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Did you ever think to write a question to one of those online advice kind of vets? Ever throw your credit card down via ether expecting to get an intelligent response? I’d like to know.
Why? Because we’re a growing phenomenon, we e-vets. Of course I don’t take credit cards, nor expect any of your hard-earned money to leap magically into my checking account—your eyeballs are enough for this blog and maybe someday there will be enough of you to entice some smart-minded pharma marketeer to pay my mortgage—but that’s a long way off, methinks.
Anyway, back to the e-vet thing. There are some vets who make most of their money via Internet. Most of these are way legitimate. Hence the proliferation of radiologists, clinical pathologists, cardiologists and other imaging-intensive docs who have simply followed the human medical paradigm to its holy grail conclusion: work at home with a baby on your knee and still bring in the bucks employing that hard-won degree hanging over your monitor—without losing the respect of your colleagues. After all, these vets are generally board-certified specialists who help other vets make difficult clinical decisions every day.
These lucky vets can sit at their computers and view images and interpret data all day without leaving the confines of their kitchens or the comfort of their bunny-wabbit slippers. Exchanging the obligatory white lab coat for the plush coziness of their bathrobes, they can practice their passion, exercise their brains, and type on their laptops to the tune of their own timetable.
Would that I could join their ranks just by writing a blog…or a book…or my miscellaneous articles. I love the ultimate flex-time concept and have the discipline to follow it through (I think). What’s more, many of these vets rake in more money than I would in three years of slogging through the anal-gland fraught trenches of small animal medicine. Contemplation of the possibilities is almost enough to make me apply for a clin-path residency and give birth to another baby (just kidding!).
Then there are the other e-vets…those who straddle the line between A) offering medical advice and B) interpreting vet advice when specific issues arise with their correspondents.
The B group is an excellent model for what the Internet might someday achieve in vet medicine for the average pet owner. These e-vets would essentially act as clinical coordinators to help you arrive at a personal decision about your pet’s care through education—they’re not clinicians. But the rewards for such a “practice” (theoretically) equal those any hospital might provide…sans the fur on your clothing and the sweet smells only a vet office can emit.
The A group, however, engages in a big veterinary no-no. Vets cannot legally render medical advice without a physical veterinary-client-patient relationship—at least not in the US. That means they have to palpably encounter Fluffy before offering a specific medical opinion. And that won’t be achievable without Mission Impossible technology. (By the way, there are plenty of human doc hucksters engaging in this illegal activity—beware!)
Got a dog with a splenic tumor and don’t know what’s the standard of care, average fee, insurance payout or average prognosis? Write the e-vet and you should get a credible response for this general condition. Want a specific answer on the details your pet’s splenic tumor? If anyone purports to be able to offer you one—don’t trust it. General info is all you should legally be allowed on the Web, individually tailored to your pet’s specific problem though it may be.
Although this information can be valuable, its usefulness all depends on the individual virtual vet—and, like you, I have reservations about the credibility of the average Internet hawker—in any field. Too bad the Web is so hit or miss, regardless of the HTML “testimonials” and the slickness of the site.
Still, e-vets are gaining ground, for better or for worse. Overall, I’d say the explosion of online information is a great thing. But it’s buyer beware all the way—and always will be, regardless of the Web’s maturity. After all, there are great vets and sloppy vets in every town. Why should the Internet be any different?
Now, don’t hold back if you’ve been had by a huckster Web-vet. Or tell us if you’ve been wowed by an online wonder-vet. We want to know. Your turn…
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I've had a couple of readers I've taken to task for NOT going to the vet when their cat was obviously sick ("My cat's had this ulcer on her eye for a week, and I can't afford a vet, what can I do for home treatment?" type of questions--to which I respond "Nothing. MAKE a way to afford the vet. Your cat needs treatment NOW.") I've also had one or two that I wrote back as soon as I got their e-mails saying "go to the vet, don't wait for me to answer your letter in the column"--who later thanked me for telling them so because their kitty would have died if they hadn't gotten treatment.
So, I dunno. As a pet owner, I'd rather call my vet and pay the extra fee for the emergency call than trust someone I've never met to figure out what's wrong with my cat based on my description.
