FAQ’s

What is involved in the costs of Veterinary care?

Like all medical care, veterinary care requires specialized equipment that is always evolving and improving. This is also true of medications and their research and development into new medications and therapies. Veterinary hospitals provide your pets the care they need from well-trained, certified and highly knowledgeable staff and doctors.

To help offset some of the costs involved with providing your pet the best quality veterinary care, we work with multiple companies who specialize in pet health insurance. Below is a list of some of the pet insurance companies that we have worked with. They would be able to help find a policy that would work best for you and your pet.

We also work with a third party financing company called Petcard that offers reasonable financing rates for veterinary care.

Fleas like to live in more mild climates, and so do we! Fleas are very common on Vancouver Island and can take up residence on your pet. All pets not on effective flea prevention can be at risk of a flea infestation. Fleas bite pets and will cause them to be itchy, some pets have allergies to their saliva and are very itchy. Fleas are stealthy and may be able to hide when we are simply checking the skin for them. There are many safe and effective types of flea prevention available as topicals, chews or tablets, such as: Bravecto, Advantage, Revolution and many, many more!

Just as humans require regular dental care, so do our pets. Plaque is a biofilm of bacteria that grows on teeth and only takes about 12 hours to form. Once this plaque has calcified it will form tartar or calculus on the tooth. It is the plaque and tartar that cause bad breath. Daily dental brushing is recommended with a pet friendly enzymatic toothpaste. A professional dental cleaning, done under anesthetic to allow for a thorough clean as well as addressing any problem teeth is recommended for most pets. We would love to talk to you about dental health!

Prior to any elective surgical procedure, we will do a preanesthetic exam and discuss the importance of pre-anesthetic blood work. Pre-anesthetic blood work allows us to assess the function of your pets’ internal organs and over all health. Blood work is generally recommended to have performed at least a few days prior to the procedure to allow time to discuss the results.

Anesthetic agents and medications have come a long way in the past few decades. Our medicines are much safer than they used to be and more and more studies are being done with veterinary patients in mind. Each patient is assessed for their health status and we create a protocol that is tailored for them and their needs. We are very conscious of pain during our procedure and use a multi-modal approach to our pain control for patients, meaning that you will likely have pain medications to go home with to continue giving your pet at home.

Unfortunately, we are not able to provide any diagnosis over the phone. The main reason for this is that our pets cannot speak and therefore require a physical examination in order to get to the bottom of what is going on. Sometimes, providing a diagnosis will require further tests to help find out what is going on.

Unfortunately, we are not able to provide medications without having a veterinary-patient-client-relationship in which we can properly assess and examine your pet and discuss what medications may be best for your pet, any adverse side effects, and what the goals of using the medications are. We want to keep in close touch with you and your pet while on any type of medications to ensure the progress is positive and achieving the results we were hoping for. This may mean follow up consultation visits are recommended.

Vaccinations will be asking your pets immune system to mount an immune response and create antibodies, which actually requires a lot of energy. An examination of your pet is required by the veterinarian in order to ensure that your pet is in a healthy condition to receive a vaccination. Certain conditions, such as infections, may cause us to discuss postponing vaccinations until your pet has recovered and has a healthy immune system again.

Medicine sometimes requires treatment trials or further testing in order to figure out what is going on and therefore how best to solve the problem. Sometimes this means that we need to work together for some time to get things just right for your pet. We always strive to provide the best care possible, as quick as possible for your pet but some medical cases are just a little bit trickier! If your pet is not better then give us a call and book a recheck.

Many chronic diseases will progress with time. These diseases may have underlying conditions that contribute to them or they may be the sequela of other issues. Treatments that have worked at other times may not work now or even be safe given the current health of your pet. For these reasons, a physical exam with your pet is needed to determine the best course of action for each medical issue as they arise. We will discuss different treatment options with you and together work towards ways to decrease flare ups of chronic issues or investigate underlying issues that may be present.

Certain over the counter anti-inflammatories such as Tylenol (acetaminophen) can be very toxic in some species! The veterinary approved pain medications have been rigorously tested and researched in our canine and feline patients to ensure their safety and efficacy. Many of the over the counter medications have very narrow safety margins in our veterinary patients, meaning overdoses can occur more easily or may not have very good efficacy. Every species metabolizes medications differently, which is why many of the human formulas are not recommended in our animal friends. Using a veterinary approved pain medication for your pets is recommended for these reasons.

We are fortunate in Nanaimo to have an emergency veterinary hospital in town. The Central Island Veterinary Emergency Hospital is located at 6550 Metral Drive, Nanaimo, BC V9T 2L8 and can be reached at 250-933-0913. We have a great working relationship with the emergency hospital and they will send us notice and medical records for your pet after their visit so we can be sure to follow up with you.