Emergency veterinary care for your animals

14 October, 2020

Castlemaine Veterinary Clinic strives to work tirelessly for the well being of all animals in the area. Our passionate and dedicated team treat and support sick and injured animals, often working exceptionally long hours, particularly over the summer months. To take care of our staff as well as our animals over periods of high demand, we need to partner with a dedicated rural emergency centre to support after hours care. Our partner for after hours care is Central Veterinary Emergency at 29A Michael St, Bendigo (Ph 0413 898 331 or 03 5443 7749).

As much as we want to care for all animals in the area at any time of the day or night, it is not physically possible particularly in a rural veterinary clinic. Low vet numbers in regional areas have become an unhappy trend for clinics seeking to increase their veterinary staff to enable round the clock veterinary services.

There are several reasons for the rural and regional veterinary staff shortages which are too complex for this article but please see these articles for further explanation:

https://vetpracticemag.com.au/dr-gary-turnbull-on-the-veterinarian-shortage/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-13/vet-shortage-as-suicide-rates-high/10708686

In stark contrast, all Australian capital and larger cities can boast multiple dedicated 24hr emergency clinics, staffed by rotating shifts of specialist emergency vets and nurses much like the emergency centres at regional and metropolitan hospitals for human beings. These centres are able to treat emergency cases from numerous surrounding veterinary clinics who divert their after-hours phone calls to them directly.

The team at Castlemaine Veterinary Clinic will try to do our best for the after hours needs of our animal community. We will continue to provide a limited emergency service via our After Hours number (0439 480 866) but when we’re unavailable we will direct you to our dedicated veterinary emergency partner in Bendigo.

Thank you from the Castlemaine Veterinary Clinic team and take care.