Please note that only our overnight ER Service closed. We still provide urgent and emergency care Monday-Friday, 8am-7pm & Saturday-Sunday, 8am-6pm.
The Ann Arbor Animal Hospital was established in the 1930s as a large animal practice. The current owner, Dr. Griebe, bought the practice in 1982 and at the time the building included both a house and the business. Now seeing only companion animals, the practice kept expanding, eventually taking over and converting the attached house. After outgrowing that space we moved into our new, current building in late 2003 and the old building was demolished. The building as it exists today was constructed as a dedicated veterinary practice, with room for a brand new business: Ann Arbor Animal Hospital Emergency Service, which started seeing patients in mid-2004.
Our ability to handle the most severe veterinary emergencies increased greatly in 2019 when we completed our new state-of-the-art ICU, and again in 2022 by adding a large generator capable of powering the entire hospital in the event of a power outage, ensuring that we could live up to our motto of “Always here, always ready, always caring.”
Unfortunately, employee turnover in veterinary medicine is already much higher than in other health care professions. When our ER lost a few key veterinarians last year, a shortage of doctors meant we were not able to replace them—even though we were constantly recruiting. The loss of these doctors meant that we weren’t able to cover shifts, and we had to reduce our open nights to around half. This put us in a very difficult position. It was slim consolation that we had a lot of company as the shortage of ER DVMs and technicians is national, and there’s no sign of the demand being met any time soon.
The veterinary industry is changing: there are simply not enough people entering the veterinary professions, and too many are getting burned out and leaving for other fields.
Though it came with great reluctance, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our overnight Emergency Service after nearly 19 years. We are extremely grateful to our incredible ER team—some of whom have been with us for more than a decade—for the enormous amount of help and compassion they’ve provided to both pets and people during that time. Our commitment to them remains strong and we are working to bring as many of them as possible over to the primary care and urgent care side of Ann Arbor Animal Hospital.
Our hope is that things will change and we’ll be able to reopen the ER at some point in the future. Until that happens though, the ER’s last night will be Monday, March 13th, and operations will cease at 8AM on March 14th, 2023.
Our Primary Care and Urgent/Critical Care will of course continue on with their normal hours, 8AM-7PM Monday-Friday and 8AM-2PM Saturday-Sunday.
Thank you to all who entrusted their pets to the care of our ER Service for those many years, and all of us at Ann Arbor Animal Hospital look forward to continuing to provide the best care possible to all of our patients going forward!
I am literally in tears — as I’m sure you are. We, like many others here, became regular patients after one of our beloved cats needed your emergency assistance. There were other emergency visits over the years, with new cats that joined our family — we always were deeply grateful for the skilled, compassionate care. We will remain loyal patients but mourn the loss of the considerable comfort knowing you were there when we needed you, 24 hours a day. Sending all good wishes and looking forward (fingers crossed) to cheering your reopening.
Big loss for animal lovers in A2. Such a sense of security knowing you were there, and in one crisis I had my dog to you in ten minutes. I sure hope you can reopen.
What a loss to the community and our companion babies. You saved my dog’s life. I will be forever grateful for that. I pray one day you will be able to offer this life saving service again. Our fur babies need you.
AAAH helped us navigate an Addison’s diagnosis and I appreciate every employees’ service. I’m grateful
urgent/critical care will be available. You are appreciated immensely!!
What a loss for the community. Hoping the ER people and resources will be available again in the future.
That is our sincere hope as well, Dara.
+1 to Elizabeth’s comment. Do you have recommendations as to where we should go for emergency care? Thanks!
Thanks for your question, Andrea. Here’s what’s available in Ann Arbor and relatively nearby:
BluePearl Ann Arbor on Packard Rd
Emergency Veterinary Hospital on Jackson Rd
Animal Emergency Center (AEC) on Novi Rd in Novi
Michigan State University’s Veterinary Medical Center in East Lansing
Thank you so much for all the excellent emergency care you have given my poodles over the years! We are so grateful! We will hope for a re-opening someday soon. Best wishes to all of you, Sue Monkiewicz
It’s been our honor, Sue!
We are very sad to hear this but of course we understand!We really appreciate what you did for our dogs in need.
Very scary times, no idea what we will do now in case of emergency, you were always the best.!!!!
These are worrying times for emergency veterinary care, certainly, though please see our response elsewhere in the comments for some ER suggestions. It’s great to hear that we were able to help out your dogs!
So very many thanks and much gratitude for all you have done over the years for us and our pets at the emergency clinic. The staffing schedules have been so very difficult for AAAH and animal clinics all over the country, and I appreciate that you went on as long as you could. Wishing you all the best and hoping for a re-opening of the emergency clinic some day down the road. Cheers.
Sue Perry
Thank you for your kindness and understanding, Sue. We’re also really hoping for a grand re-opening some day!
So sorry to hear this, as I started coming to your practice specifically because you offered 24 hr care. Where should we go if we have a true after hours emergency? Will you have 24 hr phone triage? I have always been happy with my dogs’ care.
Thank you, Elizabeth. Having a 24 hour ER certainly allowed us to ensure optimal continuity of care, and we wish we didn’t have to close it. We’ll still have our Urgent/Critical Care during our regular hours, but for after hours emergency you have a few options:
BluePearl Ann Arbor on Packard Rd
Emergency Veterinary Hospital on Jackson Rd
Animal Emergency Center (AEC) on Novi Rd in Novi
Michigan State University’s Veterinary Medical Center in East Lansing