Step outside anywhere in the Coachella Valley, and the odds are pretty good that you’ll bump into a pet and their owner walking, shopping or enjoying a meal at a pet-friendly restaurant—yet the area had been without a 24-hour animal hospital in recent months.
Fortunately, that gap in emergency care for pets was filled in May, with the opening of VEG ER for Pets in Palm Desert.
The state-of-the-art facility, at 73495 Highway 111, features an unusually large and reliable staff, given current veterinarian shortages throughout the country.
“We currently have eight highly trained emergency doctors working in our facility, including myself,” said Dr. Keith Mihansky, the medical director of the clinic, in a recent interview. “We have a leadership team, and somewhere between 20 and 30 nurses, assistants and customer experience coordinators, all helping to provide the best patient care and experience that we can for the community. Of course, given our high (patient) volume so far, we’re looking to expand our team.”
According to Mihansky, the clinic has seen a lot of drop-in patients since opening on May 14.
“We kind of knew that the (Coachella Valley) had an extremely high need, but oftentimes, it does take some time for the community to know about us, for us to build up our (visibility) in the community,” said Mihansky, who has overseen the opening of two other new VEG ER for Pets facilities in recent years. “But it’s happened extremely quickly here. We saw over 20 cases on the first day that we opened, and we were only open from noon on, and we saw upwards of 60 cases over the (Memorial Day) weekend. We’ve been quite busy, which is great, because all of these people and their pets would have been driving really far distances otherwise. We’ve had a large number of patients hospitalized as well, (and) we’ve done some surgeries and endoscopies, too.”
One differentiating aspect of the VEG ER for Pets business model is that the clinics are designed to allow, and even promote, a human’s ability to be with their pet at all points during the visit.
“We do try to practice ER medicine differently,” Mihansky said. “We keep people with their pets the entire time, beginning with the initial assessment of their pet’s (condition), during testing and treatment, hospitalization, and we even let our pet owners be a part of watching a procedure, if they’re comfortable with that. … We strive for making the experience great, not just for the pet, but also for the people who bring them in.”
The Palm Desert clinic offers an extensive portfolio of medical services, all of which are performed from start to finish on the spot, including diagnostics and tests, urgent care, emergency surgery, sedation procedures, endoscopies, ultrasounds and X-rays. Mihansky said his medical training included a rotating internship in emergency-room treatment with critical-care specialists, internal medicine, neurology, ophthalmology and radiology, which prepared him to manage a clinic with a very diverse animal patient base.
“We joke that we’ll see (and treat) anything that fits through the door,” Mihansky said with a laugh. “We definitely have training in stabilizing exotic species. In this (valley), we’ve commonly seen birds, and we’ve seen a number of different reptile species. Bearded dragons are becoming pretty popular. We’ve also seen some snakes and tortoises. … Pets like rabbits, guinea pigs and ferrets, we’ve seen all of those, too. As long as it’s not something that’s venomous or a primate, we’re open to seeing them.
“When it comes to larger animals, we’ve actually treated a goat and a pig at our facility since we opened. We definitely want to provide the best possible options. Sometimes (we need) to follow up with an exotic specialist or a large animal vet after initial stabilization, if necessary. Recently, we worked with a local rescue organization, closer to Big Bear, and performed a blood transfusion on a baby coyote that had a high parasite burden and became severely anemic—so we’ve helped in some wildlife situations as well.”
Of course, all this sophisticated veterinary expertise, and its associated equipment and infrastructure, is expensive. Many professionals recommend that pet owners either purchase a pet health-insurance plan, or create a savings account to cover an almost inevitable medical emergency at some point in a pet’s life.
“If your readers ever have concerns about something going on with their pet—if they are worried in the middle of the night and want to know if something constitutes an emergency—we always recommend giving us a call.”
Dr. Keith Mihansky, medical director of VEG ER for Pets in Palm Desert
“Emergency care for pets, just like with people, can get quite expensive, especially if a pet needs more intensive treatment, like hospitalization or a procedure under anesthesia,” Mihansky said. “The good thing about VEG ER is that we do try to have some flexibility when it comes to cost. I would not say by any means that we are a low-cost facility; keeping the hospital open and operating, 24-7, 365, definitely is expensive. I will say that the feedback I’ve gotten from our pet owners so far has been pretty good in regards to our pricing, and we do try to be as flexible as possible to help people when needed. Sometimes it requires coming up with a Plan B or C, or working with some of the other vets in the area that might be able to do certain treatments at a lower cost, but we do try to help where we can, and we do have a charitable organization called VEG Cares, which allows us to subsidize treatment for qualifying individuals. There are some really specific requirements that go along with that, but we do try to do what we can to help people in all situations.”
Mihansky mentioned a variety of potential threats to pets during these warm summer months.
“We see a lot of heat-related illness over the summer,” Mihansky said. “… If you have a breed of dog like a pug, or a French bulldog, or an English bulldog with a shorter muzzle, they’re really susceptible to heat stroke. Even a short period of time spent in our extreme heat outside can be an issue for them. Also, we can see burns from the hot ground surfaces, especially to the paw pads of dogs. We’ve seen quite a few rattlesnake bites since we opened, and coyote attacks, so being aware of wildlife in the area as the months get warmer is important, too. And we’ve seen a number of pool-related injuries, like older dogs falling into the pool and developing pneumonia or drowning.”
Mihansky said that if anyone is suddenly confronted with an emergency involving their treasured pet, they’re encouraged to call the clinic at 760-249-2279.
“We actually forward (each call) to one of our emergency doctors,” Mihansky said. “So if your readers ever have concerns about something going on with their pet—if they are worried in the middle of the night and want to know if something constitutes an emergency—we always recommend giving us a call. By speaking to one of our doctors, we can help walk you through the situation. We’ll see if there are some things you can do to manage at home, or we’ll recommend that you bring your pet in for us to look at them.”
AMAZING STORY OF FACTS, WHEN I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR A NEW VET FOR MY SIAMESE CAT!!