1-1 online consultations

A hybrid veterinary advice and coaching service tailored to your unique situation and partnership. Book a one to one Zoom session or phone call with me about helping to uncover reasons for certain signs or behaviours, failure to respond to treatment or training, or about your companion’s all round wellbeing

Book now or fill out the no-obligation enquiry form below for more information.

I will review your case and then send you initial advice and booking availability if it seems that an online consultation will be appropriate and helpful in your case. In most cases in-person attention by an appropriate professional will also be needed and I can help to advise you on this either during or instead of a 1-1 online consultation.

Please note these are NOT suitable for urgent and emergency cases. These are advice-only sessions.

Urgent and emergency cases require a veterinary examination in person straight away, please call your registered vet if your horse or dog is showing any of these signs. I am happy to help with aftercare or exploring the root causes of the problem once your horse or dog has been physically examined and stabilised.

These sessions cannot be used to make a definitive diagnosis, to prescribe medications or to carry out procedures as these actions require in-person veterinary attention.

How can I help you online with your horse?

  • If you are either having difficulty in reaching a diagnosis or in treating or resolving your horse’s illness, injury, pain or dysfunction, I can help you online by talking through the signs your horse is displaying, coaching you through ways of assessing your horse more deeply to get a better picture of where and how your horse’s body is responding, and discussing possible next steps with both you and your current registered vet. I can help to explain existing medical notes, reasons for performing certain diagnostic tests, and other available options. If the reason for the difficulty is your horse’s behaviour, I can help you to explore whether there could be a health or pain component to this and how you might prepare for in-person vet visits.

  • In my experience, many behavioural signs have an underlying physical health component either as their primary cause or a contributing factor. If we don’t find and address these, the horse has little chance of having a beneficial and lasting response to training, however empathetic the methods used.

    Signs such as spooking, bucking, planting feet, girthiness, biting, refusing to load and much more can be caused by underlying pain, gut problems, nutritional imbalances, or organ dysfunction.

    Sometimes these horses in particular are challenging or impossible to examine or treat by a vet or other professional. They may be very needle shy or panic when restrained. I can help you online by talking through the signs your horse is displaying, coaching you through ways of assessing your horse more deeply to get a better picture of where and how your horse’s body might be contributing, and discussing possible next steps in investigating with both you and your current registered vet.

  • There are many contributing factors to all round health and wellbeing, which form an important part of preventing health conditions and concerning behaviours from developing in the first place. I can help you online by talking through your horse’s current lifestyle and management, exploring where things might need altering to safeguard physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing.

How can I help you online with your dog?

  • If you are either having difficulty in reaching a diagnosis or in treating or resolving your dog’s illness, injury, pain or dysfunction, I can help you online by talking through the signs your dog is displaying, coaching you through ways of assessing your dog more deeply to get a better picture of where and how your dog’s body is responding, and discussing possible next steps with both you and your current registered vet. I can help to explain existing medical notes, reasons for performing certain diagnostic tests, and other available options. If the reason for the difficulty is your dog’s behaviour, I can help you to explore whether there could be a health or pain component to this and how you might prepare for in-person vet appointments.

  • In my experience, many behavioural signs have an underlying physical health component either as their primary cause or a contributing factor. If we don’t find and address these, the dog has little chance of responding to behaviour-modifying interventions, whether that is training (however empathetic to the dog) or behaviour-modifying medication.

    Signs such as reactivity, anxiety, hyperexcitability, aggression, noise sensitivity, car sickness, withdrawal, fearfulness and much more can be caused by underlying pain, gut problems, nutritional imbalances, or organ dysfunction.

    Sometimes these dogs in particular are challenging or impossible to examine in a veterinary practice environment. I can help you online by talking through the signs your dog is displaying, coaching you through ways of assessing your dog more deeply to get a better picture of where and how your dog’s body might be contributing, and discussing possible next steps in investigating with both you and your current registered vet.

  • There are many contributing factors to all round health and wellbeing, which form an important part of preventing health conditions and concerning behaviours from developing in the first place. I can help you online by talking through your dog’s current lifestyle and management, exploring where things might need altering to safeguard physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing.

How do online sessions work?

• Fill out the enquiry form to let me know the reason for the consultation. Giving as much detail as possible means I can be best placed to advise on whether an online consultation seems appropriate, and will give us more time to go in-depth during the consultation. I will review the form and then contact you with initial advice and booking availability.

• Choose either a Zoom call or a phone call. Depending on internet availability and the aim of the session, a Zoom call using video with your horse or dog there may be the most useful, so that I can guide you through observations to help to pinpoint problems or approaches to carrying out care procedures. For discussions only on guiding decision making and discussing possible plans of action we can talk without your horse or dog there or over the phone.

• I will send you a booking link. Choose your appointment time and secure your slot by paying securely online.

