25 March 2020, at 5:15pm:

To all our special clients,

Our team’s safety, and yours is critical to us. From Wednesday 25th March Animates Vetcare clinics are deemed as an essential service, meaning we can continue to look after your pets during Alert Level 4. We are open for emergencies, phone consults, medication refills and food. But in order to do this, we have to work in a closed clinic environment to keep both our team members safe and also you, our clients. In order to stay open, we need your support.

What does that mean?

• From Wednesday the 25^th of March, we are no longer doing routine surgeries or appointments. Your sick pets will continue to be able to get treatment for all their essential and emergency needs. This means we will continue to provide services that cannot be postponed or cancelled without risking serious pain or suffering to the animal.
• Our waiting room/reception is now closed.
• We will be operating a remote clinic, with reduced team members.
• You will still be able to obtain medications and food from the clinic but not in the normal way by popping in.
• Our clinics will need 2 weeks’ notice to refill medications. Please give us a call if your pet’s medications are getting low so we have time to source medications if they are in short supply.

Our clinic team will be there to answer the phone and guide you. Please phone or email in the first instance for any veterinary treatment, medications or food. Please be patient as we may be running on very small team numbers or be overloaded trying to help many clients at once. To help us stay open:

• Clients will not be able to enter the clinic and will have to ring from the car park on arrival at our clinic.
• Our team will ask if you have been travelling, are unwell, or have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 at time of booking an appointment, and also on arrival, then decide on the best plan from there.
• A team member will take your pet in for examination and give it lots of love, attention and treats. The vet will do an exam, then go through the consult process and discuss treatment over the phone with you whilst you wait in the car.
• Surgery admits and discharges will be done over the phone when possible.
• Reception will call you for over the phone payment.
• Your pet, and if needed, your pet’s prescriptions/food will be brought to you outside the building.
• Repeat medications can be couriered to you if services remain available.

FOR SELF ISOLATION OR UNWELL CLIENTS

• If you are sick or displaying any flu/cold symptoms we respectfully ask you to not come into the clinic. We do not want to put our team members or other clients at risk so will not be consulting with anyone who has these symptoms. Please contact us if you require urgent vet care and we can discuss alternative options.

Keeping our team and clients safe:

• We have put extra hygiene practices in place, all clinic areas are thoroughly cleaned with increased frequency.
• For pets with minor health issues and ongoing medical conditions we have a phone consultation option available.
• We will no longer be doing home calls.
• There will be limits on how many people can be in the clinic at any one time. As much as we enjoy our walk-in visits from you all – we ask you to call ahead for collection of food/medication, we will process over the phone payments and organise a pickup outside of the clinic. Please do not bring several family members with you to the clinic.

As always, we are committed to being there for you and your pets. Please be there for our teams so we can keep looking after your furry family members.

Can pets catch Covid-19 (the human coronavirus)?

• Currently there is no evidence that pets become sick. Infectious disease experts, as well as the CDC, OIE, and WHO indicate there is also no evidence to suggest that pet dogs or cats can be a source of infection with SARS-CoV-2, including spreading COVID-19 to people
• This is being continually monitored at present
• However, because animals can spread other diseases to people and people can also spread diseases to animals, it’s a good idea to always wash your hands before and after interacting with animals, as you would normally

Dr Kylie Lawson, General Manager – Clinics