Stream Valley Veterinary Hospital 2009 / Do I Need an Animal Ambulance?

Do I Need an Animal Ambulance?

by Shannon M. Pecora, M.A.

Stream Valley Veterinary Hospital

“My dog just started limping all of the sudden.” “My cockatiel hasn’t been eating well since yesterday.” “My cat has vomited at least three times today.” In our office, we get calls like this every day. Inevitably, clients follow such statements with the question, “What should I do?” Sometimes, they are surprised to hear us say, “Can you come in right now?” Or, we may even respond, “Call or head to the emergency vet right away.”

We realize that clients call us for many reasons in the hopes that there is something they can do at home to alleviate their pets’ symptoms or pain. And sometimes they can. However, there is a very fine line to tread when it comes to over-the-phone veterinary advice. Legally, ethically, and medically, phone advice has the potential to be dangerous.

For instance, pets often still carry the genetics for certain wildlife defense mechanisms, one of which is the ability to hide illness or injury. That means that if your pet is openly showing symptoms, the problem could have progressed to such a severity that he simply cannot hide the problem anymore. So, even a slight limp or loss of appetite could be a signal of a serious issue.

Also, many symptoms can occur for many different reasons. Let’s take a look at that limp again—it could be caused by a simple sprain-type injury, and maybe extended rest is all your pet needs to resolve her pain. However, what if it was caused by a torn ligament? Arthritis? A broken bone? Lyme disease? Bone cancer? All of these are possibilities, and all require different treatment plans. We really need to see you and your pet in the office to gather a full history from you and to perform a full exam on your pet. You may not realize that a fever, dehydration, or an irregular heartbeat accompany the issue you saw at home, and these are the types of things we look for during an exam.

We don’t mean to frighten our clients. Sometimes the problems truly are simple and may resolve on their own. But we have found that a cough that appeared to be hairball-related was actually a sign of an asthmatic cat. A reptile’s loss of appetite was due to an infected injury in the mouth. A dog’s lethargy has revealed heartworm infection.

And think about such symptoms if they showed up in you or a family member. What would you do if you were limping, repeatedly vomiting, or unusually fatigued? Chances are you would schedule an appointment with your physician, or even head to the nearest ER. Since your pets can’t speak for themselves to let you know if they’ve felt poorly for a few hours, a few days, or a few weeks, we as veterinary professionals really must consider some situations emergency cases initially, no matter what the final diagnoses might turn out to be. It’s better to be safe than sorry from the veterinary perspective, even if a client would like to take the “wait and see” approach. It is always your call as the pet owner—the one who really knows your pet the best—but we hope you won’t be surprised if you call the office with a question and we urge you to come in now.