We hope everyone is safe at home enjoying this white winter weather.    The snow is supposed to continue throughout the day tomorrow, Monday, Feb 1st.     We are unsure as to how much of our staff is going to be able to safely arrive at our office for work.   So please, be sure to call the office and talk to a LIVE staff member before coming for your appointment.   Hopefully, we will be there and be able to take care of your pets needs.   If we are not able to have staff arrive, then we will reschedule our appointments as quickly as possible.   So enjoy the snow, and stay safe!

 

With COVID protocols in effect, we know that most of our clients have not physically been our office lately, and therefore do not know that we lost Oscar on Dec 11, 2020. He was our resident hospital cat for 14 years and dearly loved by the staff and clients alike. Most days you could find him sacked out on the front desk waiting for one of our staff to save him from “starvation” by giving him treats. Oscar had been having some health issues for a while and we are happy that we were able to keep him happy and going for as long as we did. There was not a dry eye in the office the day we had to let him go and he will be dearly missed.

Do not worry—Oscar will not be forgotten!!! We have made a special urn to remember him by and it will be at the front desk for some time.   When you are finally able to come into our office personally, please feel free to pay Oscar a little visit.   There will also be an LED memorial to him and Buttons (Oscar’s previous “boss” who left us in 2005).

As the snow falls heavily today, we will be closing our office early so that our staff can get home safely.
The office will officially close at 1:00PM and all afternoon appointments are cancelled. We are planning on being open for business on Thursday, Dec 17th, but if you have an appointment, please call the office first to be sure we are open and able to see your pet. Stay safe and enjoy the snow day!

With the greatly increased numbers and rates of COVID in our area, Palmer Animal Hospital has again instituted 100% CURBSIDE SERVICE. This means that only staff and patients are allowed in the building—clients must remain in their vehicles in the parking lot.

When clients arrive at the office, they need to call into the front desk as we have been doing for the entire COVID crisis. Staff members will come to you to bring your pet in for it’s appointment. It is very important that our clients fill out the appropriate ONLINE FORM for their visit so we can more efficiently serve you. This change in service will take more time and effort for us to see appointments, but it is what we need to do to keep our staff safe, and to remain open to serve your pets.

If you need to pickup medications or supplies, please be sure to call ahead so we can have the products ready when you arrive. We ask that you give us 24 hour notice to fill these requests. Please note that at this time we are booking ahead approximately 2 weeks for routine appointments and surgeries. We are doing our best to fit in all of the pets we can that need care, but we are limited in the number of cases we can see in a day due to all of the COVID protocols. Our phone lines will also be extra busy with the CURBSIDE service, so please be patient and we will do our best to service your pet’s needs as soon as possible.

Also note, that Christmas is fast approaching and we will have these holiday hours:

—CHRISTMAS EVE 8AM-12N
—CHRISTMAS DAY CLOSED
—Dec 26th (SAT) 8AM-12N
—NEW YEARS EVE 8AM-5PM
—NEW YEARS DAY CLOSED
—Jan 2nd (SAT) 8AM-12N

We hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas holiday season.

We hope all of our clients and our four-legged friends are doing well during this difficult time.

As our country is slowly starting to re-open, we at Palmer Animal Hospital are also trying to do all that we can to serve our clients while still keeping everyone as safe and healthy as possible. Since the outbreak began, we have had a “Staff Only” policy in our office and have been doing curbside service for all visits and transactions. Beginning on Monday, June 22nd, we will be taking our first baby-step back towards the pre-COVID days. Beginning on that day, clients that are arriving at our office for an appointment with their pet will have the option of accompanying their pet into the exam room. This way clients will be able to directly communicate with the doctor and will not have to stay in their vehicle (which we worry about as summer approaches). Clients will be escorted into the exam room by a technician. Once the doctor discusses the reason for the visit with the client, they may be asked to wait in the waiting room while their pet is examined. Invoicing for appointments will be done at designated spots at our front desk. Everyone entering the building will be required to wear a face mask. We still ask that clients complete the online forms for their pet’s visit so we can better serve you. All other transactions such as medication and food pick-up will continue to be done entirely curbside. We hope that these changes will achieve multiple goals—getting us back to personable service, increasing our efficiency during the COVID protocols, and continuing to keep everyone safe and healthy.

As we stated in our last update, we are currently booking about 2 weeks in advance for appointments such as well pet care, vaccinations and routine visits. We do reserve several same day appointments for sick patients, but there are days when we have no openings to be able to see any more patients. This means that there are days when we will not be able to see your pet. It doesn’t mean we don’t want to, but it is physically impossible for us to do so and implement the COVID procedures we are required to follow. We are doing our best to care for as many patients as possible through telephone consults and refilling/updating treatments as needed for each case, but there are only so many patients we can get in and out of our office each day while obeying the required COVID protocols. We hope all of our clients appreciate that these are definitely trying times and they will be with us for quite a while. Palmer Animal Hospital will continue to work to provide excellent care for our patients, and hope our clients will be patient with us.

