Full Service Animal Hospital

PetLife Animal Hospital recommends patients having procedures (surgery, biopsies, and radiographs) to be dropped off the day of the procedure between 8am and 9am. You will need to withhold food from 12am the night before and the day of the procedure. Your pet will undergo sedation and/or anesthesia and will need to be fasted. However, patients that may require feeding include very young animals or diabetic patients. If your pet falls into one of these categories, please check with the doctor for specific feeding and water instructions as they may allow you to offer food and water that day, depending on the procedure.

The doctor will call you after the procedure is done to go over findings and post-operative care. We do not encourage visitation on the day of surgery or an extensive procedure. We would like the patient to recover from anesthesia on his or her own terms. Sometimes they may be vocal or appear anxious from the sedation. This can be heightened if the patient is anxious when separating from their owner. For this reason, unless your pet is critically ill, we ask that visitation be held off until the following day.

Pets will be released same day for most procedures. In the rare case that a pet needs to stay overnight, PetLife Animal Hospital is staffed 24 hours a day with trained nurses when there is a critical care patient in the hospital. You need not fear that your pet will be left alone in a cage unattended. On the day of discharge from PetLife, you will receive written discharge instructions detailing the required care of your pet once you get him home. 

We know that surgery can be a scary and painful process. Your Veterinarian at PetLife will work to ensure your pet is as comfortable as possible following any procedure. Our multi-medicine approach to surgery ensures that your pet has pain medicines in place before the procedure begins. In most orthopedic and abdominal procedures, pain medication is administered prior to the first incision to allow for pain management before the first incision is made. This medication generally lasts for 24 hours during which time your pet may receive injectable medications for pain if needed.

Most patients go home on a non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory medicine that you will administer at home. For the more sensitive patient or trauma patients, constant flow of pain medication may be given via an IV to ensure patient comfort. The goal is to promote a calm, comfortable recovery while your pet is in the hospital.

The goal of any anesthetic procedure is to repair the injury as quickly and efficiently as possible. Unfortunately, some of the surgeries that take place may be more complicated and require an extended anesthetic event. Depending upon the type of surgery, severity of injury and method of repair, your pet may go home on a short course of oral antibiotics. The type and duration will vary based on your doctor’s recommendation. Please follow the instructions for administering any medications dispensed by our veterinarians. If your pet is already on medications, please also tell the doctor to avoid any interactions.

Each test submitted is done so with the optimum report in mind. For this reason, PetLife uses a variety of reference labs to evaluate diagnostic samples. In some cases, results may be available as early as the next business day (Superchem, CBC, urinalysis). However, more advanced testing may be run at the lab on specific days (ACTH stimulation tests) or require special processing prior to evaluating the sample (histopathology samples of bone). For this reason, we ask that you allow one week for test results to be returned. Once the results are received, your veterinarian will contact you to review the results and treatment options.

We understand the need to visit your pet while it is hospitalized at PetLife. We encourage owners to visit if their pet is stable to do so. We ask that owners call prior to visiting to ensure your pet is physically stable to visit and that a doctor can be available to meet with you during your visit.

Because your pet is undergoing medical treatment, we ask that visits be limited to once a day with as many family members wishing to visit as possible at that time. It is detrimental to patient care to have a patient moved multiple times a day to visit for extended periods of time.

While visiting, you may be encouraged to offer food or water if your pet is not eating. You may also be shown physical therapy treatments that you may do at home.

In some instances, the illness that your pet has may preclude visitation or require special accommodations for visiting. These patients include PARVO puppies, FIP cats, distemper patients, and LEPTO suspects.

We ask that family members visit once a day and are prepared to dress appropriately for visitation. Protective apparel will be supplied to you for your visit. We ask that visits be brief and that you not make contact with other clients’ pets.

In order to fill prescription medications, there must be a current (within 1 year) working client-patient-doctor relationship. If we have not seen the pet, an office visit will be necessary to establish this working relationship and then the mediation can be filled. PetLife cannot legally fill a prescription without seeing your particular pet.

Please call your veterinarian several days prior to having a medication run out so that a refill can be filled in a timely manner. If you come to PetLife to refill your heartworm medication, you must show us a negative heartworm test that has been performed locally, within one year’s time. If this is not available, PetLife can arrange for a Veterinarian to exam your pet, and perform a heartworm test here in our office.