Cancellations
We understand that circumstances may arise that may prevent your keeping your appointments. In the event that you need to cancel your pet’s appointment, we ask that you notify us at least 24 hours in advance, if possible. There is no fee to cancel your appointment. When you do not call to cancel an appointment, you may be preventing another patient from receiving much needed treatment.

Tardiness
We understand that delays can happen, however we must try to keep the veterinarian and other patients on time. If you arrive 10 minutes past your scheduled time the appointment is considered an overbooking and there is an additional fee applied to the exam. Appointments that arrive 15 minutes past their scheduled time may be asked to reschedule if the veterinarian’s schedule cannot accommodate. 

No Show
When you schedule an appointment and fail to show or notify us of your inability to keep this appointment time, it impacts our ability to schedule other patients that may need to be seen. If a client has 2 or more “no shows” we may elect to no longer reserve appointments, no longer provide care to that client’s pets, or charge a non-refundable deposit prior to scheduling an appointment.

Any procedures that requires anesthesia (soft tissue surgeries, dental procedures) are scheduled Monday through Thursday, with a scheduled drop off time between 8am to 8:30am. Your specific drop off time will be determined at the time of scheduling.

If you are a new client or the pet has not been examined in over a year, an exam is required before scheduling any anesthetic procedure. Dental procedures require an examine to be performed within 6 months before scheduling the procedure. All pets MUST be up to date on all core vaccines and annual wellness exam. For canine patients we require a current rabies and DHPP vaccinations. For feline patients we require a current rabies and FVRCP vaccinations. All pets must be free from external parasites. Any pet found to be carrying fleas upon admittance to the hospital will be treated at an additional expense.

All patients that undergo anesthesia are required to have lab work performed within 30 days of the procedure. The type of panel that the pet needs is determined by the doctor, if your pet has had recent lab work at another hospital we can forward the results to the doctor to see if they are acceptable for the procedure.

The night prior to the procedure, your pet should not receive any food after 9:00pm. Water is acceptable. Your pet should also not have any food the morning of the procedure.

On the day of surgery, your pet will be at our hospital majority of the day and will be monitored to ensure that the recovery process is safe and comfortable. After the procedure the doctor will call with an update and to schedule a pick up time. During the time of pick up a technician or assistant will go over discharge instructions and any medications with you. You will also receive either an email or paper copy of the instructions.

DENTAL PROCEDURES: If the doctor is unable to reach you during the dental they will not proceed with extractions due to extended anesthetic time. This is regardless of whether or not extractions have been discussed at a prior appointment. Contact information will be confirmed at time of drop to ensure we have the best number to reach you at.

If your pet is on medications please consult with the doctor to advise whether they should be given the morning of the procedure.

Pets may be sent home with a small bandage on their front or hind leg. This bandage is similar to a band-aid and is used to prevent bleeding after removal of an IV catheter. If your pet is sent home with a bandage, please remove it once you arrive home (about 20 minutes after leaving our hospital).

Procedures that are cancelled less than 24 hours prior to the appointment will require a $200 deposit to reschedule.

Payment is due in full at the time services are rendered. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer payment plans to our clients. Acceptable payment methods include Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Care Credit, American Express, Zelle, ApplePay, and Scratch Pay.  We do not accept checks or cash.

Dispensing Medicatons
As directed by law a veterinarian can only dispense/prescribe medication to those patients that have a current veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR), this requires examination of the patient annually. It is illegal to dispense medications to patients that have not been seen by the veterinarian, regardless if the patient has a written prescription from another clinic/veterinarian. We are able to prescribe and dispense medications only for our current patients.

Third Party Pharmacies
Effective immediately we will no longer be accepting requests from third party pharmacies which includes Chewy, 1800PetMeds, Amazon, and more. If you chose to use a third party pharmacy we will provide you with a written prescription which can be submitted to the pharmacy of your choice. The written prescription(s) can be picked up from our hospital.

We have several reasons for this policy change:

• We believe in safe products. There may be a significant percentage of online medications that may not be safe. Many online pharmacies are selling products that the manufacturer has not sold directly to them. Some medications may even be counterfeits which can be dangerous to our pets. They may not have been stored properly or even near or exceeding expiration. These products may then be ineffective or dangerous to our pets.
• We have found numerous issues with medications filled by third party pharmacies. There have been times where they fill the incorrect dosage or the incorrect drug. We have also found third party pharmacies filling drugs that were not approved by a veterinarian.
• It is taking away from patient time. Online pharmacies send us requests to approve a prescription and they often send it multiple times daily via fax, email, and sometimes even phone calls. Their fax machines sometimes do not work when we send in approved prescriptions nor do they process our approvals when we call them directly to their pharmacist. Many online pharmacies will request refills from us when the owner has not. All of this requires more staff time reviewing patient charts and less time treating our patients. It also leads to frustration for you and us when a prescription is not filled quickly due to all the extra steps involved.
• Dosing Safety. We are not able to track refills well which leads to patient safety concerns.

We do caution you to be wary of where you order from online, as pharmaceutical products may be marketed through third-party sites and unverified vendors. In order to ensure that you receive the proper prescription for your pet, we strongly advise ordering directly from
our online pharmacy or from a reputable local pharmacy, such as Walgreens, CVS, or Costco.

Evanston Animal Hospital seeks to continually provide a welcoming and safe environment which ensures trust and respect for all people and pets. Our hospital has a zero-tolerance policy for offensive, rude or belligerent behavior from clients towards any members of our staff. Any type of verbal abuse or hostile language will not be tolerated. Those that choose not to respect our boundaries or make our staff feel unsafe or uncomfortable will have their pet’s care transferred to another veterinary hospital of their choice. Evanston Animal Hospital has a duty to ensure the safety, emotional well-being and welfare of our team. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone at any time.

We appreciate your kindness, compassion and support as our team strive to do the best they can to care for you and your pet. In return, you can expect the same fair treatment and level of care and empathy from our team.

Although we are currently accepting new clients at this time, availability for new clients will be limited as we prioritize appointment slots for established clients. Appointments for new clients are often booking about 2 to 3 months out.

• We do not offer urgent care appointments to new clients. Clients that do not have a patient with an established veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) will be referred to one of the local urgent care or emergency facilities.
• We do not offer domestic or international health certificates to new clients. Health certificate exams are only available for established patients that have at least 1 year of a current veterinarian-client-patient relationship at our hospital.
• New clients must register online and a customer service representative will reach out by email within 72hrs to help assist scheduling an appointment.
• We require a full exam deposit for all new clients which will be applied to your first visit. This deposit must be submitted at the time of scheduling the appointment, if we have not received a deposit the appointment will be released to the next patient. This protocol is in place due to frequent no call no shows that we have unfortunately experienced from new clients. Deposits are non-refundable unless appointment is cancelled at least 24hrs in advanced.
• We do not give price quotes over the phone. Estimates for services can be provided at the time of exam.
• To register, please fill out our new client registration form: https://evanstonanimalhospital.com/2023-register/

If your pet needs medical attention right away please contact one of the local emergency clinics.