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 can’t seem to catch her breath, or your usually playful puppy is lying still and won’t 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 we have sat across the exam table from thousands of worried pet parents. We know the fear in your voice on the phone, and we know that your pet is not just a patient to us. Your pet is our pet, and we treat every emergency with the urgency and compassion that belief demands. Recognizing a true emergency can be difficult, especially when you are scared, and your pet cannot tell you what is wrong. 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, please do not wait. Call us right away so our team can prepare for your arrival and guide you on what to do in the meantime.
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, the one who greets you at the door every day and sleeps at the foot of your bed every night. We have seen that fear on the faces of pet parents for nearly four decades, and we built our practice around meeting it with steadiness rather than more panic.
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, for so long that some of our longtime clients are on their fifth dog with us. That kind of trust is not something a corporate chain can offer, and it is not something we take lightly. 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. He believes pet parents deserve to understand exactly what is happening with their pet and why, and he will take the time to explain it, even when the practice is at its busiest.
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, and whose families have frequently been with us the longest. Whether your pet is seven weeks old or seventeen years old, you will be met by the same familiar faces you already know from your regular visits, not a rotating cast of new doctors.
Should an emergency arise after our clinic closes for the day, you are still never on your own. 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 so families can focus on their pet’s recovery rather than an overwhelming bill. We would rather walk through those options with you than watch you hesitate to call.
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. It also gives us a baseline for what is normal for your particular pet, which makes it so much easier for us, and for you, to recognize when something is truly wrong.
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, because 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 right now, please contact our office immediately so we can help. And if you would like to learn more about how we care for pets during both routine and urgent moments, we invite you to explore the full range of services we offer at Oakland Park Animal Hospital.
Schedule a visit with our compassionate team and let’s partner in your pet’s lifelong well-being.
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