Initial consultations are conducted by Dr. Stephanie Borns-Weil, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist. The consultation takes approximately 60 minutes. During the appointment, the doctor will discuss your pet’s behavior and overall health, observe your pet’s behavior, and provide treatment recommendations tailored to your pet’s needs. Treatment plans will include an estimate of the number of follow-up appointments likely to be needed. The price of a new client consultation is $468.
To book an appointment with the behavior service for your dog or cat please call us at (508) 887-4640 for details.
To book an appointment with the behavior service for your horse or another large animal, or for your exotic pet (minipig, bird, rabbit, etc.), please call us at (508) 887-4640 for details.
Your pet’s medical records are an essential part of the doctor’s evaluation of your pet. They provide us with information that allows us to rule out medical problems and avoid repetition of diagnostic testing. To have the records sent to the behavior service, you must contact your veterinarian and ask that they submit your pet’s record by
We recommend using the sample language in our records request form if you plan to email your veterinary clinic to request medical records for your pet's appointment.
Pictures and videos provide a window into your pet’s behavior in his regular environment or in the context where the problem occurs. You may submit them in advance of your appointment by emailing them to us, or if they are too large to be emailed, you may share them by emailing a link to your own YouTube or DropBox account. You may also bring them with you to the appointment.
Which videos or photos?
All involved family member(s) and anyone that will assist with your pet’s treatment plan if possible (e.g., dog trainer, extended family members that care for the pet, etc.). Children are most welcome.
Another pet may be brought to provide “moral support” for the patient.
If your pets are fighting, both pets should be scheduled and present for the consultation. If they cannot be together in the consultation room safely, they can take turns in the consultation room with us while the other is housed in a run in the hospital wards.
After the appointment, you will receive a written summary of the doctor’s treatment recommendations by email and the behavior service’s contact information. We are available by phone and email for urgent concerns, quick questions, and clarifications of the doctor’s treatment plan.
For revisions to the treatment plan or discussion of new behavior problems, clients are asked to book a brief or full telehealth or in-person follow-up appointment. We are committed to making sure that clients have ready access to follow-up appointments with minimal wait time.
We offer in-person follow-up appointments on-site at the Foster Hospital for Small Animals. In-person follow-up appointments are 45 minutes, and the fee is $248.
Telehealth follow-up appointments are available for patients that have been seen in the past 12 months. For quick check-ins, we offer brief (15-minute) Zoom appointments for $54. For more comprehensive discussions, we offer full (30-minute) Zoom appointments for $105.
Behavior service trainer Sandra Robbins, CVT VTS, CPDT-KSA, KPA-CTP, is available remotely for 30-minute training and behavior-modification appointments. The fees for training appointments are $56 for a 30-minute remote Zoom appointment.