Reviewed by: Sharron Swain
Pet owners—meet Birmingham’s first veterinary urgent care center
Reading time: 4 minutes
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Have you ever had a sick pet on a weekend? I’ve been there—when your primary vet is closed, but your pet has an urgent medical need that may not quite need the full attention of an ER, it feels like there’s nothing you can do. That’s where Double Oak Mountain Animal Hospital’s (DOMAH) urgent care comes in. Keep reading to learn more.
What is veterinary urgent care?
Just like humans, pets get sick and things happen. Sometimes, care needs arise that are urgent but not so serious that they require an emergency visit.
Urgent care provides a timely outpatient option for injury/illness that is not severe enough to require emergency treatment but causes enough pain or discomfort that it can’t wait for your primary vet’s office hours.
- Location: 5490 US-280 East, Birmingham, AL 35242
- Urgent care hours: Saturday-Sunday 12PM-10PM
- Website | Facebook
“The key and operative word is ‘outpatient’. We are not planning to do major hospitalization or major surgeries as part of our Urgent Care and seek to treat patients and send them home.
We want to be an alternative source for pets needing medical care on the weekends that may not need to or want to go to the ER. This can be difficult for pet owners to sometimes know if what they have is an emergency or not since our pets can’t talk to us.
In these situations, we can often see these patients and even if they are an emergency, we can stabilize and treat prior to sending them to one of our ER facilities.”
Dr. Jason Vargas, DOMAH
Meet Dr. Vargas
Dr. Jason Vargas has never had a job that wasn’t in the veterinary field. He started out working in the kennel in Prattville, Alabama, completed his undergraduate and graduate courses at Auburn University and has been working in the Birmingham area since. He became a double partner at DOMAH in 2021 and launched the urgent care center in July of 2022.
According to Dr. Vargas, the urgent care center is designed to fill a gap in veterinary health care that has been present for a long time.
“We believe providing these urgent care services are important because our ERs are short staffed, overwhelmed and quite frankly have many cases they are seeing that are not true emergencies. We seek to help both our colleagues’ working in these ERs as well as the clients frustrated with the increased wait times and costs.”
Dr. Jason Vargas, DOMAH
Dr. Vargas and the entire staff at DOMAH are committed to serving with care and compassion. As skilled technicians and vets who have been caring for local pets and families for years, you can be confident that a visit to their urgent care will always yield thorough, gold-standard care.
Referring vets can feel confident in sending their clients to DOMAH
The goal of DOMAH’s urgent care center is not to take anyone’s clients, but to work hand-in-hand with their veterinary colleagues to care for pets and their families in Birmingham.
“If we see our colleague’s regular clients during our urgent care hours, we are instructing them to follow back up with their regular veterinarian to continue care at their primary care practice. We want these referring vets to feel confident that they can tell their clients to come see us without fear of losing them to our day time practice, preserving both their client and their free time on the weekend.”
Dr. Jason Vargas, DOMAH
DOMAH is here to help
As a pet parent myself, I know how hard it can be to know if you’re dealing with an emergency and what service your pet needs. In these situations, DOMAH’s urgent care can often see these patients and even if they are an emergency, stabilize and treat prior to sending them to one of their ER facilities.
More often than not, they are able to get your pet the care it needs at a decreased price compared to ERs and in a more timely manner. Most ERs can have a 3-4 hour wait on the weekend and DOMAH aims to have you in and out in an hour or so.
There’s nothing better that knowing your pet is in good hands and at Double Oak Mountain Animal Hospital + Urgent Care, that is exactly what you get.
Learn more about Double Oak Mountain Animal Hospital + Urgent Care.
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