Introducing City By The Sea Vet Urgent Care
Just like humans, pets often need specialized medical attention at different points in their lives. It can be overwhelming to navigate the options while your pet is experiencing an illness or emergency. Below is an overview of the differences between General Practice, Urgent Care, and Emergency/Critical Care to help you make informed decisions for your pet’s health. Veterinary general practice is the backbone of what we do at City by the Sea Vet and the foundation of a healthy life for your pet. While we routinely provide care outside of the scope of “wellness care” including management of chronic medical conditions and non-urgent surgical procedures, it can sometimes be difficult to coordinate an appointment exactly when it is needed. As we expand to urgent care, our general practice veterinarians will continue to see multiple “sick visits” per day, but we are hoping to also help pet owners later in the evening or when our sick visits are overbooked.
Emergency/Critical Care Hospitals address more serious conditions that require immediate attention or ongoing hospitalization. The closest emergency hospitals are Garden State Veterinary Specialists and Red Bank Veterinary Hospital, and the doctors at City by the Sea Vet often work in collaboration with these hospitals regarding our patients’ care. Understandably, emergency hospitals are often very busy, which can lead to long wait times and frustration for worried pet owners.
Urgent Care is the “middle ground” of these two types of veterinary care. Urgent Cares address non-life-threatening injuries and illnesses such as gastrointestinal upset, urinary tract infections, and wounds. We also provide assessment and stabilization of emergency cases (such as animals hit by cars, bite wounds, seizures, etc.), but are not open overnight, so cases that require ongoing care may need to be transferred to a local 24-hour emergency hospital. While we always appreciate a “call ahead” and try to schedule an approximate visit time, urgent care cases are seen on a triage system (if your pet is stable and an emergency arrives, the animal with the most immediate need will be seen first).
We hope that our Urgent Care will provide more timely and seamless treatment of your beloved pet. Our urgent care is currently staffed by Dr. Kelly Coughlin and Dr. Natalia Santos, and is operating from 4pm-10pm Monday through Friday, and 11am-5pm on Saturdays, and 9am-8pm on Sundays.
Want to know more? Contact City by the Sea here to get in touch!