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Nutrition Consult for Pet Owners

Welcome Pet Parents seeking nutritional advice!

Veterinarians:  Click here to switch to the consultation process for veterinarians.

The Nutrition Consult is a service available for pet owners seeking a feeding plan for their dog or cat with a medical problem. Please read the following information carefully, and select "Continue" at the bottom when you are ready to initiate a Nutrition Consultation. 

The nutrition consultation request can be a lengthy process and will require information from your pet's medical record. We recommend using a PC, laptop or tablet (not a phone) and that you reserve at least 30 minutes to complete the process. The better the data provided to us, the better our recommendations will be to you. Thank you.

Our Expertise

We specialize in making sound dietary and nutritional recommendations for dogs and cats with medical conditions.  For example:

  • Your pet may be sick and not eating the recommended diet well.
  • Your pet may have more than one medical condition for which there is no single best commercial pet food.

We make dietary recommendations based on the current principles of medical management and the pet's food preferences. We offer choices based on the known current scientific literature and clinical experience. The veterinary nutritionists at PetDiets have, all combined, more than 100 yrs. of experience from clinical practice, research, teaching, industry, and private consulting perspectives. Meet the PetDiets.com Nutritionists on the 'About Us' page.

Your Veterinarian Must Be Involved

Your primary care veterinarian is a vital partner in the care of your pet. The medical record (MR) specific to your pet must be sent and reviewed by us before making a dietary recommendation. This is not optional.

Legally, we must work through your veterinarian in making nutritional recommendations to manage medical conditions. We do not have a veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) with you according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and State or Provincial regulations. Please see https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/veterinarian-client-patient-relationship-vcpr for more information. Therefore, we work through and with your veterinarian as a nutrition specialist.

Please have your veterinarian fax (636.238.4359) or email (Admin@PetDietsNutrition.com) the pet’s medical record to us. We cannot request the medical record from your veterinarian directly. In many cases, veterinarians will require verbal or written consent to forward your pet's medical records to us.  

AVMA Principle: The information within veterinary medical records is confidential. It must not be released except as required or allowed by law, or by consent of the owner of the patient. See https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/avma-policies/principles-veterinary-medical-ethics-avma and https://www.avma.org/advocacy/state-local-issues/confidentiality-veterinary-patient-records.

We will match up the medical records sent by your veterinarian with your online Consultation Request. A VRCP Referral form is required and we will forward this form to your veterinarian after receiving your consult request. You can check on the status of your consultation at any time by emailing (Admin@PetDietsNutrition.com) after you have made that MR request of your primary care veterinarian. You may have more than one veterinarian or specialist, and, you may send the MR from each to us for review. There is no page or file size limit.  The more information we have, the better for the pet.

Accurate, Easy-to-understand Medical Information and Recipe Instructions

We consider client education an important part of our mission and service. We will provide you with the most current information specific to your pet’s medical condition(s), written in language that you can understand. Most pets only need one nutritional formulation (one base recipe) and then food substitutions are offered when appropriate.

Individualized Dietary Requests

Dietary requests for individual patients are what we do best.  View Types of Nutritional Recommendations.
We can, on paper, balance most any reasonable dietary request for a homemade diet using Mixit-Win™ software. The homemade diet instructions are quite detailed, yet give options and allow for food substitutions if appropriate. The homemade formulations usually involve protein and carbohydrate/fiber sources, +/- vegetables, and a single, readily available specifically designed vitamin-mineral supplement. We suggest daily food amounts specific to the pet’s weight.

Consulting Process

Dietary consultations are completed by a state-licensed Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist. Meet the PetDiets.com Nutritionists on the 'About Us' page. Each dietary consultation includes a teleconsultation, arranged by email at a time convenient for you once we have received the pet’s medical record. The teleconsultation will be by telephone or video conference software whichever you prefer at no additional cost. Your consult request and medical record provided will be reviewed before the teleconsult. Meet your veterinary nutritionist via video chat!

Turnaround time: Generally, the entire process can be accomplished within 7-10 days. Depending on receipt of the medical record, a signed veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) form and then scheduling of the teleconsultation with you, we can have written dietary recommendations to you and your veterinarian, simultaneously, usually within 10 days. An automated email update on your consult will come from 'Intelligen@aciemails.com'. You may check on the status of your consultation at any time by emailing (Admin@PetDietsNutrition.com).

Fees

Initial Nutrition Consultation: The fee is $500 (USD) per pet which includes a review of the medical record, a 30-minute teleconsult with a nutritionist by phone or video conference, diet formulation and written dietary recommendations sent to you and your veterinarian. 

Multiple pet households: If you have other healthy pets in the same household, in most cases, they are not identical to the first pet and will be considered in a second consultation. If seeking advice on more than one pet, a consult request and a review of their medical records are legally necessary for each pet.

  • $50 IF the same dietary recommendation is appropriate, after medical record review, for another healthy pet of the same body weight, e.g., two same body weight cats needing a high fiber diet.
  • $100 IF the same dietary recommendation is appropriate, after medical record review, for another healthy pet but requiring a new food dose, e.g., two different body weight cats needing a high fiber diet.
  • $150 IF the same dietary recommendation is appropriate, after medical record review, for another pet with the same medical condition as the first and the same body weight. e.g., two same body weight dogs needing a low fat diet.
  • $200 IF the same dietary recommendation is appropriate, after medical record review, for another pet with the same medical condition as the first but requiring a new food dosage, e.g., two different body weight dogs needing a low fat diet.
  • $500 IF a different dietary recommendation is needed, e.g., pets with different medical conditions or life stages.
Recheck Teleconsult: The fee is $250 for a subsequent 20-minute teleconsult with a nutritionist by phone or video conference which includes a review of the interim medical record. A written summary of the visit and dietary recommendations are sent to you and your veterinarian(s). The Recheck teleconsult is similar to when you re-visit your primary care veterinarian or specialist for an ongoing problem.

Recipe Reformulation:  The fee is $250 to reformulate previous dietary recommendations if you should later request a change in ingredients, foods, or supplements, if the pet's condition should progress, or if your pet develops another medical condition. You may opt for only a reformulation, without a Teleconsult, if you can articulate the changes to be made to the original recipe, or if the decision to reformulate is made in conjunction with you at a Recheck Teleconsult. The Reformulation fee is similar to your request for additional diagnostics or repeat laboratory work from your veterinarian or specialist for an ongoing problem.

Recipe Teleconsult plus a Recipe Reformulation: The fee is the same as the original consultation ($500).

Included Services

Our consulting fee covers product research, a review of the medical information, a 30-minute teleconsultation with you, Mixit-Win™ software recipe formulations, and written dietary recommendations. The fees cover immediate follow-up questions you may have about our dietary recommendations. Food rejection or aversions are potential problems and we provide additional guidance in these cases. Food substitutions are always suggested in the write-up if appropriate based on medical conditions.

If you have questions about this process, please feel free to email us (Info@PetDietsNutrition.com).  

Ready to Get Started?

  • New clients:  If this is your first time consulting with us, you will be asked to open an account to link you and your pet(s) with your local veterinarian or specialist from our extensive database.
  • Returning clients:  If you have been here before, you will be asked to log in on the next page.
  • Veterinarians:  Click here to switch to the consultation process for veterinarians.
Note: The nutrition consultation request can be a lengthy process and will require information from your pet's medical record. We recommend using a PC, laptop or tablet (not a phone) and that you reserve at least 30 minutes to complete the process. The better the data provided to us, the better our recommendations will be to you. Thank you.

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