Veterinary Referral Form for Animal Behaviour Cases

Submit our online veterinary referral form

Behaviour problems may arise both directly and indirectly as a result of concurrent or previous medical problems. Veterinary involvement is therefore essential in eliminating organic causes of the problem and prioritising the diagnostic and treatment strategy to be used in any given case. In order to safeguard the welfare of your patient and indicate your approval of referral to the Second Nature Behaviour team, please complete the following veterinary referral form for animal behaviour cases.

Your clients can often claim back our fees on their pet insurance and we accept direct claims from a range of insurers.

Important points to consider...

Multiple animals within the home?

If there are multiple animals in the household, they must all be included in this referral, as they often impact each other’s behaviour. However, please do indicate the animal with the main issue.

Prescriptions & OOH Care

You are the client's normal and primary Veterinary Surgeon. By signing this form, you agree that any prescription of medication and provision of 24-7 emergency care remains the responsibility of the referring veterinary practice and we will direct your clients as such.

Initial & Ongoing Work-up

Ideally, pets should have routine biochemistry and haematology screening in addition to basic urinalysis prior to behavioural referral. However, for many of our patients, these investigations can be highly stressful, so a risk-benefit analysis should be undertaken.

Regular physical and laboratory monitoring plays a vital role in ensuring both the safety and effectiveness of behavioural pharmacotherapy. So we recommend that, where possible, our patients have physical check-ups every 6 months and blood screening and urinalysis every 12 months whilst on behavioural medications.

These recommendations should be adapted to each patient’s medical history, age, and medication profile, and developed in collaboration with one of our Veterinary Behaviourists.

Data Protection Notice

Second Nature Behaviour will use personal data about this animal for the purpose of providing clinical animal behaviour and training services, as well as for our internal administration and management purposes. We will treat all of this information in confidence and keep it secure. We may need to share it with veterinary staff and other animal care professionals for the purpose of helping us to provide the clinical animal behaviour and training services, but we will only do so with your permission and your client's permission. For more information about how we use your data, please see our Privacy Policy on our web site, which also contains information about your privacy rights.

VB or CAB?

Cases may be led in-person by a Veterinary Behaviourist (VB) or a (non-vet) Clinical Animal Behaviourist (CAB), dependent upon case needs, so please indicate your preference below. A VB would be more appropriate where medical causes for unwanted behaviour cannot be eliminated or addressed by the Referring Vet, the ability to oversee the prescription of psychoactive medications is not available within the Referring Veterinary team, or there are complex medical and behaviour co-morbidities.

Remote VB advice

When a case is seen in-person by a non-vet Clinical Animal Behaviourist, remote advice may need to be sought from a Veterinary Behaviourist. This is on the understanding that the Veterinary Behaviourist will be remote from the patient and will not be able to perform a physical clinical exam, so the Veterinary Behaviourist cannot provide a diagnosis, but they can provide advice to the Referring Vet about possible treatment or further investigations relevant to the case.

Student involvement?

As Second Nature Behaviour are active in the training of behaviourists working towards independent accreditation, pet behaviour students may sit in on your patient’s consultation, or advanced students may lead the consultation under the direct supervision of one of our behaviourists. All students sign strict confidentiality agreements and are appropriately insured. If you prefer that your client not be offered a student consultation, please notify us using the form below.

What is the primary species you are referring?

To access the correct form, please click on the species name for the animal you wish to refer to us.

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“As a referring vet, i want my clients to feel happy with whom I have referred them to and I can honestly say every one has been very pleased!”

Ella the vet

“As a vet, I have referred many of my patients to Zoe – she works absolute miracles on cats, dogs and parrots!”

Nicki the vet

“I cannot recommend Second Nature enough. Zoe gives both my dogs so much care and attention.”

Luke, Harry & Trixie

“Zoe has shown us how to deal with our dog’s problems.”

Benji, Dawn & Paul

“Really pleased with the outcome and what an enjoyable experience meeting with you – Ted has calmed down a lot now!”

Ted, Rob and Michelle

“Whilst Gracie is still an anxious dog, she has made incredible progress and if we are completely honest, more progress than we thought she could make.”

Gracie

“I do think that if we had not had help Echo wouldn’t be with us today, so this service has been fabulous! With the behaviour plan in place and lots of hard work from us as a family we now have a more relaxed dog.”

Echo

“We found Zoe to be extremely knowledgeable and attentive when it came to talking us through the processes we needed to follow to get our little Yorkie under control.”

Chip, James & Sarah

“I must say the advice you gave me was excellent. I would without hesitation recommend you to anybody with a problem dog.”

Riley & Paul