House call appointments are available 12:45-7:15 pm Monday through Thursday in Seattle only. Telemedicine appointments by text, email, phone, or video chat/Zoom are available once we’ve established care. Learn more about our services offered, and locations services are available. Contact Sea to Sky Holistic Vet or email SeatoSkyVet@gmail.com.
What to Expect During An Appointment
Sea to Sky Holistic Vet offers high quality personalized holistic veterinary care in the comfort of your home. It’s a totally different experience from going into a clinic. Home visits mean no more stressful car ride, no parking hassles, no more crowded waiting areas, no more repeating the same information to the receptionist and tech and finally seeing the vet for 5 minutes. No more scary exam tables and slippery floors; we’ll do the exam and treatment wherever your pet is most comfortable: in their bed, on the couch, on the floor or even outside if it’s a nice day.
This appointment is all about your pet and what we can do to optimize their health and well-being. There’s never any rush during the appointment; Dr. Aja will give you and your pet her undivided attention for the whole appointment. Dr. Aja wants to make sure that you understand what’s going on with your pet and what all the options are so you’re empowered to make the best possible decisions for them about their health and well-being, so we’ll spend a lot of the initial appointment talking about everything. Feel free to ask all the questions you’ve ever wanted to ask! Your pet will get a very thorough and comprehensive exam but since we’re doing it at home where they’re comfortable and it’s all combined with gentle massage and acupressure they’ll think it’s just a spa day.
The Initial Consultation is typically about 1.5-2.5 hours. We'll start by discussing your pet's medical and life history, current diet, exercise, and any current medications, herbs, or supplements, as well as any questions or concerns you have about your pet. If your pet has any previous diagnoses we’ll discuss those, all treatment options, and their pros and cons so you can feel confident making informed decisions based on your pet’s unique needs. Then Dr. Aja will do a comprehensive exam which includes a conventional Western medicine physical exam (eyes, ears, nose, teeth, gums, lymph nodes, heart, lungs, abdomen, skin and coat, neurologic function) as well as a Traditional Chinese Medicine exam (evaluation of pulse, tongue, assessment of personality, trigger points and alarm points), and a myofascial/spinal assessment and rehabilitation exam (analysis of posture, gait and movement, assessment of muscle condition/tension and assessment of all joints in the body). The exam is combined with massage, acupressure, and adjustments so if any issues like tight muscles or restricted joint movement are identified they’re immediately treated. We'll discuss the findings from the comprehensive examination of your pet as they’re found. Based on the exam findings, your pet's history, and our discussion of all treatment options we'll develop a comprehensive treatment plan tailored to the unique needs of your pet to optimize their health and wellness.
Massage, acupressure, trigger point therapy, and spinal adjustment treatments are all integrated into exam but depending on the personalized treatment plan for your pet we may do some additional treatments like acupuncture, laser therapy, aromatherapy, and rehabilitation exercises. We’ll also discuss recommendations for diet, exercise, and any medications, herbs, or supplements that would benefit your pet. Dr. Aja will show you some gentle, soothing, massage and stretching you can do for your pet. If rehabilitation exercises would benefit your pet Dr. Aja will also show you how to do some of these between appointments. Rehab exercises for you to do with your pet are always simple, fun for your pet, and quick and easy for you to do.
At the end of the appointment you’ll get a written summary emailed to you with everything we talked about for your animal including exam findings, any treatments done at the appointment, and our unique plan for your animal going forward to optimize their health and well-being. Depending on what we discussed for your pet you may also get more in-depth handouts emailed with information on things like allergies, how to create complete and balanced home made food for your pet, and options for managing anxiety.
Since every patient is unique the recommendations for how often to do follow up appointments depends on the unique needs of your pet. Follow ups can be in person or remote via email or video chat. Some people like to meet with Dr. Aja just once a year to get a comprehensive plan for their pet’s health and well-being which they can continue to follow. Some people like to have Dr. Aja come regularly for treatments and to help identify and treat any new issues quickly so we can keep everything working as well as possible. For most senior patients and patients with any mobility, back, disk, or joint issues it's typically best to do frequent in person follow ups (every 1-4 weeks) initially and then less often (every 2-12 weeks) for "maintenance". For some patients in person follow ups are only needed every 6-12 months after the initial appointment. For hospice and palliative care patients we may do in person appointments every 1-4 weeks and check in by email or video chat for remote follow ups in between.
In person Follow Up appointments are typically 30-60 minutes just depending on our discussion, the exam findings and if any treatments such as acupuncture, laser, massage, rehab, chiropractic, etc are appropriate for your animal. Remote Follow Up appointments are anywhere from 10-60 minutes just depending on the unique needs of you and your pet.
Once we've done an initial appointment either in person or by video chat and established a relationship I can offer telemedicine and remote consults by email, text, phone, or video chat (Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, etc) for all questions, clarifications, product evaluations, test interpretations, Quality of Life assessments you might have. I also offer a VIP subscription service which includes unlimited text and email consults. See the Telemedicine page for more information.
Pricing
Sea to Sky Holistic Vet is focused on providing exceptional holistic veterinary care through a variety of professional services that help you and your pet. Like other professional service providers such as lawyers, CPAs, engineers, and consultants we charge hourly for all professional services provided for you and your pet. There are additional charges for the house call for in person appointments and any herbs, supplements, products, or pharmaceuticals. The hourly charge includes all services during in person and telemedicine appointments and all services provided outside these appointments. Details are available here or by contacting us.