Behavior
What Is A Veterinary Behaviorist?
A veterinary behaviorist is a doctor who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of behavior problems in pets. The importance of dogs and cats and other small companion animals as pets has made their misbehavior the focus of many veterinary behaviorists. A veterinary behaviorist must always consider the possibility of underlying medical illness in the evaluation of any patient. Medical problems almost always have behavioral consequences, but not every behavior change is due to a medical illness. For example, a dog or cat with inflammation or infection of the urinary tract may develop house soiling problems, but not every pet with house soiling has underlying urinary tract disease.
The specialty of veterinary behavior is the equivalent of psychiatry, and veterinary behaviorists are the equivalent of cat or dog psychiatrists. Veterinary behaviorists, like psychiatrists, use behavior modification techniques, lifestyle change, and psychoactive medication as appropriate to each case. Psychoactive medications are sometimes used to complement other treatment recommendations, although these may not be necessary if the pet responds to behavioral and environmental changes.
Veterinary behavior is a board-certified specialty that requires many years of training and clinical experience. It goes far above and beyond basic obedience training. There are many nonprofessionals who claim to be experts in the field, but they cannot compare to the expertise of a veterinary behaviorist. For example, dog trainers and dog whisperers may be well qualified to teach obedience or agility training. In contrast, a veterinary behaviorist might include specific application of obedience skills in a treatment program designed to curb aggressive behavior.
In this example, it is essential to first define the type of aggression that is the problem and make an outline of specific steps to resolve it, with or without psychoactive medication. Only veterinary behaviorists are trained to provide you with the correct diagnosis and state of the art treatment of your pet's behavior problem.
Your general practitioner veterinarian can diagnose and treat many routine behavior problems, however, many behavior issues require the care of a doctor who has had specialized, intensive training in veterinary behavior in order to provide the very best outcome for your pet. The treatment of behavior cases require a very careful accounting of the pet's past history, medical and behavioral, as well as his or her current lifestyle. It is important to really understand your pet's emotional and psychological needs and deficits in order to gain insight into the solutions to the issues that concern you.
By delaying a consultation with a veterinary behaviorist for your misbehaving pet, you may become even more frustrated and fall further out of love with your pet. A veterinary behaviorist is trained to save the relationship you once enjoyed with your pet and improve the quality of both of your lives.
Why Does My Pet Need A Veterinary Behaviorist?
While your general practitioner veterinarian can handle many aspects of your pet's care, just as in human medicine, sometimes there is a need for the attention of a specialist. If your pet has a complicated or difficult behavior problem, your pet may need the care of a veterinary behaviorist. Your veterinarian knows when to refer you and your pet for more specialized diagnostic work or treatment, and cares enough to ensure your pet receives the highest standard of care by referring you to see a veterinary behaviorist.
While in some cases, your veterinarian may be able to simply consult with a veterinary behavior specialist about your pet's care, in other cases it is necessary to actually refer you and your pet to the specialist for more advanced diagnostics and treatment. Ask your veterinarian for help or for a referral to a veterinary behaviorist!
Will My Regular Veterinarian Still Be Involved?
Your veterinary behaviorist will advise your veterinarian of any recommended treatment and your veterinarian will continue to be involved as part of your pet's total veterinary health care team. Your general practitioner veterinarian will still oversee all aspects of your pet's care, but with the added, specialized input of a veterinary behaviorist. For example, if a veterinary behaviorist discovers that your pet has thyroid disease, this clinical diagnosis is relayed immediately to your general practitioner veterinarian, who will treat your pet's thyroid disease. The veterinary behaviorist will also give you a treatment plan to follow that will help to resolve the behavioral problems your pet exhibited that were associated with the discovered medical condition.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What Specialized Training Does A Veterinary Behaviorist Have?
Just like a psychiatrist, veterinarians who specialize in veterinary behavior acquire additional, intensive training to become a specialist. Prestigious specialty status is granted by the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (ACVB). There are only a few dozen veterinary specialists in all of North America. A veterinarian who has received this specialty status will list the initials DACVB (Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists) after his or her veterinary degree. The word �Diplomate� typically means the specialist has achieved the following:
� Obtained a traditional 8-year veterinary degree (four years of college plus four years of veterinary school).
