Denver Animal Emergency
Denver, NC
Advanced Veterinary Care

If you believe your pet is sick, hurt or in distress, we're here to provide expert care. Our trained emergency clinicians are prepared to diagnose and treat urgent cases, including severely injured or critically ill pets.

Common pet emergencies.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of symptoms that may indicate a life-threatening pet emergency:

• Difficulty breathing
• Retching unproductively, with or without abdominal distension
• Straining unproductively to urinate
• Trauma
• Bite wounds
• Bleeding
• Frequent vomiting
• Toxin ingestion or contact
• Seizure
• Difficulty delivering puppies

Through every step of your pet's emergency care experience, we keep you and your pet's primary veterinarian informed and involved.

What do I do if a skunk sprays my pet?

Skunk sprays are not an emergency and do not require a trip to your veterinarian – unless your pet was bitten or injured by the skunk. If your pet was sprayed in the face, flush your pet's eyes with a sterile saline solution. Then, bathe your pet using the following recipe:

• 1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide solution (use a new bottle)
• 1/4 cup of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of Dawn dish soap

When preparing the cleaning solution and bathing your pet, wear gloves and work outside or in a well-ventilated area. Mix all the ingredients in an open container to make a paste. Wet your pet with lukewarm water, then generously apply the paste, avoiding their eyes and mouth. Work the paste into their fur and leave it on as long as possible. Rinse well and repeat the process as often as necessary. Discard any leftover paste.

A trip to the vet can be stressful for even the most relaxed pet. For this reason, some pets need to be sedated for safety during even relatively simple procedures. Anything from performing a thorough exam to major surgery may require anesthesia. Anesthetic agents may be injected under the skin, inhaled or administered intravenously.

Once your pet is anesthetized, an experienced technician will continue to carefully monitor blood pressure, heart rate, ECG, oxygen saturation and end-tidal carbon dioxide levels with the help of sophisticated monitors and sensors.

Pain management.

We strongly believe in a compassionate approach to pain management and consider it a top priority to alleviate pain and discomfort for patients. Because pain management contributes to faster healing, we make every attempt to utilize the most recent analgesic techniques and leading protocols.

This includes:

• An individualized pain treatment plan tailored to each patient's needs and health status.
• Balanced, multi-modal pain management that synergistically combines pain medications.
• Employing advanced pain management techniques such as continuous rate intravenous infusions, local anesthetics and pain catheters that deliver medication directly to the site of discomfort.

Our veterinary patients who are severely ill are admitted to the intensive care unit if they have a life-threatening disease or special needs such as advanced pain management or complex fluid or drug therapy.

Pets in our ICU are monitored continuously, and a veterinarian is always present to address changes in a patient's medical condition.

Hospitalization.

If your pet requires hospitalization for an illness or injury, our qualified team of veterinarians and technicians will monitor their vital signs, food and fluid intake and changes in medical status. While hospitalized, your pet may receive intravenous fluids, medication, treatments and pain control therapy.

Some patients will need to remain at the hospital overnight to ensure they receive a consistent dose of IV fluids to remain hydrated. While staying with us, patients are monitored by our team, and we also have the ability to monitor a continuous EKG on a patient if needed.

Oxygen therapy.

Oxygen therapy is particularly effective for treating pets experiencing:

• Respiratory distress
• Sepsis
• Fever
• Pleural space disease
• Congestive heart failure
• Anemia
• Shock
• Pulmonary contusions
• Pulmonary hypertension
• Seizures
• Head trauma

Our emergency veterinarians understand the physiology of oxygen delivery and recognize cases that will benefit from carefully administered therapy. Oxygen therapy makes breathing more comfortable for our patients and quickly restores oxygen levels to improve circulation and prevent or reduce damage to vital organs.

From modern imaging equipment like digital radiography and sonograms to a real-time laboratory, we have diagnostic tools that can save an animal's life.

Through our in-house lab, we can run advanced blood and urine analysis tests, including:

• Comprehensive blood chemistry panels
• Complete blood counts (CBCs)
• Heartworm and tick-borne disease tests
• Viral infection (FeLV/FIV, Parvovirus) tests
• Clotting time tests

Digital radiography.

Digital radiography has revolutionized medicine by yielding fast, accurate radiographs (x-rays) to help diagnose a patient and order appropriate treatment. Digitized x-rays offer several advantages over film:

• Faster, more precise images
• Easier access and readability
• Increased detail and enhanced images
• Ability to transfer images via telemedicine or the internet
• Affords prompt consultations with specialists worldwide

Your pet’s attending veterinarian interprets the initial results from the radiographs to formulate a treatment plan. Then, those images are digitally transferred to a board-certified veterinary radiologist for final interpretation and input.

Ultrasound.

Ultrasound is a painless, safe, non-invasive procedure to evaluate your pet's internal organs. Using sound waves, ultrasound produces a real-time moving picture of your pet's organs that allows us to visualize objects that cannot be detected by x-rays alone. We use ultrasound exams to assess the shape, size, tissue density, internal structure, and position of your pet's abdominal organs. In addition, ultrasounds help assess cardiac health (also called an echocardiogram) and diagnose pregnancy. The technology can also be used to identify masses or tumors and as a guide during fine needle aspirates or cystocentesis.

When your pet needs surgery, our veterinary surgery team is ready to provide the best possible care. Our hospital is equipped with advanced tools, technology and monitoring capabilities to provide sophisticated medical care and compassionate service during your pet's time of need.

Although emergency care and overnight supervised hospitalization are our primary services, we also offer emergency surgeries as needed – day or night, on holidays and weekends.

If your pet requires surgery, you can feel confident in our surgeons' skills, experience and meticulous care. Throughout each surgical procedure, we constantly monitor a pet's condition, heart rate, breathing, vital signs and oxygen saturation, anesthesia and IV fluids.

Our team respects the close bond between pet owners and their pets and treats each with dignity, compassion and kindness.