As a responsible pet owner, you most likely have your veterinarian’s contact number on speed dial as a precaution if your pet needs emergency care. However, pets, just like people, may need urgent care besides the regular care catered for in the scheduled visits to an animal veterinarian. Even with the most careful pet owner, your pet may get injured when playing, swallow something poisonous, or get attacked by other bigger pets. When this happens, you cannot wait for the regular checkup date. But how do you decide whether to bring your sick or injured pet to the urgent care veterinarian vs. your regular veterinarian?

Urgent care veterinarians are animal doctors just like your normal veterinarian, but differ in a few areas. Here are some of the differences.

Urgent Care Veterinarian Vs. Your Regular Veterinarian: The Conditions Treated

As a pet owner, it is crucial that you know how to monitor your pet’s behavior and detect signs and symptoms that may require you to seek medical attention for your pet from an animal hospital. Also, depending on the symptoms exhibited by your pet, you should know whether to look for an urgent care veterinarian vs. your regular veterinarian.

Urgent care veterinarians are more equipped to handle severe medical conditions such as vomiting and diarrhea, dehydration, bite wounds, urinary changes, coughing and sneezing, skin rashes, and ear infections. Additionally, an urgent care veterinarian also deals with constipation, bloat, hair loss, eye issues, and blood in the urine, pale gums, scooting, and loss of appetite. You should seek urgent care only for the issues that require fast medical attention.

On the other hand, a regular veterinarian will offer the primary and necessary preventive care, such as vaccination, neutering, dietary, and parasite spraying. A regular animal veterinarian will also conduct screening tests, including blood tests, urine tests, and fecal examinations.

Most pet owners have a regular veterinarian for their pet, but if you haven’t established one yet, you can walk into an animal hospital and have your pet checked. It is essential to have a regular pet veterinarian who knows your pet’s health history well because they are more likely to detect serious health problems and prevent them from getting worse. Also, when you are traveling with your pet, you’ll require certificates to prove that your pet is tested and given a clean bill of health. You can get this certificate from your regular pet veterinarian.

Urgent Care Veterinarian Vs. Your Regular Veterinarian: Level of Expertise and Experience

Urgent care veterinarians have more experience with animal diseases and have offered veterinary services for a longer time. With more years of practice, they are among the senior veterinarians in an animal hospital and deal with more severe health conditions such as toxin ingestion and urinating blood. Regular veterinarians, on the other hand, offer preventative care during the regular veterinarian checkups. Unless your pet develops some of the more serious conditions, your scheduled visits to your regular veterinarian will be enough to keep your pet healthy.

You will find both regular veterinarians and urgent care veterinarians in an animal hospital near you. You must know when your pet needs an urgent care veterinarian vs. your regular veterinarian as it could save your pet’s life in the case of an emergency. When you monitor your pet’s behavior closely, you’ll notice when your pet isn’t well and know which veterinary needs to see your pet first.

At Southern Arizona Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Center we are happy to provide a wide range of veterinary specialty and emergency services. It is important to have a “primary care” veterinarian to keep your new family member healthy and happy with routine vaccinations and health checks. But if you find yourself in the midst of a veterinary emergency, our team of experienced veterinarians is here to help. When it comes to visiting animal hospitals, we understand that the experience can be full of stress and worry, so we aim to make things as simple as possible. For more information, get in touch with one of our experts today.