Companion Animals

Clients in the Guelph area without a family veterinarian who believe their pet requires urgent or emergency care, can contact our Emergency Service directly without a referral. All other patients, from outside the region of Guelph, must be referred by their family veterinarian or an emergency clinic. This ensures safe transfer of your pet and accurate transfer of patient information, a medical history and records, and collegiality. If your pet has previously been seen at the Ontario Veterinary College and you would like to return, please speak to your family veterinarian or call our Emergency Service.

A free temporary parking spot is available for emergency clients to the OVC Companion Animal Hospital, located just outside the front doors. Clients may park in this spot free of charge for up to one hour while they go through the initial admission and examination of their pet in the hospital. Once initial admission and examination is complete, clients will need to move their vehicle to make the parking spot available to any further incoming emergency.

Emergency Veterinarian Referrals

Please call us to discuss your patient and to arrange a possible referral. If we are unable to accept a patient due to capacity
or to our operational status, we are available to provide advice.

Upon confirmation that we can accept your patient, please note the following:

• Pertinent medical history including relevant test results and radiographs must be sent ahead of time via fax or email.
• For Companion Animal Hospital patients, our Emergency Service will provide the applicable email address.
• For Companion Animal Hospital patients, our Emergency Referral Intake form must be completed by and signed by your client and emailed to us ahead of the patient’s arrival.
• Please inform us of your patient’s estimated time of arrival.
• Same day diagnostic imaging is not guaranteed, (ultrasound, CT, MRI).

OVC HSC Decision to Divert

On occasion, when our resources are reaching a critical capacity, we will prioritize intake and determine acceptance of new patients accordingly.  Priority will be given to patients needing tertiary care wherein the technology or expertise to diagnose and care for a patient is only available at OVC (e.g., ventilation or dialysis) and, to our current patients with acute exacerbations of a problem requiring assessment.

For Companion Animal Hospital patients that are likely to require care or a resource that is currently at or over capacity (e.g., ultrasound), will likely be diverted to other facilities that are able to provide that care.  If your patient falls into the latter category, and the patient is stable enough to stay with your practice, then we are happy to provide advice and guidance until such time as our intake limitations improve or, referral elsewhere is required. We can also provide alternative resources or services that may be able to accept your referral.  If there are other things we can do to support your needs, please don’t hesitate to ask.