First and foremost, we hope you and yours are doing well. Normal life has certainly changed for all of us and the staff at the AEC wish you, your family and pets well. Hunker down, be smart and this, too, shall pass.
In the meantime, we are open. Veterinary medicine is considered an “essential business” which allows us some latitude to work and care for your friends. If your pet has an eye problem that we are following or are a new patient referred to our practice, we will be here during normal business hours to attend to the problem. Using common sense and the advice of your veterinarian who referred your pet, you can determine whether you need to come in now or at a later date. We will still see you for non-emergent elective issues if you so choose. Please make educated choices as to whether it is in your pet’s and your best interest to travel to our facility. Clearly, stay home if you or others in your house are sick to minimize the chance of viral spread.
Business as usual is rather unusual now and that is true for the AEC. My philosophy is to educate you so that you can make smart decisions for your pet. This usually involves a bit of discussion and I love to draw on a diagram in the exam room to help you with visual images. This practice will be put on hold, or at least the visual part, as social distancing will temporarily change our procedures. As of now, we will only allow your pet into the hospital for examination. Following, we will dispense our clear, type-written discharge instructions with any pertinent information about the problem along with medication needs and/or surgical options. This will be delivered to you outside where you wait in your car. Depending on how busy we are, I may come outside to talk from a safe distance or we may need to connect by phone before the day is through. Our hope is that this process will keep you and the staff safe from this challenging virus.
To facilitate this process, we will take the history by phone when making the confirmation call for the appointment. When you pull into the parking lot, a sign will remind you to call the front desk and one of us will come out to get your pet. If your dog is ill-behaved at the vet, you may want to place a muzzle prior to handing them over to the staff. As usual, cats or other small creatures should be in carriers.
As always, we appreciate the trust you put in us to take care of your friend’s needs. This social/business distancing is odd for all of us especially taking your pet away from you to examine. Alas, we are a kind and gentle crew and we will continue to try our best to make this a positive experience for all.
Be well…