Doctors and technicians perform surgery on a boxer after she got hit by a car and left.
/ FOX21: Adam Jukkola
When man's best friend can't speak, an illness or injury can be harder to detect.
Each problem with an animal can worsen quickly, making precious hours even more important. In southern Colorado, there's only one animal hospital that never shuts its doors.
"If someone can't get into a regular vet to be seen, we are available to help them out. We communicate with their vet and work with them," Dr. Lee Wilwerding, owner of Powers Pet Emergency Hospital, said.
For pet owners like Shanna and John Burgess, the hospital was the best place to take their dog, Jack, after they came home to find the 9-week-old yorkie vomiting.
"We just Googled 'all night veterinarian or animal hospital' and found this place," Shanna said. "Being a puppy, we knew we didn't want to just wait."
The couple was right. According to the doctors, at Jack's young age, the smallest problem could be deadly.
"It was nice to have a place in the night to be able to bring the dog," John said.
Open originally as just an ER hospital for nights, holidays and weekends, Wilwerding said it wasn't always feasible to send the animals away at 8 a.m.
"I just felt like being strictly emergency was limiting in the overall care. Some of the cases we do end up seeing are very severe and more severe than a 12 hour night can really address," Wilwerding said. "Some people just couldn't come and take their pet home at eight in the morning."
For vet technicians like Eric Schroeder, he's willing to give up the holidays and work the long hours in order to help the animals, or, as he calls them, kids.
"We just do the best treatment we can for these kids. I'm basically a second set of eyes for the doctor, so little things they might miss, I'm keeping an eye on," Schroeder said. "When you have all the rooms are full and people are all in the lobby hanging around, and you've got someone hit by a car and came in and someone else came in and has a bloat, and you've got all these critical cases running through, and this one's in respiratory arrest. It's insanity and it's exciting. I can't say I don't enjoy that."
The hospital doesn't just do surgeries and monitor the animals. They also rehabilitate the animals with services like hydrotherapy and acupuncture.
For more information, call Powers Pet at 719-473-0482.
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