Category Archives: Emergency

Bite Prevention Week 2025: Protecting Your Pet Against Bite Injury

Two dogs fighting
April 13-19, 2025 is National Dog Bite Prevention Week. This week aims to bring awareness to the fact that, although dogs are part of the family and provide companionship and immense joy, any dog can bite. National Dog Bite Prevention Week focuses on preventing dog bites to humans. Most dog bites occur in children, and most children are bitten by the family dog or dogs belonging to friends. The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center has resources for parents to help them educate and protect their children against bite injury. For National Dog Bite Prevention Week 2025, I thought I would focus my blogpost on a different type of bite injury – those sustained by dogs and cats from other dogs and cats.

More Space, More Miracles: How AMC’s New ICU and MSU Are Helping More Pets Than Ever

AMC Staff cuts a ceremonial leash to open its new MSU ward
The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center recently reached a major milestone in our 83,000 square-foot, $125 million “Gift of Love” hospital expansion and renovation project. We opened several new hospital wards, including our new intensive care unit (ICU), Medical-Surgical Unit (MSU) (formerly known as the Special Care Unit, or SCU), our expanded Avian and Exotic Pet Medicine Service and a new conference center. This blogpost will focus on the first two areas, ICU and MSU, and I will share more about the other exciting new spaces in a future blogpost.

How to Keep Your Pet Safe This Holiday Season: Lessons from AMC’s Christmas Past

A dog and cat wrapped up in holiday lights
In A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas past reminds Ebenezer Scrooge of his childhood innocence and leads him to understand how he could change the future by being generous and kind. For today’s blogpost, I am calling up some of the “ghosts of AMC Christmas past” – tales of AMC patients who nearly succumbed to a tragic fate and now serve as a warning to current pet owners. These stories will help you change your holiday preparations to avoid pet mishaps and enjoy this year’s holiday season to its fullest. Hopefully, it will be a holiday season without a trip to the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center’s 24/7 Emergency Room.

Is Your Pet in Critical Condition? A Veterinarian’s Guide to Medical Condition Categories

A cat with an e-collar in an animal hospital
Recently, veterinarians at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center worked with a pet family and their insurance company following a hospital stay. Before covering charges related to a hospitalization, the insurance company wanted to know if, at the time the pet was hospitalized, it was considered to be in critical condition. As an oncology specialist, I wasn’t sure the exact definition of “critical condition” by pet insurance standards so, in this blogpost, I will share what critical condition means and explain other relevant categories of patient conditions.