Clinic Policies

New Client Reservation Deposit

Due to the significantly increased number of no shows and last minute appointment cancellations we are experiencing, we will be taking a "new client reservation deposit" of $30 for regular visits or 1/2 of the estimated cost for surgical or procedural visits. This deposit will be taken over the phone at time of appointment scheduling and will apply to the total cost of the visit, but is non-refundable with a no show or a cancellation less than than 24 hours prior to the appointment. We regret that we need to implement this system, but every no show and last minute cancellation means that another pet who needed care could have been scheduled in that spot. Thank you for your understanding!

Appointment Policies

At TLC Animal Care, we understand that sometimes you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment due to an emergency, illness, or other extenuating circumstance. However, when you do not call in advance to cancel your appointment you may be preventing another pet from getting much needed treatment. This is especially true with surgical appointments. Surgical appointments take up a large amount of time and resources, and no-shows or last minute cancellations are detrimental to our team, our other clients, our patients, and our carefully scheduled work-flow.

We ask that you give us a call a minimum of 24 hours prior to your appointment when you are planning to cancel or reschedule. This helps our team plan accordingly to accommodate other pets who may be on our waiting list, and prevents us from worrying about you and trying to reach you if you don’t show up for your appointment! As a courtesy, we provide reminder e-mails before your appointment. Our late arrival, cancellation, and no-show policies are as follows.

Late Arrival Policy:

We make every effort to run our daily schedule as close to on time as possible. Our schedule is carefully orchestrated to provide efficient and thorough care for all of our patients who need it on any given day. Unfortunately, when even one patient arrives late, it can throw the entire schedule off. In addition, rushing appointments shortchanges all of the patients and contributes to decreased quality of care overall. Therefore, a client that arrives 10 minutes or more late to a scheduled appointment will be rescheduled. If you are running late and know you will arrive more than 10 minutes after your scheduled appointment, please call us anyway. There is a chance that we can rearrange a little with enough of a “heads up,” but more than likely your appointment will still need to be rescheduled. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.

Cancellation of an Appointment:

In order to be respectful of the medical needs of other patients, please be courteous and call our office promptly if you are unable to show up for an appointment. If it is necessary to cancel your scheduled appointment, we ask that you call at least 24 hours in advance. Appointments are in high demand, and your early cancellation will allow another patient access to timely veterinary care.

No-Show Appointment:

A “no-show” designation will be applied if an appointment is not cancelled via phone at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled appointment time. This will be recorded in the patient’s record as a “no show.”

The first time there is a “no show”, we will contact you to inform you of the missed appointment and remind you of our “no show” policy. There is no fee for the first “no show” appointment, and a deposit will not be required to reschedule.

A 2nd no-show occurrence within one calendar year will result in a $55 no-show fee for a missed exam appointment, or a $75 no-show fee if the missed appointment was for a surgical procedure, anesthetic procedure, blood draw, or for radiographs. At this point we will reschedule the appointment, but we will require a pre-paid deposit of the of the exam fee for exam appointments, or in the case of a surgical procedure, anesthetic procedure, blood draw, or radiology appointment, we will require a deposit of 1/2 of the estimated cost of the procedure. This fee will be applied against the final bill at time of service.

A 3rd no-show occurrence within one calendar year will result in forfeit of the appointment deposit, and you may be discharged from the clinic as a client.

We wish we didn’t have to implement these types of policies, but we appreciate your understanding and support as we do our best to provide quality care to all of our patients who need it!

TLC Animal Care Code of Conduct and Expectations

TLC Animal Care seeks to continually provide a welcoming and safe environment. We focus on upholding the Veterinary Client Patient Relationship (VCPR), which is based entirely in trust. Our clients can trust us to treat our clients, patients, and each other with respect and kindness. We ask that our clients treat us similarly in return. In this way we can maintain a VCPR that we can all be proud of. We will not accept the following behaviors:

Verbal abuse, malicious threats, profanity, harassment, or other forms of disrespect directed toward our doctors, staff, or other clients
Abuse of animals
Discriminatory comments, whether in person, in writing, or online
Online bullying, harassment, or intimidation of TLC doctors and staff
Pets that are not under client control and are allowed to intimidate or attempt to harm doctors, staff, other pets or fellow clients
Aggressive pets that are unable to be handled safely with the use of medications and/or properly applied safety devices such as muzzles and cat bags
Suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol or behavior-altering drugs
Failure to comply with requests of our staff, including leashing/restraining your pet

In the event that your behavior is problematic, we reserve the right to discontinue services immediately. This policy is strictly enforced and non-compliance will result in corrective measures being taken, which may include being asked to leave the property and the possible involvement of law-enforcement. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding!

Please note that for the safety of our patients, clients, and staff, we require all pets to be properly and safely restrained on clinic property. All cats must arrive in a carrier or on a well fitted harness. All dogs must be leashed or contained in a safe carrier. Retractable leashes must be kept on a short setting. If you need to borrow a leash or a carrier, please just let us know, we will be more than happy to help you out! If your dog is aggressive or fearful, give us a heads up so we can help make the appointment more comfortable for everyone.