Emergency and critical care medicine: An essential component of all specialties and practices

Abstract

Veterinary emergency and critical care medicine is one of the fastest growing specialties in veterinary medicine. Likened to two specialties joined as one, in a continuum of care and in a partnership working with other specialties, veterinary emergency and critical care focuses on the immediate needs of a severely ill or injured animal and also on management of the critical medical and surgical patient beyond the primary problem. A wide spectrum of illnesses, injuries, and toxicities ranging from acute kidney injury to snakebite and from severe trauma to diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperlipidemia, are experienced by dogs, cats, horses, and other veterinary patients throughout the world. Board-certified members of the American and European Colleges of Veterinary Emergency & Critical Care are termed "criticalists" because they provide immediate, essential, and intensive care and management for these animals. In addition to board-certified emergency clinicians working in academia and in private practice, primary care veterinarians also provide emergency medical care at the front line in both specialty and non-specialty veterinary practices. Basic and clinical research in veterinary emergency and critical care medicine that is accessible to all veterinarians is essential to the ongoing advancement and development of the field.