Adventures in Animal ER

We’ve made a number of trips to animal emergency rooms over the years. There was the time our diabetic cat, Peter, had become hypoglycemic and was on the verge of slipping into a coma.

And the time our tricolor Cavalier, Darcy, went into heart failure and had trouble breathing. And the time our black-and-tan Cavalier, Twyla, had a ruptured anal gland. Naturally, Murphy’s Law was in effect and all of these events took place after hours, when general-practice veterinary clinics are closed.

But we’re fortunate in Orange County to have a number of after-hours or 24-hour veterinary ER clinics to treat our animals when the regular veterinarian has gone home for the night. And I think I’ve been to all of them at one time or another. Lake Forest itself doesn’t have one—it closed down some years ago—but hospitals with high-tech equipment are located nearby.

When Darcy had her heart-failure episode, I rushed her to the Animal Urgent Care Clinic of South Orange County in Mission Viejo. Staff members took her in immediately, got her in an oxygen cage and saved her life that night. They saved my sanity too, by bringing me a bedspread and pillow and letting me spend the night in an empty exam room. I was able to check on Darcy throughout the night, and be on hand in case they needed me to make any decisions.

I can’t say enough good things about the care they gave Darcy, but the drawback to AUCSOC is that it closes at 8 a.m. except on Sundays. That was OK when we took our cat Peter there, because they stabilized him and we were able to take him home the next morning. But with Darcy, I had to arrange transportation to another hospital by pet ambulance because she still needed oxygen. The hospital recommended by AUCSOC and seconded by my own veterinarian was Advanced Critical Care and Internal Medicine in Tustin. It saved Darcy’s life more than once over the next six months as we struggled to keep her alive. It also fixed Twyla up with a fancy orange tail band after her anal gland ruptured.

Future emergencies will probably take us to the Southern California Veterinary Specialty Hospital in Irvine. Not because we’re fickle, but because that’s where our dogs’ cardiologist and ophthalmologist practice.

Any time our dogs are brought in for an emergency, whatever the hour, the pet docs are called to advise on the case or come in if necessary.

Ask your veterinarian if he or she works with a particular emergency clinic and make note of it in your pet’s record book or first aid kit (you do have one, don’t you?). Be sure you know how to get there or, even better, load the address into your GPS or phone so you don’t have to waste valuable time mapping the route. It doesn’t hurt to record information about pet ambulance services too. If you have a giant-breed dog, you might not be able to lift it into the car, and a pet ambulance could be your best bet for getting it to the hospital. In the best of all worlds, you’ll never need to use a pet ambulance or an emergency hospital, but knowing where they are and how to get there is essential, just in case.