One of the newest uses of broadband that many millions of us discovered during the pandemic was telemedicine visits to avoid time-consuming live visits to a doctor or therapist office. Very quietly, there has also been an explosion of veterinary telemedicine visits.

Some states have laws for veterinarians that don’t allow them to dispense medicine over the phone or telemedicine connection for a for a pet they haven’t previously seen. However, many vets are able to prescribe medicine for a pet they’ve recently seen, and some states are more open to allowing vets to prescribe medicines during an online visit.

If your vet conducts telemedicine visits, then virtual visits can be a real benefit compared to dragging a reluctant pet to the vet for a routine matter. I’m pretty certain that my cat Baxter believes that we’re trying to kill him every time he has to go into a carrier for a trip to the vet. Telemedicine visits can reduce pet and pet-owner anxiety for routine visits that don’t require an examination. Vets say that many cat owners never bring their pets to see a vet because of the anxiety created for the pet.

Since our pets can’t talk to us, pet owners are often not sure if their pet is having a problem that requires a vet visit. One interesting and popular area of online veterinary practice is tele-triaging. This is a service where a vet will answer basic questions about your pet. Is their behavior a sign of a problem? Is the houseplant they just ate poisonous? Is your pet sick enough to justify a nighttime run to an emergency pet clinic?

Vets say that they diagnosis many problems by telemedicine with the participation of the pet owner. The vet can do things like see a pet’s gums, count the respirations per minute, or watch a pet walk to see if there are any obvious problems. Vets say that they’re finding that doing visits this way has the side benefit of bringing pet owners into the process of understanding their pet better.

Veterinary telemedicine visits are marketed in a variety of ways. Some visits are analogous to human telemedicine using pay per visit. Other veterinarians sell annual plans that allow pet owners to contact them more often. And, as you might expect, there is now pet insurance that can help to offset the cost of telemedicine visits.

Another interesting aspect of using broadband for pet care is using broadband connections to talk to experts. For example, Chewy, the large online pet supply company offers customers who use their autoship program free televisits with a pet expert who can discuss a wide range of behavioral or dietary questions concerning pets.

Broadband is becoming so embedded in most people’s lives that at some point we’ll start to make a list of things that are not available online.