OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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Your initial appointment will take at least two hours. However, be prepared to spend a half to a full day at the hospital. It takes time to arrive at a specific diagnosis and to discuss treatment options. Some diagnostic testing may be able to be performed on the same day as your initial appointment, but this is not always possible. As we are a teaching hospital and a specialty service the cases we see often require advanced diagnostics and specialized care.
During your first visit we will discuss any recommended follow up appointment. You will receive a Visit summary with information about your pet’s diagnosis, treatment, and any other relevant information.
The VTH operates similarly to human hospitals-with separate specialty services such as anesthesia and radiology. Additionally, the OVDL (Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory) services all areas of the hospital, including large animal, which is partly why bloodwork and cytology results can take several hours to get back.
A teaching hospital serves to train professional veterinary students, interns and residents in clinical practice by immersing them in the hospital environment. As such, you will interact with veterinary clinical students, interns and residents much as you would at a human teaching hospital. Below is an overview of who will take care of your pet while at the hospital. Because the VTH is a teaching hospital the faculty, house officers, and students rotate on and off clinics. Therefore, it is not always possible to see the same doctors for follow-up appointments.
For new appointments, you will meet with 4th year veterinary student, and a house officer (intern or resident in training). For recheck appointments and CBC only visits, you will work with a nurse or a student. However, at each appointment more oncology team members will be involved in your pet’s care, but you may not meet them directly.
Definitions of a veterinary specialist, resident, and intern:
Veterinary specialist; Veterinarians have completed a professional degree program, followed by a set of licensing examinations, in order to practice veterinary medicine. This training gives veterinarians a license to practice all types of medicine and surgery on any non-human animal. However, it is difficult to maintain expertise on every aspect of medicine. Specialists concentrate on a single area and become true experts. To become a specialist, it is not enough to simply restrict practice and education to a single area. Specialists are recognized after completing a rigorous four to five years of internship and residency training after they earn a veterinary degree. They must also successfully complete a number of additional credentialing steps and examinations. These specialists are said to be “board certified” or diplomates of a given specialty organization.
Resident: Residents are licensed veterinarians who are pursuing additional training in a specific field of specialty medicine, with the goal of becoming a board-certified specialist. Typically, these residents will have already completed not only their veterinary degree, but also a year or two of internship training, and perhaps time in private practice as well. At the end of their residency program, these veterinarians will take stringent examinations to demonstrate their expertise in their chosen field, eventually becoming a board-certified specialist.
Intern: Interns are licensed veterinarians who are pursuing an additional year of training after earning their doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) degree. These doctors are learning about a select segment of veterinary care in more depth than is possible during four years of a professional veterinary curriculum. Although interns are legally allowed to perform any and all duties of a veterinarian, interns at the teaching hospital manage clinical cases under the close supervision of faculty, specialty veterinarians.
Students: Veterinary students are accepted into the rigorous academic program after completing time in an undergraduate college program, often earning a bachelor’s degree or even a master’s degree. During the final year and a half in the program, the students move from the classroom to the teaching hospital. Here, they work with faculty veterinarians to put into practice what they have learned. Student veterinarians never perform any procedure on any animal until the supervising faculty veterinarian is convinced they can perform the procedure safely, and then only under close supervision.
Our veterinary students are among the best trained in the world thanks to your willingness to let them interact with you and your pet. During your appointment, a student will escort you and your companion to an examination room to obtain a history of your pet’s condition and perform a physical examination. The student will review your pet’s history and exam findings with the clinician, who will then re-examine your pet to confirm the findings before having a discussion with you about various options. We understand that this makes your appointment slightly longer than if you were to go to a private referral practice. However, as one of our missions is to train tomorrow’s veterinarians, we appreciate your patience and understanding.
House officer: A House officer is a resident or intern veterinarian who is receiving further training, usually in a medical or surgical specialty, while caring for patients under the direction of an attending physician.
Veterinary technicians: Veterinary technicians are essentially the registered nurses of veterinary medicine and surgery. Our hospital employs professional, licensed veterinary technicians who have attended a technical program or college. Many have earned bachelor’s degrees in addition to having passed a professional licensing examination.
The fee for the initial consultation with the oncology service is approximately $200-$250. There are additional costs associated with emergencies. A typical staging visit includes evaluating for the extent of disease (which can include radiographs (X-rays), ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) +/- aspiration of the mass or lymph nodes) can range from $1000-$2000. If additional diagnostics are recommended, costs may be higher. Treatment costs vary widely. We are unfortunately unable to provide cost estimates for chemotherapy without an initial consultation to establish care. At the time of the initial consultation, we will provide owners with an estimate of prognosis and explain both curative-intent and palliative care options. Owners can expect a discussion of side effects as well as cost estimates for any therapies recommended during this initial consultation.
