Online veterinary counseling. Experienced licensed veterinarians.

Online veterinary counseling is an effective form of veterinary support, offering communication via internet video calls, chats, and messaging. VeterinaryDAO online veterinary counseling wants to help pet owners with their pet’s life challenges in a professional, affordable and comfortable setting.

Online veterinary counseling. Experienced licensed veterinarians.

Your pet deserves to be healthy.

Your pet deserves to be healthy

Since 2020, an increased number of pet owners have used online veterinary counseling to meet with their veterinarian, often due to the convenience, accessibility, and affordability of this option for pet care advice & animal health care education. We envision a future in which veterinary counseling platforms help millions of pet owners worldwide. 

Veterinary counseling sessions can be accessed from home or anywhere with an internet connection. In addition, it allows clients to take advantage of thorough, convenient and affordable veterinary counseling services.

For those who can’t commute to an appointment with a veterinarian due to remote location, income insecurity, or a disability – or might just feel more comfortable learning how to better manage their pet’s health from their own home – VeterinaryDAO can allow accessibility that may not be found elsewhere.

Professional, licensed, and vetted (no pun intended) veterinarians who you can trust

VeterinaryDAO aims to be the world’s largest provider of veterinarian counseling services online, with licensed, trained, experienced, and accredited veterinarians. Clients at VeterinaryDAO have access to better animal health & pet care knowledge.

VeterinaryDAO practitioners are licensed to address a range of challenges in veterinary counseling including the first months for a new pet owner, and concerns related to a pet’s end of life period. If you prefer a veterinarian who has experience with a certain health condition or who comes from a specific background, VeterinaryDAO can match you with the right professionals, licensed to practice on the platform, depending on veterinarian availability. 

With our online veterinarians, you get the same professionalism and quality you would expect from traditional veterinary counseling during an in-office session, but with the ability to communicate when and how you want using our platform.

Professional, licensed, and vetted (no pun intended) veterinarians who you can trust

Common types of online veterinary counseling

See VeterinaryDAO’s advice articles for more information about the following types of online veterinary counseling offered.

Essential Vaccinations for Pets Explained
How to Spot Stress Signs in Dogs and Cats
Nutritional Guidelines for Healthy Pets
Essential First Aid Tips for Pet Owners
Preventing and Treating Common Pet Parasites
Keeping Your Pet’s Teeth Healthy
Why Regular Vet Check-Ups are Vital
What to Do in Pet Emergencies
Behavioral Training Techniques for Pets
Genetics and Your Pet's Health
Integrative Medicine in Veterinary Care
Tips for Traveling with Your Pet
Health Checks and Care for New Pets
Caring for Senior Dogs and Cats

VeterinaryDAO benefits

Accessible online pet care advice & animal health care

VeterinaryDAO allows you to communicate with your veterinarian at your convenience from anywhere that has a stable Wi-Fi connection. With audio, video, and messaging veterinary counseling options, you’re able to communicate with your veterinarian when and where it works for you, without the added travel required for an in-person visit to the clinic. If you live in an area without many veterinarians to choose from, maintain a busy schedule, or don’t have access to reliable transportation, affordable online veterinary counseling can remove those barriers making veterinary support accessible to you.

Communicate with your veterinarian through messages, voice, or video

Veterinary messaging

Sending a message to your veterinarian allows you to communicate thoughtfully and allows them to formulate a more detailed response. You can also note something you’d like to discuss in your next live veterinary counseling session.

Live chat online

Live chat is similar to messaging, except you will receive live responses from your veterinarian throughout the duration of your session. This can be a great option if you need to take your veterinary counseling someplace that isn’t private, such as a cafe, or if you aren’t comfortable speaking through a phone call or video call.

Voice call

Using the VeterinaryDAO app, you can speak to your veterinarian through internet voice calls, which function just like a phone call. This allows for the veterinarian to speak with you live on concerns related to your pet.

Video online

Video veterinary counseling sessions are ideal for an experience that is comparable to seeing a veterinarian in person. Through our high quality video calls, your veterinarian will be able to see your pet. This type of session is highly recommended as it often provides the most impactful pet care advice from your veterinarian and can produce the best results. Try online veterinary counseling with one of our veterinarians.

Getting started with online veterinary counseling

Get matched with the best veterinarian for you

  • Once you select the categories of your request, you’ll answer a few short questions online to find a licensed veterinarian who fits your needs and preferences. You can be matched by the matching system, or you can choose a veterinarian from our network of licensed online veterinary counseling providers. If it’s not a good fit at first, it’s easy to switch veterinarians in order to find the best fit at any time.

