pissy argument, but what are some of our options? I live in downtown DC and have a Vet practice we very much love. I say practice, because I aim to be really flexible and my pup has seen every vet there and I am not specific on who provides her care. I've even gotten follow up appointments after a spay or fecal sample and the Vet techs seem really competent. If I called them I wouldn't necessarily need to speak to a Vet, they're really good about talking me down from things that could be bad or nothing (bloody stool!)

That said, we had one emergency at Friendship and it was low level emergency. Fine. People here are saying drive 40 minutes to Manassas is no big deal. In a true emergency my dog would probably die in that situation. I don't even know what Uber Pet looks like at 3am looking to go from DC to Manassas, but I am guessing not good!

Could we compile a nice list or something of places we should call in an emergency?

Entitled much? You should do the research and compile your own list. Be prepared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think vets should always allow some leeway and keep some times open for emergency care.

Okay. Sure.

So you keep spaces open. What do you do when those spaces also fill with unexpected emergencies, and then you try to squeeze in a few more because they are begging and desperate, and you can tell that you are stretched so far that you are starting to lose animals because you don't have enough people or time or space to keep them alive in that minute, and ...

... there's another person at the door?

What do you do then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's an awful situation. Even though it's awful, they can't care for more patients than they can care for, and if they were maxed, they were maxed.

OP, if they had admitted your dog, would you have been okay if they left your dog to take an unnoticed turn for the worse and die in the corner, just so they could keep seeing more emergencies that kept coming through the door? Would you have said "oh, well," or would you have argued that they had first responsibility to the animals already under their care?

I don’t understand what that means. Why can’t a vet come provide emergency care for a puppy? It’s an emergency

Yes, you do understand.

You just don’t want to.

And in times of pandemic, think that this might happen to you, in a human hospital, if we can’t get dangerous variants under control. It has happened elsewhere in the world already.

There are only so many medics to go round.

This is happening now with people in CA.

That annoying celebrity even told all about their ordeal to get emergency care when post-surgery complications arose. An ambulance carted them around to various hospitals for something like 2 or 3 hours until one was found that was accepting patients.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's an awful situation. Even though it's awful, they can't care for more patients than they can care for, and if they were maxed, they were maxed.

OP, if they had admitted your dog, would you have been okay if they left your dog to take an unnoticed turn for the worse and die in the corner, just so they could keep seeing more emergencies that kept coming through the door? Would you have said "oh, well," or would you have argued that they had first responsibility to the animals already under their care?

I don’t understand what that means. Why can’t a vet come provide emergency care for a puppy? It’s an emergency

Yes, you do understand.

You just don’t want to.

And in times of pandemic, think that this might happen to you, in a human hospital, if we can’t get dangerous variants under control. It has happened elsewhere in the world already.

There are only so many medics to go round.

This is happening now with people in CA.

That annoying celebrity even told all about their ordeal to get emergency care when post-surgery complications arose. An ambulance carted them around to various hospitals for something like 2 or 3 hours until one was found that was accepting patients.

And before someone suggests that they keep some spaces open for people with emergencies at the emergency room, they see every last person they can up to the point of absolute maximal capacity.

Sometimes there is no more room at the inn, folks. If all the (people or pet) emergency rooms are full nearby, there is not a secret option other than to drive further, even if that is too far.

[Anonymous]

Vet here. We DO keep spaces open. Every day there are multiple same day sick visits that we don't fill until that morning We are severely limiting wellness care like vaccinations and annual exams so that we have space for sick visits.

What do we do when those spaces fill? Well then we offer dropoff appointments. To the tune of five extra appointments each day to be squeezed between regular visits. Or done during our "lunch" which I haven't had in almost 18 months. Oh yeah - I also have to call back owners during "lunch", write records and do procedures that popped up during the day like broken nail repair, x-rays, sedation/wound repair, etc.

And then those spots fill. And then my receptionist comes to be saying Mr. Smith is really angry that you cannot squeeze in his dog who is limping. Or Mr. Jones dog has been vomiting for a few days and he can only come right now. Why can't you see him? And oh yeah - Mrs. Thomas wants med refills. She forgot to call them in yesterday and knows her dog is overdue for everything but wants you to fill it for her to pickup in an hour.

Are you getting it yet?

