What ER Vets Wish Every Pet Owner Knew

In this episode of Behind the Stethoscope, Dr. Elizabeth Brann shares advice every pet owner should know about veterinary emergencies.

As an emergency veterinarian, Dr. Brann sees pets and their owners during some of the most stressful and unexpected moments. In this episode, she breaks down what actually happens inside veterinary ERs and shares practical advice to help pet owners feel more prepared if their pet ever needs emergency care.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

• When to seek emergency care for your pet
• Understanding how triage works in veterinary ERs
• Common emergencies veterinarians see every day
• Signs that something may be wrong with your pet
• Why early intervention can make a big difference
• Preparing financially for unexpected veterinary care

Whether you're a pet owner, veterinary student, or someone curious about emergency veterinary medicine, this episode gives a behind-the-scenes look at what ER veterinarians experience every day.

Behind the Stethoscope is a podcast where Dr. Elizabeth Brann shares stories, lessons, and insights from life as an emergency veterinarian.

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Website: www.behindthestethoscope.com

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YouTube: @behindthestethoscope-dvm

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone and welcome back to Behind the Stethoscope. My name is Dr. Elizabeth Brand. I am just a new ER grad veterinarian, just trying to figure everything out like the rest of us. This episode is gonna be a little bit different. A lot of my direction and tone has geared towards new grads or veterinarians or people in veterinary medicine. This episode in particular, I am talking directly to the pet parents. So I've seen a lot of things in almost my two years of practicing emergency medicine. Emergencies can be unpredictable. They can come up out of nowhere. No one ever plans for their animal to eat something they shouldn't. No one ever plans for their animal to get hit by a car or attacked by another dog. But in my experience, I have a couple things that I wish more pet parents would know. This episode is not meant to scare anybody. This is, I want everyone to feel more prepared in case anything does happen. So let's get into it. Okay, first we're gonna talk about some really common emergencies that I normally see. So one, foreign body ingestions, dogs eating things that they shouldn't, whether that is toys, whether that's sticks outside, acorns. You do not know how many acorns I have pulled out of a dog's intestines. But cats, string, needles, stuff like that. So foreign body ingestions, toxins are really common as well. So chocolates, garlic, onions, raw meat, lily ingestions, a lot of stuff like that. So that's area, eating things that they shouldn't. The next one is blocked cats. As most people with cats know, cats like to get urinary obstructed when they're stressed, if they have stones, UTIs, there's a lot of reasons cats can get obstructed. So my whole point with this: so if something feels off, I would not wait too long. With vomiting and diarrhea, for example, if my own dog is throwing up a lot, having a lot of diarrhea, they're losing so much fluid. So not only maybe is there an underlying cause for all of this, now she's getting really dehydrated. Now she's gonna need to be hospitalized, especially if I wait a couple of days. If I catch it early instead of waiting it out, it could prevent the hospitalization. We can make her feel better sooner, to where we don't have to go into all of the different complications. If there is an infection, if we can keep it contained in that area and it doesn't spread, then that can be life-saving sometimes. Best advice don't wait too long. If you think there's something off with your pet, you know your pet best. Go to the vet or call your vet. Kind of on a similar topic, there is know your pets normal. So, for example, I'm just gonna keep using my dog as an example because I'm coming from a pet parent myself, knowing my pet's normal. She is a golden retriever, she's six years old. Her name is Paisley, but she loves to eat. And that is her normal. If she doesn't eat for some reason, I know something's off. She also does throw up sometimes, like once a week, sometimes even twice a week. She gets really nauseous when she doesn't eat for an extended period of time. And so sometimes she'll throw up. I know that's her normal. But for your animal, if your dog doesn't throw up and starts throwing up, that's abnormal. So I would say know your pet's normal, whether that's eating habits, whether that's the hydration, if we're drinking more water than normal, or we're breathing faster, or we're getting a little bit more tired on walks than we normally do. All of those kind of baselines are will set you up for success in the future to where you can catch something really early, even something subtle. Hey, she's drinking a little bit more water than normal, or she's breathing a little bit faster than she normally does. All can be subtle signs that can save your pet's life down the road. Okay, so the next thing I want pet parents to know is how ERs work, how we function behind the scenes of an emergency hospital. So your pet comes in, Paisley comes in for vomiting and diarrhea. She is wagging her tail, she is bouncing off the walls, but she's been vomiting for a couple days and having some diarrhea for a couple days. So we see her come in, we will triage. So we will get vitals, check her gum color, heart rate, um, listen to her lungs all the nine yards. Based on how her vitals are and the history, she's put in this like list. So we have some patients that come in that aren't breathing at all. That goes obviously to straight of our triage list versus a golden tree wagging her tail, like maybe towards the bottom. Not to say that your pet isn't important, but we triage based on severity. You