Virtual Care

PURPOSE: Teletriage is the safe, appropriate, and timely assessment regarding the management of your pet via electronic consultation with you the owner, (or another responsible party). With this appointment type, the doctor will assess your pet’s condition electronically, and so will determine the urgency and the need for immediate referral to a veterinarian, based on your report of history and clinical signs, sometimes supplemented by visual (e.g., photographs, video) information. A diagnosis is not rendered, and specific medical therapy will not be discussed. The essence of teletriage is to make good and safe decisions regarding if your pet needs to be seen by a veterinarian or not under conditions of uncertainty and urgency.

PURPOSE: A telemedicine/sick pet appointment type should be chosen when the goal is to improve your pet’s clinical health status (help make them feel better). The appropriate application of telemedicine can enhance the care of your pet by facilitating communication, diagnosis, treatment, client education, scheduling, and other tasks.

WHAT TO EXPECT: A complete medical history will be taken, and a video conference is preferred when able to allow the doctor to best assess your pet through visualization. You may be asked to show the doctor the problem areas you are seeing on your pet. Depending on the doctor’s assessment, you may need to:

1. Provide specific care that you can perform at home (these include but are not limited to diet changes, environmental changes, and other general nursing care)
2. Purchase medical therapy or prescriptions: Home Delivery service, to be picked up at our hospital or a human pharmacy
3. Provide a sample to the hospital (these include but are not limited to feces, urine, and ear swabs). You may be required to pick up from our hospital appropriate sample submission items such as cups, tubes, swabs, etc. depending on the requirements for testing.
4. Present your pet to be seen physically by the doctor at the hospital for a full physical exam, vital signs evaluation, and/or additional diagnostic testing.

PURPOSE: A telemedicine/sick pet appointment AFTER HOURS type should be chosen when the goal is to improve your pet’s clinical health status (help make them feel better) outside of our regular business hours. The appropriate application of telemedicine can enhance the care of your pet by facilitating communication, diagnosis, treatment, client education, scheduling, and other tasks.

WHAT TO EXPECT: A complete medical history will be taken, and a video conference is preferred when able to allow the doctor to best assess your pet through visualization. You may be asked to show the doctor the problem areas you are seeing on your pet. Depending on the doctor’s assessment, you may need to:

1. Provide specific care that you can perform at home (these include but are not limited to diet changes, environmental changes, and other general nursing care)
2. Purchase medical therapy or prescriptions: Home Delivery service, to be picked up at our hospital or a human pharmacy
3. Provide a sample to the hospital (these include but are not limited to feces, urine, and ear swabs). You may be required to pick up from our hospital appropriate sample submission items such as cups, tubes, swabs, etc. depending on the requirements for testing.
4. Present your pet to be seen physically by the doctor at the hospital for a full physical exam, vital signs evaluation, and/or additional diagnostic testing.

PURPOSE: This allows the remote monitoring of your pet for post-surgical follow- ups. *PLEASE NOTE- This appointment type is available for pets that have recently (less than 1 month ago) had surgery at Coco-Park Animal Hospital. If your pet has had surgery previously, but not in recently, please select the Telemedicine: Sick Pet/Medical Problem Appointment type.

WHAT TO EXPECT: Please be prepared to provide a history of how your pet has been doing since the surgery and pictures or videos of your pet. Just a few examples include visually monitoring an incision site to evaluate healing, monitoring your pet’s gait and overall mobility, and seeing your pet’s general demeanor and return to normalcy after surgery. All of these can be accomplished via texted photographs, recorded videos, or live video calls. Please know that as applies to any type of telemedicine, if the doctor is not comfortable with the data received during this appointment time to make a diagnosis or to make recommendations, you may be asked to present your pet for a full physical exam at Coco-Park Animal Hospital.

PURPOSE: This allows the remote monitoring of your pet AFTER HOURS for post-surgical follow-ups. *PLEASE NOTE- This appointment type is available for pets that have recently (less than 1 month ago) had surgery at Coco-Park Animal Hospital. If your pet has had surgery previously, but not in recently, please select the Telemedicine: Sick Pet/Medical Problem Appointment type.

