We’ve found scheduled appointments allow us to give you the time and attention you and your pet need while maintaining our quality of care standards and keeping everyone’s waiting time to a minimum.
We see you and your pet by appointment only. We ask that you call us at (317) 852-3323 before bringing your pet to the clinic.
Wellness Visits
From the first puppy and kitten visits and continuing throughout your pet’s life, we recommend regularly-scheduled check-ups to keep vaccinations current and to detect any developing health problems early, when we have our best chances of successful treatment. For most adult dogs and cats, annual check-ups are in order. We may recommend twice-yearly wellness visits for older pets.
Sick Visits
We reserve appointments in our schedule every day to accommodate ill or injured patients as needed. If your pet gets sick or hurt, call the office to schedule the next available appointment or discuss other arrangements in the best interests of your pet.
Emergency Visits
Although we are essentially a primary care practice, we treat emergency cases when the need arises, provided we feel we are able to provide the care needed in a timely way. As a first step in arranging for emergency care, call the office to determine if we recommend bringing your pet to our clinic or directly to a dedicated emergency facility in our area.
Work-In Visits
If your pet is ill or injured, but stable, and we have no open appointments available, we may suggest you bring your pet to the clinic so that we can work a visit with you and your pet into our schedule. By calling first, you can determine if a work-in visit is an option that day and if it is, find out the best time to arrive. Wait times can be unpredictable, but we all do our best to see you as soon as possible.
Drop-Offs
As an alternative to a work-in visit, you may call the clinic to arrange to drop your pet off to be seen as soon as possible by one of our veterinarians. This option is only for pets whose medical needs are not urgent and is convenient for clients who have work or family obligations that prevent them from staying with the pet until a doctor is available.
Tech Visits
Our technicians are fully qualified to handle a number of routine procedures without the direct supervision of a veterinarian, including—
- Nail trims
- Anal gland expressions
- Suture removals
- Routine dental re-checks
- Blood draws
- Urine sample collections
- Re-application of ear medications
Our techs consult with a doctor if they observe any abnormalities or signs of infection in the patient during the procedures, but otherwise handle the appointment through to its conclusion. We recommend tech visits as a cost-efficient option when a doctor’s care is not indicated.
Patients who come into our clinic for a tech visit should be current on all recommended vaccines, including rabies, DHPP (distemper, hepatitis, parvovirus and parainfluenza) and bordetella.
Referrals
While we make every effort to provide the comprehensive veterinary care our clients request of us for their pets, from time to time, when we feel it is the best interests of the patient, we refer our clients to specialists and emergency clinics.
A referral may happen because we are committed to a full schedule of appointments and surgical procedures that day, or because the client contacts us so late in the afternoon that we know we won’t have adequate time to provide the needed diagnostics, treatment and observation before closing.
We also refer patients out if we think they will benefit from more specialized diagnostics and treatment than we offer as a primary care clinic.
We recommend always calling us before bringing your pet to the clinic to determine if you should come here or proceed directly to an emergency clinic.
Delays
On those rare occasions when we fall behind schedule because of an unexpectedly lengthy appointment or a medical emergency, we appreciate your patience and understanding.
If you have already arrived for your appointment, we’ll advise you of the estimated delay and if you’d like, reschedule your appointment. If you haven’t yet arrived, we’ll try to contact you by telephone and reschedule.
Cancellation and Late Policies
If your plans change and you find you are unable to keep a scheduled appointment, we greatly appreciate your calling us to let us know during our normal office hours at least 24 hours in advance.
If you are 10 or more minutes late to your scheduled appointment with the veterinarian, you will be asked to reschedule unless the appointment following yours is open. If your pet is acutely ill, we may offer the option of working you in following our next on-time appointment.
We allocate 15 minutes for each appointment with a technician. If you are more than 5 minutes late, we may try to work you in or we may ask you to reschedule, depending on the purpose of the appointment, our work load and how late it is in the day.
We may ask you to pay exam fees in advance before scheduling an appointment in the event of—
- Two documented no-call, no-show incidents for scheduled appointments within the previous 12 months
- Two documented late arrivals by 15 minutes or more, with no phone call advising of the delay, for scheduled appointments within the previous 12 months
- Two documented appointment cancellations on less than 24 hours’ notice within the previous 12 months
All prospective new clients are asked to pay exam fees in advance when scheduling their first appointments.