Our NEW respiratory clinic has been set up to support patients who experience a variety of chronic (more than 14 days) respiratory signs, for example, patients with nasal discharge; sneezing; chronic cough; suspected tracheal collapse or upper respiratory noise, among others.
The multidisciplinary nature of our hospital allows our internal medicine team to have the support from diagnostic imaging, surgery, interventional radiology and clinical/anatomical pathology specialists among others, in order to have the best diagnostic approach and achieve a diagnosis. Additionally, we have the access to advanced imaging such as CT, MRI, endoscopy and fluoroscopy.
The diagnostic process will start with a phone consultation. In our experience a remote consultation can be very informative in order to set a diagnostic plan for these problems and will help to speed up your referral. Also for many patients it will shorten the hospitalisation time due to the advanced planning of the investigations. Also, this may be helpful to owners who find it difficult to attend a consultation in person during working hours.
How will it work?
1. Booking the consultation
You can request this service when you call our Client Care team to refer the case or we are happy to contact the owner ourselves once the referral has been made and we have explained what the Respiratory Clinic is. You can also choose Respiratory clinic when you refer online here.
2. When will the phone consultation be?
Thursday: 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm
Friday: 12pm, 3pm
3. What will happen during this consultation?
One of our Internal Medicine clinicians will call the owner and talk through the clinical history. Then the most likely diagnostic plan for the patient will be discussed. This discussion will also including admit times and estimates. The owner will be transferred to their Case Manager to discuss further practical aspects such as insurance.
DWR Respiratory Clinic consultation fee is £228 for the phone consultation (Charged on the day of the consultation by their Case Manager) and an additional £168.50 will be charged if the patient is admitted and assessed.
The vet in charge will organise all the investigations at this stage for the agreed date (e.g CT or bronchoscopy).
4. When will the investigations take place?
We will offer the owner for their pet to be admitted the following Sunday between 2 and 4pm as a first option. The admit will be done by one of our Internal Medicine nurses (who can contact the Internal Medicine clinician team if needed). If the Sunday is not possible, the vet in charge or Case Manager will discuss other options.
The vet in charge of the case will exam the patient on the day of the planned investigations. If this assessment leads to a change in the diagnostic plan, the owner will be contacted.
If the plan remains as discussed with the owner previously, the Case Manager will update the owner. The vet will call following the investigations to update on the procedures and discuss the preliminary findings.
5. When can the patient go home?
In the majority of cases, sedation or general anaesthesia is necessary to perform the investigations. Following the procedures we would like to monitor the patients and make sure that they are fully recovered and it’s safe for them to go home. If the patient recovers uneventfully and no further investigations are needed, the patient could be discharged the same evening; however depending on the nature of the procedure and recovery, overnight stay may be needed and the patient could be discharged the following morning.
Finally, in many occasions not all of the results would be available at the discharge and usually the owner will be updated within the following 7 working days (more with certain tests, but in these cases the owners will be advised accordingly).
Timing
| Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday |
| Phone consult | Phone consult | Admit | Investigations
+/- to go home |
Estimates
| Chronic cough £3,000-4,000 | Consultation, thoracic radiography, general anaesthesia, bronchoscopy, bronchoalveolar lavage cytology and culture, 2 days hospitalisation +/- CT thorax |
| Nasal discharge/sneezing £3,000-4,000 | Consultation, general anaesthesia 2h, head CT +/- thorax, rhinoscopy, nasal biopsies, 2 days hospitalisation |
| Tracheal collapse £2,000-2,500 | Consultation, thoracic radiography, general anaesthesia 2h, bronchoscopy, bronchoalveolar lavage cytology and culture, 2 days hospitalisation |
| Upper respiratory noise £2,500-3,000 | Consultation, general anaesthesia, CT head rhinoscopy, nasal biopsies, 2 days hospitalisation |
These are rough estimates/list of items for these clinical complaints but this will be tailored individually in each case and discussed with you during consultation/hospitalisation. These estimates do not include treatments.