don't want to be the first person on the list. Let me tell you that. That means your pet is very sick, very ill. We're moving that up the priority list versus any infection or a dog that's very stable is gonna move down a list. I know wait times can be frustrating in the ER, but wait times sometimes mean, especially if it's busy, means your pet is stable, your pet can wait versus the patients that come in and they can't wait. You have a blocked cat that is lateral and not able to get up on its own. Those are life and death situations, and no one wants their pet to be in that situation or at that top of that list. So I just again wanted to break down on how we triage things in the ER and how I in my head go, okay, what's first? What's the first thing we need to do? And whether that's saving a dog's life first, and then working my way down the list. Again, not to say that I don't care about your pet, don't want your pet to get better, don't want your pet to feel better, or get some answers of what's going on. I just know, speaking from experience myself, either wait times can be really stressful, really frustrating. But I just wanted to reassure you guys that wait times sometimes actually mean a good thing because that means your pet is not at the top. Okay, my next advice to pet parents is know your dog's attitude. Know how your dog is around other dogs, know your how your dog is around storms and other people coming, and again, dogs and cats in particular. So I say this because you do not know how many times a dog comes in for going over to a cousin's house, a brother's house, a sister's house, whatever the case is. And there's multiple dogs in the household. And if you're the one bringing your dog into another household with another animal in it, just make sure, again, the attitude of your dog towards another dog, and vice versa. How is that dog towards other dogs? Again, you do not know how many dog fights we've seen, just microaggressions over the weekend, whether that is another dog continuing to sniff another dog, or continuing to like bite at its feet, or whatever the case is, and then finally the dog turns and snaps. Or taking your dog to a dog park. There's multiple times where dogs have gotten out of the fence and attacked another dog on a walk. These are really scary things, and I don't want to scare anybody. I just want to bring knowledgement to the situation when it happens. If you're the pet parent where the dog can get under the fence, just keep an eye on them when they're outside. Or if your dog's on a walk and is dog aggressive, that's okay. Just again, be more conscious about the situation. Same with cats. If your cat gets really stressed out easily and you have people coming over, we can give them medications to help with the stress. When cats are stressed, they get blocked. Especially male cats, and we don't want a simple situation of friends coming over to turn into an emergency. So, again, best advice know your pet's attitude, mentation towards a situation. If a dog doesn't like a thunderstorm and they destroy things when you're not home during a thunderstorm, there are medications for that. Traveling, there's so many things to stay in tune with your pet to prevent further destruction, further emergencies. Some dogs have jumped through a window during a storm because they're so scared and they're home alone. So not only do you have to fix now your window, your dog may be hurt. Now your dog is out. And yeah, dogs do crazy things when they're scared. So know your dog's mentation, know how your dog is going to react to a situation and whether we need a medication, whether we need to stay home. Maybe the friends don't need to come over, whatever the case is, to make your dog or your cat stress-free, calm, live its best life. We definitely want to do that. Okay, next is funds during emergency situation. This can be a sensitive topic, understandably. Again, speaking from experience myself, um, we never expect for emergencies to happen. We never expect to be in an emergency room. You never expect the dog fight, you never expect your dog to need emergency surgery. But for the example that I used previously, if Paisley is coming in for vomiting and diarrhea, that can be a whole list of things, right? Like it could be do we just have an upset stomach? That would be great. That's best case scenario. Is there something else going on? Is there liver? Is there kidney disease? Is there pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas causing vomiting and diarrhea? Did she eat one of her toys and now she's obstructed? Is there something else going on? I don't know unless I do further diagnostics. Unfortunately, Paisley can't tell me what's wrong. I just see that she's vomiting and having diarrhea. So, with that being said, we have to run more diagnostics in the emergency room. We have to run blood work x-rays to get a full big picture about what's going on. Unfortunately, like in the emergency room, it is really expensive, especially if we add on surgery or hospitalization, and it can add up really quickly. And that is so tough on people. And speaking from experience, I understand like how expensive it can be. There are options to help with this before an emergency happens. So, one pet insurance helps a lot. They cover most things. The one caveat I will say with pet insurance that I want every pet parent to know is that most of the time, not all the time, I would say most insurance, they make you pay up front and then they will reimburse you on the back end. So you have to have that five, six thousand dollars up front, and then they will pay you on the back end. Again, most of the time. Some pet insurance does pay up front. Like I think there's like maybe one out there at the time that I'm recording this episode, maybe two. So having that money up front, again, that's the caveat of pet insurance. But on that same kind of note, having an emergency fund, I know it's hard. I know things