Tried to schedule a behavior vet appointment…they said it’d be $900 for 1 office visit

[proguarda1]

$900 for 1 visit. Additionally $125 extra for a virtual 60 minute medical assistant appointment prior to the vet visit so that the vet has our history. Off the bat, almost $1K. Any follow ups are additional. If we want to train with one their behaviorists, $375 an hour. Who can afford this?! And this is coming from a double income, no kids yuppie household. Just wtf.

 

[oldwoodsman]

@proguarda1 You can try to find a different veterinary behaviorist at https://www.dacvb.org/ . There may be others that are more affordable.

 

[mollym8505]

@proguarda1 Are you in NYC? We are going through the same thing with those same prices. Our dog is fear reactive towards people though so we decided to just pull the trigger and go for it despite the ungodly cost. I can post back at the end of July after we finish with the vet appointment to let you know how it goes.

 

[proguarda1]

@mollym8505 We are! Omg if you can report back and tell us how the experience was/if it was worth it, I’d be so grateful.

 

[txlove]

@proguarda1 Yeah everything is twice as expensive there.... Try a virtual consult or be willing to travel.

 

[davidans]

@proguarda1 I know there is a vet behaviorist in CT that does virtual visits....

 

[cc11]

@davidans I went to the dacvb diplomate behaviorist in CT. Drove up from NYC. Hated her. Felt like she was trying to trigger my dog and felt like she hated my dog because he was a mixed breed. She was basically like “what’d ya expect?”. We went to her and agreed with some of what she said, but felt like she was attempting to bilk us into signing up for recurring treatments with her low-paid understudies. We never went back.

 

[believer86]

@cc11 I think I had a virtual consult with the person you are talking about. 0/10 do not recommend.

 

[chiemadec]

@believer86 I did one in southern CA. It was horrible. I should have vetted her website better.

 

[christian4obama]

@chiemadec May I ask for the name? Live in southern CA and would like to avoid if possible

 

[chiemadec]

@christian4obama the vet is the only one in orange county. We ended up using one in Portland, OR virtually. The team made recc to my vet. I made sure this time it aligned with positive reinforcement etc.

 

[amylou1003]

@chiemadec The one in Portland was able to do all visits virtually? Would you mind sharing their info? How is your dog now?

 

[chiemadec]

@amylou1003 It is with Dr. Valli Parthasarathy at Synergy Behavior. She helped titrate the medications. She and the staff were very positive and encouraging. Since they were out of state, they make reccs to the local vet. Our vet prescribed the medications. However for training, we used Gabrielle Johnson at Best Life Dog Services online in Richmond, VA. PM if you have any questions. Dog is a lot better. He went going over threshold to everything to now making human friends (we were able to do nose work class, barn hunt, dog group class and a group dog hike. We still have stuff to work on but it's more manageable than before). PM if you have any questions.

 

[manystyles7]

@mollym8505 If you are able to travel, we see Dr Borns-Weil at Tufts in MA. She is EXCELLENT. We needed to do one consult in person and did virtual visits for the remainder of the year. Initial consult I believe was around $500 and virtual follow ups are around $100. You do need to see her again in person after a year, though, but I don't think it's as much as the initial consult (our one year visit is in August this year).

 

[proguarda1]

@manystyles7 I’m originally from the area so we go to Boston often. I’ll see if I can make that happen. Thank you for the rec!!

 

[dfw69]

@mollym8505 I’ve been working with a behavior vet in NYC for about eight months now. Super expensive, but I have to say, it’s made a world of difference for us. Between putting our dog on reconcile and working with one of their virtual trainers, we’ve seen enormous progress with our fear reactive dog.

 

[azmom81]

@mollym8505 Whatever happened ??

 

[zmcarter]

@mollym8505 @mollym8505 how did it go? was it worth going with them? i'm looking into them as well.

 

[mollym8505]

@zmcarter Sorry just now seeing this. So far it’s okay.. hella expensive but our vet Dr. Spano is really nice. The first drug we started our dog on made his reactivity worse, and this second drug hasn’t had an effect and it’s been a little over a month. We have a follow up appointment Monday so I’m going to try to see if we can switch to a third drug. Otherwise If nothing helps him I’d rather have him drug free.