COVID-19 Updates: 19-24 March 2020
24 March 2020 As an essential service, our clinic will continue caring for your pets through COVID-19 Alert Level 4. To minimise the spread of COVID-19 and observe physical distancing, please respect the significant changes to our clinic operation during this time:
(1) No members of the public are permitted to enter the clinic premises. This means that upon your arrival at the clinic, you will need to phone us and one of our team members will come out to your car to escort your pet into the clinic for a veterinary examination. The duty veterinarian will examine your pet and phone you to address any health concerns you have with your pet.
(2) It is important that you let us know if your pet is coming from a household that has a confirmed or probable COVID-19 patient, so that our team members can take additional precautions when handling your pet. Please do not break self-isolation to bring your pets to the clinic – send a representative instead. It will be helpful if you could complete a Pet Health Questionnaire (download it here) and email this to us at cahillvet@inspire.net.nz. Ensure you are available by phone during the time of your pet’s consultation.
(3) We have reduced staffing levels during this time and on-site consultations are available strictly for emergencies only.
(4) For pets currently registered with us a patient - we do have limited ability to offer phone consultations with one of our veterinarians working remotely for less urgent matters. Please note that there will be a consultation fee for this phone service.
(5) Please ring us on 063588675 in advance to order your pet’s medications, food, flea or worm preventatives etc. Do allow for at least 2-4 working days for re-prescription medications to be organised for collection, and at least 4 working days for food orders. Note that limits may be applied on the amount of prescription medication and food orders.
(6) We are not taking cash payment and would prefer payments to be made via internet banking. Please contact us to obtain your client number and you will need to email us a screenshot of the bank transaction.
(7) For emergencies outside our clinic hours, please phone Massey University Pet Emergency Centre on 0800 738 363 before you show up with your pet and you need to follow the directions from the Massey team. Please do not show up at MUPEC without first phoning ahead.
Other updates to come: We are in the process of organising a delivery service within the Palmerston North boundaries, for those who are unable to leave their homes to collect the prescription medications or foods for their pets. We are also looking into a mobile EFTPOS system for home delivery orders and will provide you with further information on this once it becomes available.
In order to keep our staff safe and healthy so that they can provide ongoing care for your pets, please note that we reserve the right to decline seeing anyone who refuses to abide by our operations protocol during this period. We also want to take this opportunity to express our deep appreciation of all our clients for their overwhelming support, patience and understanding while we work through these extraordinary times.
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23 March 2020 9.49pm We can now confirm that Cahill Animal Hospital is an essential service and we will continue providing you with veterinary care through COVID-19 alert Levels 3 and 4, with significant changes to how we operate as a veterinary clinic. We are in the process of reviewing the essential veterinary services we are able to offer over the next several weeks and will update you further once more official information becomes available to us via the MPI, the Veterinary Council and the NZ Veterinary Association.
23 March 2020 2.43pm We are currently experiencing a very high volume of calls since the COVID-19 alert was upgraded to Level 3 earlier this afternoon. Please know that we are working hard to assist everyone as quickly as we can and we thank you for your patience. Please also help us by:
21 March 2020 The COVID-19 threat in New Zealand has been moved up to Level 2 as of midday today. In an effort to reduce contact between clients, our clinic has implemented further strategies for the upcoming weeks:
(1) If you have returned from overseas in the last 2 weeks and/or have flu-like symptoms, please do not bring your pets in yourself during your self-isolation period. We invite you to send a friend or family member in with your pets instead. If a representative is bringing your pet into our clinic on your behalf, please complete the pet health questionnaire (our reception will email this to you and you can also download it here) and also do ensure that you are available by phone to discuss your pet’s care during the time of the veterinary consultation.
(2) Please allow at least 2-3 working days for your pet's prescription medications and prescription diets to be ordered in during this time.
(3) We will be instituting additional sanitising measures within the clinic. Please bear with us if we are a little slower than usual, human health is just as important to us as your pets' health
(4) There is limited evidence mammalian pet animals (including dogs and cats) can be infected with COVID-19 and no current evidence of companion cats/dogs acting as a source of infection to humans/other animals. Please see the below links to view some FAQ's on the COVID-19 and animals:
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