Communication & help your way

  • Once you’ve been matched with a veterinarian, you can connect with them in real time or when it works for both of you, however you feel comfortable. Online veterinary counseling clients can communicate with veterinarians through phone, text messaging, chat, or video.

Veterinary counseling when you need it

  • You can send a message to your veterinarian at anytime, from anywhere. You also get to schedule live face to face sessions when it’s convenient for you, and can connect from any mobile device or computer during veterinary counseling online sessions.

VeterinaryDAO in the news - Virtual Veterinary Counseling

Frequently asked questions and topics about online & traditional veterinary counseling

VeterinaryDAO is a decentralized, AI assisted veterinary counseling platform and it’s 100% online. We change the way people approach their pet’s health and help them tackle their pet’s life challenges by providing accessible and affordable care. With VeterinaryDAO, you can message a professional veterinarian anytime, anywhere.

After you sign up, we will match you to an available veterinarian who fits your objectives, preferences, and the type of issues your pet is dealing with. Different veterinarians have different approaches and areas of focus, so it’s important to find the right person who can achieve the best results for your pet. 

Veterinarians on VeterinaryDAO are credentialled, trained, and experienced. Veterinarians must have a relevant academic degree in their field, at least 3 years of experience, and have to be qualified and credentialled by their respective professional organization after successfully completing the necessary education, exams, training, practice, and ongoing supervision requirements.

Our team ensures that every provider we bring to the platform is registered and in good standing. Providers who apply are required to provide proper professional documentation and proof of identity. We then cross-check their registrant information with their respective organization.

The cost of veterinary assistance through VeterinaryDAO ranges from €15 – €20 per week (billed every 4 weeks) and it is based on your location, preferences, and veterinarian availability. You can cancel your membership at any time, for any reason.

VeterinaryDAO may be right for your pet if you’re looking to improve the quality of your pet’s life. Whenever there is anything that interferes with your pet’s health or prevents them from living a healthy life, we may be able to help. We also have veterinarians who specialize in specific issues such as oncology, radiology and more.

The professionals who work through VeterinaryDAO are licensed and credentialed veterinarians who were certified by their state’s board to provide veterinary medicine services and counseling. However, while the service may have benefits, it’s not capable of substituting for traditional face-to-face veterinary counseling in every case. Please note that your provider won’t be able to make any official diagnosis, or prescribe medication.

This process can take a few hours or a few days, depending on veterinarian availability.

You can get veterinary assistance in four ways:

  • Exchanging messages with your veterinarian
  • Chatting live with your veterinarian
  • Speaking over the phone with your veterinarian
  • Video conferencing with your veterinarian

 

You can use different ways at different times as you wish, based on your needs, availability, and convenience.

Once you are matched to a veterinarian you can start messaging them. Your veterinarian will then read your messages, and respond with questions, feedback, insights, and guidance.

You can send messages to your veterinarian at any time, from any location, using any Internet-connected device. You can log in at any time and since messaging is not in real-time it doesn’t require scheduling. Instead, you can choose whenever you want to write or respond to your veterinarian. You will get a notification by email when the veterinarian has sent you a message.

You will sometimes want to have a text conversation with your veterinarian in real-time. This way you can still enjoy the convenience of messaging but also enjoy a “live” interaction that allows instant response and feedback from your veterinarian.


To have a live chat session, you will first need to schedule a time with your veterinarian. At the scheduled time, log in to your account to start typing and chatting with your veterinarian.

Phone sessions are a great way to conveniently speak with your veterinarian by simply using your cell phone, no matter where you are.

To talk with your veterinarian over the phone, you will need to schedule a time with your veterinarian and log in to your VeterinaryDAO account at that time. The veterinarian will prompt you to start the phone session and the system will ask you for your phone number. The system will then call you at that number and connect you with your veterinarian to start the phone session. Please note that the phone number you enter will not be shared with the veterinarian.

You can also have a video session with your veterinarian where you see each other and talk with each other in a virtual face-to-face setting (similar to Zoom or FaceTime).

To talk with your veterinarian via video, you will need to schedule a time with your veterinarian and log in at that time. Your veterinarian will then prompt you to start the video session. After you confirm, you will immediately begin video chatting with your veterinarian.

Yes. You can always login to your account and read all the veterinarian’s messages to you. 

