SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) – One Spartanburg animal clinic will be expanding its operations to include urgent care.
It’s the situation that no pet owner wants to be in.
“Come home from work and their animal has been sick all day and their regular veterinarian is closed,” veterinarian and owner of Palmetto Animal Clinic, Stephanie Gagliardi said.
Angel Cox with the Spartanburg Humane Society said the options for immediate help are limited in Spartanburg County.
“There is definitely a shortage here,” said Cox. “If something happened or your animal was sick during the day but you were at work so you get home at 5 or 6 o’clock and you notice something is wrong, you’re sort of stuck until the next day.”
The need for more urgent care facilities in Spartanburg County is something Gagliardi hears often from her clients.
“I feel bad when my clients don’t have anywhere to go and, I mean, there are some great clinics in Greenville but because they are overwhelmed with their waitlist, the waiting time is so long,” Gagliardi said.
So Gagliardi decided to expand her practice to offer urgent care.
“I had clients for years begging for this since the care clinic closed down in Spartanburg a few years ago, there has been such a need for this,” Gagliardi said. “As of right now, for true emergencies people are having to go to Greenville or Charlotte to get their pets helped. If you’re in south Spartanburg, Union or Gaffney, that’s a long drive if you got a really sick pet.”
Gagliardi added on March 4 they will be providing life-saving treatment seven days a week.
“We will be equipped to do emergencies, such as full service surgery, any type of hit by car, sick animals, anything like that, so a little bit beyond the scope of a typical urgent care clinic,” Gagliardi said. “A lot of dogs will bloat on the weekends and that’s an emergency surgery, we anticipate seeing C-sections, dogs going into labor that can’t have their puppies.”
Cox said more animal care facilities in Spartanburg County mean less animals in pain.
“We want to make sure the animal is not suffering,” said Cox. “So for us to have another urgent care vet that is open and that of the level of Dr. Gagliardi… that’s huge for Spartanburg County.”
The new urgent care facility will be inside the already existing Palmetto Animal Clinic and will be open from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on the week nights and 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on the weekends.
Cox added that Urgentvet is another urgent care facility that recently opened on Blackstock Road.
