Dr. Reed Stevens has a message for us regarding taking your pet to the veterinarian. There is an increased demand for veterinary services and their ability to meet those needs are being challenged. The number one reason, for many veterinary hospitals, is that COVID has affected their staff’s ability to come to work because of health or immune comprise among family members, or spouse’s work as well as schooling issues and at the same time veterinarians are seeing more pets. Also, many vets are using parking lots as New York State recommended. That is challenging and while they’re doing their best to serve you, it is not as efficient as having the clients in the exam room.
Dr. Stevens’ word of wisdom to us is to be patient, think ahead and plan ahead. Currently a lot of vets are booking into the end of September for healthy visits and emergency slots fill up very quickly and even the emergency clinics are slammed. He says if they are busy the emergency clinics are twice as busy.
Your vet may offer alternative methods of advice like video conferencing or they may offer text-in questions and may prescribe over the phone to keep your pet healthy until you can get in to see the vet.
Keep your pet healthy. Stay up on the monthly preventatives, making sure your pets are vaccinated and don’t take them to places they’ve never been before. Cuts, scrapes, dog fights, anything you can do to limit your pet’s exposure to infectious disease or trauma are really important now because it is a stressful time not only for you and your pet but also for your veterinarian.
Remember if your prescriptions are running low, give your vet a couple of days to refill medications because that takes time too. Call your vet if you have any questions.
