Dear Pet Parents:
The impact of COVID-19 is unfolding with unprecedented speed. Out of concern for our community – you, our clients and our employees – during this public health emergency, Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center is altering operations.
Although we remain available 24/7, we will only be seeing medically necessary, urgent, and emergency patients only. We remain compassionate about our care for your pet and for you, but please be understanding about the necessity to keep our community safe.
Effective as of Tuesday, March 17, 2020:
Emergency Service will continue to operate 24/7:
- Please contact and go to your Primary Care Veterinarian first. If your veterinarian sends you to VREC for a medically necessary, urgent or emergency reason, we are asking them, and you, to call and speak with someone before arrival.
- Our referral coordinators, client services representatives, nurses or doctors will provide you very specific arrival instructions.
Referral Services are available:
- All non-urgent clinical appointments have been cancelled. Clients will be contacted to reschedule once the situation moderates.
- If you are being referred by your primary care veterinarian for Internal Medicine or Surgery, please call to speak with a referral coordinator directly. Provide as much information as possible.
- Our referral coordinators will provide you with specific arrival instructions
Updated Client Access and Visitation Policy:
- We have instituted a curbside triage process. For most patients, this means we will take pets into the hospital and report back to owners via cell phone or car-side.
- We will be limiting our exposure to clients arriving to VREC.
- We will not be allowing any client visitation during hospitalization.
- We will discuss discharges via telephone before patient is sent home from hospital.
We will NOT be seeing clients with any fever, respiratory, and/or flu-like symptoms. We require a healthy person to bring their pet to our hospital.
These restrictions will be in place for a minimum of two weeks, but will be reassessed based on COVID-19 progression. Please contact us with any questions or concerns.
If you have questions or concerns, please call us at 570-587-7777 at any time.
VREC is committed in the support of our entire community. How well we flatten and bend the epidemiological curve of this infection depends largely on how willing people are to sacrificing individual conveniences and their desire to save the lives of others.
COVID-19 Tips
- The best way to avoid becoming ill is to avoid exposure to the virus. Taking typical preventative action is key.
- Considering all information in total, infections disease experts, and multiple international and domestic human and animal health organizations (CDC, OIE, WHO) agree, there is no evidence at this point to indicate that pets can spread COVID-19 to other animals, including people.
- If you are not ill with COVID-19 you can interact with your pet as you normally would, including walking, feeding, and playing.
- Be sure to practice good hygiene during interactions:
- Wash hands before and after interacting with your pet
- Ensure your pet is kept well-groomed
- Regularly clean your pet’s food and water bowls, bedding and toys
- Wash your hands before and after contact
- Avoid sharing food, dishes, glassware, utensils, bedding, and towels with people and pets in the home.
- Out of an abundance of caution, if you are COVID-19 positive it is recommended that you limit contact with animals until more information is known about the virus. Anyone who is COVID-19 positive should wear facemasks.
- Have another member of your household take care of walking, feeding, and playing with your pet. Service animals, however, need to stay with their pet-parents, especially in times of illness.