We strive to deliver a web experience that is aligned with the most recent Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) at the AA level, published by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

  • If you are on a desktop browser, you can enable and launch the accessibility preferences by visiting the Accessibility page.
  • For mobile users, we recommend using your device’s native accessibility features. Instructions for iPhone can be found here, and for Android can be found here.

Your membership payments will be charged to a credit card or PayPal on a recurring basis. If you find veterinary care with VeterinaryDAO to no longer be helpful for any reason, you can simply cancel the subscription.

Neither VeterinaryDAO nor Veterinarians on the VeterinaryDAO Platform submit claims to pet insurers. Services offered using this site are generally not covered by pet health insurance.

The service is provided by independent providers who work directly with you. These providers are not employees of VeterinaryDAO and the site doesn’t oversee them professionally. Our mission is to build, maintain, and support a platform that lets users and veterinarians communicate effectively, and to facilitate this channel so they can get the most out of their interaction.

There are many cases that confirm the effectiveness of the online medium for veterinary counseling.

Our confidence in the platform comes primarily from the feedback and testimonials we receive from users. Every day, we are excited to hear from more people about the way this service helped them make a tremendous change in their pet’s life.

All veterinarians are registered with their respective organizations after successfully completing the necessary education, exams, training, practice, and ongoing supervision requirements as required by the organization.

For more information about how VeterinaryDAO protects your veterinarian interactions, please review our Privacy Policy.

To learn more about how veterinarians treat your confidential information, please see Will my veterinarian treat what I say as confidential?.

The information that you share is also protected by data privacy laws, for more information see our Privacy Policy. Here are some things that might be helpful to know:

  • We have built state-of-the-art technology, operations, and infrastructure with the goal of protecting your privacy and safeguarding the information you provide
  • You can always select the “Remove Message” button to remove messages that you’ve sent to your veterinarian.
  • All the messages between you and your veterinarian are secured and encrypted by banking-grade 256-bit encryption.
  • Our servers are distributed across multiple Tier 4- AWS Data Centers for optimal security and protection.
  • Our Platform is HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year (r2) Certified.
  • Our browsing encryption system (SSL) follows modern best practices.
  • Our databases are encrypted and scrambled so they essentially become useless in the unlikely event that they are stolen or compromised.
  • We don’t work with any insurance companies so nothing needs to be shared, reported or filed with them.

If you wish for any of your information or records to be released to a third party, please let your veterinarian know so that they can facilitate the release.

How much does online veterinary counseling cost?

The cost varies by platform. VeterinaryDAO’s monthly subscription plans range from €15 – €25 per week (billed every four weeks) which will pay for unlimited messaging and a monthly veterinary counseling call, video counseling, or live messaging veterinary counseling session with a licensed veterinarian. This pricing for veterinary counseling online is more cost-effective than the European Union market average of €25 to €50 per in-clinic counseling.

Platforms like VeterinaryDAO may also offer extra features and resources, which may not be offered by in-person veterinarians. These options might include free extra counseling sessions, pet’s health journaling, and webinar classes. VeterinaryDAO also offers thousands of free articles on pet care advice & animal health care topics such as eating disorders, when to see a veterinarian, accidents or trauma, intoxication, and more online veterinary counseling solutions.

How can online veterinary counseling help my pet?

Your pet doesn’t have to have an illness or health diagnosis to seek veterinary support and counseling – no matter your pet’s situation, it can benefit from pet care advice and improved animal health care. A veterinarian who works with telehealth services is trained to offer guidance in many areas and may specialize in several symptoms, and will meet you and your pet where you are in your journey.

What are common concerns about virtual veterinary counseling with an online veterinarian?

Pet owners may worry that they’re being matched with someone that is not accredited to offer veterinary support. However, platforms like VeterinaryDAO offer access to licensed, trained, and accredited veterinarians. The professional you match with virtually is as credible as one you may find in person, and the vetting process for online veterinarians is already done for you.

Other common concerns with veterinarians may include cost, effectiveness, privacy, and safety. However, this kind of support is cost-effective, and safe when used correctly through a platform like VeterinaryDAO . Read the statement on privacy policy as well as the Terms and Conditions on our website to learn more about affordable online veterinary counseling with VeterinaryDAO.

How often should you attend online meetings with your veterinarian?

How often you see a veterinarian depends on your preferences, your pet’s needs and any chronic issues your pet might have. 

Check VeterinaryDAO subscription plans to see what works best for you and your furry friend.

