What To Expect
24-hour veterinary care in Brisbane and Sunshine Coast
QVS Pet Emergency operates 24/7 with a team of specialists, emergency veterinarians, technicians, nurses and support staff across all three of our hospitals. Pet Emergency offers round-the-clock care for pets with access to the best facilities and equipment while being supported by QVS specialists as part of a multidisciplinary team.
Triage-based emergency appointments
You do not need an appointment to see our emergency vets. We operate similarly to human after-hours facilities and emergency rooms, following a triage process.
This means we see patients based on the urgency of their medical condition rather than the order in which they arrive.
Upon arrival to our hospital, our client services team will check you into our system, taking essential details about you, your pet and their condition. Following this, you may be assessed by one of our experienced triage nurses, who will review your pet’s condition and take any immediate action if required.
We will do our best to advise you of estimated wait times and any changes in this, but conditions in our emergency centre can be ever-changing and hard to predict.
We do try to see every patient as quickly as possible.
Emergency vet consultations
Our emergency veterinarians will perform a thorough examination of your pet. They will ask you questions about your pet’s medical history and for any other relevant information.
During this time, a recommendation will be made about the appropriate treatment or next steps so a decision can be made. We will either recommend outpatient treatment (involving medications and monitoring at home) with ongoing management of your pet’s condition at your primary care veterinarian, or hospitalisation to allow for diagnostic testing and appropriate treatment to be performed.
The emergency veterinarian will discuss every detail of your pets proposed treatment plan with you and explain any tests or costs involved. Please ask any questions about the pet’s condition and treatment as it is very important to us that you feel comfortable with our proposed treatment plan.
Emergency hospitalisation
If your pet needs to be admitted to our hospital for ongoing care, treatment or procedure, our emergency team are on-site 24 hours a day to ensure ongoing care. We understand that this can be a very stressful time for both you and your pet and once admitted, you are welcome to contact us at any time for updates on your pet’s condition.
If our emergency veterinarian is not able to come to the phone immediately, you will be able to speak with one of the nursing team until a vet is able to return your call.
If your pet’s condition changes during their stay in the hospital, our emergency veterinarians will contact you immediately with any concerns, discuss any alterations to the treatment they may require or to discuss any changes in costs.
Discharge and ongoing care
As an emergency service, we do not provide ongoing care for your pet once they have been discharged. Whether your pet needed only to see an emergency vet, or required hospitalisation and further treatment, once they are discharged, we will provide a summary to your primary care vet and will recommend next steps for you to follow up with them.
If your pet requires further consultations or repeat medication, you will need to see your primary care vet for this.
Payment
Our hospitals are open 24 hours a day with advanced equipment and facilities to enable us to support the most critical of patients. The knowledge, skill and dedication of our team of highly trained veterinarians and specialists enables us to provide an exceptional emergency and critical care service.
Pet health care is not subsidised in the way that human health care is, and all costs for veterinary care need to be covered by pet owners. The facilities and 24-hour nature of our hospitals means that our pricing is not the same as a typical GP Vet and you should be prepared that an emergency and out of hours veterinary consultation is likely to cost more than with your primary care vet. You can see a summary of consultation pricing on our pricing page.
We require payment to be made in full on the discharge of your pet from Pet Emergency. This means at the end of a consultation if this is all your pet requires, or on discharge from the hospital if they have been admitted. We require a 50% deposit of estimated costs to be paid on admission if your pet requires hospitalisation.
We do not offer any direct payment plans but you can apply for a payment plan using VetPay or we can also take payment using ZipPay or AfterPay.
If you have insurance, please let our team know when you arrive so we can provide you with the information you will need for your claim to be processed.