10/21/2026
To our Northridge Animal Clinic Families,
The veterinary world is facing a very challenging time, as many veterinarians, technicians and assistants are leaving the field. This challenge has now started affecting our clinic as well. Unfortunately due to limited staffing, we have had to make some scheduling changes to continue to provide the best care for our clients and patients while continuing to ensure the physical and mental well-being of our staff. These changes include:
*Work-in appointments will be based on the number of staff available. Morning hours are more likely to have availability compared to the afternoon. Please call first thing in the morning if you feel your pet needs seen that day.
*We are now offering drop-off appointments for vaccine appointments instead of sick appointments. This will allow us to have more availability for sick patients. If your pet requires medication such as Trazodone or Gabapentin before visits, they must have been given the medications before they come in for a drop-off. If they have not been given these medications, it may not be safe for us to handle them and services may not be able to be performed. All pets must be current on an annual exam and Rabies vaccine to be eligible for a drop-off appointment. If your pet has a history of biting, lunging or needing to be muzzled, they are not eligible for a drop off.
*We will continue to offer the following:
Urgent care appointments-these will be offered for same day care for sick pets once we have no remaining availability that day. These visits will be $90.00 as we will be working your pet into our already full schedule.
Emergency appointments-these appointments will be considered for life-threatening situations, and your pet will be assessed by a doctor immediately upon entering the clinic. These appointments will be $110.00 for the exam and will now require a $150.00 deposit before diagnostics and treatments can be done.
We will do our best to schedule you with your preferred doctor. However, work-in, urgent care and emergency appointments will be scheduled with whichever doctor has availability that day.
As always, we appreciate each of you and hope you can help us during this time by being as patient and understanding as possible.
Thank you,
Dr. Helsinger and Dr. Hapner
