Emergencies

Emergencies that require urgent veterinary care:

Our large animal vets provide 24/7 emergency care on-site and at our clinics. Equipped with portable surgical and calving tools, we also offer hospitalisation, x-rays, and ultrasounds in the clinic for suitable cases.

When calling, please describe the emergency and its duration—our team will guide you on any immediate steps before we arrive.

Examples of some common emergencies that need an emergency call-out:

• Deep lacerations, puncture wounds
• Toe-touching or non-weight-bearing lameness. We may be looking at fractures, ruptured ligaments or tendons.
• Colic - Not eating feed, lethargic, laying down, rolling, kicking at belly, walking backwards. This can progress very quickly and needs urgent attention.
• Bloat - regardless of cause, this needs immediate attention
• Gain overload / Rumen Acidosis. A sudden feed of carbohydrates that is more than the animal is used to can progress very quickly
• Struggling to breathe - Sudden open mouth breathing is an emergency. Certain pasture toxicities can kill multiple animals fast.
• Down and not standing - especially if they were other well and are now weak, twitchy, or around labour and lactation- e.g. metabolic disease will kill fast
• Nervous disease - head tilts, circling, apparent blindness, head-pressing or “star-gazing”
• Pregnancy problems - If a ewe, doe or cow has been in active labour for 2 hours, or an alpaca longer than 20 minutes with no great progress, get us on the way, prolapses, malpositioned babies, abortions with sick mothers
• Babies - Bloat- Abomasal bloat, toxic infectious bloat, and gut twists are common in our young animals on milk, coughing- pneumonia, swollen joints, lameness or won’t stand, cold and lethargic, won’t drink - Any milk-fed baby that will not drink will go down very quickly and should always be considered an emergency.

If your animal is exhibiting any of these conditions, don’t delay. Call the emergency number.