Vets and specialists at VES Hospital Singapore diagnose complex injuries or diseases among pets. (PHOTO: Chia Han Keong/Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore)

Vets and specialists at VES Hospital Singapore diagnose complex injuries or diseases among pets. (PHOTO: Chia Han Keong/Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore)

Pets are like family to their owners, who in turn would want to provide them with the best healthcare they can afford, especially in emergencies and complex medical situations.

Since pets usually would not show pain unless it is already unbearable, it is common advice for owners to run to local veterinary clinics as soon as they see any abnormal signs like lethargy, seizures, unconsciousness, and paleness.

The Veterinary Emergency & Specialty (VES) Hospital Singapore, one of the largest full-service multidisciplinary veterinary hospitals in Singapore, gave a walkthrough on how they triage and assess your beloved pets as soon as you bring them to the hospital.

Emergency Assessment

Small animal surgery specialist Dr Jayson Tuan told Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore that once a pet comes in to the hospital, the team will first triage animals to determine the emergency that needs to be addressed.

“Some patients would need oxygen, some need to be on a drip as soon as possible. The triage will determine if it’s an emergency or not.”

According to Dr Tuan, the vet on duty will assess the patient and ensure that the patient is stable. If it is not, the vet will take steps to stabilise it.

The next step would be running tests like blood tests and X-rays, among others, to best diagnose the patient.

“We also have optional advanced imaging like CT scan and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). Using that information, we can try to derive what’s wrong with the patient,” he added.

“It’s like a filtering system where the triage and the emergency service team take them first and stabilise them if required, and then direct them to the appropriate department (to manage the patient).”

VES Hospital Singapore provides specialised, expert veterinary care for complex medical and surgical cases provided either by referral from a family veterinarian or through the 24/7 emergency service.

Aside from emergency and critical care, the animal hospital also helps patients and pet owners deal with complex medical situations not normally available in common family veterinarians.

These include surgery (orthopaedics, soft tissue, and vascular), MRI/neurology, internal medicine, cardiology, oncology (cancer management), diagnostics and imaging, anaesthesia and pain management, dermatology and ophthalmology.

Vets and specialists at VES Hospital Singapore use CT scan to diagnose complex injuries or diseases among pets. (PHOTO: VES)

Vets and specialists at VES Hospital Singapore use CT scan to diagnose complex injuries or diseases among pets. (PHOTO: VES)

Advanced medical care for pets

While your trusted family veterinarian can treat diseases and conditions that are diagnosed early, a specialist or referral clinician such as VES deals with complex medical cases depending on the pet’s type of disease or health condition.

With VES being a specialist and emergency hospital, it basically serves as an extension of general practitioners for services they struggle or need more advice with, according to Dr Matthias le Chevoir, VES’ neurology/neurosurgery specialist.

“I mostly deal with diseases on the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles in some instances. I receive mostly neurology cases that have been assessed by the family vet who thinks that the case is a bit complex for them so they send it to me,” he said.

“We provide these specialist consultations on appointments but we are also involved (in emergency cases) if the owner wants to involve the specialist or surgeon in the management of their pets.”

VES provides pet owners with choice and access to specialists across multiple disciplines in case of complex medical cases, providing additional treatment options for the pet patients.

What to expect when bringing in your pet

While we want our pets to be healthier, sometimes things are just out of control of both owners and veterinarians.

“Most of the time, we’re able to treat the pets, to relieve their pain, to make them better. Sometimes it’s for a period of time. Sometimes we can cure them. Sometimes we can’t do much, or we tried and the outcome is not successful,” shared Dr le Chevoir.

“Even so, we try to use as much as we can to have the best possible outcome and to remain ethical as well. Sometimes there are diseases that we cannot cure. I think it’s better if the owners appreciate that as well.”

In the chance that your pet might not make it after running tests, veterinarians share the news with owners as soon as they feel that the outcome may be negative.

“We can help them prolong their life, particularly a prolonged quality life,” Dr Tuan said. “Our goal is to ensure a good quality of life. We can provide alternatives, and treatment options your local vet might not know about. We might not heal everything but we can definitely give you options.”

Importance of specialist hospitals like VES

While there are a lot of pet healthcare providers in Singapore, only a few offer specialist and emergency services for your pets’ complex medical situations.

“In my opinion, VES provides better options for pet owners and the community to have their animals treated for complex diseases mostly. Because if you remove this pool of expertise from the Singaporean landscape, a lot of pets will not be treated optimally in some circumstances,” Dr le Chevoir weighed in.

Currently, VES provides the following care in two facilities:

  • VES@Whitley (24/7 emergency and critical care, anaesthesia and pain management, neurology, oncology, cardiology, diagnostic imaging, internal medicine, orthopaedic surgery, soft tissue and vascular surgery)

  • VES@Rochdale (dermatology, ophthalmology)

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