While we cannot always promise you the shortest wait time, we assure you that we will prioritize the care of your pet. Triage, or prioritization of the most critical patients, saves lives. So please understand that if we keep you waiting, we are working on pets within our hospital whose treatment needs are more critical.

When you arrive at our hospital, one of our triage nurses will assess your pet and obtain a medical history. One of our experienced emergency doctors will be notified and will see your pet as soon as possible and in the order of need. If wait times are long, please feel free to ask about a courtesy drop-off. We value your time, but our emphasis will always be on providing the best possible care to your fur babies.

In most cases, a diagnostic evaluation is necessary to make an accurate diagnosis of your pet’s problem and direct treatments. Our hospital has the resources needed to assess your pet in the event of an emergency and make appropriate treatment recommendations.

We have a full in-house laboratory with the capability to run complete blood counts, blood chemistry panels, blood gas monitoring, clotting profiles, thromboelastography (to assess the risk of clot formation), and more. A state-of-the-art digital radiology system and high-resolution ultrasound system allow us to screen for internal problems that your pet may be having.

WE ARE NOW BOOKING surgeries and surgery consultations with a Board Certified Surgeon on Fridays and Saturdays, starting February 21, 2025.

The HHEAH Team is pleased to offer surgeries and surgery consultation with a board-certified surgeon.

Our surgery team will be available for surgeries and consultations during the days on Fridays and Saturdays starting February 21, 2025.

We are proud that we now offer the following surgical procedures:

ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY

·         Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL), Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL) and Patella Luxation Repair via Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TPLO) and Extracapsular Repair

·         Hip surgery: Femoral head and neck excisions

·         Elbow Surgery: Elbow dysplasia, OCD, incongruity

·         Angular limb correction

·         Tendon repair

·         Arthrodesis

·         Fracture repair

SOFT TISSUE SURGERY

·         Cardiorespiratory: Arytenoid lateralization for laryngeal paralysis, Brachycephalic airway correction, tracheal surgery, lung lobectomy, surgical treatment of pleural space disease, pericardial window

·         GI/hepatobiliary: Gastropexy for GDV or prophylactic, FB removal, Tumor excision, Intestinal biopsies, liver lobectomy/biopsy, cholecystectomy, shunt correction.

·         Splenectomy, FB removal (Gastrotomy/Enterotomy/R & A), Intussusception

·         Urinary: surgical treatment for urinary obstruction, neoplasia

·         Wound repair including skin flaps and grafts

·         Oncologic Surgery

In addition, our emergency team will continue to provide emergency surgeries as needed. Our emergency doctors routinely handle most common emergency surgeries, such as intestinal obstructions, bloat or gastric dilatation-volvulus, emergency caesarian sections, bite wound trauma, lacerations, and more.

Caring and Compassionate Pet Euthanasia

Euthanasia is something most people would rather not think about, unfortunately, many diseases can be treated, but not cured, and can eventually lead to suffering. Sometimes pet euthanasia is the most caring and compassionate thing a pet owner can do for their pets.

Understanding When It’s Time to Say Goodbye

It can be difficult for pet owners to determine when it’s time to say goodbye to their beloved pets, especially if your pet has good days and bad days. If you are unsure as to whether it is time to say goodbye, Healing Hearts Emergency Animal Hospital can evaluate your pet’s health and answer your questions in order to help you make a decision.

Factors to Consider to Determine if a Pet is Suffering

The following list may help you decide if your pet may be suffering:

• Mobility: Is your pet able to walk normally, is assistance required to get up or walk, or is your pet unable to rise or walk at all?
• Appetite: Does your pet still have a normal appetite, is appetite decreased with hand-feeding required or is your pet unable to eat without a feeding tube?
• Hydration: Does your pet maintain normal hydration or is supported with subcutaneous or intravenous fluids required to maintain hydration?
•  Pain: Does the disease state that your pet is suffering from cause any pain and if so, can the pain be adequately managed on an outpatient basis (outside of the hospital).
•  Respiratory: Does your pet struggle to breathe, show labored breathing with minimal activity, or require supplemental oxygen in order to survive?
•   Neurologic: Does your pet have seizures that are unable to be controlled with medication, disorientation or a lack of awareness of his or her environment, or suffer severe imbalance that is not expected to resolve with time or treatment?
•  Interaction/Attitude: Does your pet interact normally with the family or other pets in the household, or has he or she become increasingly reclusive or aggressive to others in the household?
•  Favorite Things: Does your pet still participate in his or her normal activities, play with their toys or show interest in routines that they previously held?

At-Home Euthanasia

Many people prefer to schedule at-home euthanasia for their pets to minimize stress for both the pets and the people involved. While we do not offer at-home euthanasia services, we can help you to find someone who can provide this service:

Lap Of Love
Home Pet Euthanasia Of SC
Advanced Mobile Pet Care
BetterVet Orange County
Orange County Mobile vet

Although heart problems are found more often in older pets, these conditions can affect pets at any age. Heart disease is usually a life-threatening condition, but early diagnosis and appropriate therapy can extend your pet’s life. If caught soon enough, some forms of heart disease can be cured.

Heart disease can lead to congestive heart failure (CHF), which occurs when the heart can no longer pump blood effectively. If an animal is suffering from CHF, fluid usually accumulates in and around the lungs and sometimes in the abdomen. Congenital heart disease (animals born with a heart problem), valvular heart disease (abnormalities of the heart valves), arrhythmias (rhythm disturbances), and heartworm disease can all lead to CHF.

Call us if your pet starts breathing rapidly or coughing, loses his or her appetite, tires easily, seems weak, or has trouble exercising. We can discover many heart problems during a physical exam. Additional tests, such as an electrocardiogram (ECG), radiographs (x-rays), and ultrasounds, are usually needed to accurately identify the cause of the heart disease or failure.

Dr. April Durtschi is here Tuesdays and Thursdays seeing appointments from 3pm until 8pm and available for call-in emergencies.