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Dr. Michael Sturgeon examines a dog at Animal Veterinary Clinic in Gainesville. PHOTO/ VALENTINA SARMIENTO/UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
Fresh Take Business -- Milo, a 3-year-old goldendoodle, was recently diagnosed with Addison’s disease—he lacks the steroid production to calm down when stressed.
Caring for his condition can be costly and time consuming—care that may now become less burdensome for Varesha Mauney of Palm Beach Gardens, and thousands of others across the state, as Florida’s Legislature unanimously passed a bill authorizing virtual veterinary care.
A televet is great for follow-up questions, prescriptions and developments regarding existing conditions like Milo’s, Mauney said.
Current state law allows veterinarians to treat animals via telemedicine only if the patient has been seen in person within a year. The new measure, still awaiting the governor’s signature, would allow telemedicine for pets as a regular form of treatment, and would create a series of regulations for televet care in the state. It also would authorize telehealth for initial appointments establishing the veterinarian/client relationship—and would allow vets to prescribe certain drugs via televisits. “There are certain prescriptions the vet cannot prescribe because (they are) too strong of a drug,” said Rep. Sam Killebrew, R-Winter Haven, who sponsored the House bill. “If a vet is communicating with a pet owner and the vet is uncomfortable with making a diagnosis or prescribing something, then you can say, ‘I’m not comfortable doing it.’ It’s at the discretion of the pet owner and of the veterinarian.” Vet telemedicine is projected to grow 18% every year for the next 10 years, compounding business revenue for practicing vets.
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, people who worked remotely were eight times as likely to acquire a pet, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, with work-from-home jobs driving the demand for telehealth vet services.
If telemedicine is used in humans, it will also work on pets, said Mark Cushing, CEO and founder of The Animal Policy Group and co-founder of the Veterinary Virtual Care Association.
“Why did human medicine adopt telemedicine in all 50 states? Many people lived in areas where they were not close to a doctor or a hospital or a practice,” Cushing said. “The same thing is true for pet owners.”
Alex Steverson, a Tallahassee veterinarian, argued against the legislation during a Senate committee hearing last month.
“Our patients cannot communicate,” Steverson said. “We are relying on the interpretation of a non-medical owner, to tell us what they think is wrong with their pet.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend telemedicine in babies under two years old as they are not communicative, he said.
“Owners can be way off base about what is wrong with their pet,” Steverson said.
Michael Sturgeon has been a Gainesville veterinarian for 17 years— and said he doesn’t practice telemedicine.
"It's going to be hard to advocate for those pets, as veterinarians, even over the phone, simply based on what the owner is telling us,” he said. “Oftentimes, even in the brick and mortar, they tell us what they want, but they’re missing the underlying problems or are upset about cost and it becomes a challenge for all of us.”
Sturgeon said that through a virtual visit, he can’t perform a physical exam. His priority is for the pet to be happy and healthy and the owner “financially conscious of what they are investing in,” he said.
"I certainly think that it has its place. In which case, I think defining it will be better for both the profession, the doctors and for the owners,” Sturgeon said.
An advocate for veterinarian telemedicine, Jennifer Hobgood, an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals lobbyist, is concerned about veterinarian shortages and healthcare access for pets in the country—something that she hopes the new law would lessen.
“The current system of care based on the brick-and-mortar clinic is not serving the public and it’s not serving pet owners,” Hobgood said. “We need broad access to telemedicine to help address those obstacles.”
The University of Florida projects a shortage of 14,000 to 24,000 companion-animal veterinarians by 2030, said James Lloyd, the dean of the UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
This story was produced by Fresh Take Business, a news service from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at j.romeroguzman@ufl.edu.
