Emergencies:

Best Friends: 262-377-3821

Lakeshore Veterinary Specialists & Emergency Hospital , Port Washington: 262-268-7800

Animal Emergency Center, Glendale:(414)540-6710

Pets sometimes need medical care at the most inconvenient times- nights, weekends or holidays. You now have several choices for night and weekend emergency care, should your pet ever need it. First, we here at Best Friends are almost always available for you by phone. If you aren't sure whether your pet needs to be seen, or you have a question or concern about your pet, you can always reach our on-call doctor. Call: 262-377-3821 and your call will be forwarded to the cell phone of the Best Friends doctor on call. Our regular phone line after hours message gives you this number as well.

We know that you often feel more comfortable hearing a familiar voice. Because we know your pet and its health history, we can usually advise you as to what to do at home, such as how to make your dog vomit up those pills he just swallowed or get the bleeding toenail under control. If medication is needed sometimes we can leave something in our outside mailbox for you to pick up or meet you at the hospital on Sunday morning. If your pet truly needs an emergency trip to an all night hospital, we can also help you decide which one is appropriate and we can call ahead to tell them you are on your way and what the problem is.

There is a new emergency facility in our area in addition to the long established Animal Emergency Center (AEC) in Glendale. (Animal Emergency Center is located on Silver Spring Drive about 1 mile west of I-43.) AEC may sometimes be the better choice, even though they may be farther away, depending on the nature of the pet's problem.

First, they are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This means that your pet can remain there as long as necessary without having to be transported back and forth when the night emergency hospital closes in the morning.

Animal Emergency Center also provides a very high caliber of intensive or critical care. We often refer patients there from our facility for advanced care not available at our hospital, as well as for emergency services. We will continue to do so frequently even though two a new clinic is available.

AEC has a blood bank if your pet needs a blood transfusion, and a board certified surgeon some days during the week who can perform advanced surgeries that we are not able to do. They provide CT and MRI services for head injuries, neurological problems or cancer diagnosis. They have an exotics specialist, an oncologist, and board certified internal medicine specialists who can perform an ultrasound of the abdomen or an echocardiogram of the hear if necessary.

On nights and weekends you now have another choice for emergency in addition to AEC. Lakeshore Veterinary Specialists & Emergency Hospital is on the north side of Port Washington. We are very comfortable with their emergency doctors, who are a married couple that have been working together at Fox Valley Referral Center in Appleton for the past five years. They bring a lot of experience with them, and have promised to communicate closely with us about your pet's emergency care and treatment.

We also like Lakeshore because they are open during the day on weekdays for advanced surgery. This means that your pet wouldn't have to be transferred out right away in the morning if that's not the best option for care, because the regular day staff will still be there.

We have been referring surgical patients to Lakeshore since May 2007, and in fact Dr. Boss's dog was the first surgery patient there, before they had even opened. The can repair a severely broken leg, as they did for her dog, or perform difficult thoracic or abdominal surgeries, as the did for Dr. Lundgren's dog a month or two later. Dr. Odders and Dr. Teunissen both do a great job and we have had glowing reviews from clients we have referred there. Lakeshore is located just south of the Sentry grocery store at exit 100 of I-43, the Hwy H & 32 exit. Go east to the 1st stoplight, turn right, and then left into the parking lot.

If your pet is in critical condition, you should go to the closest place available. In most situations, though, you will have enough time to call us to discuss the situation and where to take your pet before you head there.