While veterinary critical care and emergency services have some overlap — both deal with seriously ill or injured animals — there are some important differences between these two services.  Veterinary emergency services treat pets that are suffering from serious and acute illness or injury that requires intensive and immediate care.  In comparison, veterinary critical care services also deal with serious illness and injury, but do so in cases where animals require 24/7 monitoring, complex treatments and crate rest in a medical environment to help them recover.  So, while veterinary emergency services at our clinic may transfer our patients to critical care after initial triage and treatment, not all emergencies will require critical care. Likewise, in situations where a pet has undergone major planned surgery, they may require critical care to remain stable and begin their recovery without ever having been a veterinary emergency case.