are so expensive. Life is so expensive. Having a pet is expensive. And so having a fund set aside for a rainy day if something, God forbid, happens to your pet, to where you do have the funds to get the care the pet needs. Three is make a plan with your primary vet. For example, if your pet has a chronic disease and a weekend's coming up or your pet is sick during the week, seeing your primary vet, but saying, hey, if something happens during the weekend, we can do X, Y, and Z. Whether that is your primary vet is open on the Saturday, whether we have medications to get through the weekend, to where we can see our primary vet again. So when I say primary vet, like general practice vet, the one that you go see for vaccines, ear infections, skin infections, chronic disease management, stuff like that, to where it's not an emergency room or urgent care. So, best advice have a plan for if, God forbid, difficult times come around with your pet. Okay. And so my last advice for pet parents is that your vet team truly does care. There's a lot of things going around saying vets try to charge too much or they do things that are not necessary or anything like that. I personally treat my clients and my patients like how I or I want Paisley to be treated, in the sense of I will never upcharge anything for a pet that doesn't need it. No unnecessary diagnostics or treatments. I don't want you to pay more than you have to pay, especially in an emergency room. But also, I don't want to put your pet through unnecessary diagnostics that I don't feel like need to be done at this time. So there's the really common misconception around that. And I want to say it here first, that is not the case. I will give my professional recommendations based on history, my physical exam, and I will not do anything that doesn't need to be done. So there's one. But your vet team truly cares. Like we care if your animal gets better. We want your animal to get better. And it is really hard on the vet team, whether that's nurses, receptionists, vets, when pets don't do well. Like we want to see your pet walk out the door. We want your pet to start eating again. There's been so many times where I have a patient that's hospitalized, that's not eating, that's again, maybe declining or doing about the same for a couple of days. And then that pet starts eating, whether that's just a lick of baby food. Oh my gosh, the place goes crazy. We literally start dancing. My nurses are so fun and they like literally go crazy when they've been like trying to get this pet to eat for a couple of days. And then out of nowhere, the pet starts to eat. It's so much fun. We have such a good time with it. But at the same time, like knowing that we're cheering on your pets at my company around the country, we'll roll out the red carpet for pets leaving the hospital that have been there for multiple days, just cheering them on. We love seeing them do well. But at the same time, if they take a turn for the worst or a pet doesn't make it, we hold on to that. Vets, vet nurses, vet staff, like obviously that's not our pet, but we treat them like our pets. I just want people to know the people in veterinary medicine are in veterinary medicine because we truly deeply care about animals. We think about your pet sometimes, even off shift. For example, I had a cat that came in during my shift and was hospitalized and wasn't doing very well and was gonna be there for the next couple of days. Literally every morning I woke up and every night that I went to bed, I checked on that patient. On my off time, someone's pet that I don't even know that I met for eight hours, I checked for the next two days. We truly care for your pet. I love animals. I would not have gone through all of the years of training, schooling, whole nine yards if I didn't love animals. So, with that being said, I hope you never have to walk into an emergency clinic. I hope there is never an emergency with your pet. But no, if you ever do find yourself in an emergency clinic, know that the team there taking care of your animal will do everything that they can to help. The best thing that you can do for your animal, one, trust your instincts. You know your pet best. Two, like I said, know your normals. Three, advocate for your animal. If you feel like there's something wrong, call your vet, go to your vet, and don't wait until it's too long. I love this job. I love this profession. This is every girl's dream. Sometimes we don't see what's behind the scenes. And so that's why I wanted to do this episode to say this is a little bit of what we do behind the scenes and what I want pet parents to know. My last disclaimer, my last little thing that I want people to know is don't trust Google for everything or ChatGPT. You do not know how many times people have come in and said ChatGBT said this or ChatGBT said this. Yes, I understand that is a grateful tool, that is a grateful insight in doing your research on what's going on with your animal. I love when pet parents have done research on what's going on with their animal. I'm all in. But if chat GBT says this and your veterinarian tells you this, trust your veterinarian. We have done this for multiple years. We have done training on this. ChatGBT is a computer. They don't have a physical exam, they don't have a history. So I just want to put a little disclaimer in there. There is so many times I have owners come in and decline my recommendations because ChatGBT told them not to. It's not Dr. Google, it's not Dr. ChatGPT. And at the end of the day, they're your pet. You can do what you feel like is best for your pet and your family. But sometimes ChatGPT doesn't know everything. But with that being said, I want to thank you guys so much for coming to this episode. Share this with all your pet parents, all your pet friends, just to hear from an ER vet what advice I have for them. And I will see you guys next week on Behind the Seth Scope. Thank you guys so much.