� Usually has completed a one-year internship in small animal medicine and surgery.
� Completed an additional residency in veterinary behavior at a university veterinary hospital.
� Completed the credentialing application process established by the ACVB, which includes publishing credits, case reports, and a resume.
� Passed a rigorous, 20 hour written examination conducted over 2 days.
After completing and passing all of the above, his or her peers recognize the veterinarian as a board certified specialist in veterinary behavior. As you can see, when your pet needs the specialized care of a veterinary behaviorist, the intensive training and additional education will provide you and your pet with the best treatment and the greatest chance of successfully resolving the behavior problem you are trying to overcome. Forming a team with an experienced veterinary behaviorist is the best way to deal with a misbehaving pet.
- What Special Problems Does A Veterinary Behaviorist Treat?
Routine behavior problems can frequently be handled by your general practitioner veterinarian. The conditions listed below, however, frequently require the attention of a specialist.
� House soiling or house training problems
� Litter box refusal or rejection
� Destructiveness
� Aggressiveness toward people, including children
� Aggressive conflicts between housemates
� Nipping and unruly puppies or kittens
� Difficulties introducing new pets
� Separation anxiety syndrome
� Fears and phobias
� Compulsive behaviors
� Seizure-related behavior problems
� Geriatric behavior problems in aging cats and dogs
- Will My Regular Veterinarian Still Be Involved?
Your veterinary behaviorist will advise your veterinarian of any recommended treatment and your veterinarian will continue to be involved as part of your pet's total veterinary health care team. Your general practitioner veterinarian will still oversee all aspects of your pet's care, but with the added, specialized input of a veterinary behaviorist. For example, if a veterinary behaviorist discovers that your pet has thyroid disease, this clinical diagnosis is relayed immediately to your general practitioner veterinarian, who will treat your pet's thyroid disease. The veterinary behaviorist will also give you a treatment plan to follow that will help to resolve the behavioral problems your pet exhibited that were associated with the discovered medical condition.
- What Do I Bring to My Referral Appointment?
Be sure to bring any relevant medical records or information to your first appointment. Your veterinary behaviorist may require copies of any recent medical tests, imaging studies, x-rays, or laboratory panels. You also can do your part to maximize your pet's recovery by strictly adhering to the recommendations of your veterinary team for the scheduling of any follow up appointments.
- Did You Know?
� Crate training a puppy or dog is not the same as house training? Crate confinement should be viewed as DAMAGE CONTROL; it restricts a pet's movements when you are unavailable to supervise him or her. Dogs may not be able to control their urges to urinate or defecate for prolonged periods and if they are confined to a crate, they may soil themselves. NEVER punish a pet for a house soiling accident anywhere in your home.
� Cats can have Separation Anxiety? We've known for a long time that dogs suffer when separated from a preferred companion, but we now understand that many cats do too. The most common signs of SAS (Separation Anxiety Syndrome) in pet cats and dogs are house soiling, destructiveness, and excessive vocalization like meowing or barking. Pets with SAS misbehave because of real distress, not out of maliciousness or revenge. If your pet is showing any of these signs of anxiety or agitation when you leave home, for example, please understand that he is really asking for help.
- How is the VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital different from other specialty hospitals?
Welcome to VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital. If you are new to our hospital, I hope your experience will be as pleasant as possible and we hope that we can live up to your expectations. If you are returning, we are pleased that you have once again chosen our hospital to help meet your pet's health care needs. In order to improve our service, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a little about our hospital, how it functions and how we can both work to provide your pet with the best care possible. VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital is one of the largest private small animal hospitals in the country. We have referral hospital for veterinarians in Southern California and we are a teaching hospital providing post-graduate education for veterinarians. We have a professional staff of over 25 veterinarians including specialists in such disciplines as internal medicine, surgery, oncology, radiation therapy, dermatology, ophthalmology, radiology, and cardiology. Specialists are available 7-days-a-week on an appointment basis. One advantage of a large hospital like VCA WLA is that all cases receive the benefit of input from a number of veterinarians all of whom lend their special expertise to the problem at hand.We are open 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week, 365 days of the year to provide comprehensive care. However there are instances when waiting times to see a doctor may be long depending on the time of day and the number of emergencies that are being handled. To avoid unnecessary delays, especially if you don't have a medical emergency, you may wish to call ahead to determine if there is a wait to see a doctor or to schedule an appointment with one of our staff doctors at a time convenient to you.
VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital has one of the largest graduate teaching programs in the country through our internship and residency programs. Interns and residents are graduate veterinarians who are seeking to obtain additional supervised training and expertise in a facility such as ours where the caseload and the availability of specialists ensures an excellent teaching environment. Competition for these positions is intense and those selected are amongst the brightest in their class.
Having a sick or injured pet can be very stressful and we will work to help alleviate your concerns while we tend to the needs of your pet. In order to help improve our service, we do wish to remind you of a few items that should help. First, if you need to obtain a prescription refill please let us know 24 hours in advance. All prescription refills must be approved by a doctor. We need this time to obtain approval and have your prescription available. Secondly, when your pet is hospitalized, the attending doctor will be calling to give you an update after 11 a.m. in the morning. Prior to 11 a.m., your doctor will be in rounds where all the hospitalized cases are discussed amongst our medical and surgical staff and unless there is an emergency, your doctor will not be able to take your phone calls until this time. This allows us to obtain a wide range of opinions regarding your pet's condition, and obtain the input from all the specialists on duty that day. We work as a team, which helps in providing more complete medical care. Of course, we do have visiting hours every evening from 7 to 8 p.m. so that you can visit with your pet, talk face to face with the attending doctor, and help in the healing process. Lastly, if your pet is being admitted in the morning for an elective procedure (simple mass excisions, endoscopy, etc.) your pet should be able to go home the same evening between the hours of 7-10:30 p.m. This helps us ensure that your pet has completely recovered from anesthesia and is ready to return home after evening rounds have been completed. It is possible that on rare occasions, elective procedures may be performed later in the day or even postponed until the following day if unforeseen emergencies arise which demand our immediate attention. We will always place the medical needs of a patient above those of a schedule and if we need to unexpectedly change you pet's procedure date or time we will be sure to notify you as soon as we are aware of the situation.
We are primarily concerned about your pet's health and will do our best to provide the best health care possible. This of course involves a fee and at times veterinary bills can seem quite expensive. At first this may be hard to understand but the reality is that veterinary medicine is not all that different from human medicine. Veterinarians spend as much time as physicians in school and veterinarians can provide many if not all of the services that would be available to you or I in a human hospital. Our veterinary facility is also unique in many respects. Our hospital is quite large. We employ over 30 doctors and over 150 technicians, front office and housekeeping staff. VCA WLA also has a large specialty staff and a great deal of sophisticated equipment, which helps us to provide the best care possible. Lastly, we are open 24-hours-a-day, with doctors and technicians always available to see any emergencies as they arise and to monitor those pets that are hospitalized. We will do our best to provide you with written initial estimates and to keep you updated on a daily basis on the status of your account when your pet is hospitalized. It is expected that 100 % of the estimate will be left as a deposit when your pet is admitted (not necessary for routine or elective procedures) and that the balance will be paid in full at the time of discharge. While we do not offer payment plans we can offer you a financing plan through CareCredit. Again our front office staff can help you with these arrangements.
Of course, the buck stops here. If you have any comments/suggestions/complaints or praise, I am always available. I can promise that I will listen to all of your concerns and compliments as we are always looking to improve our service and patient care. Feel free to call (310-473-2951) or fax (310-477-7412) and I will get back to you as soon as possible. You may also e-mail me at David.Bruyette@vcamail.com. I would like to thank you again for selecting VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital and I hope that both you and your pet have a pleasant experience.
Sincerely, David Bruyette, DVM
Medical Director
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine
