Local Veterinarian Explains When To Seek Emergency Care For Your Pet

When something happens to your pet, how do you know when to seek emergency care?

Dr. Rebekah Hartfield is a veterinarian in Holdenville. She joins us to talk about urgent care for our pets.

When should you go to the vet?

"(The) big thing to me is breathing. If your dog can't breathe, if there is a lot of noisy respiration. They're turning blue. Obviously that is really serious. And you need to be calling your vet, calling that urgent care clinic, emergency clinic and heading their way quickly. You know, bleeding that won't stop. That also really can be very serious. What you can do at home though or on your way to the Veterinary Clinic, is go ahead and apply some, you know, put pressure on that wound to stop that bleeding. That's really important. And then the veterinarian can take over from there. Or, you know, severe pain; they fall off the couch, they injure their back. You know, these are things that you need to get them in quickly, so that they won't cause maybe even something as severe as paralysis later on. Poisoning, penetrating wounds, any of these are just really, really important to get your dog to the vet as quickly as possible."

CLICK HERE to learn more about Dr. Hartfield.