BETTER care for poorly Borders pets is on its way as a 24 hour A&E service is set to launch.

A new emergency vet service to launching this week which will provide care to pets who become sick or injured at night or at weekends.

The new e-vets service is being introduced by Border Vets and will be open to clients of their surgeries in Galashiels, Selkirk and Innerleithen, and Robert Young Vets in Kelso and Earlston.

Initially, e-vets will run at weekends, covering Friday night and Saturday from lunch time through until Monday morning and from early 2019, the service will expand to seven nights a week.

Pets will be cared for overnight by experienced staff at Border Vets’ main veterinary surgery in Galashiels.

Vets Carla Murphy and Mel Broad will run the service and will then be joined in January by new emergency and critical care vet Rosemary Webster and veterinary nurse Lisa Scott.

The out-of-hours service will be equipped to deal with any kind of serious cases, including pets involved in road traffic accidents, poisoning cases, emergency operations and sudden illness.

Mel Broad said: “The number one aim of the service is improving patient care because hospitalised pets will have 24-hour monitoring from vets and nurses, which is a big advantage.

“Traditionally, vet practices have provided their emergency service by asking the day vets to be on-call overnight and attend any emergencies as needed. This can lead to vets being up most of the night and then having to complete another full day of work the next day.

“The new service means vets are fresh and focused having had a good night’s sleep.

“More importantly, pets have been cared for overnight by vets and nurses working a shift so they too are fresh and ready to attend emergencies and provide continuous monitoring for hospitalised pet patients.”