Can online veterinarians offer treatment by prescribing medication?

Licensed VeterinaryDAO veterinarians do not prescribe medication, or provide clinical and medication management services to pet owners.

According to the The European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE), it’s important to note that these professionals must be licensed in the state where they practice to prescribe medication or offer medication management treatment plans, and are subject to other licensing requirements.

Schedule a consultation with your veterinarian for further guidance on medication management or before starting, changing, or stopping any medication or medical treatment for your pet.

Why do people believe that online veterinary counseling works?

VeterinaryDAO online veterinary support offers counseling to pet owners worldwide with pets in common conditions and life challenges.

Because VeterinaryDAO is cost-effective, accessible, and flexible, it is often a viable alternative to traditional in-person, in-office veterinary counseling with a licensed veterinarian. In addition, pet owners and pets may enjoy membership benefits, like daily prompts, weekly classes, optional group training sessions in the form of webinars, and unlimited messaging with a veterinarian. VeterinaryDAO, under the parent foundation, is the leading veterinary platform worldwide for the cost and range of services offered, and has been ranked as the best online veterinarian service by multiple veterinary focused publications.

What will happen once I get matched with a licensed veterinarian?

Once you sign up for your VeterinaryDAO membership and are matched to a veterinarian, you will get a web space which will be your personal and secured place to communicate. In this web panel, you will share about your pet’s current situation, the problems going on in their life, thoughts concerning your pet that may trouble you, ask questions and discuss the issue that you would like to focus on with a licensed veterinarian. This acts as an initial assessment or initial consultation for veterinary counseling, allowing you to be intentional about what outcomes you’d like to see from attending consulting sessions with your veterinarian. This also helps develop an ongoing pet care plan with recommendations from your online veterinarian to get you there.

Your veterinarian will then read your messages, share with you their approach, and respond with questions, feedback, insights, resources, and tools that guide you towards the animal health care results you’re looking for. You may also be asked to complete datasheets so that your veterinarian can get to know your pet better beyond your counseling sessions.

How will I communicate with my veterinarian?

It’s easy to speak to your veterinarian through your preferred communication type. Here are the methods available on both mobile and desktop:

 

  • Unlimited messaging with a veterinarian
  • Chatting live with a veterinarian
  • Speaking over phone calls with a veterinarian
  • Video conferencing with a veterinarian

 

You can use different ways to communicate with your veterinarian for counseling sessions at different times as you prefer, based on your needs, availability, and convenience. You can send messages to your veterinarian at any time, from any location, using any connected device. You can log in to your pet owner’s web space at any time and since messaging is not in real-time it doesn’t require scheduling. Instead, you can choose whenever you want to write or respond to your veterinarian. You will get a notification by email when you have received a return message from your veterinarian.

You can also have live video sessions with your veterinarian, where you meet each other and talk with each other using technology similar to Skype or Zoom. To talk with your veterinarian via video, you will need to schedule appointments and log in to your pet owner’s web space at that specific time. Your veterinarian will then prompt you to start the video session. After you confirm, you will immediately begin video chatting.

There’s no pressure to stick with the first veterinarian you’ve been matched with. If you decide it’s not a good fit after the first consultation and counseling session with your veterinarian, or there is limited availability on the day you prefer, simply switch veterinarians at any time by selecting someone else. This flexibility is part of your paid membership with no hard feelings.

How does scheduling veterinary appointments online work?

A live veterinary counseling session (by either chat, phone, or video) with a licensed veterinarian from our platform can be scheduled in two ways:

By your veterinarian:

While in a respective pet owner’s Sessions Page, they can book a telehealth session with a veterinarian in the Schedule section. The veterinarian should discuss and coordinate the date and time with you beforehand, versus scheduling a time without consulting with you first. For your convenience, if you are in a different time zone, the technology allows for you both to see the times in both time zones for the online counseling session.

By you:

You can schedule live counseling visits with your veterinarian once you click on an available time slot. The veterinarian can set the time slots in which they are available for a live session using the “Scheduling” tab of the dashboard. We do inform pet owners that if they don’t see a day/time that works, to send a message to see if there is a way to open up additional timeslots.

Either way, when a live session is scheduled, confirmation and reminder emails will be sent out. From there it is easy to cancel a veterinary counseling session that was scheduled if needed.

In addition, there is a feature under the Help tab called “Video session test”. This feature will run a test of your device to make sure it’s ready to go for a live video session with a veterinarian. There are other tools and resources here to ensure you have the best connection possible during your session.

