THE DES MOINES RING · CENTRAL & SOUTHERN IOWA
Vets near Des Moines
Ten practices, all of them checked against their own website. The four below say on their own site that somebody is there overnight — three of them for dogs and cats, and one country mixed practice that keeps a barn and a 24-hour number. Everything else on this page is daylight work and waits under it.
If it's an emergency, call before you drive.
“The Emergency department at Iowa Veterinary Specialties provides care to animals in need 24/7. Day or night, our dedicated team of skilled emergency veterinarians and technicians are always ready to provide expert care.”
24/7 · THEIR WORDS SOURCE · iowaveterinaryspecialties.com“Emergency services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
24/7/365 · TEACHING HOSPITALWHAT THAT LINE COVERSWe read it off their small-animal emergency page. The Large Animal Hospital is a separate service on the same campus — it treats “cattle, small ruminants, camelids and swine” plus horses — and their site does not put overnight hours on it. Call the number and say what you have on the trailer.
SOURCE · vetmed.iastate.edu · and their field-services page“…No appointment needed, walk in 24/7 – VEG is always open.”
24/7 WALK-IN · THEIR WORDS SOURCE · veg.com“Our Clinic Hours: 7 AM - 5:30 PM Monday through Friday, 7 AM - noon Saturday, CLOSED Sunday. Veterinary Emergency services 24 HOURS A DAY CALL 515-462-3200”
24 HOURS · MIXED PRACTICE · FARM CALLSWHAT THEY KEEP FOR LIVESTOCK“For our large animal clients, we carry a variety of supplies for cattle, horses, sheep, llamas, alpacas, goats and hogs. We provide services in our separate barn area... Our veterinarians also make farm calls.”
SOURCE · cedarcreekanimalclinic.com · and their about page. They do not publish a street address; we print the town they gave.Large animal
& mixed practice
In here because the practice's own website says it treats cattle, horses, sheep or goats. A clinic that only mentions dogs and cats is not in this lane no matter how good it is. This is corn-and-cattle country and it shows — eight of the ten.
A mixed practice with its own barn. “For our large animal clients, we carry a variety of supplies for cattle, horses, sheep, llamas, alpacas, goats and hogs. We provide services in our separate barn area... Our veterinarians also make farm calls.”
Our Clinic Hours: 7 AM - 5:30 PM Monday through Friday, 7 AM - noon Saturday, CLOSED Sunday. Veterinary Emergency services 24 HOURS A DAY CALL 515-462-3200
SOURCE · cedarcreekanimalclinic.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
The large-animal page lists “Farm Calls, Cattle Processing, Pregnancy Checking, Vaccinations, Parasite Prevention, Deworming... Emergencies for established clients”. The surgery list runs to “Ceasarian sections on cattle, swine, sheep, and goats”, “Cryptorchid castration on show lambs” and “Urethral surgery for water belly in cattle and goats”.
Monday – Friday 8:00am-5:00pm; Saturday 8:00am-12:00pm
SOURCE · fairviewjefferson.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
“a full-service mixed animal practice... We treat small animals, livestock, horses, and more.” On the big stock they add “Large animal and surgeries are done by appointment.” Their after-hours line is for their own clients — “WE OFFER AFTER-HOURS CARE FOR OUR CLIENTS If you have an emergency, please call 515-961-6201 and leave a message” — which is a message left, not a lit hospital, so they are not in the overnight lane. Nothing on the site about driving out or about goats.
Office Hours: Mon - Fri: 8am - 5pm, Sat: 7:30am - 2:00pm, Sunday: closed. Doctor Hours: Mon - Fri: 8am - 4:30pm, Sat: 7:30am - 1:00pm.
SOURCE · indianolavetclinic.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
The teaching hospital, and the deepest bench in the ring. The Large Animal Hospital treats “cattle, small ruminants, camelids and swine” plus horses, and Food Animal and Camelid Field Services “provides individual animal and herd health veterinary care for beef, dairy, swine, sheep, goats, and camelids (alpacas and llamas).”
