Tips For Taking Your Pet To The Vet During The COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how almost every business has to operate, and veterinary offices are no exception. Your pet still requires vet care during the pandemic, however. The following tips will help keep everyone safe and also streamline the process of taking your pet to the vet in these unprecedented times.
Call ahead and find out whether you can go inside.
In order to protect both their staff and clients, some veterinary offices are not allowing pet owners to come into the vet office with their animals. They are instead sending an assistant or technician out to the car to get the animal, bring it inside for treatment or services, and then return it to the vehicle. Call your vet's office ahead of time to find out whether they are operating this way or whether they are still allowing owners to come into the office. It varies by region, and it can even change within a certain region as case numbers rise and fall.
Bring a list of questions.
It's always a good idea to bring a list of questions with you to the vet so you don't forget to ask something important. But it's even more important to do this in the days of COVID. With so many other things to worry about, like your mask and hand sanitizer, you're more likely to forget. You can even type the list out on your phone and email it to your vet before your appointment.
If you do come into the office, let the vet tech or assistant handle your animal.
If your vet's office does let you come inside with your pet, hand the pet off to the veterinary assistant as soon as you get into the exam room. It is better if they handle the pet while the vet does the exam, gives vaccines, and so forth because doing so requires them to be directly next to the vet. They work with the vet all day already, so there's not so much risk of exposure or transmission. If you stay a few feet away and simply watch, this will be safer for everyone involved from a COVID-19 perspective.
This pandemic has caused a lot of changes in the ways that vets and all businesses have to do things, but you can still get great veterinary care for your animals if you're willing to follow the tips above. Find a veterinary clinic in your area like Pittsburgh Spay & Vaccination Clinic to ask them any questions you have.
