By Dr. Ezra Ameis, DVM
The cases that stick with you aren’t always the most dramatic. Sometimes they’re the quiet ones. The ones that felt routine—until they weren’t.
About a decade ago, when I was working emergency nights in New York, a golden retriever named Sadie came in. She was sweet and gentle, the kind of dog that makes eye contact with you and then leans in. She wasn’t acutely ill—just a little lethargic, a couple of vomiting episodes. Her exam was unremarkable. Her owner asked, “Is bloodwork really necessary?” And in that moment, wanting to be reassuring, I told him she’d likely be fine if we just treated her symptomatically. I wanted to convey confidence in a case that I felt I had seen so many times before and 99% of the time they just return to normal.
She didn’t. A week later, she was back—pale, weak, and in crisis. The owner hesitated to come back in because he was afraid to jump the gun on paying a recheck exam fee. We ran labs and discovered severe immune-mediated anemia. I admitted her immediately, gave her transfusions, and did everything I could. We lost her the next day.
I’ve seen more dramatic emergencies, but that one never left me. It changed how I think about veterinary medicine.
The ER Trains You to Think Backward
Emergency medicine teaches you to solve puzzles after they’ve already exploded. You trace the damage backward—how long was this going on? What signals were missed? What could’ve been caught earlier?
And the truth is, many veterinary emergencies aren’t sudden. They’re the end result of a slow, silent decline. The body compensates for weeks, months, sometimes longer—until it can’t anymore.
That’s why I built my hospital to focus just as much on prevention as on rescue.
When I Opened Paw Priority, I Knew I Had to Build Something Different
I still see urgent cases every day—limping dogs, vomiting cats, late-night phone calls, the usual West Hollywood mix of exotic diets and adventurous dogs. But at Paw Priority, we now do something I wish I’d had more of in emergency: routine, proactive screening tests.
I’m talking about bloodwork, urinalysis, and radiographs. The kind of diagnostics that don’t always feel urgent in the moment—but can change a pet’s whole trajectory when they reveal something early.
When clients ask why we offer these tests even when their pet “seems fine,” I explain it this way: Animals don’t raise their hand when something’s wrong. They hide discomfort. They adapt. By the time they show signs, they’re often already in trouble.
Membership Means You Don’t Have to Hesitate
One of the hardest things in medicine is when a pet clearly needs care—but the owner hesitates. Not because they don’t love their animal, but because they’re weighing the cost of a visit. That pause can cost time, comfort, and sometimes lives.
Membership changes that. It turns veterinary care into something predictable and accessible. You don’t have to wonder, “Is this worth an exam fee?”—you just come in. That kind of freedom makes it easier to catch small issues early, address concerns before they snowball, and truly partner in your pet’s health.
Because good medicine isn’t just about what we can do. It’s about being able to do it when it matters most.
Prevention is Quiet, But It Saves Lives
Routine diagnostics are how we peek under the hood before the check engine light comes on. For example:
Bloodwork tells us how the liver, kidneys, and pancreas are functioning. It shows red and white blood cell counts, and early signs of infection, inflammation, or organ stress.
Urinalysis detects urinary infections, crystals, and kidney dysfunction—sometimes before there’s ever a single accident or symptom.
X-rays reveal things even a good physical exam can miss: heart enlargement, early tumors, bladder stones, arthritis, GI obstructions.
And perhaps most important: these tests are most effective before your pet looks sick. That’s when we have options. That’s when treatment can be simple, affordable, and gentle.
Why I Created VIPP
They’re not insurance. They’re not corporate subscription gimmicks. They’re veterinary wellness memberships—created to give families an affordable, high-quality way to stay proactive with their pet’s health.
VIPP includes unlimited in-person exams and a free recheck within 14 days for each medical issue. You never have to second-guess whether it’s “worth it” to come in. If something’s off, just show up. We’ll take a look.
VIPP+ includes everything in the membership plan, plus full diagnostics: a senior wellness blood panel, urinalysis, and chest and abdominal radiographs with interpretation every year.
I designed these plans after treating thousands of pets, and after seeing too many arrive at the ER with problems that could’ve been caught months earlier.
This Isn’t a Corporate Plan. It’s a Doctor’s Plan.
You’ve probably heard of Modern Animal and other membership-based vet clinics. They’re sleek, digital, and appealing in the way startups often are. But they’re also built from a different lens: convenience-first, app-heavy, often with rotating doctors you’ll never meet twice.
Paw Priority is different. I designed these plans from the doctor’s side of the table, not the business side. I built them to provide real value, not just access.
Here’s what that means:
We don’t cap your interactions, surprise you with exam fees or push non-essential procedures.
We include rechecks—because that’s good medicine.
We bundle diagnostics, because they’re the best chance to intervene early.
Most importantly: you’ll see the same team each time. You’ll know your vet. We’ll know your pet.
Why Now?
Because pets are living longer. Because the cost of care is rising. Because too many people delay visits until things are dire.
And because there’s a better way.
The VIPP membership plans are designed to make that better way simple, affordable, and sustainable—for you, and for us.
They’re not a magic fix. But they’re a way to replace fear with certainty. To swap 4 a.m. emergencies for 4 p.m. checkups. To catch things before they catch you off guard.
What I’ve Learned
When you practice long enough, you stop worrying about sounding “pushy” when you recommend bloodwork or an x-ray. You’ve seen too much.
I’d rather explain a normal result than miss a chance to catch something early.
I’d rather see your pet twice a year for routine exams than once in crisis.
I’d rather walk you through prevention than rush you through goodbye.
That’s why I built these plans. That’s why I believe in them. And that’s why I hope you’ll ask us about VIPP the next time you’re in the clinic.
Dr. Ezra Ameis is an emergency veterinarian and the owner of Paw Priority in West Hollywood, a clinic providing general practice, urgent care, and acupuncture. To suggest a topic or ask a pet-related question, email hello@pp.vet.