09/10/2025
It’s 11pm at night and I’m feeling that yet again another reminder needs to be given regarding our emergency services, as if we have not made this abundantly clear.
I just received a phone call on the emergency line from someone demanding their pet been seen, who we have only seen for urgent fit in examinations and who takes her dog somewhere else for vaccinations and routine care, as this is obviously more convenient for them.
Concerned for a serious health condition that may require surgery, I rightly recommended going to MEAC, to which I was told she doesn’t want to wait to be seen and demanded that I come in and treat her dog.
It was explained that she is not classified as an active client and I’m likely going to recommend MEAC regardless. The owner became irate, responded with f**k you and hung up the phone!
For some context. I have been up since 6am treating a CLIENT emergency first thing this morning, worked all day, was called back to the office around 8pm for another emergency, got home in time to say goodnight to my son, just got to sit down and start working on records, which I am chronically behind on and then get greeted with that conversation. Oh, on top of being sick.
I’m not saying this for pitty. This is what our job entails. This is what I signed up for and this is also what my staff signs up for when they choose to come to work each day. However, WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS BEHAVIOR. Myself, along with my staff work extremely hard to help as many people as we can day in and day out.
Our emergency services are for our ACTIVE patients, who have been seen within the last year AND get routine health care and wellness vaccinations, etc from our clinic. We are not here to be taken advantage of and then disrespected when you do not get your way. We are not an emergency only hospital. We are a general practice that has CHOSEN to be available to our active patients because we want to help.
Luckily for us, we have some of the best clients around and our active clients know that we are there for them. This is a post to anyone interested in joining our practice or currently trying to walk the line for emergency care. We will not being doing it.
Currently, I am fielding all the emergency calls for the hospital while all of our new vets get onboarded and I simply cannot see every patient in the area and every ER for non clients. This is why it is strongly recommended that you have a plan in place in the event of an emergency. Whether that be to get established and transfer your patient to our hospital, or whether that be heading to MEAC in Blue Ridge or UGA Vet Hospital. Everyone should have a plan.
We know it is stressful when you have a pet emergency and we know how much our babies mean to us, but my staff and I are only human and we can only do so much.
Please keep this in mind when interacting with our office, or any vet clinic for that matter.
Thanks.
Dr. Lawlor 🐻
