In light of the new closures and mandates by Governor Reynolds, we are implementing new measures in order to do our part to keep the community, our clients, pets, and employees and volunteers safe.  Our goal at this time is to reduce the number number of pet owners coming through the building and to keep our small staff of 4 healthy and able to continue to serve you and your pets.

Effective today and extending until at least April 13th, 2020 we will now be operating under the following changes:.

• We will be performing routine spay and neuter surgeries on Monday and Tuesdays starting March 30th, and will be limiting the number of procedures as staffing allows.  Previously scheduled appointments that were cancelled will be offered 1st priority when rescheduling.
• We will be limiting appointments to emergency issues for our surgical patients ONLY, vaccine appointments for those existing clients with rabies vaccines that are due in this window of time will be scheduled on a “fit in basis” during surgical days only, and owners must contact us via email to set up these appointments.  We will not be scheduling appointments for heartworm tests, leptospirosis, fvrcp, dhlpp, lyme or other vaccines. However, if your pet is due for a rabies vaccine within the next 30 days AND due for other vaccines, we will be happy to update the other vaccines at the same time.
• We will continue to authorize refills on flea/tick medications and other necessary medications for our clients as deemed necessary by our veterinarian.
• Our Doctor may allow for online and over-the-phone consultations (for a fee, due at time of service) and prescribe treatments as needed on a case by case basis for EMERGENT ISSUES ONLY.  Your pet must be an existing patient, and have seen our doctor within the past 6 months.  Should our Doctor feel your pet needs immediate care we are unable to provide, you may be referred to your regular full service veterinarian, or Iowa State Veterinary Teaching Hospital for further assistance.

We currently are NOT ALLOWING our clients to enter the building, and our doors will remain locked during business hours.  A member of our staff will collect your pet and deliver all necessary paperwork and discharge instructions as well as your pet back to your vehicle after your pet has had surgery or vaccines.  We thank you for your understanding.  We are exercising social distancing within our capacities as much as possible, and therefore are refraining from shaking hands or hugging etc.

If you have had any unexplained respiratory symptoms such as cough or shortness of breath, or have had a fever within the past 14 days, have traveled within the past two weeks, or recovered from illness please stay home. We reserve the right to ask clients to stay in their car and reschedule their pets appointments if respiratory symptoms are noted.   This situation is constantly changing, and we are working diligently to keep up with these changes, in order to provide as much safety as possible as we continue to provide care for our pets and their people.  We will keep you all informed as policies and procedures change to keep up, both through email and our Facebook page, and by phone as appropriate.

We are currently not accepting any future vaccination appointments at this time, however you may continue to schedule surgical appointments by visiting our website at  http://www.goape.info/events-and-registration/.   We reserve the right to cancel any upcoming appointments or schedule dates as the situation changes, or in case of staff illness.  Should this occur, you will receive notification via email and/or text message as soon as we know of any changes.  Due to limited staffing, and our high volume of appointments, we regret that we will be unable to call in the event that we need to cancel or close.  We ask that you please refrain from calling our emergency line unless in case of an immediate emergency involving a pet that was recently seen at our clinic and visit our online scheduler linked above to reschedule your pet’s appointment. We thank you for your understanding.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to message us on Facebook or email at united4ape@gmail.com.  We are experiencing a larger than normal influx of messages during this time, so we ask for your patience and understanding, these changes are frustrating for us as well.  We know this is a very scary and unsure time for all of us, and we are here to help how we can.  We thank you for your continued support of our mission.