One of the biggest challenges we have faced over the last 18 months has been the difficulty explaining to the community why we are not able to respond to 24-hour/7 day a week pet emergencies. Hopefully, I can do that here.

We understand fully that when a pet is injured and/or in great discomfort or pain—everyone wants to get their loved pet relief—NOW! Nothing is more difficult for us than taking a call or receiving a text about an animal that is in distress and having to tell you that we simply cannot drop everything and take care of the emergency. Dr. Amy did not become a veterinarian by chance—she ABSOLUTELY loves animals. As a small business, we would love to provide this kind of service around the clock 24/7/365. However, with just Dr. Amy and myself, we simply cannot. Dr. Amy cannot work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When a pet emergency outside of normal business hours arises, many times, the pet will simply have to travel to Boise. Even during the normal day, there are times when Dr. Amy is simply out of the area or her schedule for the day is already filled with appointments. In addition, as a MOBILE PROVIDER we do not have the ability to hospitalize pets. With a brick and mortar clinic and a larger staff in the future—we WILL be able to accommodate those situations more regularly than we are able to now.

In the meantime, one of the things we are now trying to do, like most veterinary clinics, is to reserve appointment times each day for what we consider “Urgent care.” An urgent care appointment is different than an “emergency” in the sense that we have been seeing a lot of patients for minor injuries and discomforts such as cheatgrass in the paw or ear, eye injuries or minor lacerations. These types of injuries simply cannot wait two or three or five days to be seen—but at the same time—may not be “life threatening.” Some days we see three or four of these calls right off the bat in the morning or afternoon—some days we see none. These appointments are usually taken in our mobile truck clinic parked at our New Meadows location—but depending on the situation, Dr. Amy can often come to your home as well. Our goal is to have two or three appointment times available each day to see these type of cases within 12 to 48 hours.

In order to reserve these appointment times and not simply fill them up with vaccinations and routine wellness visits—we charge a $100 urgent care fee on top of our normal service. This allows us to KEEP THESE APPOINTMENTS AVAILABLE for those PETS that Dr. Amy, in consultation with the pet owners, feel should be seen right away. Typically—this is related to the potential for serious poor outcomes if not treated right away—and the level of pain/discomfort your pet is in.

We are grateful for the positive response we have received from the community over the last 18 months and look forward to providing more and more veterinary services to the area for many years to come. As we grow, we think it is important to communicate what we are doing now, why we are doing it, what we plan for the future, and hearing from all of you on what is working, what is not, and how we can work together to improve the health and wellness of pets in west-central Idaho.

Jon Keehner, PhD

Amy Keehner, MS, DVM