Questions Frequently Asked by Veterinarians
When you're referring a patient, you want to feel confident that your patient will be treated appropriately, then return to you with a cohesive treatment plan. We hope this page will support your decision to trust CROC with your patients. If there is a question you do not see covered here, we encourage you to let us know so that we can better support our Referring Veterinarians.
Veterinarian referral is not required for a patient to begin therapy at CROC, however CROC does require the patient’s medical records prior to the initial Consultation appointment. When a client schedules a Consultation with us, they are asked to provide the name of every Veterinary facility that has seen their pet within the last 12 months. We then contact all of those facilities to request full medical records and all imaging available, as well as the best email or fax number so we can send our findings once we have evaluated the patient. The patient’s medical record is a huge part of forming their treatment plan, as we aim to treat the patient as a whole, not the just the presenting complaint. For that reason, Veterinarian referral is greatly appreciated.
Does CROC require DVM referral?
Referring to CROC is just like referring to any other Veterinary Specialty facility. We will need the patient’s full medical records and imaging in order to properly treat your patient. There’s a common misconception that Rehab only exists to treat the presenting complaint, but the truth is that a complete picture of your patient’s overall condition is imperative for effective therapy. For example, if we have a patient that needs to rebuild muscle, but isn’t progressing as expected: Are they receiving adequate nutrition to support muscle growth? Do they have significant periodontal disease that is affecting their ability to intake the nutrition required to build muscle? Should we be looking for cancer or another systemic condition that is reducing the body’s ability to respond to therapy? If they have comorbidities, are we able to continue therapy safely given appropriate adjustments to their treatment plan or does this patient need more in-depth evaluation before continuing therapy? When referring your patient to CROC, you are welcome to share any thoughts, questions, or concerns you would like to have addressed. In addition, please let us know if we should expect this client to contact us or if you would like us to reach out to them. Since Veterinarian referrals are not required, you can also just give your client our information and we can get started as soon as they contact us.
How do I refer a patient?
Please do not tell your client to request specific modalities. CROC’s team is composed of Veterinary Professionals that have specialized in Physical Rehabilitation Therapy, so we ask that you please trust in our many years of education and experience to choose the safest and most effective treatments for your patient. While very popular, Hydrotherapy isn’t always the best modality and we have had clients get upset when we tell them that their pet should not participate in this exercise. In addition, optimal recovery is achieved with a combination of modalities such as Electrostimulation Therapy, Thermotherapy, Stretching, Massage, Therapeutic Ultrasound and exercises to improve Balance, Stamina, and Proprioception. Skipping these aspects of therapy can delay or even be detrimental to your patient’s recovery. You can trust that we create customized Treatment Plans for our patients using clinically proven modalities which are performed by Licensed Veterinary Professionals. We also offer flat fee pricing to ensure that an owner’s budget doesn’t take away from a patient’s optimal Treatment Plan. CROC does not allow clients to pick from a menu of modalities. We do not offer Chiropractic, Aquapractic, Ozone Therapy, or any other modality that is lacking peer-reviewed evidence of its safety and efficacy.
Do I need to specify which treatment modality I am referring for?
CROC is a medical facility. We do not offer daycare, playtime, or doggie social hour. Patients are not permitted to interact with other patients. All patients must be leashed or otherwise secured when on CROC property. We do incorporate positive and fun activities in a patient’s therapy session to encourage their participation but ultimately, patients are here for medical treatment, not play time. CROC practices Closed Rehab, which means that Owners are not present. Patients treated in Closed Rehab are proven to have better and faster recoveries than patients whose Owners were present. While some clients are adamant that they want to be present for their pet’s therapy, patient outcome is always our priority and we do not offer any exceptions to that policy. CROC cannot specify exactly how many sessions a pet will need to reach optimal recovery. This can be difficult when a client is trying to budget, so we do our best to be as transparent as possible. Our flat fee pricing is openly posted on our website and we do our best to estimate how many sessions a patient will need in order to graduate. Every patient is treated as an individual and will respond to therapy on their own timeline. There is no cooking by recipe at CROC! Progress exams are performed at regular intervals to re-evaluate a patient’s condition, modify their treatment plan as needed, and determine when they are ready to graduate from Rehab.
What can my client expect at CROC?
No. CROC does not have a pharmacy, does not write prescriptions, and we do not approve outside pharmacy requests. If we feel that your patient would benefit from a medication, we will refer your client back to you to get this medication.
Does CROC prescribe or dispense medication?
No. For the best outcome, Rehab patients should be relaxed and comfortable as we will be asking them to allow handling of their injuries (or other areas of pain) and to participate in exercises that might seem strange or scary to them. CROC works very hard to foster this relationship of trust with our patients and a big part of that is not performing typical Veterinary services. We do not offer imaging, diagnostics, prescriptions, food… not even nail trims! For anything outside of Rehab services, we will refer them back to you. Our referring Veterinarians trust their patients to us because they know their patient will receive quality medical therapy, they will receive updates on their patient’s recovery, and they still retain their client’s business.