Telehealth for pets is a thing?
Well, not really. Vet clinics have become ghost towns since the COVID-19 pandemic, but dogs still get ear infections and cats do…whatever the heck is they do all day.
Telehealth for humans has been booming in the last few years. It’s a 2.6 billion dollar industry and is trending up. Since 2015 the telehealth (for humans) industry has grown upwards of 25%.
But for pets? This is where Pawzy is stepping in.
Startup Lesson One: Pivot.
Kerri-Lynn McAllister hadn’t even fully baked her product when she realized she needed a new Northstar. So, she set out to build a vet clinic finder to connect owners with vets that specialized in their breed of pet. That’s pivot number 1.
Just as things seemed to be ready for launch the Coronavirus pandemic hit.
With every business and industry sprinting to digital solutions for their face to face services, Pawzy had to move fast (pivot number 2). While services like FaceTime work to a certain degree trying to manage interaction payment etc are a headache for busy vets. Not to mention privacy and data encryption.
Luckily her vet clinic finder had the search capability to find vets she just needed to bolt a video conferencing and virtual waiting room features to get to her v1.
Just like a traditional telehealth platforms, vets are able to manage a waiting room, send documents, take pictures, accept payments etc.
The ability to connect with pet parents online is imminently necessary to keep your practice running, while balancing the health and safety of your patients and staff. This transition to #virtualfirst care may seem daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. Pawzy Telehealth has you covered!
Is Telehealth for Pet here to Stay?
Pawzy has already on-boarded a few vet clinics in its first few weeks and as more places go into lock down the immediate need is there.
Since telehealth is becoming a standard practice it’s logical that those customers would also use a similar service for their pets. There might be a few hurdles along the away. Since in most cases dogs and cats can’t express their symptoms often gathering samples, tests, etc is the only way for a vet to make a diagnosis (I’m not sticking a thermometer up my dogs rear-end).
But there are endless use cases were visiting with a vet online is useful, not to mention convenient. A couple of months ago the world and consumers were different. With a shove into digital services, there are bound to be some winners – telehealth for pets might be one.
