New Client Information

Thank you for choosing us!

Welcome to The Welcome Waggin’ Veterinary Care Family!

Thank you for requesting our in-home veterinary care experiences for you and your pets. Our team offers a unique and alternate option for veterinary care which occurs right where your pet is most comfortable… in the safety of their own home. We hope you find our in home care to be more intimate and less stressful than the traditional on-site veterinary service. Our Welcome Waggin’ team strives to live by our core values: celebration, community, kindness, adaptability, transparency, and continuous growth. We work hard to make sure our core values are vivid and apparent in all of our interactions.

Allow us to tell you more about the benefits of in-home veterinary care and how we differ from traditional veterinary practices.

Our Service Capabilities

We are an almost full-service veterinary care provider offering the same services as brick-and-mortar veterinary practices for all life stages (puppies/kittens, adults, & senior pets). With our team, you’ll find that traditional veterinary services have been adapted so that care can be provided right in the comfort of your home.

We offer medical care spanning the following areas of practice: general medicine, annual & semi-annual wellness care, preventative medicine (vaccinations & parasite control), internal medicine, integrative & holistic care (chiropractic & herbal medicine), dermatology, ophthalmology, orthopedic examination & support, Telehealth, allergy testing & management, nutritional & behavioral counseling, mobility support (arthritis), at-home surgical recovery support, wound care, diagnostics, weight management, prescription medication management, senior pet care, chronic illness management (thyroid disease, diabetes, kidney & liver disease, seizure disorders, cardiac support), pain management & comfort care, quality-of-life & hospice care, and end-of-life services.

We like to remain transparent with our service capabilities. In the event your pet needs services not conducive to mobile veterinary care, we collaborate with a number of local on-site veterinary care facilities where we can refer you with confidence in knowing your pet will receive the same standard of care. We would need to refer to on-site care in cases where a pet would need sedation, surgery, dentistry, imaging (x-rays, ultrasound, scans), hospitalization, or emergency care.

House Call Scheduling

Our house calls are scheduled by location Monday through Friday between 9 am – 5 pm. Appointment times are scheduled in 4-hour arrival time windows which allow us to dedicate adequate time and attention to all of our patients’ needs. You will receive a text message from our Travel Team when they are on their way to your home. We can typically schedule a house call within 1-5 business days. Head to our website where you can learn more about our service and view the Welcome Waggin’ team member profiles.

Mobile Pharmacy & Prescriptions

We stock a small mobile pharmacy of frequently prescribed medications and preventatives. Prescriptions are either delivered by our team during the house call appointment or we can ship medications directly to your home. We recommend refill requests be made at least 7-10 days prior to running out of medication at home. Medications and fecal/urine drop-offs are available at our Plainfield office M-F between 9-noon and 1 – 5 pm.

For your convenience, we also work with VetSource, our online pharmacy where you can place orders for auto-prescription refills, preventatives, prescription diets, or other medications not available in our mobile pharmacy.

Emergency Services

In cases of emergency should your pet need immediate attention, we encourage calling our team for guidance to make sure your pet receives the best recommendations for the most appropriate and rapid care. In the event your pet’s needs are unable to be met during a house call appointment, we maintain relationships with approved on-site veterinary partners where we can refer you for care. In cases of emergency, we recommend VCA Aurora, VCA Arboretum View (Downers Grove), and Veterinary Specialty Center (Buffalo Grove), all of which provide 24-hour hospital care including weekends and holidays.

Pandemic Protocols

We are an at-home veterinary care provider which means your pet receives medical services where they are most comfortable. We can conduct our appointments in the home, on a deck/porch/patio, a screened-in room, in the yard, the garage, and sometimes in our vehicle.

Throughout the pandemic, we have continually adapted to changes and recommendations made by medical associations. To maintain healthy conditions for you and our team, we require that everyone be wearing a mask during the appointment and following appropriate social-distancing measures. Our Travel Team will let you know when they are on the way and when they have arrived at the appointment. We are able to enter the home and will conduct the appointment in the entryway of your house. We request that windows be kept open during the appointment for good air-flow.

At this time, our Travel Team will not be able to walk through your home to access a bedroom, living room, basement, bathroom, closet, or laundry room. As always, we request that our patients be ready and available at the start of the appointment. We greatly appreciate our client’s assistance in maintaining these protocols.

Veterinary-Client-Patient Relationship

We value our client-patient community and enjoy celebrating our patients’ lives with our Welcome Waggin’ families. We recognize you as a valuable member of your pet’s healthcare team. We incorporate education, support, and guidance into all our services so that you can feel confidently prepared, comfortable, and capable of providing at-home care for your pet.

Laboratory Testing

We work with an outside laboratory and are able to collect blood, urine, stool, and cytology samples in the home environment. We send our samples to a laboratory. Results are typically reported within 3-7 days; turn-around times can vary depending on the type of test the doctor recommends. In the event your pet needs lab testing with more rapid results, we work with a number of local veterinary care facilities where more expedited results may be obtained.

Comfort Care & End-of-Life Services

In addition to our in-home veterinary medical care, our team offers supportive comfort-care as well as kind and compassionate end-of-life services. We understand how difficult it can be to make the decision to transition from medical care to comfort care. We focus on providing you the information and resources needed to support your pet’s quality-of-life. Our team includes pet loss specialists who can offer guidance through the often heartbreaking decisions and preparations pet parents are faced with leading up to that final peaceful appointment.

Our end-of-life services include sedation before the final injection, the final injection itself, a complimentary clay paw print, transportation to the crematory facility, and the cremation. You will be able to select either a GROUP cremation (your pet will be cremated with other animals and the ashes will be scattered in a beautiful cemetery garden which you can visit) or a PRIVATE cremation (your pet’s ashes will be returned to you in an urn).

For cremation and burial services, we work with Hinsdale Pet Memorial Services, one of the most well-known, oldest, and largest pet cemeteries in the United States in operation since 1926.

Our Fees

We strive to keep our fees competitive with the local on-site veterinary care facilities and pharmacies. The only difference in our fee structure is that for each of our appointments, a house call fee is incurred based on your location. When notified at the time of scheduling, we can accommodate multiple pets during one appointment while only charging a single house call fee. We accept all major credit cards, checks, and cash at the time of service. Payment is collected and an itemized invoice is provided at the end of each appointment. Please call our office for additional pricing information. We encourage pet insurance coverage and recommend the ASPCA and TruPanion policies.

Community

We remain honored to meet and develop relationships with our patients and their humans. We are humbled to be welcomed into your home which allows us a more intimate perspective on the special human-animal bond you share with your pet. We appreciate when our clients are engaged and interactive with our team, on our social media channels, at community events, and through interactions with other Welcome Waggin’ families. We look forward to supporting you and your pet’s veterinary care needs while celebrating your Human-Animal Bond.