After almost two years of relying on virtual meetings, many people cringe at the thought of another Zoom call. For veterinarians and their clients, however, the value and popularity of virtual consultations are only growing.
While veterinary telemedicine isn’t new, the practice is evolving from clients sending photos and videos via text to the use of online video calls, says Dr. Tommy Ware, a veterinarian who often consults virtually with his clients.
Ware and his fellow veterinarians at Veterinary Agri-Health Services in Rocky View County, Alta., have “started using FaceTime and things such as Zoom or Google Meet quite a bit now with clients to get good face-to-face virtual conferences, whether it be over a sick animal or whether it be more of a management-type, sit-down meeting discussing data,” he says.
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According to the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), telemedicine is a complementary tool for veterinary medical practice, meant to expand the care a veterinarian can provide.
For a veterinarian to provide diagnosis or treatment by electronic methods, a valid veterinary-client-patient relationship (VCPR) must already be established between the client and veterinarian, as required by the veterinary medical associations across Canada. This means the veterinarian “has adequate knowledge of an animal to pursue diagnosis and treatments of various conditions,” which “most often requires a veterinarian to have completed a physical exam or on-site visit,” as stated in the CVMA’s guidelines for telemedicine.
“What that establishes is I trust the client, the client trusts me and we know how to communicate,” says Ware. “We’ve had a long-standing relationship where when I say certain things, they understand certain things, or they understand it a certain way and it takes a lot of trust to get to that point.”
There is no one set way to practice veterinary telemedicine, he explains, and at his practice, this is often done through phone calls and clients sending photos or videos.
“The ability to do FaceTime or some other type of video conference call is also excellent, too, because then it’s live feed. It gets a lot more streamlined that way because you’re not having to sit there and text back and forth,” he says. “It really cuts down on the time, and you’re able to really have a face-to-face conversation with that client.”
Often, Ware will use telemedicine to determine if an animal requires veterinary care and a physical exam. For example, if a client is wondering whether or not a new calf requires some sort of treatment, a virtual consult is a fast way for Ware to assess what the animal needs.
Given rural veterinarians hectic schedules, telemedicine helps prioritize calls based on severity, easing some of those time constraints.
“It’s really helped triage a lot of things one might consider an emergency,” he says. “Once you can actually see it and say, ‘I think this can wait until tomorrow morning, and I’ve got more time tomorrow morning, I can come out first thing’ … I think this can significantly help that.”
Other than situations such as talking more experienced ranchers through a calving difficulty over the phone, for example, Ware notes that virtual consults are less helpful in emergencies, particularly when it comes to calving, as there’s only so much that can be done without being present.
Tips for producers
To ensure your veterinarian has as much information as possible to assess an animal by telemedicine, providing clear, detailed, high-quality images that show a full view of the animal is key, Ware says.
“Say you have a calf with a swollen spot somewhere on it — if you take just a picture of that one swollen spot, it’s kind of hard to see what you need to see,” he says.
“So if they back up and give me a nice landscape picture of the calf, usually I can tell a lot just from that, or at least it’s a good starting point, and you can get more detail from there.”
As well, Ware recommends knowing the details of the animal’s physical state so you’re prepared to answer the vet’s questions. Having tools such as a thermometer on hand can be helpful, in case the vet needs to know the animal’s temperature.
New platforms for facilitating virtual consultations are also on the horizon. “To speak to the veterinary industry, there are a lot of virtual telemedicine-type companies out there that are trying to develop more streamlined software for veterinary practices and their clients,” he says.
Ware anticipates this practice will become more frequent at vet clinics across Canada and that clients will reach for this option more readily. “I think it’s become more and more important because as the years pass by, things are becoming more and more streamlined, and time is of the essence,” he says.
“People like … quick responses and not having to wait for one of us to come out or having to make a trip to town to see us. So these are becoming quite popular because instead of having to shut the whole operation down to go to the vet’s office and have a sit-down meeting, they can stop for coffee for 15 minutes over a Google Meet call or a Zoom call,” Ware says.
“Our clients are starting to see the value of it, and I can only imagine it’s going to get more important.”
