Question 1

Do you board pets ?

Accepted Answer

No. In exceptional circumstances we may agree to board a patient with a complex medical problem that is already under our care. This decision is made on a case by case basis. In general, your pet is likely to be more comfortable at home with a pet sitter or in a boarding kennel where (s)he is likely to get more exercise than in the hospital

Question 2

What animals do you treat?

Accepted Answer

Dogs and Cats only

Question 3

My pet is due for his annual vaccinations and deworming. Can you do that while he’s with you?

Accepted Answer

We don’t keep stock of routine health care medications like vaccines.  You need to see your GP vet for this.

Question 4

What information can you give me about pet insurance?

Accepted Answer

We can provide you with a list of pet insurance companies, their contact details and website addresses.

Question 5

Do I have to pay a deposit when my pet is hospitalized?

Accepted Answer

Yes please. We will give you a cost estimate before your pet is admitted. The balance needs to be paid on collection of your pet.

Question 6

Do you give a senior citizen’s discount?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately not, our prices are already as low as possible.  We are not able to give a further discount. If you have a specific budget that we need to stick to, be sure to tell us about this during the first appointment and we will see what tests we can prioritise.

Question 7

Do you take credit cards – if so which?

Accepted Answer

We accept all bank cards.

Question 8

Can I pay off my account?

Accepted Answer

No, unfortunately we are not a licensed credit provider and do not run accounts. We do however have facilities for credit cards and debit card payments

Question 9

We have an emergency. Can we come straight away?

Accepted Answer

In principle, yes. PLEASE DO PHONE AHEAD so we can reschedule other appointments to accommodate your emergency. This allows us to focus our full attention on the emergency case. If we have an idea what the problem is, we can also start preparing drips, blood transfusions etc before the patient arrives.  If we haven’t seen this particular pet before we will definitely need to speak with your normal vet as well – as soon as possible.

Question 10

Can I bring my pet without an appointment?

Accepted Answer

We advise against this. Our appointments are usually about 1 hour long. We encourage you to make an appointment because we will see clients that do have appointments first. If you arrive without one, you may have to wait several hours to be seen.

Question 11

What is a referral hospital?

Accepted Answer

This means that our patients are usually referred to us by other vets.
Dr Böhm is a specialist like your physician in a human hospital.  Physicians are the detectives of the veterinary world. They find the underlying problem in complex / rare diseases. Animals are referred for 2 main reasons
-      the primary vet has been unable to diagnose the problem
-      the patient needs a procedure that your vet can’t offer eg an ECG or a cardiac ultrasound examination. 
Referrals are received from 17 practices in PE and also as far as from Mosselbay, Queenstown and East London.

Question 12

Must all patients be referred by a Vet?

Accepted Answer

We do prefer referrals, yes. If your pet has a problem that falls within Dr Böhm’s area of expertise you may refer yourself (effectively come to see us for a 2nd opinion), but we will need to contact your GP vet to ask for the pet’s history.  This is a legal requirement and cannot be avoided. The law is there to protect your pet – it makes sure that all the vets treating your pet know exactly what the other one is doing / has prescribed so conflicting medication is avoided. It also prevents us repeating tests unnecessarily. We will gladly contact your Vet on your behalf.

Frequently asked questions