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Seattle-area pet owners face long waits, and vet staff are burned out
Oct. 23, 2021 at 6:00 am Updated Oct. 23, 2021 at 7:58 am
By Paige Cornwell
Seattle Times staff reporter
At the Animal Medical Center of Seattle, dogs (French bulldogs, Malteses, myriad doodles), cats (Siamese, shorthair) and humans (standard) are waiting for an employee to evaluate how long before each animal can get care.
Which of the 20 animals are most at risk? Today, staffers at the clinic can only see Priority 1 pets, those that could die without immediate intervention, and some animals likely to survive if care is given within hours.
Ailments include diabetes, acute kidney failure and seizures, and one canine ate sugar-free gum with xylitol, a toxic ingredient. A dog with a crushed chest is the most critical. Some will have to wait, potentially up to eight hours depending on their case.
“This is kind of tame, this is manageable,” says April Panpipat, the Shoreline animal hospital’s manager.
It may be considered tame now, but the number of calls and patients are an extreme change from before the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused new problems or exacerbated underlying issues facing the veterinary industry. Some days, several animals require one-on-one critical care and monitoring. Three or four patients may be dying at the same time...