Dear friends and fellow pet parents:

I am so pleased to announce Pets After Dark is here. I have been practicing veterinary medicine for thirty years. Over twenty have been at one of the preeminent private practices in Pittsburgh. Before that I had my own practice in Montreal, where I am from. I also spent three years in Emergency Medicine. So much has changed since I started practicing. Most recently, during the last few years, COVID changed everything. There are more pets than ever, more people working from home and fewer veterinarians actually practicing medicine. Which brings us to now. I am so excited to tell you that Pets After Dark is here. After almost 9 months of development, discussion and meetings we’ve officially launched.

Pets After Dark started as an idea between my husband and me after a weekend of fielding calls from distraught clients that had my personal number and friends of friends seeking advice with seemingly nowhere else to turn. It became clear to us that pet owners were in dire need of help. Not only was their regular veterinarian having a difficult time providing a spot in their already busy day for a sick pet, but ER’s and specialty hospitals were under tremendous pressure as well.

Countless times I would see clients in the morning that had been up all night with their sick pet, not knowing if they should have gone to the emergency room. The thought of possibly facing very long wait times with no guarantee of being seen, not to mention the cost of such a visit, created yet another layer of stress. Situations like a pet with a painful ear infection unable to secure an appointment at their regular vet for several days happened too many times to mention. I felt terrible unease at this situation; like we were failing our patients at every turn.

I am writing this with my sweet Mabel lying at my feet (Dixie is watching football with her dad, her number one person) knowing that both of them are so precious to us, they are our family, really! I never forget just how fortunate we are that as a veterinarian I have the privilege to be able to address any arising issues regardless of the time of day or weekends. I cannot imagine how powerless pet parents must feel when they have nobody to turn to.

This is exactly what Pets After Dark is all about: providing an after-hours alternative to spending the night or weekend worrying, with nowhere to turn. We are not an emergency service. We leave that to the extremely competent doctors of our local emergency hospitals. They have knowledge, equipment and staffing to allow them to care for our most vulnerable animals in their time of dire need. Rather, we are here to provide guidance after your local veterinarian has gone for the night with the goal of providing continuity of care, advice, support and even spend some time discussing what might seem too mundane to call an emergency hospital.

Our other goals through our subscription based tele-health service are to assist you, support you and even help you with, say, a new puppy or kitten. Play-biting getting out of hand? Zoomies when pet parents are ready to wind down for the evening? There is no call (or video consultation) that we won’t welcome.

We are a network of like-minded local veterinarians that know each other and who can provide you with a familiar, personalized and reassuring presence until you can see your own trusted vet the next day. That’s right, your own vet!

A next day appointment for follow-up care with your regular veterinarian is just one of our unique offerings. We understand the profound bond between you and your veterinarian, and your veterinarian and your pet. It’s that simple. Furthermore, if your pet is deemed to have a true emergency, Pets After Dark has secured strategic relationships with local ER’s so we can help facilitate what is an inherently stressful experience for pets and their owners.

The veterinarians that have been hand selected to be part of our on-call team are my very own trusted colleagues (past and current) who I consider my friends. I have the greatest respect and trust in their medical knowledge. I am so excited that we have been able to form many new relationships around Pittsburgh. Veterinarians that are not in our network on day one will likely be here before too long. We strongly believe that every vet in Pittsburgh should participate. It is also my strong belief that doing so can not only rid us of the anonymity of traditional after-hours care but also bring back what seems to have been lost in the aftermath of the pandemic, which is love, empathy, compassion and a return to what veterinary medicine is all about.

We hope you will join us, veterinarians and pet owners alike, and become part of the Pets After Dark network.

Dr. Caroline Simard-Swimmer
Medical Director and Co-Founder
Pets After Dark