As you may be aware, the veterinary profession has been in a progressive crisis that has significantly worsened during the Pandemic due to increases in animal adoptions, staffing shortages, staff burn out and depression, and even suicide.  While we have been doing our best to care for your pets, our clients, and our staff throughout these challenges, we want to explain why you may notice longer than average wait times for appointments, appointments that are running late, times when we cannot see your pet and need to refer you to another veterinary facility, and even delays in returning calls and emails.  Please understand that we are doing our best during these difficult times and that the well-being of our patients and our staff are equally important as we cannot care for our patients if we are unable to care for ourselves and each other.

In June 2021, we made the difficult decision to pause accepting new clients so that we could focus on the care of our current patients and clients. Unfortunately, even with this and other actions, we are currently seeing delays of up to two weeks for non-critical sick visits, four weeks for annual exams, eight weeks for technician visits, and often eight or more weeks for non-critical surgical procedures.  In order to take advantage of any last minute openings in our appointment schedule, we have instituted a “Sick Call List” and may place you and your pet on this list in hopes that we can provide an appointment sooner than the one we have already scheduled for you.  Your flexibility is critical for the success of the Sick Call List as we will likely call you with the little notification that another client has provided to us when they cancel their appointment.  Likewise, if you need to cancel your appointment, please give us as much time as possible so that we may offer that appointment to another patient in need of care.

Urgent Care appointments are also still available, but we can only provide these appointments when staffing and the current patient care level allows.  In these cases, you may be asked to have your pet admitted to the hospital so we can see them between other appointments.  At other times, you may be asked to wait with your pet until a doctor has a chance to see your pet and there may be an extended wait time.  Lastly, we ask that you please allow at least 72 business hours for all prescription refills and non-critical callbacks for any messages or emails left for our doctors as these are also being triaged to the best of our ability.  Certainly, if your pet is having a critical health issue, please call immediately and we will do our best to determine the best available course of action for your pet.  Multiple calls and emails regarding non-critical issues can delay our response, so your patience is appreciated.  We understand the concern and frustration this must cause, so we PROMISE to schedule an appointment for your pet as soon as possible but this means that you and your pet may need to wait if there is another pet with a more critical illness.  Ultimately, our success at providing care really requires that the PawSteps Community works together to help make sure everyone gets the care they need in a timely fashion.

Despite our best efforts, there will be times when we are not able to see every pet in need of care and may need to refer you to another clinic or emergency center, especially if we believe your pet is going to require overnight or advanced care.  In the past, we’ve been able to see most pets immediately for urgent care or at least triage and stabilize your pet prior to referral, unfortunately this is not feasible at this time and we are sorry.  Please understand that it is difficult for our staff to inform our valued clients that we are not able to see their beloved pet in their time of need and this takes a toll on us as we really do care about our patients and their families.  Fortunately, most of our clients have been very understanding of our current situation and have gone out of their way to convey their appreciation even in times of their duress – we cannot adequately convey our appreciation for your understanding and support.  To our clients – thank you for the many wonderful gifts, coffee, sweet treats, and words of encouragement during this pandemic. Your kindness, patience, and support empowers us to continue with our passion of caring for your beloved pets.

Unfortunately, not everyone has been understanding of our policies regarding scheduling, masking, curbside care, and respectful behavior, so we must remind everyone that our hospital has a Zero Tolerance Policy for abusive or threatening behavior whether it is towards our staff or by our staff towards others – we work to hold ourselves to the same standards.  We understand that everyone has a bad day and everyone gets upset, but anyone demonstrating disrespectful behavior will be given a warning and anyone demonstrating persistent disrespectful behavior or ANY abusive or threatening behavior will be summarily dismissed and banned from the practice.  If you have a concern about any of our policies, please contact one of our Practice Managers, Kelly or Jillian, to discuss your concern in private. The well-being of our patients and our clients is critical to our success but it cannot happen without providing for the well-being of our staff – please be kind to each other.

If your pet is having an emergency and we are unable to see them, please call one of these hospitals to have your pet seen: