Your animal is suddenly very unwell: you are worried.
- What can you do to help it as best and as quickly as possible?
- Try to keep calm: it is the best way to be effective and to think sensibly!
- In an emergency, even outside opening hours, please always call your practice first!
- The answering machine will give you the number to dial to reach an on-call vet. Listen to it right to the end.
It can be reassuring to know that most veterinary practices are organised into an emergency service that allows pet owners to reach a vet whatever the day and time.
You simply need to phone your usual vet to obtain, via the answering machine, the number to dial.
- To be avoided at all costs are the telephone directory-enquiry numbers, which often give you the wrong number for the wrong region!
In the small practices of our regions, most of the time the call goes straight through to the on-call vet and not to a telephone call centre.
This vet is available on top of their usual working hours and often has to handle phone calls from home. In French-speaking Switzerland there is currently no permanently staffed facility where a vet is on site in the same way as during normal working hours.
This is why it is essential to phone before setting out, at the risk of finding the door closed. This can quickly mean a waste of time and additional stress.
The notion of an emergency is very relative and does not always mean the same thing depending on the point of view one takes.
- There are immediate emergencies, which are ultimately rare, thankfully: multiple-trauma casualties (road, train, etc.), torsion syndromes of the digestive organs, cases of status epilepticus, cardiac decompensation, severe attacks or violence (by other animals, people, etc.), haemorrhages, etc. In short,emergencies that involve the animal's vital functions. To be shown to the vet as quickly as possible.
- The same-day emergencies : anything that may involve mild pain, bites, diarrhoea/vomiting, injuries in general and anywhere on the body, urinary-tract problems, euthanasia of an animal that is deteriorating badly, etc. Most of the emergencies seen fall into this group. Some conditions require a visit quickly during the day (e.g. a cat that can no longer urinate even though the problem has existed for several days), others can sometimes be monitored, or seen in the hours that follow.
- The emergencies that are not really emergencies : appointments requested out of convenience (one has the time on a public holiday), ailments lasting several days without the animal being any worse, scratches, behavioural concerns (except possibly the sudden onset of aggression).
On the phone already, the vet will ask about warning signs or symptoms, some of which are not always sufficiently representative of the problem. It is important to be precise and to have carefully observed the changes that are the reason for the call.
Some problems can sometimes be resolved, or at least stabilised, through telephone advice, others too after a little thought on the owner's part. Animals are like us, and there is often no reason to panic, after an episode of diarrhoea for example, when the animal is still behaving normally.
The emergency service often involves travelling to an unfamiliar and more distant practice; however, the animal is quickly taken care of there.
Payment of the fees is requested immediately after the visit, and a surcharge, the amount of which depends on the time of day or public holiday, is always billed.