When it's an emergency: signs that shouldn't wait until morning

Most worries can wait for a morning appointment. These cannot. If you see any of the following, go to an emergency hospital now — do not wait to see whether it settles.

Go immediately

• Difficulty breathing. Open-mouth breathing in a cat, stretched-out neck, blue or grey gums, loud effortful breaths.
• Unproductive retching with a swollen, hard belly in a large-breed dog. This is bloat, and it is measured in hours.
• Collapse, seizure, or inability to stand.
• A male cat straining in the litter tray and producing nothing. A urinary blockage is fatal within a day or two, and it is often mistaken for constipation.
• Pale white or grey gums. Press a gum; colour should return in under two seconds.
• Heavy bleeding that doesn't slow with five minutes of firm pressure.
• Suspected poisoning — bring the packaging.
• Road traffic accident or a fall from height, even if the animal gets up and seems fine. Internal bleeding presents late.
• Repeated vomiting with lethargy, especially with a known history of chewing non-food objects.
• Whelping difficulty — more than thirty minutes of strong straining without a pup.
• Eye injury, or a suddenly painful, cloudy, bulging eye.

Go today, but it isn't a 2 AM drive

Limping that persists past a day, a single vomit in an otherwise bright animal, mild diarrhoea without blood, a small wound that isn't bleeding, reduced appetite for one meal, mild ear scratching.

Before you leave the house

Call ahead. An emergency hospital that knows you're coming can have the right things ready. If you don't know which hospital is open, Tailish keeps a list of 24-hour emergency vets near you with live phone numbers.

Carry your pet's medication list and any recent reports. In an emergency, the history is often the thing that saves the most time.

What we don't do

Tailish never diagnoses an emergency over chat. If what you describe sounds urgent, we tell you to go, and we tell you where. That's the only safe way to handle it.