Updated September 6, 2022

John & Ann Tickle Small Animal Hospital:
• Facemasks are optional for all, including clients.
• Prior to your appointment, you should arrive at the hospital no more than 15 minutes before your animal’s scheduled appointment or discharge.
• A maximum of 2 people may accompany each patient.

Charles & Julie Wharton Large Animal Hospital:
• Facemasks are optional for all, including clients.
• Call and notify Client Services upon arrival to sign admission form.
• A maximum of 2 people will be allowed in for each patient.
• Client wills be directed outside to unload the animal and speak with someone from the attending service.

Previous Updates:

Updated January 24, 2022 — Curbside Service Resumed. Client Access to Building Restricted

To help protect the health of our students, faculty, staff, clients, and community, access to the Veterinary Medical Center is restricted, and we are resuming curbside service. This precautionary measure will help limit exposure and transmission of the coronavirus.

John & Ann Tickle Small Animal Hospital: 

• Clients: Once you arrive at the veterinary medical center, please remain in your vehicle and call 865-974-8387 to notify us you are here. Please tell us
  • ​which medical service or doctor your pet is scheduled to see (if known)
  • which numbered lane you are parked in
  • Hospital personnel will meet you at your vehicle during the day; clients must wear a facemask when interacting with our personnel. No clients (does not apply to Behavior Service clients; they will receive specific instructions from a Behavior team member) or visitors are allowed within the veterinary medical center except to use the restroom; exceptions may be made for end of life issues.​

Since the phone numbers of our veterinarians and veterinary nurses are blocked, please be sure your phone will accept calls from blocked numbers. Please answer incoming calls to your phone, including unidentified and blocked calls while your pet is at our veterinary medical center. If you miss a call, please check your voicemail for messages.

Equine & Farm Animal Hospitals:

• Clients: To schedule an appointment, please call 865-974-5701. Referrals are not required prior to scheduling an appointment with the Equine and Farm Animal Hospitals. Once you arrive at the veterinary medical center, please remain in your vehicle and call 865-974-5701 and inform us of
  • ​which medical service or doctor your animal is scheduled to see (if known)
  • ​​​which unloading area you are parked​ 
  • Hospital personnel will meet you at your vehicle during the day; clients must wear a facemask when interacting with our personnel. No clients or visitors are allowed within the veterinary medical center; exceptions may be made for end of life issues.​​​​

Updated October 15, 2021 — Emergency Service Hours Changed (still in effect January 2022)

Effective immediately, our Small Animal/Avian-Exotic Animal Emergency Service hours have changed. Emergency Services will only be open between the hours of 8 AM – 10 PM daily until further notice due to shortages in personnel and a high overnight caseload. In order to provide the highest possible care for hospitalized patients, we have made the difficult decision to limit our emergency services overnight. This only affects our Small Animal Hospital, NOT our Equine and Farm Animal hospitals.

Veterinarians and other members of the veterinary team continue to provide care for hospitalized patients overnight. We are limiting admissions of new cases to those with immediate life-threatening emergencies or critical care needs such as hit by car, gastric dilatation-volvulus (bloat), or respiratory distress. Patients with urgent but non-life threatening needs shoulc contact their primary veterinarian as soon as possible.  Cases which do arrive at our front door will be triaged by our veterinary nursing staff.

This has been a difficult but necessary decision made to provide appropriate patient care for hospitalized animals in our intensive care unit as well as to our veterinary medical team who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to provide for our patients. This is a temporary situation. Thank you for understanding.

Updated October 4, 2021 — Call before bringing or sending a small animal patient.

The John and Ann Tickle Small Animal Hospital at the UTCVM Veterinary Medical Center is experiencing intermittent personnel shortages. This is affecting the ability of our Emergency and Critical Care (ECC) service to provide for patients most in need of our services. A downloadable pdf of this information is available here.

To ensure the best patient care possible, please read the information below and follow these protocols. Doing so will greatly assist us to provide for you and your patients.

• All clients and referring veterinarians should call the Small Animal Hospital at 865-974-8387 for telephone triage/assessment prior to sending or bringing a patient to the UTCVM Veterinary Medical Center for emergency treatment.

• All calls will be routed to personnel who will assess the patient problem and determine if the patient needs immediate admission to the Emergency Service.

• Patients admitted through the emergency service will be stabilized, treated, and when appropriate, discharged with our recommendation for follow-up with their primary care veterinarian.

• Referring veterinarians must call a specific specialty service to have a referral approved and appointment priority determined.

• If at any time our in-patient capacity to provide necessary care is exceeded, the following decisions will have to be made:
  • The ECC clinician or designee will determine the urgency of an emergency or referral patient and/or the need for the patient to be seen at our hospital. Patients determined to have less than emergent problems might not be approved or scheduled.
  • The decision to temporarily close the Emergency Service might be necessary. We will do our best to avoid this from occurring.

Thank you for your understanding and for helping us to provide for you and your patient/companion during these extreme circumstances.

ARRIVAL PROCEDURES

• Masks are required for everyone while inside our hospital.

• No more than 2 clients per patient/family are allowed inside the lobby and waiting area.

• Seating is subject to maximum capacity limits.

• Much of the communication will continue to be by phone.

Wait times may be long, especially when multiple services are required for consultation or treatment.  We encourage you to explore the campus area or UT Gardens adjacent to the veterinary medical center while you wait, or return home when feasible.  Hospital personnel will contact you by phone with any necessary questions, patient status updates, and discharge information.

