What to do in an Emergency

If you require veterinary assistance outside normal hours please ring our emergency number.

01900 826666

You will reach our emergency phone answering service. A person with experience of veterinary care will answer your call, take your details, give advice if necessary and contact the on-call vet to call you if that is needed. A vet will then call you as soon as he or she is available. If you have time, please read the following guidelines before calling.

Operating an out of hours emergency service requires us to employ staff to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is expensive, which is why our out of hours call-outs incur much higher costs than consultations during normal surgery hours.

Common presentations that require immediate veterinary attention include:

• Obvious pain or distress
• Difficulty breathing
• Swelling of the abdomen, often accompanied by retching
• Fractured limbs

• Animals with severe ongoing blood loss

  • Blood dripping from a cut can be alarming. If firm pressure applied to the site for 5 minutes, stops the bleeding, you can dress the wound and have your pet checked the following day.
  • If blood loss continues, apply firm pressure and contact us.
  • If bleeding occurs from the mouth, rectum or urinary tract contact the vet ASAP.

• Difficulty giving birth

  • If an animal is having strong abdominal contractions the first puppy should arrive within 60 minutes, and a first kitten within 30 minutes.
  • Subsequent pups and kittens should arrive within 30 minutes.
  • If these times are exceeded or if the pup or kitten is obviously stuck in the birth canal, contact the vet.

• Severe weakness
• Clusters of seizures/convulsions or prolonged fitting
• Convulsions in an animal without a previous history of epilepsy or in an animal that is obviously unwell.

The on-duty veterinary staff are available to discuss any concerns you may have. Our out of hours service is not there for advise on parasite control, minor cuts and abrasions, or for attempting to make an appointment. Please leave any non-urgent calls for normal surgery hours, as such a call could well block the line when someone with a real emergency is trying to get through.