Emergency services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
SOURCE · vetmed.iastate.edu · and their emergency page · checked 9 Aug 2026
“a mixed animal practice in Southern Iowa, meeting the needs of pets, livestock & horses.” Livestock work runs to “Pre-conditioning (vaccinations, deworming, castration, dehorning, etc.), Pregnancy diagnosis (manual or ultrasound)” and “Obstetrical Services (c-sections, difficult births, correcting prolapses).” No farm-call claim and no goat claim on the site, so this lane is the only one they are in.
Monday - Friday: 8 AM - 5 PM; Saturday: 8 AM - 12 PM
SOURCE · osceolavetclinic.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
Out at the north edge of the ring, and about as plain as a claim gets: “Herd health, reproduction services, and on-farm care for cattle, swine, horses, goats, and sheep across central Iowa.”
Monday – Friday: 8:00am – 5:00pm; Saturday: 9:00am – 12:00pm; Sunday: CLOSED
SOURCE · steckelbergvetclinic.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
“Whether it's cattle, sheep, goats, swine, llamas, alpacas, or the occasional large exotic animal”. They run “In-clinic and on-farm services”. The emergency line on their own site reads “24/7 Emergency Services for Current Clients” — their clients, so we did not put them in the overnight lane.
Monday - Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm; Saturday: 8:00 am - 12:00 pm; Sunday: Closed
SOURCE · tricovet.net · checked 9 Aug 2026
The practice “was established in 1981 as a mixed animal practice” offering “veterinary services for all large and small animals both on the farm and in the clinic.” The large-animal list carries “Breeding Soundness Exam”, “Herd Health Management”, “Large Animal Surgery”, “Equine Health Programs” and “Swine Health Consulting/Blood Testing”. No goat and no poultry anywhere on the site.
Monday – Friday 7:30 – 5:30, Saturday 7:30 – Noon
SOURCE · wintersetvet.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
The other half of the same errand
The vet is one number. The farms near Des Moines keep this book honest.
Tramel Farms keeps the sister book — the working farms, stands and homesteads on this same ring. Same rule about not making things up, different page. The people on that page are the ones calling the numbers on this one, and when they tell us a number has changed, it changes.
SAME RING · SAME COUNTIES · DIFFERENT BOOK
The Des Moines ring on the Almanac ↗Poultry
& goats
The hardest lane to fill honestly. A practice is in here only if its own site names chickens, goats or both. “Exotics” alone does not count, and neither does a photo of a hen.
Goats are on the supply list for the barn: “For our large animal clients, we carry a variety of supplies for cattle, horses, sheep, llamas, alpacas, goats and hogs.” Goats only — nothing on the site about chickens.
Our Clinic Hours: 7 AM - 5:30 PM Monday through Friday, 7 AM - noon Saturday, CLOSED Sunday. Veterinary Emergency services 24 HOURS A DAY CALL 515-462-3200
SOURCE · cedarcreekanimalclinic.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
Goats turn up twice on the surgery list, which is about as specific as this lane ever gets: “Ceasarian sections on cattle, swine, sheep, and goats” and “Urethral surgery for water belly in cattle and goats”. Goats only — no chicken claim on the site.
Monday – Friday 8:00am-5:00pm; Saturday 8:00am-12:00pm
SOURCE · fairviewjefferson.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
The field service names them straight out: “provides individual animal and herd health veterinary care for beef, dairy, swine, sheep, goats, and camelids (alpacas and llamas).” Goats only — the field-services page says nothing about poultry.
Emergency services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
SOURCE · vetmed.iastate.edu · checked 9 Aug 2026
“Herd health, reproduction services, and on-farm care for cattle, swine, horses, goats, and sheep across central Iowa.” Goats named, and named on the farm-call sentence, which is the pair a goat keeper actually wants.
Monday – Friday: 8:00am – 5:00pm; Saturday: 9:00am – 12:00pm; Sunday: CLOSED
SOURCE · steckelbergvetclinic.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
“Whether it's cattle, sheep, goats, swine, llamas, alpacas, or the occasional large exotic animal”. The “large exotic” is theirs and we are not reading poultry into it — goats are the claim on this page.