The building is open for clients on a limited basis.

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Updated July 9, 2021 — Building Re-opens to Clients on Limited Basis. Details available here.

January 11, 2021 — To help protect the health of our students, faculty, staff, clients, and community, the UT Veterinary Medical Center is taking precautionary measures to limit exposure and transmission of the coronavirus. The Veterinary Medical Center is continuing to limit patient caseload to focus on patients in need of essential medical care, and to manage emergency patients. Our hospital is still working with limited personnel.

If you are sick with COVID-19 or another communicable disease such as the flu, please do not come to the veterinary medical center. If you are sick with COVID-19, and you believe your pet is ill, please call and we will work with you to determine how to ensure your animal can be properly cared for while minimizing risks of transmitting COVID-19 to others.

At this time, the UT Veterinary Medical Center cannot accept wildlife until further notice. Many times wildlife (primarily baby rabbits, birds, and fawns) are “kidnapped” by well-meaning people who attempt to “rescue” small animals they think have been abandoned. If you find young wildlife, the best course of action is to leave it alone or put the young back into a nest if one is present.

UPDATED January 11, 2021

John & Ann Tickle Small Animal Hospital: 

• Clients: Once you arrive at the veterinary medical center, please remain in your vehicle and call 865-974-8387 to notify us you are here. Please tell us
  • ​which medical service or doctor your pet is scheduled to see (if known)
  • which numbered lane you are parked in
  • Hospital personnel will meet you at your vehicle during the day; clients must wear a facemask when interacting with our personnel. No clients or visitors are allowed within the veterinary medical center; exceptions may be made for end of life issues.​

• Referring Veterinarians–Emergency Cases: If you would like to arrange an emergency referral after examining a patient, please
  • call 865-974-8387 and the client representative will connect you with the appropriate clinician to discuss the case. Due to the recent increase of COVID-19 cases in Tennessee, we will be operating with limited staff which may impact our service availability. For emergency cases, the referring veterinarian must call 865-974-8387 to discuss the nature of the emergency with the appropriate service clinician.​ If you have to leave a message, someone will return your call promptly; please do not just send a fax or email, we also need to speak with the referring veterinarian to help us prioritize prompt patient care and provide  an estimate to share with the client prior to arrival
  • do NOT tell the client to go to UT Veterinary Medical Center without first arranging the referral
  • complete the referral form in its entirety and fax to 865-974-0174 or email utvetref@utk.edu a summary of medical information pertinent to the immediate health concern; please do NOT send the patient’s entire medical record as this will slow down our ability to provide prompt patient and client care
  • to prevent delays for emergent cases, please do not refer non-emergency or non-urgent patients to the Emergency Service 
• Referring Veterinarians–Non-urgent Cases and Standard Referrals:
  • complete the referral form in its entirety and fax to 865-974-0174 or email utvetref@utk.edu a summary of medical information pertinent to the immediate health concern; please do NOT send the patient’s entire medical record as this will slow down our ability to provide prompt patient and client care
  • if you would like to consult with a clinician prior to referring, call 865-974-8387 and the client representative will connect you with the appropriate clinician
  • if you would like an estimate to provide your client prior to arrival or have additional questions regarding the referral, contact the referral coordinator at 865-974-3939
    
    Click here if you would like additional information on small animal referrals.

Equine & Farm Animal Hospitals: operational with reduced staffing

• Clients: To schedule an appointment, please call 865-974-5701. Referrals are not required prior to scheduling an appointment with the Equine and Farm Animal Hospitals. Once you arrive at the veterinary medical center, please remain in your vehicle and call 865-974-5701 and to inform us of
  • ​which medical service or doctor your pet is scheduled to see (if known)
  • ​​​in which unloading area you are parked​ 
  • Hospital personnel will meet you at your vehicle during the day; clients must wear a facemask when interacting with our personnel. No clients or visitors are allowed within the veterinary medical center; exceptions may be made for end of life issues.​​​​

• Referring Veterinarians–Emergency Cases: If you would like to arrange an emergency referral after examining a patient, please
  • call 865-974-5701 and the client representative will connect you with the appropriate clinician to discuss the case. If you have to leave a message, someone will return your call promptly; 
• Referring Veterinarians–Non-urgent Cases and Standard Referrals:
  • If you wish to consult with a clinician prior to referring, please call 865-974-5701 and the client representative will connect you with the appropriate clinician. If this is not necessary, either you or the owner can call the number to set up the appointment. 
  • Complete the referral form in its entirety and fax a summary of medical information pertinent to the immediate health concern to 865-946-1786

Equine and Farm Animal Field Services: offering all services in the field, including preventative health care

Pharmacy: Filling prescriptions. Call the pharmacy as usual at 974-5670. Pick-up procedures are discussed at that time. Diagnostic Laboratory Services & our Courier Service: Our diagnostic laboratory services and courier service continue operation and are striving to maintain routine business hours of operation to meet the needs of referring veterinarians and their patients. However, due to depth of staffing and health concerns, some laboratories are adjusting schedules on a day-to-day basis. We encourage referring veterinarians to call prior to submitting samples. ​

• Virology Announcement April 1 2020 final.docx.pdf
• Endocrinology​

We will continue to update information pertaining to the Veterinary Medical Center as we work to best manage the safety of our patients and personnel. ​

Information about pets and COVID-19 can be found here.​ The American Veterinary Medical Association has information for pet owners and veterinarians on its website​. 

Please stay safe and well during this crisis. ​