WHAT TO EXPECT: Please be prepared to provide a history of how your pet has been doing since the surgery and pictures or videos of your pet. Just a few examples include visually monitoring an incision site to evaluate healing, monitoring your pet’s gait and overall mobility, and seeing your pet’s general demeanor and return to normalcy after surgery. All of these can be accomplished via texted photographs, recorded videos, or live video calls. Please know that as applies to any type of telemedicine, if the doctor is not comfortable with the data received during this appointment time to make a diagnosis or to make recommendations, you may be asked to present your pet for a full physical exam at Coco-Park Animal Hospital.

PURPOSE: If you have questions about general wellness care for your pet such as, which vaccines should my pet have? What diet should I feed my pet? What about insurance? Why shouldn’t I feed my dog chocolate?! Any general well-pet question that you can think of can be answered by your veterinarian! This option schedules your veterinarian for up to 15 minutes. For longer, more involved questions, please choose the 30 minutes option.

WHAT TO EXPECT: General wellness questions will be answered specifically tailored to your pet by a veterinarian on staff at Coco-Park Animal Hospital. You may also receive additional resources or references where available and appropriate by e-mail.

PURPOSE: If you have questions about general wellness care for your pet such as, which vaccines should my pet have? What diet should I feed my pet? What about insurance? Why shouldn’t I feed my dog chocolate?! Any general well-pet question that you can think of can be answered by your veterinarian! This option schedules your veterinarian for up to 30 minutes.

WHAT TO EXPECT: General wellness questions will be answered specifically tailored to your pet by a veterinarian on staff at Coco-Park Animal Hospital. You may also receive additional resources or references where available and appropriate by e-mail.

PURPOSE: Diabetes is a complicated disease that affects our cats and dogs. Diabetes is best managed with regular medical care and follow-up. Many pets benefit from home blood glucose curve monitoring and regular weigh-ins. This appointment option allows your veterinarian to consult with you regarding the management of diet, medications including insulin doses, (where blood glucose curves, weight monitoring, and clinical history can be accurately provided and is at the veterinarian’s sole discretion), providing triage consultation specifically regarding your diabetic pet’s management, or other medical advice regarding the handling of your diabetic pet.

WHAT TO EXPECT: You can expect to have your questions answered to the best of the attending veterinarian’s ability based on the information that he or she has. Typically, video conferencing is not required for this type of consultation, however, may provide a better result if the doctor is able to visualize your pet. For insulin dose therapy recommendations, you will be required to provide an at-home blood glucose curve (as directed by a doctor), current weight, and clinical history (how your pet is doing at home). Please be advised that any medical recommendations are at the sole discretion of the attending veterinarian. You could be asked to present your pet for physical examination in person at Coco-Park Animal Hospital or to provide your pet with additional testing before any medical therapy recommendations are made. You will have up to 15 minutes of consult time.

PURPOSE: When the stress of a trip to the hospital might exacerbate your pet’s already-deteriorating health, telemedicine provides a convenient way to check in on your senior pet or pet under hospice care. This is especially helpful for feline patients or patients with impaired mobility.

WHAT TO EXPECT: A hospice/senior care telemedicine evaluation allows your veterinarian to get a general sense of your pet’s overall well-being and determine whether treatment plans should be adjusted, or an in-person exam is needed. Video conferencing is preferred so your veterinarian can see your pet.

PURPOSE: Follow-up or minor appointment allows the remote monitoring of your pet for follow-ups and other minor appointments (the latter will be directed by a doctor). *PLEASE NOTE- Except for cases where you are specifically instructed to choose this appointment type, all pets must have been seen and diagnosed with the condition within the past 2 weeks. If your pet has suffered the same condition, but it has been more than 2 weeks since your pet was last evaluated for this condition, or you were not specifically instructed by the doctor to select this appointment type, please select the Telemedicine: Sick Pet/Medical Problem Appointment type.

WHAT TO EXPECT: Please be prepared to provide a history of how your pet has been doing since the last visit, and pictures and/or join a video conference of your pet. Please know that as applies to any type of telemedicine, if the doctor is not comfortable with the data received during this appointment time to make a diagnosis or to make recommendations, you may be asked to present your pet for a full physical exam at Coco-Park Animal Hospital.