Livestock Medicine & Surgery

What to Expect at Your Appointment

Our goal is to offer you comprehensive veterinary medical care while providing instruction for our veterinary students, interns, and residents.

Your pet will be seen by a veterinary team with a great amount of collective knowledge and expertise, and you can be sure that our certified animal health technicians, veterinary interns, and veterinary students will provide 24-hour monitoring and care for your animal.

Most patients can expect the following when arriving for their appointment:
*Note: Please call if you have any questions about how to prepare your animal(s) for your appointment.

1. Check in at our large animal reception area.
2. You will be directed to the proper area to unload your animal(s).
3. A veterinary technician, intern, student, and/or veterinarian will greet you and assist in unloading your animal.
4. This team will discuss your animal’s history with you and consider courses of examination or treatment.
5. At this point, some clients choose to stay while their animal is treated, while others choose to drop their animal off and return after the examination and treatment.
6. Working together for safety, a student and an intern perform their work-up on the case, including a physical exam.
7. A veterinarian may complete a second exam and medical history in order to review what the student/intern team has found.
8. The veterinarian and student/intern team will discuss a plan for treatment.  They will present this to you and provide you with an official printed fee estimate.  The veterinarian will work with you to make decisions about treating your animal’s specific case.
9. You can drop off your animal or wait while the agreed upon diagnostics or treatments are performed.
10. Findings from these services are then discussed with you and, if appropriate, your animal will be discharged. In some cases your animal will be admitted and housed at our hospital for continued medical therapy.
11. At the time of dismissal, you will receive both oral and written discharge instructions.
12. If you have been referred by your regular veterinarian, he or she can be notified of the results of your appointment.  Just let us know!
13. You may have follow-up visits or phone/email consultations to check in on the status of your animal.