Round-the-clock animal emergency care facility opens in Buffalo Grove
When your pet needs emergency care and regular animal hospitals are closed, Veterinary Emergency Group is always open.
Veterinary Emergency Group just opened its fifth facility in Illinois at 43 McHenry Road in Buffalo Grove; there are two in Chicago, one in Naperville and one in Oak Brook.
The Buffalo Grove facility, like its counterparts, offers round-the-clock immediate care.
Medical Director Keith Mihansky said animals needing emergency treatment will be seen immediately by a doctor.
“The triage process starts as soon as they walk in the door, which is different from a lot of veterinary hospitals where they are placed in a room. They’re waiting for long periods of time,” he said.
The goal, he said, is to have the patients immediately assessed by a team of doctors and nurses.
“They will see a doctor right away, which is different from most veterinarian hospitals,” he said.
During the process, pets are kept together with their owners.
“We never separate the people from their pets at all during the process,” he said. There is even a place to sleep or nap and blankets and sheets for overnight stays.
Medical expertise also is available over the phone.
“Before anyone even comes in with their pets, they’re able to call and speak to a doctor 24/7,” Mihansky said. Calls are forwarded to a medical team that fields questions.
The animals treated at the hospital run the gamut from standard dogs and cats to reptiles, birds and exotic species.
“We’ll see it if it will fit through the door,” he said.
Most of the treatment is handled in a central area, although rooms are available for hospitalized patients, such as the “cat ward,” a quiet space for cats.
The facility has a lab and pharmacy area; capacity to hospitalize up to four oxygen-dependent patients; caged spaces for up to 50 patients; runs for larger dogs; an X-ray room; and an endoscopy tower for non-invasive procedures to remove foreign objects, primarily from the stomach.
Mihansky said the vet doctors will treat gastrointestinal episodes, including vomiting and diarrhea; trauma cases, such as limping dogs; animals ingesting foreign matter; and animals with heart and kidney failure. They also will perform surgical procedures, such as Caesarean sections.
“All we do is emergency care here,” Mihansky said. “So we don’t do anything that would typically be done in a general practice. We stick to what we do best.”