"Urgent care" for pets opens in King of Prussia

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (CBS) -- A new way to get medical care for your pets is now open in Montgomery County. Getting a convenient appointment with the vet can be tough and veterinary hospitals should only be used for real emergencies now there's something in between.

Theo is the Lampe family's kitten who's needed different medical treatments for a birth defect.

"Ranging from standard to emergency to urgent. So that's what brought us here a couple of times," Jessie Lampe said.

Instead of appointments with a vet or a veterinary hospital, Jessie Lampe turned to Pet Medic in King of Prussia.

"Luckily, we were able to be seen really quickly. And she was so helpful in assessing him and caring for him," Jessie Lampe said.

Here they can treat everything from an ear infection or a cough to something more serious.

But Pet Medic doesn't handle critical or traumatic injuries.

"That's what the ER is for. And so we really want to stay in our lane. We don't want to step too far into their lane or do anything like what the GP is doing," practice manager Melanie Wiener said.

Wiener says a general practice vet would be for traditional care such as wellness visits and routine vaccines.

Stahl: " So this works kind of like urgent care for people."

Wiener: " Yes, it's exactly like urgent care for people."

"So, urgent care in itself fills the gap between emergency facilities and your regular general practice," Wiener said.

Pet medic is open 7 days a week and staffed with 2 full time veterinarians to take care of walk-in cases and appointments.

Services here are generally more expensive than regular vet appointments but less than an emergency hospital visit.

For Theo and his family, it was a quick and easy solution.

The pet urgent care center is designed to relieve some of the stress on veterinary hospitals that can get very busy when there are long wait times.