WORRIED pet owners in the Capital are putting in more calls than ever before to an emergency service which offers round-the-clock aid for their animals.
The providers say it shows that increasing numbers of people expect the same level of care for their animals as they do for their family members.
Calls to the e-vets Emergency Service, which operates in Edinburgh and across many parts of the Lothi
ans, have nearly doubled in recent years.
Scotland's first 24-hour emergency service for pets is provided at the Braid Vets practice on Mayfield Road, and it is now getting around 120 emergency calls a month.
The company is considering taking on more through-the-night staff in the near future in order to cope with the continued growth in cases
Animal safety groups say the service should be commended for allowing pet owners instant access to vets, adding that it could save the lives of many animals.
Mike Hall, partner and veterinary surgeon at Braid Vets, said: "We live in a time when expectations of pet owners have increased, and rightly so.
"People are now more willing to call for assistance out of hours, especially if they know there is someone there specifically for them. In the past they didn't want to disturb their own vet out of hours, but now they don't need to worry about that.
"If they have an illness themselves, or a family member does, they expect to be seen within hours in an equipped centre that can care for them, which is done for people through the NHS.
"More and more people are coming round to thinking that pets are family members."
The average 120 cases a month now being seen compares to only around 70 in previous months.
Recently, the service treated two Dachshund dogs after they were badly mauled by what was believed to be a Staffordshire terrier while on a midnight walk with their owner Catherine Falconer in Tranent.
One of the dogs died but vets managed to save the other one, though they say it could have died if it hadn't received urgent attention.
Other incidents have included animals swallowing children's toys or consuming medicine, and there have also been several cases of chocolate poisoning around Christmas time as dogs break their way into presents. Vital Caesarian sections have been carried out at night too.
When e-vets was set up a decade ago it was the first pet emergency service in Scotland.
It has now become a model for similar services across the country, and Braid Vets, assisted by funding from Royal Bank of Scotland, said it is open to further possible expansion of the service.
Doreen Graham, a spokeswoman for the Scottish Society for the Protection of Animals, called it "a very valuable service".
The full article contains 476 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
