What to do in a pet emergency

Updated 16/05/2023

Being faced with a pet emergency can be really scary business – from your cat cutting itself by accident to your dog choking on something it shouldn’t have munched on.

To make sure both you and your precious fur baby make it through the incident as unharmed as possible, it is crucial you stay calm and know what to do should worse come to worst. So, to help you prepare and do what’s best for your little friend, we’ve put together this handy guide for you, covering all the major questions you might have, as well as a step-by-step-guide on what to do during an emergency.

Common pet emergencies

Before we’ll get into what to do during pet emergencies, let’s first answer the question “What is a pet emergency?”

A pet emergency is any situation in which your pet is in danger and might require immediate medical attention. Some of the most common pet emergencies are:

• ingestion of toxic substances or poisons
• uncontrolled bleeding
• choking or other breathing problems
• severe burns
• broken bones
• seizures
• excessive diarrhea or vomiting
• high fevers
• lethargy
• lack of appetite
• difficulty urinating
• obvious physical distress
• unconsciousness
• coughing/continuous retching
• penetrating eye injury 
• heart failure 
• severe allergic reaction 
• high impact injury such as road traffic accident or falling from a great height 

Should your pet be experiencing one or several of the things listed above, you might be facing a pet emergency and should take immediate action.

Steps to take during a pet emergency

If you have a pet emergency on your hands, it’s important to quickly take the right steps to ensure your pet will make it through as unharmed as possible. Here are the most important things for you to do:

1. Stay calm: it might seem obvious, but one of the most important things during a pet emergency is for you to stay calm. The more level-headed you are, the better you can respond to the emergency and the better your pet will fare.
2. Assess the situation: before you can help, you first need to know as much as you can about what’s wrong. In obvious cases such as bleeding, choking or a broken bone, this will be fairly simple and quick. If your cat is in obvious physical distress but you don’t know why exactly, try and take note of any symptoms you observe so you can give your vet as much information as possible when you call or visit. The more urgent the emergency, the less time you should spend on this – getting help fast is key.
3. Call your vet, an emergency pet hospital, or a pet emergency room: your next step should be to call a professional vet so you can tell them what you’ve observed and get professional advice and help. Once you’ve described the problem, your vet will tell you which steps you can take right away at home and what else to do – e.g. come to the emergency pet clinic right away.
4. Take any steps you can right at home: there are emergencies that might be resolved by yourself under the guidance of your vet on the phone without a necessary trip to the pet emergency hospital – like staunching light bleeding or saving your pet from choking. Other pet emergencies might require you to take first steps quickly before taking your fur baby to an emergency pet hospital near you – like putting pressure on a wound or administering natural emetics. The vet you call will let you know what to do and how – never give your pet medication without prior veterinary advice!
5. Keep your pet as calm as possible: if your pet is conscious during the emergency, you’ll also want to keep them as calm as possible, so you don’t risk being bitten or scratched, or for your pet to hurt itself even more. Muzzle and leash dogs before treating them if they’re in distress, or place a towel or blanket over your cat’s head to avoid scratches (don’t pull it too tightly to avoid breathing problems).

Preparing for your emergency visit

If your pet emergency requires you to go to the pet emergency clinic, be sure to prepare properly:

• Carefully pick up your pet, if it is safe to do so. Make sure you are supporting their back and neck, before putting them in a comfortable transport box, or lift heavier pets by placing them on a blanket and asking someone to help you load them into your car. If your pet is conscious, you can pet them or talk to them to make them feel as safe and calm as possible.
• Bring everything relevant: if your pet ingested toxic substances or poisonous plants, bring the substance or plant or any relevant packaging. If possible note the quantity ingested. Get your pet’s vaccination pass and recent medical records, and if your pet is taking any medication, bring that, too.

If your pet requires urgent attention, consider calling in a few minutes prior to arriving so the emergency staff can meet you at the door and/or help bring your pet into the pet emergency room.

Things you can do at home if no emergency vet is available

If you’ve tried calling every vet in the area and there is no pet emergency near you, you’ll want to do as much for your pet at home as you can. Here are some things you might want to do, depending on the type of emergency:

• If your pet doesn’t seem to be in any immediate distress, keep monitoring them and call your vet as soon as possible, e.g. right the next morning.
• Try to gather additional information. If your cat is lethargic, lacks appetite, has diarrhea or is vomiting, try to take their temperature and carefully palpate their belly and limbs to see if you can feel anything out of the ordinary (hard belly, source of the pain, etc.) – this will help you further determine what’s wrong and might give you some additional ideas how to care for your pet until you can reach a vet.
• Apply human first aid. Even though human treatments cannot be applied 1:1 on pets, many techniques – like how to save a pet from choking, how to staunch a bleed or how to lower a fever without medication – are very similar and could help your pet, too.
• Call a human doctor you trust. Although you might not want to call a human emergency line for your pet, if you know a doctor you trust or are friends with, try and call them for additional advice. As mentioned above, many treatments are the same for humans, cats, dogs and other pets.
• Consider going to a pet clinic farther away. If your pet is suffering from an urgent emergency you cannot handle yourself, you might want to consider driving a few extra miles. After all, what’s an hour or two in the car if it means saving your precious fur baby?
• Ask the internet. Usually, we wouldn’t recommend relying on internet medical advice only, but if you really have no way to contact a vet or pet emergency hospital, Googling your pet’s symptoms or specific emergency as a last resort could save their life. Just be sure to act carefully and only ever take things into your own hands if not doing anything at all is the worse option.

Can you get emergency pet insurance?

Health insurance for humans is commonplace but can you get emergency pet insurance as well? The answer is yes, you can. Depending on where you’re located, there might be various pet insurance options, offering benefits such as 24/7 emergency phone lines, vet and pet clinic costs during an emergency, coverage of follow-up treatments and more.

Now that you know who to call for pet emergencies, how to prepare, and what to do should worse come to worst, we’re crossing our fingers that you’ll never need to use what you just learned. In case you do anyway, we wish you and your fur baby the best of luck and a very speedy recovery!

Meet our veterinary expert, Emma

This article has been checked by veterinarian Emma Chandley, BVetMed MRCVS PGCertSAS. Emma graduated from the Royal Vet College in London in 2011. She has a keen interest in surgery and went on to do a postgraduate certificate in small animal surgery and was then awarded advanced practitioner status in the same discipline.