He would have had less of an excuse to say he didn't know better, and clients may have gained a better idea of what the current standard pain med protocol was in "the rest of the world" if he was the only practitioner they had access to.
Another area where it would be helpful is helping a client understand that there are reasons for the procedures that you want to do on "Nanook" besides padding the bank account. We recently had a client say they would take their whole kennel club elsewhere because one of our vets was insisiting on pre-dental x-rays before performing a cleaning on their very orally challenged pooch. When the Dr. tried to explain that their appeared to be severe deterioration of the mandible and it was important to the health of the dog to know what we were getting into, the owner said that "so and so animal huckster palace" will do it without the radigraphs.
If these owners were able to actually investigate this on some sort of e-vet site with case histories and examples, they would have realized that by going into this dental blindly, the vet performing this procedure may wind up giving Nanook a mandible that is strangely flexible.
I'm very interested to see whre this goes in the future, since the web is so hard to regulate.
The closest I get to using an e-vet is posting questions to online communities of pet owners. I recently posted a photo of the underside of Gabe's (cockatiel) feet where they appeared slightly reddened, said that I suspected it was irritation from using a dowel perch primarily, and solicited others' opinions and suggestions. Going to a knowledgeable community for advice is good b/c then I get a variety of opinions, and people generally present their reasons for their opinions and will tell me when I should see a vet in person, if I wasn't sure. I find such resources helpful, and I always know (even if they didn't remind me) that their opinions are exactly that - opinions based upon their experience and the information that I present them, and not based upon medical background and actual interaction with my pet.
We generally do prefer to do radigraphs for all extractions, but we do try to take the finances of the owner and gneral condition of the mouth in question and the animal attached to it into consideration.
Unfortunately our area is within driving distance to some more rural area vets who tend to be a bit more old school that don't think twice about just doing the extraction sans x-rays :(
I guess it's one thing to be in a breed chat room and say "hey, I've got a new puppy and it's making a snorting sound, is this normal or should I go to the vet?" versus "what's wrong with my dog?". The latter being something I would never consider not doing in person. The former being the kind of posts I have made and continue to read on our chat room. 99% of the time, the response on our chat room is "...sounds like [fill in the blank] and you should take fluffy to the vet to be sure".
I guess I like the internet for being able to set my neurotic concerns for my dog's health free. But I am saddened that people can actually have their pets diagnosed over the internet. I guess maybe getting a second opinion about an Xray makes sense, but are you saying that e-vets actually respond to an electronic description of an ailment? That seems to cross an intangible line. But, I am also horrified that people can "download" house plans and build their 'dream house' from them. ;(
Obviously there will be loads of dodgy e-vets out there and you have to find a website you can trust. I had a good experience with one called Why Does My Pet? but this seems to have been discontinued.
Its also great for behaviour problems - I find it difficult to locate anyone who can tell me what to do about a cat that bites - most vets dont seem to offer that information, or know enough about animal behaviour to give a useful answer.
But it is rarely a substitute for a vet visit. It can give more information than the vet has time to offer, and also information from another angle. When my dog was diagnosed with cataracts (wrongly, it turns out), I was able to read up on the surgery, recovery, costs, and what it all involved, and make a decision based on that. Same for his collapsing trachea - surgery or no? does surgery work? is age a factor? are there other treatments, researched or not?
Some vets give out information leaflets, which to me says "this will save me time explaining it to you in detail, and to the next person who comes in with the same problem".
Email lists offer another source of information that was closed to us not so long back. A group of people who are knowledgeable, and joined by their common interests. They can also offer personal experiences, not always possible from a vet (who wont necessarily own every species they treat, or have experienced directly the effects of an illness or injury in the longer term - ie living with the pet in that condition).
I am not sure I would be willing to pay for that information, since so much is available free anyway. How much more useful would the information be, compared to a reputable vet website?
I know loads of info online is free, but sometimes I can't be bothered to trawl through it all. And it is easy to go off on a red herring at times. At least the paid advice is tailored to my individual pet, considering the individual medical history and circumstances. I don't see that kind of personalized human attention ever being replaceable.