Upon referral from your primary veterinarian, a thorough evaluation will be performed at your pet’s initial visit. We understand your concerns for your pet’s well-being and want to ensure that all concerns are addressed during your initial evaluation. As a result, this appointment will be significantly different than any other veterinary appointment that you will have likely experienced.
We truly believe that you will be happy with our care for your pet’s rehabilitation therapy and fitness needs and we look forward to seeing you soon. We have provided our client history form for your convenience. For referring veterinarians, we ask that you complete the referring veterinarian patient form. If you are experiencing difficulties with the fillable form, please print it out, fill it in as completely as you can, and bring it with you to your first appointment. Contact us with any questions or to make an appointment.
What Should I Expect During My Pet’s Initial Evaluation?
An in-depth discussion with you is an essential part of this evaluation process in order to determine your overall expectations and therapy goals for your pet. This initial session generally takes up to 90 minutes. This time is scheduled with our rehabilitation certified veterinarian and also a rehabilitation trained licensed veterinary technician so that we can identify your pet’s problem areas and any compensatory issues that may also be present. Once the evaluation is complete, an individualized rehabilitation program will be developed to fit the specific needs and ultimate goals of each patient.
Our initial evaluation will begin with review of your pet’s complete medical history, video of gait and analysis of weight bearing while standing using our stance analyzer. During your pet’s comprehensive physical examination, special attention will be paid to orthopedic, arthritic, neurologic considerations along with assessment of myofascial/muscular pain, spinal motion and also compensatory issues that your pet may be hiding. Additionally, measurements of muscle mass and joint range of motion (also called goniometry) will be performed so that these parameters can be used for comparisons at later visits. This probably sounds like a lot, but this allows us to develop an individualized therapy program for your pet with you as the center of the rehabilitation team. Ultimately, the best physical health of your pet is our goal and this is what sets Pawsitive Steps Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine apart from other practices.
Because of the comprehensive approach what we take with your pet’s physical health, it is important for us to invest our time in your pet’s care. We offer no general medicine services at Pawsitive Steps Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine – our staff is here exclusively to provide rehabilitation therapy and pain management services for our patients. However, we also request that our clients respect our time equally. It is not uncommon for our schedule to fill up quickly and sometimes we may have a waiting list for particular times of day. We kindly request all of our clients to provide at least 48 hour notice for rescheduling of any appointments, so that we might have the opportunity to offer that time to another individual for their pet. Without advanced notice, it is impossible in many cases to fill vacancies in our schedule. Out of courtesy to all of our clients, we appreciate adherence to this policy. Repeat cancellations and no shows will require us to ask clients to prepay for services.