“OMG – Fluffy ate an ornament, what should I do?”
“Tiger just came home and was in a fight. He needs to be patched up – help!”
“I just hit a dog on Washburn, what do I do?”
“My cat keeps throwing up, is this serious?”
When any of this happens, what do you do? Do you know Klamath County has an Animal Emergency Service (AES), to serve pets and pet owners throughout Klamath County with after hours emergencies…including finding out if your situation truly IS an emergency and needs immediate attention.
Here’s some specifics you should know:
AES Coverage Hours: 7pm – 8am, every night
Participating Hospitals:
- The Happy Pet Vet
- Brae Veterinary Hospital
- South 6th Veterinary Clinic
AES direct chat line: 1-650-231-6235 and type AESCHAT or follow the link https://home.ask.vet/spo/aeschat
This is separate from The Happy Pet Vet and it is best to pre-register. This is a free service to the client.
You will either get a technician or doctor from the hospital on call that night (they rotate duties nightly). You may need to leave a message and if so, they will call you back. Please understand that only one doctor is on call at any given evening, and depending on what emergencies have come in ahead of you, the doctor may not be able to return your call for some time…the on call doctor will get back to you as soon as possible, but the timing of emergency calls is most certainly not under their control.
Also to be crystal clear…Each hospital has their own fee schedule, and payment is required at time of service. As you might imagine, emergency services can be expensive, and the hospitals and doctors can’t support participating in the emergency service without getting compensation for their services.
If no one gets back to you within what you think is a reasonable amount of time, you should call Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center (in Medford) at 541-282-7711, as they have phones staffed 24 hours/day. They can offer advice on your pet’s situation, and possibly give you the information you need to decide how aggressively to pursue your pet’s situation.
For those with pocket pets and exotics, try Dr. Shaw first, then if you can’t get hold of her, try AES if you have an emergency during AES coverage hours (not all hospitals handle exotics and pocket pets). If you have a larger pet (goats, pigs, etc.) then of course feel free to try the large animal hospitals.
Of course, we wish that you never have a need to contact or use AES. But if you do, it’s great to know that we here in the Klamath Basin have this valuable service available should you and your beloved pets need it.