Frequent lab work is necessary for any pet on chemotherapy. A specific recheck schedule will be discussed with you once a treatment plan is elected.
You have the option to have blood work performed at your regular veterinary office either pre- or post-chemotherapy. If the blood work is performed prior to a dose of chemotherapy it needs to be performed within 24-48 hours of your pet’s chemotherapy appointment, all blood needs to be obtained through jugular venipuncture only (unless otherwise specified), and the results need to be faxed to the OSU oncology service for review. Benefits of having the blood work performed with your regular veterinarian are: 1) it can expedite chemotherapy appointments as we do not need to wait for blood work results to give chemotherapy; 2) it can alert your doctor if your pet’s blood values are too low for treatment, this can allow you the opportunity to reschedule the appointment before driving to the OSU VTH; and 3) it keeps your regular veterinarian involved in the care and treatment of your pet.
If you have blood work performed at your regular veterinary office prior to a chemotherapy appointment with OSU, we must receive the results at our clinic by 4pm in order to ensure we can review the blood work prior to the next day. Blood work received after 4pm may not be able to be reviewed until the next business day morning.
Clients who need medication refills must allow us 48 hours (during regular business days) to refill or call in a prescription to a compounding or general pharmacy.
Some general pharmacies will not fill all veterinary prescriptions. We will make a recommendation of where to fill a prescription, however if you request a specific pharmacy we will only attempt to call in that prescription one time. If the general pharmacy rejects our prescription, we will ask that you fill that prescription at our recommended site. We will not call multiple pharmacies to check on drug prices.
Clinical trials explore whether a medical strategy, treatment, or device is safe and effective for patients. Our clinical trials follow strict scientific standards set by the IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) which are defined through state and federal law to protect patients and help produce reliable study results. It is important for owners to know their pet’s involvement makes a difference in the advancement of medical knowledge, and the data from their pets’ involvement will live on to support future veterinary patients.
If a client is interested in a clinical trial, we need to have their veterinarian contact us with a referral to make sure their pet would fit trial criteria.
Once a patient is enrolled in a clinical trial, the study time points/appointments are very specific and cannot be changed unless the study coordinator or investigator have been consulted first. Some of the trials require the owner to fill out questionnaires' about their pet’s health/activity in addition to a take home journal. We expect that the client will fill out forms as correctly and as honestly as possible. Because clinical trials require commitment and dedication from owners, most of our clinical trials have either monetary or serviceable discounts.
The client’s participation in clinical trials is entirely voluntary and they may withdraw their animal at any time. If an animal is withdrawn from the study for any reason (client or investigator decision), data already collected may continue to be used for research purposes. The client will not be treated differently if they decide to not participate in a clinical trial.
You can either contact the veterinary clinic directly for an appointment or be referred through your primary veterinarian. Your primary veterinarian can do a physical exam and initial testing that will determine if a referral is necessary. If so, the veterinarian will contact us with referral information and an appointment can be made.
The referral process allows your animal’s regular veterinarian and the specialists at the VTH to work together to provide optimum care. In order to work as a team, communication is crucial, and it often begins even before the appointment is scheduled. Your regular veterinarian can call us to discuss your animal’s case and decide if a trip to the VTH is warranted, as well as which specialty is best equipped to deal with your animal’s issues. Your veterinarian will email or fax your animal’s medical records before your visit or send paper copies along with you. By having these records on hand, we can avoid repeating tests than have already been performed unless there is a valid need to do so.
Communication continues after your animal is seen at the VTH. We notify your veterinarian about our initial findings and plans. If your animal remains hospitalized, your veterinarian will be given regular updates on its progress. When it is time for your animal to go home, we typically call your veterinarian. In addition, we send copies of the same discharge instructions we provide to you to their office.
This teamwork often continues well after your animal has returned home. We are glad to work with your veterinarian during your animal’s recovery and continued care, even for chronic diseases. Although some recheck examinations might need to be performed at the VHC, often your local veterinarian can examine your animal and discuss the results of those visits with our specialists. A collaborative approach and open communication help our specialists become familiar with the case and keeps your regular veterinarian informed with the care and treatment of your pet.
Please ask reception for a flier on pet friendly hotels in the area, options for grocery stores, and a map of the Corvallis area.
Please contact the OSU Oncology Service if you have any questions following your appointment with us. We try to provide a high-level of information and detail in the Visit Summary (discharge instructions), so please refer to that document. When you call or email the Oncology Service with a question, please allow 1 full business day for a reply.
In case of an emergency, please contact your local pet emergency clinic immediately. Please alert the emergency care team that your pet is undergoing care with the OSU Oncology Service. The emergency care team can contact us for questions or concerns regarding care of your pet related to the diagnosis of cancer. After your pet has been seen by an emergency clinic, please request that all records from the visit are sent to the OSU Oncology Service.