After-Hours Emergency & Critical Care Medicine & Surgery

The Allied Partners Veterinary Emergency Service (APVES) is a group-owned veterinary emergency service operating at the Mid-Atlantic Animal Specialty Hospital (MASH) and prides itself on providing you and your pet state-of-the-art emergency, critical and intensive care medicine and surgery. We are your veterinarians’ choice for emergency care for their patients and for your convenience we are open when your regular veterinarian’s office is closed. 

Conditions or events requiring emergency treatment may include but are not limited to any of the following.

Lacerations Limping Vomiting or Diarrhea Bleeding Seizures Insect or Reptile Bites End of Life Considerations

Listlessness Eye Injuries Bite Wounds Bloating Poison Ingestion Bone Fractures Heart Disease

Blunt Trauma Persistent Pain or Discomfort Birthing Difficulties Diabetic Crises Foreign Object Ingestion Heart Disease Gun Shot Wounds

Each patient presenting on emergency will be thoroughly examined to determine if there are any life-threatening conditions present.  As detailed an assessment as possible will be provided to the pet owner or agent as to the patient’s condition and initial proposed management plan.  If necessary, the patient will then be stabilized to prevent further condition compromise or progression; this may include placing intravenous (IV) catheters, administering IV fluids, blood or plasma transfusions (from donor pets as well as banked blood products), pain medications and/or sedatives/tranquilizers, other specific medications, and oxygen therapy.  The hospital is equipped with an in-house laboratory that provides rapid turn-around of results of blood tests and other fluids, and also has on-site high quality diagnostic imaging (radiology and ultrasound).  Critical patients are closely monitored with continuous EKGs, non-invasive blood pressure monitoring, pulse oximetry for efficiency of respiration (tissue oxygen saturation) measurement, and other advanced procedures. 

When needed our board-certified surgeons and their trained technical staff are available on-call for any emergency surgeries.  Many patients will require brief, overnight hospitalization and monitoring prior to either being discharged once stable and comfortable, or transferred to your regular veterinarian’s hospital or if necessary, to a 24-hour critical care facility the following morning.