[Anonymous]

BS on the people claiming pandemic puppies are saving dogs from shelters. OP has a mini Golden doodle puppy she probably paid a few grand for. Hardly a rescue. It was bred specifically because of high demand and wouldn’t exist without that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vet here. We DO keep spaces open. Every day there are multiple same day sick visits that we don't fill until that morning We are severely limiting wellness care like vaccinations and annual exams so that we have space for sick visits.

What do we do when those spaces fill? Well then we offer dropoff appointments. To the tune of five extra appointments each day to be squeezed between regular visits. Or done during our "lunch" which I haven't had in almost 18 months. Oh yeah - I also have to call back owners during "lunch", write records and do procedures that popped up during the day like broken nail repair, x-rays, sedation/wound repair, etc.

And then those spots fill. And then my receptionist comes to be saying Mr. Smith is really angry that you cannot squeeze in his dog who is limping. Or Mr. Jones dog has been vomiting for a few days and he can only come right now. Why can't you see him? And oh yeah - Mrs. Thomas wants med refills. She forgot to call them in yesterday and knows her dog is overdue for everything but wants you to fill it for her to pickup in an hour.

Are you getting it yet?

Don’t waste your breath. These entitled people thing you should always keep a spot open for them. They’ll never get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to divert this pissy argument, but what are some of our options? I live in downtown DC and have a Vet practice we very much love. I say practice, because I aim to be really flexible and my pup has seen every vet there and I am not specific on who provides her care. I've even gotten follow up appointments after a spay or fecal sample and the Vet techs seem really competent. If I called them I wouldn't necessarily need to speak to a Vet, they're really good about talking me down from things that could be bad or nothing (bloody stool!)

That said, we had one emergency at Friendship and it was low level emergency. Fine. People here are saying drive 40 minutes to Manassas is no big deal. In a true emergency my dog would probably die in that situation. I don't even know what Uber Pet looks like at 3am looking to go from DC to Manassas, but I am guessing not good!

Could we compile a nice list or something of places we should call in an emergency?

Friendship is a great resource and I doubt they would turn away an emergency. Like any urgent care for any species, you may have to wait a while. But I’ve seen them spring into action when a critically injured dog came in.

[Anonymous]

I imagine the ER would triage the way they do in human hospitals, and I am sure
they do instead of first come first serve. So a car hit or burst spleen would trump something that could possibly wait. Then how about a cooperative digital database that was in real time to redirect emergencies to other pet ERs within a doable distance. So, a filled up practice might check that database and see who could take a leveled descriptor in a color coded category of severity. This may already exist in some places, but I continue to hear from vets who say they get "calls" from other vets asking if they can take x,y,z. They don't need to take time to get these calls, and practices shouldn't be on the phone calling other places. This is all wasted time.

I also am surprised about how many calls vets need to make to clients. Clients should accept digital services to receive info, unless there's something very serious or life threatening, of course, in the course of the day in regular goings on, such as lab work results, etc. If a pet's been dropped off to an ER, and client has to leave, use email for info to save time, unless, of course there is something more critical.

We understand the problem, have sympathy and concern for all involved, the drs, staff, and the frantic clients as well. If this is going to continue to be a problem, and it looks as though it is, we should find ways to streamline the situation ans take a lot of the burden off the drs who are needed for other things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's an awful situation. Even though it's awful, they can't care for more patients than they can care for, and if they were maxed, they were maxed.

OP, if they had admitted your dog, would you have been okay if they left your dog to take an unnoticed turn for the worse and die in the corner, just so they could keep seeing more emergencies that kept coming through the door? Would you have said "oh, well," or would you have argued that they had first responsibility to the animals already under their care?

I don’t understand what that means. Why can’t a vet come provide emergency care for a puppy? It’s an emergency

Yes, you do understand.

You just don’t want to.

And in times of pandemic, think that this might happen to you, in a human hospital, if we can’t get dangerous variants under control. It has happened elsewhere in the world already.

There are only so many medics to go round.

This is happening now with people in CA.

That annoying celebrity even told all about their ordeal to get emergency care when post-surgery complications arose. An ambulance carted them around to various hospitals for something like 2 or 3 hours until one was found that was accepting patients.

This. It happens with people during high demand times for health services (like a pandemic or even flu season.) My dad became ill during a particularly bad local outbreak of pneumonia; hospitals in my home area of Virginia did not have room for people in their emergency rooms and some had to travel up to to hours away. Not a rural area, even!

It happens with people and it also happens with animals.