You would never wait until a family member was injured or gravely ill to find a hospital, the same is true with an animal hospital; the time to find one is long before an emergency situation arises. The facility should be located close to your home, have suitably long business hours including at least one day on the weekend and one that offers the services that are most likely those that will be needed. When you are looking pay particular attention to the animals they deal with, not every animal hospital offers care and treatment for every animal. The final step is to actually take your pet to “meet and greet” the vets and staff to see how they interact with one another.
Start your research early, long before the need for pet hospitalization occurs. The closer to home the better; if your pet should fall ill unexpectedly or suffer an injury it will be traumatized, the sooner you can get the animal under the care of a competent team of professionals, the better. You will want to carefully consider the opening hours, some animal hospitals open early and close late, this would be an ideal choice for people who simply cannot get time away from their job during the day.
A typical animal hospital will offer all standard services which include such things comprehensive blood workups, sedation, spay and neuter, pain management and a full complement of vaccinations. Some hospitals may offer other services such as implantation of microchips, flea and tick control, etc. It is always a good idea to check in advance to find out if the hospital that you are considering offers what you would consider the appropriate services.
Of course, you will want to confirm that the animal hospital accepts your pet, not all clinics or hospitals deal with every animal. Traditionally a small animal hospital will accept dogs, cats, rabbits and small members of the rodent family but this is not always the case, check first. There are other facilities that deal with exotic pets such as lizards and snakes while still others tend to deal with avian patients.
Once you believe that you have identified a potential animal hospital, make arrangements to visit the facility, either with or without your pet. You will want to meet the vet and the staff members, if you brought your pet along pay attention to how it interacts with the people, if you are alone pay attention to how other patients interact with the staff.
What you are really looking for is an animal hospital that is as close as possible to your home, offers a wide variety of veterinarian services and a staff that is genuinely concerned for the health and welfare of your pet.
If you are looking for an animal hospital that offers a complete range of services including an in-house lab, ultrasound, comprehensive surgical procedures and more then you will be glad you found the Western Veterinary Group in Torrance. You can also like them on Facebook.
