Emergency Service
Youngs Veterinary Partnership is proud that we offer a 24/7 emergency service for our clients and anyone else who wants the reassurance of a hospital standard practice in an emergency. Please appreciate that this is normally staffed out of hours by our regular staff who will have already worked full days. We will never begrudge seeing you in a genuine emergency but please do not use the out of hours service for routine appointments or enquiries.
USING OUR EMERGENCY SERVICE
We hope that you never have need to contact us outside of opening hours but do understand how worrying it is if your pet becomes suddenly ill or injured. Our vets share the "on call" between them and there is always a Veterinary Surgeon and Veterinary Nurse available 24/7 in the case of a genuine emergency. As a hospital we also have a member of staff available to be on the premises 24 hours a day 365 days a year and we have facilities for the vet also to stay onsite if necessary.
Here are a few tips to help you through the process of contacting us and to give you an idea of what will happen if you do:
Your call will normally be answered personally by one of our staff. They will take your details and details of the emergency and contact the duty veterinary surgeon on your behalf. He/she will then call you back and either give advice or arrange to see you. Please ensure that you keep the line clear for thecall. Very occasionally you will recieve an answerphone message giving you the mobile number of the duty member of staff. Please do not store this number as the mobile number given will vary depending which veterinary surgeon is on call and therefore may not be answered depending who is on call!
If your call is the middle of the night please be aware that you will have most likely have woken the duty nurse/vet up and please give them a few seconds to adjust! Our vets and nurses work long days and then cover the nights as well so will likely (hopefully) be getting some well earned rest.
Please DO NOT just turn up at the practice as it will be closed and our staff are instructed NEVER to open the door out of hours to unexpected callers.
When you speak to the vet you will be asked questions about the emergency. Please make sure that the person making the phone call knows the details of the emergency.
If the vet thinks your pets condition is urgent but not immediately life threatening you will be advised of the costs and given the opportunity to decide whether you feel your pet can wait or if it should be seen.
If your pet has an immediate or life threatening emergency be prepared to make some immediate decisions and listen carefully to advice that is given.
Emergencies to call immediately about are
1. Poisonings - please keep the packaging and bring it with you to the surgery. The vet can contact the poison information service while you are on route to the surgery and save valuable time.
2. Road Traffic Accidents - most injured animals can be moved safely and quickly on a blanket or towel for a dog or wrapped in a towel and put in a box for a cat. Please contact the vet for advice if you are unsure and bring to the surgery asap.
3. Bloat or Gastric Dilation - in large breed dogs. If your dogs stomach is suddenly distended please ring your vet immediately.
4. Breathing Difficulties
5. Persistant vomiting and diarrhoea in an unwell patient.
5. Severe bleeding that cannot be controlled.
6. Collapse for any reason.
7. Fitting/loss of consciousness.
8. Shivering/shaking in the first few days/weeks after givung birth.
9. Prolapse of anything - e.g. an eye
10. Any other condition that appears to be making your pet suddenly seriously ill.
• Costs. Providing our clients with a 24 hour emergency service is part of our dedicated promise to you and none of our vets/nurses begrudge their time in helping an emergency case. You will always be seen by vets working from the hospital and your pets will be cared for by our own dedicated vet and nursing team 24 hours a day.
However, having a vet and qualified nurse available 24 hours a day is very costly and there is an emergency surcharge that applies out of hours. The rate is dependant on the time of day/night that you are calling. As with all our standard terms and conditions we expect payment at the time of treatment. For pets that are in our Healthy Pet Club and regular clients** we offer a discount of our call out charges.
* To qualify for the discounted out of hours rate the pet must either be in the Healthy Pet Club, or be up to date with its recommended vaccinations - and these must have been carried out by us.
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