Emergencies don’t care about office hours. It doesn’t matter if it’s 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve—when your pet is suffering from an illness or injury, you want to ease their pain as quickly as possible. And waiting for your vet’s office to open only escalates their discomfort and your worry.
Hawthorne Animal Hospital is the only veterinary clinic in the Metro East that offers emergency services and hospitalization 24 hours a day. Staffed with experienced veterinarians and technicians 365 days a year, Hawthorne is here to triage, diagnose and treat your pet with care and compassion, helping them get on the road to recovery sooner.
At Hawthorne, we’re at our best when your pet is at their worst.
When you arrive at the emergency veterinary clinic at Hawthorne, your pet will be triaged by our care team. Because of increased demand for services, please understand that pets with life-threatening conditions will be treated before those who are more stable.
Once your pet enters the exam room, they will be evaluated by one of our DVMs (veterinary physicians). Appropriate care will be provided as directed by the veterinarian to ensure your pet’s safety during evaluation. After the initial assessment, the veterinarian will discuss with you the necessary diagnostic and medical procedures for sustained care and treatment. All ER visits include a brief diagnostic panel that checks kidney function, blood pressure, glucose levels, red blood cell levels, and a variety of other warning signs.
In most cases, a pet who has undergone significant trauma or a life-threatening illness will require extended supervision in our facility to aid in their rehabilitation and recovery. Our intensive care unit (ICU) critical care team provides continual care and monitoring in the hours following your pet’s diagnosis or procedure. Instead of turning off the lights and heading for home at 5 p.m., Hawthorne’s ICU team stays on-site overnight to keep a constant eye on your pet.
Even if Hawthorne is not your primary vet, we are here as your after-hours vet. After completion of all procedures, your regular veterinarian will receive an evaluation letter with copies of all medical records regarding the services your pet received while in the care of our emergency vet clinic team.
Hawthorne Animal Hospital, a small animal hospital and veterinary clinic, serves St. Louis Metro East area, including the communities of Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Troy, Alton, Granite City, Collinsville, Highland, Wood River, Roxana, Bethalto, Godfrey, Worden, and Hamel.
We also want to be very clear about what is not changing: Pets hospitalized at Hawthorne overnight will continue to receive continuous, on-site care. Our tenured veterinary assistants remain in the hospital throughout the overnight shift, monitoring patients and providing prescribed treatments, medications, fluid therapy, pain management, and other necessary care.
A Hawthorne veterinarian is also on call throughout the night and can come into the hospital when a hospitalized patient requires additional veterinary care. Our hospitalized patients are not left unattended, and this change does not mean Hawthorne is eliminating overnight care for pets already admitted to our hospital.
During our 7:00 AM–7:00 PM hours, our veterinary team will continue providing full-service veterinary care, urgent care, and intensive care management, including dedicated availability for urgent and complex cases.
We know Hawthorne’s 24-hour emergency service has been an important resource for this community for many years. This was not a decision we made lightly. Veterinary medicine is experiencing significant nationwide staffing challenges, particularly in overnight emergency care. Continuing our previous model without the veterinary staffing necessary to support it would not be responsible for our patients or for the people entrusted with caring for them.
This change allows us to protect the well-being and longevity of our medical team while maintaining the standard of care our patients deserve. Our goal is to restore expanded overnight emergency services when staffing allows us to do so safely and responsibly.
We are incredibly grateful for the clients who have trusted Hawthorne with their pets for generations, and we understand that trust has to be earned every day. We welcome questions about this transition and encourage you to contact our team directly so we can provide accurate information about your pet’s care and our new hours.