So, if your pet needs to come in, call us. If they are sick, the earlier in the day you call, the more likely we will have openings. We will do all we can to care for your pet. For routine care, expect at least a week’s notice for an appointment.

When you come to the office, understand that we are working as hard as we can to service our clients and patients in a timely matter, but following the COVID protocols takes more time. If we are unable to see your pet, we will refer you to one of the local emergency hospitals–not because we want to, but because we cannot physically see the number of patients we have seen in the past. Hopefully, all of us, humans and pets, will get through these times healthy and well.

We look forward to when all of this will be behind us, but at this time it is impossible to see when that will be.

We hope all of our clients and our four-legged friends are doing well during this difficult time.
We wanted to give everyone an update on our situation. Palmer Animal Hospital has remained open during the entire COVID situation, and last month we announced that the State Board had relaxed restrictions on what we could and could not do for our patients. We are still restricted on the number on patients we are able to see daily due to the COVID safety restrictions we are required to follow, so we can only get so many patients in and out of our office each day. What does this mean for our clients?

Currently we are booking out over a week in advance for appointments such as well pet care, vaccinations and routine visits. We do reserve several same day appointments for sick patients, there are days when we have no openings to be able to see any more patients. This means that there are days when we will not be able to see your pet. It doesn’t mean we don’t want to, but it is physically impossible for us to do so and implement the COVID procedures we are required to follow. We are doing our best to care for as many patients as possible through telephone consults and refilling/updating treatments as needed for each case. We hope all of our clients appreciate that these are definitely trying times and they will be with us for quite a while. Palmer Animal Hospital will continue to work to provide excellent care for our patients, and hope our clients will be patient with us.

So, if you pet needs to come in, call us. If they are sick, the earlier in the day you call, the more likely we will have openings. We will do all we can to care for your pet. For routine care, expect at least a week’s notice for an appointment.
When you come to the office, understand that we are still offering curbside service, that is “staff and pets only” in the building. If we cannot help your pet, we will refer you to one of the local emergency hospitals–not because we want to, but because we cannot physically see the number of patients we have seen in the past. Hopefully, all of us, humans and pets, will get through these times healthy and well.

We look forward to when all of this will be behind us, but at this time it is impossible to see when that will be.

Last week Governor Hogan relaxed the restrictions on elective procedures (in human medicine), and soon after the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners issued a statement allowing veterinarians to resume wellness and elective procedures for animals. Note that this does not change our adherence to all current COVID protocols. That means that we still are seeing pets with curbside service with only staff allowed in the office. But it does also mean that we can start providing more services for your pet. COVID protocols will limit the number of patients/clients we are able to see in a day, so there will continue to be scheduling difficulties. We will do everything we can to get your pet the care it needs, but there are times when we will need to prioritize who and what we are able to see. One thing to note is that the State Board still considers grooming services non-essential and therefore still not permitted under the Governor’s Executive Orders. Exceptions can be made for grooming that is Medically Necessary.

We hope all of our clients and patients are staying safe during this difficult time. To update everyone as to our status, veterinary practices are still considered essential businesses and we are still open. However, the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners has restricted what veterinarians are allowed to do in order to preserve PPE needed by our human counterparts. This will limit the services we will be able to offer for our patients and clients until the COVID-19 situation improves. Of course we will continue to provide medical for our patients as indicated, and provide services allowed by the State Board, such as Rabies and Leptospirosis vaccinations. If you have any questions about your pet coming to see us, feel free to contact us by phone or email.

As the COVID 19 situation continues to become more serious, we remain open and expect to continue to do so. While it is challenging to serve our patients, we feel it is very important that we do continue. One of the things we have done to improve efficiency is to make some of the forms we are using available for download. This way you can complete the form and get it back to us before your appointment, and it eliminates another physical object to handle. These forms can be emailed to: info@palmeranimalhospital.net or faxed to 301-371-0019.

We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

Today Governor Hogan announced that all non-essential businesses are ordered to close as of 5PM today. This will affect many, many businesses, but veterinary hospitals are considered essential businesses, and the State Board of Veterinary Medical Directors (and Maryland Department of Agriculture) has requested that we stay open if possible to serve the needs of our patients. So, we will remain open with the policies we implemented last week—that is “STAFF AND PETS ONLY” in our building (meaning we will come get your pet from you in the parking lot) and a reduced workload. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or needs. Please be patient as at times our phone system is extra busy as we handle not only our regular load of phone calls, but also the patients currently at our office that we are communicating with via telephone.

We can all get through this together!