Do you know what time your vet’s office closes? Do you know if there is someone on duty all night? Are they open on Saturday? You probably don’t need to know these things today but on the day you do it might be too late to make an alternate plan.

Veterinary practices vary widely. Some vets work in hospitals which are open all hours and others keep banker’s hours and refer clients to an emergency vet who is open when the other vets offices are not. You need to know what your vets hours are and where the nearest emergency vet is. If the e-vet is at a location that’s not familiar to you it would not be a bad idea to drive over there and see exactly where it is, maybe even go at night and introduce yourself. This is not a place you are going to want to have to find in the dark in a panic and that’s what is likely to happen if you don’t visit beforehand.

Make sure you know your own vet’s hours and the emergency vet’s hours. I was shocked to find (when I had a sick dog) that my vet closes for a couple of hours on many Thursday afternoons for in-service training. However, once I knew it the vet told me to come knock on the back door if I needed her during those hours. Potential problem solved!

You should also make sure to find out if your vet’s office is staffed at night. Never assume that it is or you might be as shocked as I was to find out that while I was paying to board one of my girls for the night, I was essentially leaving her alone. There was no one on the premises from 6 PM until 8 AM. “What if there’s a fire?” I asked and got only blank stares in return.

You never know what odd thing might happen. I’ve had to use the emergency vet a number of times over the years. A couple of times there would have been only minor ramifications if I had waited until my vet was open but on one occasion I would probably have lost the dog if I hadn’t known exactly where I was going and gotten there as quickly as I did. Hopefully you won’t need this information but it’s reassuring to have. (Share it with your neighbors when you get it. They’ll appreciate it too.)

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