Safety Steps To Take Before Your Behavior Appointment
At Veterinary Behavior Consultants, we strive to have clients seen as soon as possible for a behavioral consultation with their pet, but because many of our clients are in similar situations and may have waited a number of days for their appointment, we are unable to displace clients who already have scheduled appointments. Due to the length of the appointments (2-3 hrs) the doctor can only see a small number of new clients per week compared to a general veterinary practice and the behavior service is often booked 1-3 weeks in advance depending on how flexible the pet owner's schedule can be. The following steps may be helpful to ensure the safety of your family and your pet until your appointment time.

1). CONSULT YOUR FAMILY VETERINARIAN
If you have not already consulted with your family veterinarian, you should do so. Be sure that your veterinarian feels that you have a behavioral, not medical problem and has examined your pet and run any laboratory tests he/she feels appropriate for the behavioral condition your pet is having. In some cases your family veterinarian may be able to prescribe a tranquilizer temporarily for the pet if he or she feels it would be indicated depending on nature of problem. **Please note, only your family veterinarian can legally prescribe medications prior to a behavior appointment. Dr. Melese cannot prescribe medications or other specific treatment for an animal he has not examined.** Although the specialist typically is not able to speak directly to the pet owner prior to the behavioral appointment, if your primary veterinarian wishes to briefly consult Dr. Melese about what he/she may wish to do with your pet while waiting for the specialty appointment, your regular doctor may contact our office.

2). CHANGE THE PET'S ENVIRONMENT
When your pet is causing destruction to the home or a danger to people or pets living there, it is often helpful to get the animal out of the environment where the behavior is occurring. This may mean boarding your pet at a boarding facility or at your veterinarian's hospital if appropriate, at least until your behavior appointment. In some cases owners can safely confine their pet in a cage, run or part of the home until your appointment. Depending on your case, your regular veterinarian may suggest that you keep your dog muzzled in certain situations, at least until your case can be seen by Veterinary Behavior Consultants.

4). KEEP PETS THAT ARE FIGHTING SEPARATED
If your pets are fighting separate them as much as possible by keeping them in separate parts of the home or by boarding one or more of the animals at a kennel or your veterinarian's hospital.

5). USE GOOD COMMON SENSE.
Most behavior problems are long-standing and chronic conditions and owner can often simply avoid the circumstances where the problems are likely to occur at least until the behavior appointment. This can go a long way to helping you cope as you wait for your appointment with a board-certified veterinary behaviorist.