What to Expect
Visiting the Clinic with Your Pet
Regular appointments are 30 minutes in length to allow for sufficient time to examine your pet, make recommendations, to perform diagnostic tests, and plan your pet’s treatments with you. After your clinic visits, you may expect to receive follow up calls to assess your pet’s response to treatment and to make sure that we are all on the same page. We also want to ascertain progress and to advise you of any changes in the treatment strategy or the need for further testing or treatment. Most visits are outpatient and often are wellness visits, however, some pets that are not feeling well may require further testing and may be admitted for observation, hospitalization, or even intensive hospitalization.
Regarding treatments: An estimate of diagnostic and treatment costs will be provided to assist you with budgeting. Treatments may be conducted on an outpatient basis or the plan may involve an inpatient stay. Pet patients are discharged when further hospitalization is no longer necessary and you are comfortable overseeing your pet’s further recovery. Re-checks and re-evaluations are scheduled at check-out. If the doctor feels that your pet might benefit from an alternative treatment approach, he will recommend and discuss that option. If he believes that a specialist would best serve your pet’s needs, he will recommend one or several to you. In addition, we are always open to learning about new medications, treatments, and technologies that will benefit our patients and improve our veterinary care.
For surgical and dental procedures, appropriate pre-operative assessments are completed a few days prior to the scheduled procedure in most cases. Regarding more typical outpatient office visits, we routinely see and treat eye, ear, dental, and skin problems.
We stock most of the medicines that are used for common medical conditions as well as heartworm preventatives and FDA-approved flea/tick medications. For your convenience, we also make available an internet pharmacy called VetSource, which is directly partnered with legitimate veterinary vendors. (See VetSource link on the home page.)
No matter what level of care your pet needs, we will always strive to give you practical and understandable advice to help you determine how to best care for your pet. We have staff members who are skilled at guiding you through the various treatment options and other issues involving your pet’s care, including behavioral issues.