There's no question COVID has
challenged hospitals and medical teams,
but this pandemic has created
a different health care crisis,
this one involving our pets,
are 13 Investigates senior
reporter Bob Siegel is in tonight,
and you found that veterinary
hospitals are actually turning
away animals like never before,
right? That's right,
Scott. Actually the vets that I've talked to
say what they're experiencing right now is,
in their words, a nightmare.
I want you to see what they're seeing.
I want you to understand
why this is happening and.
I want you to know what
you need to understand.
If your pet needs urgent care.
When Doctor James Spicer walks
into the emergency room. This
is the main treatment area of the hospital.
He knows exactly
what he's walking into.
Do you have enough?
You think it just never ends?
It's a Wednesday morning at
the Indy Vet hospital on the
Southside of Indianapolis.
17 animals have already been
seen and are in recovery.
Eight more are in the ER right
now and then there's that monitor
showing all the pets still waiting
right now. The wait time is listed
up there at four to five hours.
This is a light day.
We've had people wait for up to 12
hours and people don't like to wait.
I don't like to wait.
There are just too many patients.
Again, this is what things look
like during a slow time. When 13
Investigates returned on a Saturday.
Boy, the weight was up to 8 hours
and then after a rush of new
emergencies the Animal Hospital
was forced to take drastic action.
We're currently diverting.
We simply have to tell some
people that we can't see them.
You heard that right?
The pet hospital is at times
turning away all but the most
serious of emergencies.
Diverting patients is a worst case
scenario that's becoming too familiar.
It is an absolute nightmare.
I've been in this business 45 years.
And it's never, ever been even
close to this type of situation,
and everybody has the same problem.
He's right 13
news visited. Other local vet hospitals
wait times are skyrocketing. Their two
four to six hours as an average and then
many times it easily goes up to six or eight
or really bad day.
It might be 10 to 12 hours.
It's why all 24 hour pet
hospitals in central IN have
been forced to divert patients.
And it's now happening a lot
every hospital.
Lately goes on diversion at some
point in time at least once a day.
Have you ever seen things the
way they are right now?
No, never this is.
This is unprecedented
in veterinary medicine.
Pet hospitals are now working together,
monitoring each others wait times
to divert patients to emergency
rooms with shorter waits.
But even that is not always working. Many
times were trying to divert patients to
other ERS and other specialty hospitals
while they're diverting people to us
for patients. So you love, like Ken,
don't you? Can come as quite a surprise I
think. For me
it was just complete hopelessness.
Kelsey Burton and Josh Schultz did
not realize just how overwhelmed
vet hospitals are until they needed
emergency care for dinkie being she
was kind of hacking a little bit,
coughing and then her stomach,
just like got huge.
They rushed to a nearby hospital to
learn their small dog had a rather
large treat lodged in her esophagus.
She would die if the obstruction
was not removed, but no one at
the hospital could perform that.
Procedure calling other local
ERS didn't help either.
They were on diversion.
They were not accepting any clients.
The vet who diagnosed stinky beans
blockage made a sobering suggestion.
They were recommending to
us to euthanize her.
Instead,
Kelsey and Josh drove two hours
overnight to a pet hospital in
Cincinnati where a specialist was
able to save dinky beans life.
Well, it's windy.
Happy ending but a heroing experience.
We didn't expect to again just
feel hopeless like no one here
could help. The thing is,
pet hospitals want to help.
Just can't handle the
huge increase in cases.
This is what happened when COVID hit pet.
Hospitals say their patient load doubled.
In some cases even tripled because during
the pandemic more people adopted pets
and with many folks working from home,
they're paying more attention to their
pets and noticing health problems.
Add to that several area vet clinics
in animal hospitals went out of
business during the pandemic because
they couldn't find enough staff.
It means fewer animal hospitals
to handle a lot more emergencies.
He was attacked by another dog.
The remaining clinics
are stretched to the
limit facing a nationwide
shortage of veterinarians and
skilled technicians who now
work longer hours, treating
a lot more animals.
It burns people out.
These pet hospitals tell 13 news.
There is no relief insight,
but they do have a few tips to help
reduce your wait time and get care
for your little buddy quicker.
Better for you first.
Always call ahead. Even in an emergency,
you can find out from
that emergency hospital.
Are you on any kind of weight right now?
Are you diverting patients right now?
And so before you even get there?
You know about what that
wait time is going to be
next. If you can avoid peak ER times.
Vets say first thing in the morning
right after work and weekends.
That's when you'll find the longest
wait times in the highest risk for
diversion and make sure you're
getting your pet regular checkups.
To help avoid a trip to the
emergency room in the first place,
small problems and things that
you are noticing addressed
them sooner rather than later.
Finally, while this emergency is
playing out in pet emergency rooms,
medical staff say what's needed
most is patience as they try to
keep up with record demand. The
entire veterinary industry
is overwhelmed right now.
It's a devastating thing.
Even when pet emergency rooms
are diverting new patients,
most will still treat animals that come
in with life threatening conditions.
But serious problems that might
have received immediate treatment
in the past might now require
waiting many hours or even days.