By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — If needing emergency care for your pets, especially around the holidays, it is important to have a relationship with the veterinarian that you are asking for help. Jon Austin, DVM, talked about a recent conversation he had with his colleague, Randy Smith, DVM here in Hutchinson.
"We've both experienced, through the Thanksgiving holiday, telephone calls, frantic calls, from people who had animals who were injured or sick, who were not clients of ours," Austin said Thursday. "They go to some other place. They drive to another town or they use a box store or something and yet, when the chips are down, they're calling frantically wanting help. They get unhappy with us when they find out we provide emergency service and after hours care and things for our patients."
It's important to note that there is not an emergency veterinary practice in Hutchinson in the way there is in some larger cities.
"Having that local relationship with your veterinarian, being established as a client, having your pet established as a patient gets you some extra benefit and privileges if you will, in terms of being able to utilize your veterinarian for emergency care and for help when the chips are down at night or on a weekend or on a holiday. It isn't like the human world, where even if you don't have a regular physician, you can run to the emergency room. There isn't any kind of facility like that. You have to go to Wichita for a facility like that."
It's also important because the veterinarian who knows your pet will be able to determine if it is truly an emergency or not.