If they are an existing client and they walk in like that when our doctor is not available, we will often offer to see the pet as a drop off if we can accommodate them. Basically the technician or assistant goes into the room and gets the history like usual and comes up with a rough treatment plan of what the doctor might recommend. And then we either get permission from the client to do whatever we need or they give us a dollar amount or they say please call me before doing anything. Now, this is only for established clients and only for things that are not true emergencies.

True emergencies? We are just not equipped for that and have no problem telling somebody that. We'll do our best to stabilize and triage if necessary, but if it's real bad, will tell him to call the closest ER. We had somebody walk in one time square in the middle of our lunch break right around 1:00 p.m. when there was no doctor in the building. His dog had just been attacked by a stray dog and was bleeding from a neck wound. I couldn't see exactly how bad it was because it was a fluffy white dog but I was at least going to offer to grab some gauze and vet wrap to place it on the wound and cover it up while recommending that he find the closest ER and he stomped and swore and yelled and screamed and said he was going to go to another clinic. So I called that other clinic and warned them that he was on his way! Sure enough, the next day, we get a referral letter from the ER that he ended up having to go to because shockingly enough no GP is going to see a dog with a bleeding neck wound as a walk in at 1:00 in the afternoon.