Who is a Veterinary Internist?
A veterinary internist is a board-certified specialist in diagnosing and managing various internal medical conditions and diseases, including gastrointestinal tract, liver, kidneys, and lungs. An internist undergoes extensive training to acquire the specialized skills to diagnose and treat internal medicine diseases. This involves completing veterinary school to become a veterinarian (4 years), an internship program (minimum of 1 year), and an approved internal medicine residency training program (3 years). After this training, the veterinarian must complete and pass multi-day examinations to become a board-certified veterinary internist. Our internist, Dr. Tara Chapman, is board-certified with the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM).
Our Internal Medicine Specialist and Hospitalist
Dr. Tara Chapman
Dr. Galya Schwartz
When Should Your Pet See Our Internist?
Dr. Chapman is willing to see your pet if your primary care veterinarian refers your pet with a complicated medical issue requiring a diagnosis, to start therapy, or to manage chronic conditions.
What Are Some of the Common Conditions Our Internists Treats?
- Inflammatory bowel disease and other gastrointestinal diseases
- Pancreatitis and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency
- Acute and chronic liver diseases
- Acute and chronic kidney failure
- Diabetes
- Adrenal gland diseases such as Addison’s disease (hypoadrenocorticism) and Cushing’s disease (hyperadrenocorticism)
- Infectious diseases
- Upper and lower respiratory diseases, including nasal diseases
- Autoimmune diseases such as immune-mediated hemolytic anemia and immune-mediated thrombocytopenia
What Are Some Tests Our Internist Uses for the Diagnosis and Monitoring of Internal Medicine Conditions?
- Blood work (e.g., complete blood count, serum biochemistry, endocrine panels, etc.)
- Urinalysis and other urine tests
- Abdominal and thoracic radiographs (x-rays)
- Fluoroscopy
- Abdominal ultrasonography
- Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspirates and biopsies
- Endoscopy of the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urinary tracts
- Bone marrow evaluation and joint taps
- CT scans
After your primary care veterinarian refers your pet, we will contact you as soon as possible to schedule your appointment. While Dr. Chapman sees patients from Monday to Wednesday, the internal medicine service is open from Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m
On the day of your appointment, you and your pet will be checked in at reception and brought to the internal medicine examination room. Dr. Chapman will review your pet’s medical records and recent history and perform a thorough physical examination. If indicated, she may suggest additional tests to evaluate your pet’s condition further.
After this examination, Dr. Chapman will thoroughly discuss the findings with you and make a treatment plan that best suits your pet, their condition, and your involvement. The entire process will take approximately 60 minutes. Dr. Chapman may recommend certain diagnostic tests, and these may be able to be done on the same day.
If medications are required, a treatment plan and medications will be sent home with you with detailed instructions.
A thorough report will be sent to you and your primary care veterinarian, including Dr. Chapman’s examination findings, diagnosis, treatments, follow-up recommendations, and a review of the conditions/diseases. This will ensure that we are all included as a team to provide continuity of care for your pet.
We strive to provide you and your pet with the highest level of care. We love what we do, we love our patients, and we treat them as if they were our own.