New Patients

Deposit – We require a $250 non-refundable deposit placed at the time of scheduling your appointment. This deposit will go toward the total cost of your appointment.

All appointments are billed hourly. We bill in 15-minute increments, so you will only be charged for the amount of time taken for each appointment. Your initial visit will be anywhere from an hour to two hours but typically averages about an hour and a half.

In-Person Appointments – $450/hour – As long as your pet is seen in-clinic initially, and then at least once per year, all appointments would be billed at $450/hour, whether they are done virtually or in person.

Out-of-Area Consulting Appointments – $525/hour – If you are unable to come to an in-person consult at our Portland location, we offer virtual-only appointments in collaboration with your primary veterinarian.

New Patient Case Review Fee – $225 – The New Patient Case Review fee is a one-time $225 fee that will be billed the day of your appointment and is for the time spent before your pet’s appointment, formulating a plan for the initial appointment and possible treatment options based on the information provided in your history form and your pet’s medical records. This fee is billed separately from the hourly rate.

Insurance – While some of our clients do have their appointments covered by their insurance providers, insurance coverage varies greatly depending on the specific plan and insurance company. To confirm whether our services would be covered by your specific plan, please reach out directly to your insurance provider. We don’t take insurance directly, so if our services are covered under your insurance plan, payment is due at the time of the appointment and you would need to submit for reimbursement.

During the assessment, your pet’s doctor will review pertinent medical and history details with you while observing your pet. This discussion will lead to possible treatment options and information specific to your pet’s diagnosis or behavior patterns. When applicable, recommendations for additional diagnostic testing (to be done either in the behavior clinic by your primary veterinarian) will be provided.

Most initial appointments will include a discussion of recommended treatments, starting with specific strategies that can be implemented right away, with the remainder of the comprehensive treatment plan being confirmed and covered in subsequent appointments as the clinician monitors how your pet responds to the initial recommendations. Your pet’s comprehensive treatment plan may include a combination of management and safety strategies, behavior modification exercises, the use of supportive therapies such as supplements, nutritional therapy, or prescription medications (when appropriate), or other training materials.

A written report detailing the doctor’s recommendations will be provided. Initial follow-up communication is included, and most clients will also utilize recheck appointments (30-75 min. on average, typically 10-12 weeks apart, $450/hour), as well as behavior modification support to help implement the training exercises in their pet’s plan.

Every pet and case is very different and the number of rechecks is entirely dependent on your goals, the behaviors at hand, etc. Many of our clients see the doctor for a recheck after about 3 to 6 months, with an average of about 2 to 4 rechecks per year, but this may vary. Rechecks are scheduled as frequently as you need our support!

Some problems can be solved quickly and efficiently and may not require any additional follow-up or recheck appointments. Other problems need to be tackled in stages and may require a longer period of treatment or perhaps one or more recheck appointments to address the problem. We are generally able to provide a better estimate of the number of visits that may be required for your pet after we complete the initial assessment.

*If you establish care in-clinic, follow ups can be done either by Zoom or in-clinic; we just require that your pet is seen at least once a year in-clinic. All appointments would be billed at $450/hour, whether they are in-person or virtual.

**If you establish care via virtual consulting, we require that your primary veterinarian signs our consulting veterinary relationship form, stating that they’re willing to assign any formal diagnoses and prescribe medication, if recommended for your case, so that we are all working within a valid Veterinary-Client-Patient-Relationship. For your primary veterinarian to sign this form, they have to have seen your pet for an in-person exam in the last year. All appointments would be billed at $525/hour.