Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care

Emergency and critical care veterinarians are specialists with advanced training in emergency medicine for animals. They’re trained to perform life-saving interventions for emergency situations and critical illnesses in pets. Veterinary emergency and critical care medicine encompasses all organ systems and associated functions, anatomical structures, physiology, and pathophysiology, yet the criticalist manages the patient as a whole. Similarly, although other specialists typically manage a specific surgical or medical problem, criticalists frequently manage multiple comorbidities. Emergency patients present special challenges because their underlying disease processes can cause immediate life-threatening problems that require rapid and aggressive intervention. In addition, the full extent of the animal’s illness, injuries, or toxicity may not be evident for some time after initial presentation. The specialty of veterinary emergency and critical care medicine has made enormous strides in advancing progress in core areas and, by extension, in all specialties. Procedural invasiveness and patient comorbidities are no longer obstacles to patient survival when initial and continuing critical care is provided by veterinarians with specialty training in emergency and critical care. Emergency and critical care vets often work in hospitals and clinics designated for the emergency care of animals. This comprehensive emergency guide provides ready access to diagnostic and treatment strategies for common emergency situations for dogs, cats, birds, and exotics. Its manual-style format and step-by-step diagnostic, procedural, and management instructions were designed to be a quick and easy resource for emergency teams to reference and apply in rigorous situations.