Treating patients in their own comfortable environment helps to reduce stress. House calls are convenient for large dogs that do not travel well or are not able to get in the car easily due to musculoskeletal or neurological disease. Cats that are fractious at any veterinary facility or stress too much when traveling can benefit from a home visit.

Make sure you have a current copy of your cat/dog/horse’s medical record, with copy of laboratory work and radiographs (for dogs and cats) at the time of my first visit. For horses, make sure you have a copy or name of the exact conditions your horse is seen for. Have your primary care veterinarian’s phone number handy in case more information is needed.

IMPORTANT: For horses, make sure they are not exercised the day of the scheduled appointment. An acupuncture examination is better on a cold horse. There must always be someone available to hold the horse during the visit. Since some animals can be sore for several days after treatment, you will be told to slightly exercise the horse one or two days after treatment. Since this applies for dogs and cats also, I recommend not to start acupuncture treatment on a show animal the day before an event.