Monday - Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm; Saturday: 8:00 am - 12:00 pm; Sunday: Closed
SOURCE · tricovet.net · checked 9 Aug 2026
POULTRY, SPECIFICALLY — NONE
All five above name goats on their own website. Not one of the ten practices in this ring names chickens, hens or poultry anywhere on its site — not the country mixed practices, not the teaching hospital, not the emergency rooms. That is the whole finding for the Des Moines ring: if you keep a flock in central Iowa, nobody here has put it in writing yet, and we are not going to pad the lane by guessing which of them would take a hen if you asked. Call and ask, and if one of them says yes, tell us and we will read it off their site the day they publish it.
Farm call
They come to you, and their own site says so. Where the site puts a limit on it — a mileage ring, a home county, a preference for hauling in — the limit is printed with the listing instead of being smoothed over.
“Farm calls are available for those who would rather care for their animals at home.” Plainly stated, no qualifier on the page, and it is the only farm call in this ring that comes attached to a 24-hour number.
Our Clinic Hours: 7 AM - 5:30 PM Monday through Friday, 7 AM - noon Saturday, CLOSED Sunday. Veterinary Emergency services 24 HOURS A DAY CALL 515-462-3200
SOURCE · cedarcreekanimalclinic.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
“Farm Calls” heads their own list of large-animal services, ahead of “Cattle Processing, Pregnancy Checking, Vaccinations, Parasite Prevention, Deworming”. The client rule on that list — “Emergencies for established clients” — is a limit on their emergencies, not on the farm call, so it is not marked here.
Monday – Friday 8:00am-5:00pm; Saturday 8:00am-12:00pm
SOURCE · fairviewjefferson.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
Food Animal and Camelid Field Services “provides on-farm services to livestock producers in the general Ames area”, and covers “beef, dairy, swine, sheep, goats, and camelids (alpacas and llamas).” The territory is their own words and it is the whole qualifier: Ames is at the north end of this ring, so measure the drive before you count on them coming south.
Emergency services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
SOURCE · vetmed.iastate.edu/vmc/large-animal/veterinary-field-services · checked 9 Aug 2026
“Herd health, reproduction services, and on-farm care for cattle, swine, horses, goats, and sheep across central Iowa.” On-farm care and the territory in one sentence, with no condition hung on either.
Monday – Friday: 8:00am – 5:00pm; Saturday: 9:00am – 12:00pm; Sunday: CLOSED
SOURCE · steckelbergvetclinic.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
They will come, and they say plainly they would rather you came to them: “Haul-In Facilities & On-Farm Services... If transporting your animals isn't practical or safe, we also provide on-farm visits”. Printed the way they wrote it — the haul-in comes first in their own sentence, so it comes first here.
Monday - Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm; Saturday: 8:00 am - 12:00 pm; Sunday: Closed
SOURCE · tricovet.net · checked 9 Aug 2026
They call it “Farm Ambulatory Service”, and the practice offers “veterinary services for all large and small animals both on the farm and in the clinic.” No mileage ring and no client rule attached to either sentence.
Monday – Friday 7:30 – 5:30, Saturday 7:30 – Noon
SOURCE · wintersetvet.com · checked 9 Aug 2026
How this page was made
Checked 9 August 2026 · 10 practicesTheir site or nothing
Every name, number, address, hour and overnight claim on this page was read off the practice's own website on 9 August 2026. No Yelp, no map cards, no directory scrapes. Where a practice does not publish a thing — Cedar Creek's street address, for one — the line says so instead of filling in.
Overnight means overnight
Two more practices here say something about after hours. Indianola's is “WE OFFER AFTER-HOURS CARE FOR OUR CLIENTS”, with a message to leave; Tri-County's is “24/7 Emergency Services for Current Clients”. Both are for their own clients, and neither is a lit hospital at 2 a.m., so neither is in the top band. If you already doctor with them, call them anyway.
No status lights, no stars
Hours are quoted, never rendered as “open now” — the day a clinic closes early is exactly the day a status light gets you killed on the drive. No ratings, no reviews, no sponsored placements, no affiliate links. Order is by lane and species, then alphabetical.