Short answer: Most after-hours calls to a vet clinic are not emergencies. One Australian vet nurse triage service, VetCheck 24/7, reports that about 70% of the calls it takes can be settled with advice until the pet is seen the next day, about 10% suit a telehealth consult, and about 20% are genuine emergencies. If your numbers look similar, the job is to catch the one call in five that is urgent and turn the other four into a booking for the morning.
What do the triage numbers actually show?
| Type of after-hours call | Share reported by VetCheck 24/7 | What usually happens |
|---|---|---|
| Can wait for the clinic to open | About 70% | Owner is reassured and seen the next day |
| Needs a vet's advice now | About 10% | Telehealth consult, often charged to the owner |
| Genuine emergency | About 20% | On-call vet or emergency hospital, following clinic rules |
These are one provider's averages across the practices it serves, published on its own website, so treat them as a guide rather than a national figure. Your mix will depend on species, location and whether an emergency hospital is nearby. Rural mixed practices, for example, will get more large-animal calls.
Why does the 70% matter so much?
Because it is the part that wears out on-call vets. When every call goes straight to the vet's mobile, a vet who has worked a full day gets woken for a dog that ate grass, while a pet owner with a real emergency might hit voicemail because the line was busy. Answering the routine calls with a clear, agreed script protects the vet for the calls that need them.
The 70% is also where clinics quietly lose clients. An owner who calls at 9 pm about a limping dog and gets no answer will often book with whoever answers first in the morning. If your answer at 9 pm ends with "we have booked Max in for 8:30 tomorrow", that client stays with you.
What are the options for answering after hours?
- Voicemail and a recorded emergency number. Cheap, but you lose the routine bookings and many owners hang up.
- A vet nurse or vet triage service. Services such as VetCheck 24/7 and VetChat take calls using your protocols. VetChat says it supports more than 50 clinics in Australia and New Zealand and answers calls in under 2 minutes.
- An AI answering service. It answers every call, books routine appointments and follows your escalation rules for urgent ones. It must not diagnose. AiDial, for example, states that its agent does not give clinical advice and follows the practice's escalation instructions.
Many clinics combine them: an automated first answer for bookings and messages, with urgent calls passed to a nurse service or the on-call vet.
How do you set rules for urgent calls?
Write a short list of words and situations that always go to a person at once, such as breathing trouble, collapse, suspected poisoning, a road accident, heavy bleeding or a difficult birth. Decide who gets those calls, and what happens if that person does not pick up. Every call, urgent or not, should leave a written note for the morning team with the owner's details and what was agreed.
Where does RevisitCare fit?
RevisitCare's AI voice agent answers inbound calls, uses your knowledge base and your triage rules, and passes urgent cases to a person through its human-in-the-loop inbox. It can book routine visits and connects to practice software including ezyVet. It does not replace your on-call vet. Read our AI front desk plan for vet clinics and our callback system for unbooked calls, or see the vet clinic features. You can start a 7-day free trial with 20 AI conversations, with no credit card required.
FAQs
Are most after-hours vet calls emergencies? Not in the data we found. VetCheck 24/7 reports that about 20% of the after-hours calls it handles are genuine emergencies and about 70% can wait until the clinic opens.
Can an AI answer my clinic's phone at night? It can answer, take details, book routine visits and follow your escalation rules. It should not diagnose or give clinical advice. Urgent calls should go to your on-call vet or an emergency hospital.
What should happen to calls that are not urgent? Book them into the first suitable slot the next day and send the owner a confirmation, so they do not call another clinic in the morning.
How do I know my own numbers? Log every after-hours call for a month with the reason and outcome. Sort them into can wait, needs advice now and emergency, then compare with the figures above.
Want every after-hours call answered and the routine ones booked? Tell us how your clinic handles nights now.
Sources: VetCheck 24/7 (call mix figures are the provider's own averages). VetChat for vet clinics. AiDial veterinary after-hours answering. Services are named as examples, not endorsements.