Kathleen's Blog

The last few days have been… a roller coaster.  I learned a lot about veterinary medicine, Misty, me, fear, love, friendship, hope…and something important I wanted to share with all my pet-loving friends:

There IS a difference between a 24-hour Veterinary Hospital (Dr’s office) and a Critical Care Hospital (Emergency Room) … make sure you have the numbers and addresses of both.   

I am generalizing here, but a 24-hour Veterinary Hospital is probably just a veterinary clinic that is open 24 hours a day (kinda self-explanatory, huh?).  It is where you go, if at midnight, you realize your dog ate chocolate, has a tick or a boo-boo.  A Critical Care Center probably has a Board Certified Specialist in Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care and is where you go if your dog gets hit by a car, has seizures, or a bad reaction to chemotherapy…. 

Critical Care veterinarians have additional trauma training and are credentialed through the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care.  Also, they are  constantly around trauma cases and have the experience and expertise to deal with emergencies.  I spent a lot of time at Advanced Critical Care in Tustin this weekend (http://www.accim.net/ for all my OC friends) and was in awe of how many animals were saved because of their knowledge, expertise and level of care, not only by the veterinarians but by the technicians. 

I hope you’ll never have to visit one, but take a few minutes and find out where the closest Critical Care or Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Specialist is near you:  http://acvecc.org/ . 

Love, me