Ottawa Ontario : Emergency Vet With Rat Experience

The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ChrisK

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
1,376
Location
Ottawa, Canada
Until recently, if you needed emergency / after hours care for your pet rat, you had only two choices, Alta Vista Animal Hospital, and Ottawa Veterinary Hospital, neither of whom have vets with experience or education with rats.

That changed recently with the opening of the Bank Street Animal Hospital. They have two vets on staff who know how to treat rats and they offer 24 x 7 emergency service. And it gets better. They have regular office hours on Saturdays and Sundays. So if an emergency comes up on the weekend, when most other places are closed, you now have the option to go there, and because that's during their regular office hours, you don't have those extra emergency fees.

Here's their URL for further information:
http://bankstreetanimalhospital.com/

Here's hoping you never need this info!!
 
What a relief! Sounds a bit pricey for regular checkups ($55-$60, as read in the post in the other thread), but they're fairly close to me, and having weekend/emergency hours makes me feel so much better!

:dance:
 
When did they open? This is very convenient for us, since we live fairly close and were going all the way to Orleans!

I originally loved the Dr. we saw in Orleans (not sure if it's ok to post names here), until our recent loss of Mimi :-( She had been diagnosed with a respiratory infection and abcess in front of her heart while we were on vacation in PEI. She seemed to be doing somewhat better when we got home, and was still on meds. We took her to our vet in Orleans to ask about one of the meds which we had run out of, and have her checked. He did his usual good thorough check and said she seemed fine, but continue with meds, and add some herbs which could help dry up/shrink the abscess to help her breathing. When she started to do something she had done once at home, which was open-mouthed breathing with clicking sound and seemed like she was having trouble getting a breath, he said it was a stress reaction which made me feel better. She started to do it more often at home although she hadn't done it for the first 3 1/2 weeks she was being medicated, and passed away 4 days after seeing the vet. I'm sure it was that the abcess had gotten bigger and was pushing to much on her heart and lungs and her reaction was the fact that she just couldn't breath!! I don't blame him, but I do think he was too non-chalant (sp?) about her breathing :-( There was probably nothing we could have done, but....

Anyway, maybe we'll check out this new place next time - thanks for posting!!

Jane
Stepmom to BooBoo and her as yet to be acquired new sister
 
I'm so sorry for your loss. :hugs:

I have been to the Bank Street Animal Hospital a few times now, like when my regular vet was on vacation for three weeks (that should be illegal! :lol: ) They seem okay. Dr. Mobarak is the vet with the most experience there, and I like him pretty well.

There are at two (or more?) other threads on this forum about vets in the Ottawa area. One was regarding looking for someone who does affordable spays and one specifically for Dr. Liston in Kanata. They may be helpful if you're looking for a new vet.

I've been to a lot of the vets in town at some point or another, looking for a good fit for me and my ratties, so please pm me if you want my experience/impressions of them... keeping in mind, that you will of course, have to find your own comfort zone with it.
 
Wait, I'm a bit confused, they list regular hours on the website. Is there some sort of secret ER times or phone number? Because I sure as heck would like an ER that knows what they are talking about when it comes to pocket pets. Alta Vista mis-prescribed meds (I caught it but they were directing me to give 10x the normal dose) and Ottawa Vet ... is highly variable. Some of the vets are very good with small pets but some I end up telling them what I think the rat has more then they do.
 
Back
Top