Ready to assist with unexpected illnesses, injuries, and critical situations during our open hours.
It happens in an instant. Your dog gulps down something off the counter, your cat suddenly cannot seem to catch her breath, or your usually playful puppy is lying still and will not get up. In that moment, the only thing that matters is getting your pet seen, fast, by someone who understands what you and your family are going through.
Oakland Park Animal Hospital has been a family-owned, doctor-led practice in Oakland Park since 1987, and in that time our team has sat across the exam table from thousands of worried pet parents. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, signs that require immediate veterinary attention include severe bleeding that will not stop, choking or difficulty breathing, seizures, suspected poisoning, heatstroke, and an inability to urinate or pass stool. If your pet is showing any of these signs during our open hours, please call us right away so our team can prepare for your arrival.
Same-day evaluation for acute illness or injury during our open hours.
Assessment and treatment for toxin or foreign body ingestion.
Support for respiratory distress or breathing difficulty.
Evaluation following a collapse or seizure episode.
Coordination with our advanced diagnostics team when imaging or lab work is needed to guide treatment.
If your pet’s condition requires a level of care beyond what a general practice hospital can provide during business hours, such as overnight monitoring or emergency surgery, we will help direct you to the nearest 24-hour specialty facility and share what we know so far to help that visit go smoothly.
Not every scary moment requires an immediate hospital visit, but some symptoms should never wait. Here is a general guide to help you decide what to do next.
If your pet is showing any of these signs outside our open hours, please seek care immediately at your nearest 24-hour animal emergency hospital, since our on-call veterinarian can offer phone guidance but our clinic itself is not staffed overnight.
There is a particular kind of panic that comes with a pet emergency. Your hands shake as you try to find the leash. You talk to your pet in a voice you hope sounds calm, even though your heart is pounding. You are not just worried about a patient. You are worried about a member of your family, and we have seen that fear on the faces of pet parents for nearly four decades.
When you call us in a crisis, you are not reaching a call center or an answering service reading from a script. You are reaching people who have cared for this community, in many cases across multiple generations of the same family’s pets. We listen first, we ask the right questions, and we help you understand quickly whether your pet needs to come in immediately or can be safely monitored until a same-day appointment.
Walking through our doors during an emergency should never feel like meeting strangers. Dr. Spencer Ratnoff has spent more than 40 years building relationships with the pets and families of Oakland Park, and that experience shows up most in the moments that matter most. He will not rush through your visit or leave you with unanswered questions.
Our senior pet care team brings that same attentiveness to older pets, who often show the signs of an emergency differently than younger animals do. Whether your pet is seven weeks old or seventeen years old, you will be met by familiar faces you already know from your regular visits, not a rotating cast of new doctors. Should an emergency arise after our clinic closes, an on-call veterinarian remains available to help you decide on the safest next step for your pet.
We also understand that emergencies bring more than fear. They bring financial stress at the worst possible time. We work with pet parents in whatever way we can to make sure cost is never the reason a pet goes without care, offering financing options through Cherry and CareCredit and an upfront estimate before treatment begins, so families can focus on their pet’s recovery rather than an overwhelming bill.
Not every emergency can be predicted, but many of the ones we see could have been softened or avoided altogether with the right ongoing care. Staying current on wellness exams and vaccinations gives us the chance to catch a quietly developing heart condition or dental infection long before it turns into a middle-of-the-night crisis.
The same goes for the small, everyday choices you make at home. Keeping medications, cleaning products, and foods like chocolate and xylitol safely out of reach, and being mindful of the South Florida heat, can be the difference between a close call and a real emergency. If your family includes an exotic pet, our exotic pet care team can help you learn the warning signs specific to birds, reptiles, and small mammals, since their distress often looks nothing like a dog’s or a cat’s.
For nearly four decades, families throughout Oakland Park have turned to us not because we are the biggest practice in South Florida, but because we are the ones who genuinely know them and their pets. We are not a corporate chain following a script. We are a family-owned hospital where the doctor treating your pet in an emergency is the same doctor who has been building relationships with this community since 1987.
If your pet is showing any signs of distress during our open hours, please contact our office right away so our team can help. We would rather you call with a question that turns out to be nothing than wait until a small concern becomes a real emergency.
Schedule a visit with our compassionate team and let’s partner in your pet’s lifelong well-being.
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