Our Emergency and Critical Care team is on site 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
WVRC – Racine/Kenosha provides 24 hour emergency and critical care services to dogs and cats, 365 days per year. Patients in our ICU are never left unattended and you can rest assured that as your pet recovers, he or she will be cared for at all times. Our team is always available, day or night. We are open on holidays and weekends. If you have a question or a concern, please call or come in.
The team in our critical care departments work in conjunction with other specialists, and with both you and your regular veterinarian, to provide the comprehensive care your pet needs. Our board certified emergency and critical care specialists have extensive training in a complete range of emergency and critical care services and are supported by a team of experienced emergency veterinarians and technicians.
Emergency Services
- Emergency Medical Care
- Emergency Surgery Services
- Laboratory diagnostics
- Immediate blood test results
- Transfusion Medicine
Diagnostics
What is Critical Care?
Critical care helps pets with life-threatening injuries and illnesses. Critical Care specialty teams, including our Critical Care specialists, emergency clinicians and nursing staff, help treat complications from surgery, trauma, accidents, infections, organ failure and severe heart and breathing problems. The critical care team is a group of specially trained veterinary caregivers who work in both the emergency room and in a special area of the hospital known as the Intensive Care Unit, or ICU. Their main focus is to help very ill patients get better. The critical care nursing team serves as a valuable source of information regarding the minute-to-minute status of critically ill patients, and they are committed to teaching patients’ family’s strategies to improve favorable outcomes.
Critical Care management involves close, constant attention by a team of specially-trained pet health care providers. Critical care takes place in an ICU or trauma center and typically relies on specialized monitors, point-of-care ultrasound, intravenous (IV) tubes, feeding tubes, urinary catheters, breathing machines, and other medical equipment. Critical Care specialty medicine is a rapidly growing area of specialty medicine and has seen tremendous advancements that are now helping many pets survive conditions that were once considered fatal. We are here for you when you need us the most and our Critical Care specialists are prepared to provide you and your pet the highest level of emergency and critical care medicine.
Our Critical Care Specialists
Our Criticalists have undergone rigorous specialty training focused on caring for every aspect of the critically ill patient and work with our other specialists to manage the patients with multiple co-morbidities affecting a number of body systems. Our Criticalists’ high level of broad interdisciplinary expertise allows for the unique collaboration amongst specialists to care for the most severely ill and injured pets. Specialized services at the core of critical care include trauma management, mechanical ventilation, CPR and post-arrest care, transfusion medicine, post-surgical recovery, acute organ failure and sepsis management and tailored pain control planning.
Our Criticalists partner closely with our emergency clinicians and nurses to provide expedient and problem directed care to our most urgent patients. Together, these teams use innovative approaches such as point-of-care emergency ultrasound and fear-free handling techniques to gently assess and care for beloved pets in times of crisis.
All pets admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are closely monitored and continually assessed by our Criticalists and specialized ICU nursing team. Our Criticalists work closely with the families of our critically ill patients to coordinate the highest level of care while ensuring each step of the process is clearly communicated and understood by family members and caretakers alike. Our Criticalists are instrumental in the transition of care not only between specialists here at WVRC but also partner with your family veterinarian to allow seamless case management for future and on-going care.
What to do in an emergency:
- Come in! We’re located at 4333 Old Green Bay Road, Racine, WI 53403
- Call us if you’re not sure: 262-553-9223
- ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center: 888-426-4435
- Pet Poison Helpline: 800-213-6680
Instructions for what to do if you are concerned that your pet has eaten something he/she shouldn’t have
Pet-Specific First Aid Kit:
We recommend that you keep a pet-specific first aid kit in your car as a best practice, just as you would a human-first aid kit. Click the link for a printable PDF that you can keep in your kit for when you need to restock.
