Pets: midnight trip to the vet or can it wait?

Pet medical emergencies often happen outside of regular office hours, which is why most veterinarian practices provide an after-hours contact. Some seemingly urgent issues can, however, wait until the next day. But how can you be sure?

"Many of the after-hours calls can be resolved on the phone, with some advice and reassurance. Only a small percentage of pet illnesses are true emergency situations. As vets, we understand that a pet owner may not be able to determine what needs immediate treatment and what does not. Hence a few minutes on the phone may avoid an unnecessary midnight trip to the vet, or may indicate that such a trip is critical to save your pet's life."

Top of his urgent list for dogs is gastric dilatation volvulus. "This is a situation where the dog's stomach actually rotates and twists on itself. Despite a lot of research we do not know what actually causes this to happen," Kenda says.

He adds that anecdotally, there have been reports that it is more likely to occur when a dog is fed a meal and then is active afterwards. This is why it is often seen as an after-hours problem when the dog is fed in the evening, then taken for a walk or play and then a couple of hours later the problem begins.

"These dogs appear to try to vomit, but nothing comes out. This is because the stomach is twisted and nothing can get out of the stomach in either direction." As the condition develops, food ferments and gas builds up in the stomach, but the gas, too, cannot escape. The abdomen takes on a bloated appearance and quite quickly becomes as tight as a drum. "The tightness of the overstretched stomach, the compromised blood flow to the stomach and often the spleen, which is attached to the stomach and sometimes twists with it, and the pressure on the surrounding blood vessels results in a cascade of very bad physiological events."