• I will send you a confirmation email containing a link to the appointment and information on how best to prepare for the session.

• You can choose to receive a written summary after the session.

• You are welcome to share the written summary with any other professionals on your horse or dog care team or you can request that I also speak directly with any of them.

All discussions will be from a place of empathy, understanding and collaboration, I am not seeking to judge or lecture you in any way. We will always seek solutions that are workable for you and your horse or dog in your unique situation right now. I am likely to recommend an in-person assessment with an appropriate professional alongside online an consultation with me, and in some cases will advise this is done instead of an online consultation.

I am always happy to speak with other members of your horse or dog care team such as your usual vet, farrier or trimmer, physiotherapist, trainer or behaviourist etc, if you ask me to.

I don’t in any way promise to quickly or completely fix all known problems. My skills lie in helping you to get clear on the challenges you face, to have a strategy for being discerning about information and advice, and to find and implement the solutions that are possible and beneficial for you and your animal companion. I will help you to implement these solutions if I am best placed to do so, or I will help you to find another professional who is best placed to help you to implement these solutions.

Please note these are NOT suitable for urgent and emergency cases. These are advice-only sessions.

Urgent and emergency cases require a veterinary examination in person straight away, please call your registered vet if your horse or dog is showing any of these signs. I am happy to help with aftercare or exploring the root causes of the problem once your horse or dog has been physically examined and stabilised.

These sessions cannot be used to make a definitive diagnosis, to prescribe medications or to carry out procedures as these actions require in-person veterinary attention.

FAQs

  • Consultations will usually be held over Zoom and I will send you a link to join. If using Zoom is not possible for you we can also arrange an appointment over the video call function in Facebook Messenger or we can talk on the phone. For Zoom calls you will need access to an internet connection that allows for video calling.

  • Fill out the enquiry form to tell me about your case, I will review this and send you a link to book an appointment slot if an online consultation seems appropriate.

  • Once I have sent you a booking link and you have chosen your appointment slot, pay securely online by card to reserve your slot.

  • There are two lengths of online appointment - 30 mins for an introductory overview call when it is the first consultation or for a check-in call when we have talked previously, and one hour for more in-depth discussions and coaching. For the one hour calls, you can choose to either include a written summary report on the session or not.

    30 mins - £65

    60 mins - £95

    60 mins with written summary - £120

  • Currently my veterinary qualifications allow me to take clients in the UK and the USA. Usually it is advice on your strategy that is the useful part of these calls, and in these cases I can take clients from anywhere in the world and can talk to your attending vet where you request that I do so. Even if you are local to me in the UK I will also most likely advise in-person veterinary attention alongside our calls. If you would like to see if you are local to me and can book an in-person consultation, contact me

  • Yes, you can rearrange your appointment any time up until 48 hours before the scheduled appointment time and pay no extra fee. You can cancel your appointment any time up until 48 hours before the scheduled appointment time for a full refund. Any changes less than 48 hours before the scheduled time are non-refundable.

  • We will discuss what kind of follow-up is needed at the end of each call. In some cases in-person veterinary attention will be needed before any follow-up online sessions. When you do need to book a follow-up, just book the same way you booked your first appointment and choose either a 30 minute check-in call or a repeat of the previous call type if you prefer. Sometimes I will suggest a time interval and specific call type for follow-up appointments but you can always request whatever time interval suits you best.

  • I believe in a collaborative approach and the value of all members of your and your animal companion’s team. My role is not to refute your current vet’s diagnosis or treatment plan and indeed this is not possible to do remotely because this requires an in-person clinical examination plus, in some cases, further diagnostics. However, in cases where you feel little progress is being made I can help to clarify possible strategies for moving forwards. Sometimes there will be differences of opinion and sometimes this can become stressful. You can always talk to me about situations where there are disagreements, including if you don’t agree with me, plus I am always happy to speak directly with your vet, farrier, trainer, etc, if you ask me to. This will be in a spirit of collaboration but if I have animal welfare concerns I will first speak with you and then with other professionals, with your permission. In extremely rare cases of major animal welfare concerns I reserve the right to refer the case to the relevant authorities. If communication is consistently not constructive I reserve the right to remove myself from your team. You also have the right to walk away from my services at any time.

  • These sessions are NOT suitable for urgent or emergency cases. These are advice-only sessions and urgent and emergency cases require an in-person veterinary examination straight away. Please call your registered vet if your horse or dog is showing any of these signs. I am happy to help with aftercare or exploring the root causes of the problem once your horse or dog has been physically examined and stabilised. These sessions also cannot be used to definitively diagnose, to prescribe, or to carry out procedures - all these require in-person veterinary attention.

  • Yes, either fill out the no-obligation enquiry form including your questions, or email me at lily@nurturingnatureequine.co.uk