Emergency
Puget Sound Veterinary Specialty and Emergency offers 24/7 emergency services to pets in the Gig Harbor area when your veterinarian is not available to provide time-sensitive and lifesaving procedures.
Having an emergency?
Call Us: (253) 400-5052
Location: 6565 Kimball Drive, Gig Harbor, WA 98335
What to Expect
The emergency veterinary team is readily accessible around the clock, ensuring that your pet receives the vital attention it requires during times of urgency. We are here to assist you if your primary care veterinarian is unavailable or closed. To prioritize cases effectively, we employ a triage system where more critical situations are given precedence over stable ones.
We encounter a wide range of conditions, including but not limited to:
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Lameness
- Skin or ear infections
- Difficulty urinating
- Weakness or fatigue
- Eye emergencies such as squinting, redness, discharge, or trauma
- Respiratory emergencies requiring immediate treatment
- Traumatic injuries such as fractures, bite wounds, burns, lacerations, and motor vehicle accidents
- Metabolic emergencies
- Wound management
- Administration of blood component therapy and monitoring of anticoagulation
- Post-surgical critical care monitoring and support
- Treatment of life-threatening neurologic disorders like loss of balance, seizures, or circling behavior
- Provision of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
- Treatment of congestive heart failure
- Continuous cardiac monitoring through electrocardiography (EKG)
- Advanced fluid therapy
- Treatment of toxicities
- Plus many more conditions and services!
Our experienced team is equipped to handle a wide variety of medical situations and will provide comprehensive care to address the needs of your beloved pet.
What does an Emergency Veterinarian do?
Being an emergency veterinarian requires great courage and resilience. The schedules of these dedicated professionals are frequently filled with unpredictable chaos, making every day in the emergency room a unique experience. They possess remarkable composure amidst high-pressure scenarios and demonstrate exceptional adaptability. While pet owners may experience stress and feelings of being overwhelmed in such situations, they can find solace in the compassionate support provided by the emergency department at Puget Sound Veterinary Specialty & Emergency during these challenging times.
Dr. Garrett Ballou, DVM
Emergency Department Medical Director
Dr. Garrett Ballou was born in Oak Harbor, WA and raised by a military family. He graduated veterinary school from Washington State University in 2018. He has always had a love for animals big and small, but dogs, cats, and horses are his favorites. His professional interests include soft tissue surgery, emergency medicine, and pain management.
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Garrett spends most of his free time playing golf or findings ways to sit down as little as possible. He and his wife, a classmate from veterinary school, are owned by three cats and a dog, Tika, Touka, Tako, and Nyah.
Dr. Robin Reese, DVM
Emergency Veterinarian
Dr. Reese was born and raised in Olympia, with many siblings, horses, cows, pigs, many cats and dogs and of course, gerbils, hamsters and guinea pigs. She graduated from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in 2003, after earning a B.A. in English Literature with an emphasis on Jacobean Drama, and has been practicing strictly emergency medicine for over 16 years.
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She and her 3 children love travel, skiing and hiking. In addition to her young kids, she has 3 dogs, 4 cats and a tortoise.
Dr. Anne-Marie Lewis, DVM
Emergency Veterinarian
Originally from California, Dr. Lewis discovered her passion for veterinary medicine early on, assisting with large animal farm calls at 13 years old. She earned her undergraduate degree in International Relations from Duke University before pursuing her DVM at Ross University. Dr. Lewis has a special interest in soft tissue surgery, wound care, and intensive care. She is deeply committed to helping pets heal from illness and injury, combining strong clinical skills with compassionate, individualized care.
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When she’s not working, Dr. Lewis enjoys spending time outdoors with her family and her two-year-old Labrador Retriever, a proud Career Change dog from Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Dr. Kelly White, DVM
Emergency Veterinarian
Dr. White comes to Puget Sound Veterinary Specialty and Emergency with 20 years of experience and enjoys all aspects of emergency medicine. She finds soft tissue emergency surgeries especially rewarding, particularly GI surgeries, C-sections, splenectomies, GDV, and wound repairs. Dr. White also enjoys volunteer veterinary work and has participated in spay/neuter campaigns in Guam, Palau, The Cook Islands, and Bora Bora.
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Zoey, the family dog, is a rescued Italian greyhound who, at the age of 12, still sneaks food and chews up paper and socks whenever she can. Away from the ER, Dr. White and her family enjoy traveling, skiing, hiking, climbing, and other adventurous outdoor activities.
Dr. Tiffany McElroy, DVM
Emergency Veterinarian
Dr. McElroy grew up in Chehalis WA. She attended St. Georges University in Grenada for her veterinary degree. Dr. McElroy started her career as a dairy veterinarian in California. Where she quickly found a love for all things emergency. After 3 grueling years she transitioned to small animal emergency medicine to continue to pursue her love for the job. Her major interests are patient care, client education and internal medicine.
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On her days off she spends time in the outdoors, hiking, fishing and running with her 2 dogs Fenrir and Millie. She has a special interest in gardening and trying to convince her husband they should get a chicken coop.
Dr. Hannah Selvey, DVM
Emergency Veterinarian
Dr. Selvey was born in Queens, New York, but grew up in the Carolinas, completing a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of South Carolina in 2015. An interest in comparative mammalian anatomy led her to complete research projects on lemur skulls from international natural history museum collections, earning her Master’s degree from CU Boulder in 2018. Dr. Selvey graduated from Colorado State University with her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine in 2024, and sustains professional interests in diagnostic imaging and soft tissue surgery. Dr. Selvey enjoys rock climbing, board games, and spending time with her partner John and dog Zelda.
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Dr. Selvey is keen to work alongside specialists while maintaining the option of performing soft tissue surgery on an emergency basis.
Dr. Charlotte Whittaker, DVM
Emergency Veterinarian
Dr. Charlotte Whittaker, originally from England, moved to the U.S. during high school. She fell in love with the country and decided to stay. During her undergraduate studies in Animal Science she joined the Army National Guard as a medic and enjoyed serving her country through domestic deployments.
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She attended Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine where she discovered a love of surgery and in her free time enjoys painting and sketching. She has two wonderful kitties named Angel and Chloe who follow her everywhere and a guinea pig named Squeakachu.
Dr. Blair Burggren, DVM
Emergency Veterinarian
Dr. Burggren was born in Canada and raised in the US, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. He completed a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Veterinary Science in 2000, then a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) in 2003, both from Washington State University. He currently holds veterinary licenses in WA, OR, CA, NY and TX. He has worked with companion, farm, exotic animals and wildlife, private, corporate, general, urgent care, emergency, and multi-specialty referral practices, animal rescues, farm animal sanctuaries, and with the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association (WSVMA) as an executive board member. He will be joining our Emergency Department as a part-time relief veterinarian.
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Outside of work, Dr. Burggren enjoys travel, gardening, brewing kombucha, plant-based cooking, virtual reality gaming, towing and camping in his Airstream trailer, and volunteering with animal rescues and farm animal sanctuaries.