Having issues? Reach out to VeterinaryDAO directly at contact@veterinarydao.ai for any questions or issues you might have regarding the billing process, your account, payments, or anything else related to working with a veterinarian on our online veterinary platform.

What should I do to prepare for online veterinary counseling with a veterinarian?

It’s a good idea to read about what you might expect before you start with a telemedicine provider for your specific pet and conditions. Here are a few articles and links to get you started working with an online veterinarian.

What are the pros and cons of an online pet care advice & animal health care app?

If you haven’t used telemedicine before, the idea of your pet receiving care from an online veterinarian might be daunting. Know that starting to provide more time and resources to your pet’s health, whether you’re looking for online or in person veterinary counseling, is a great step toward improved pet health and wellness. Millions of pet owners in the European Union and around the world have received evidence based veterinary counseling through telehealth platforms. Here are some of the pros and cons to consider related to affordable online veterinary counseling:

The pros
  • Access veterinary counseling from your home, without the added travel to in-clinic visits
  • Attend sessions through message, voice calls, or video calls
  • Communicate outside of veterinary counseling sessions by sending messages at any time
  • Change veterinarians easily whenever you want
  • Find a veterinarian who has experience in a less common specialty
  • Is as effective as in person pet owner counseling
  • VeterinaryDAO offers over 34,000 veterinarians to choose from
  • If you’re in a rural area, you may get greater access through an online veterinarian service
  • Detailed privacy policy
  • In some cases, access to pet health tests and partner discounts
The cons
  • Pet insurance providers may not cover pet owner veterinary counseling through telehealth platforms offering an online veterinarian service
  • May not be a good fit for those in crisis situations; please seek immediate support if your pets are in crisis
  • Veterinary counseling online may not be appropriate for serious illnesses
  • Does not provide the same in-person interaction with the pet that traditional veterinary does with recurring office visits with a clinical veterinarian
  • Prescriptions can not yet be offered by online veterinarians

Who should not use a pet care advice & animal health care platform?

If your pet is experiencing a crisis or severe health emergency, or any other animal may be in severe danger, please do not use this site. Reach out to crisis services unaffiliated with VeterinaryDAO:

Is online veterinary counseling effective, and what research or evidence proves that veterinary telehealth works?

Science shows that online veterinary counseling works. In fact, several studies have proven it’s effectiveness when working with a veterinarian. Here are a few examples of veterinary research on the topic.

How do licensed veterinarians ensure effective pet wellness consultations through online veterinary platforms?

Televeterinary techniques used by licensed veterinarians, with a focus on being compliant with healthcare standards, have the goal of providing specialized consultations for issues ranging from new pet owner questions and concerns to a pet’s end of life years.

What are benefits and costs of affordable veterinary counseling using online veterinarian platforms vs in-person veterinary clinical care?

Pet Care Advice & Animal Health Care platforms like VeterinaryDAO can provide you with a number of benefits like the flexibility to work with different accredited veterinarians to find the best affordable veterinarian for your pet. Having access in this way via an app like VeterinaryDAO can provide the ongoing support needed for improved pet health care and wellness. Costs and fees (which are generally cheaper and a low cost option) are clear and transparent as it only relates to any subscription fees that connect you with available and accessible pet health counselors.

Are online veterinary services convenient and affordable effective pet health care?

One of the things that makes the best online veterinary services convenient is that pet owners can access pet counseling from anywhere, which is most helpful for people that do not have access to a traditional in-person veterinary center. Additionally, this kind of veterinary counseling service with a licensed veterinarian has competitive (and in many cases cheaper) fees than traditional veterinary solutions that lack the affordability that many people are looking for.

How do the top online veterinary providers VeterinaryDAO, Platform 2, and Platform 3 differ?

VeterinaryDAO

Platform 2

Platform 3

Number of veterinarians

30,000+

Not specified

Not specified

Counselor Qualifications

Veterinarian

Veterinarian

Veterinarian

Messaging

7 days per week

5 days per week

7 days per week

Live Chat

Yes

Yes, may be an additional cost

Yes

Phone Counseling

Yes

Yes, may be an additional cost

Yes

Live Video Counseling

Yes

Yes

Yes

Sessions Booking

Choose availability based on a calendar, no confirmation needed

Choose availability based on a calendar, veterinarian confirmation required

Choose availability based on a calendar, no confirmation needed

Matching to Vet Options

Matching algorithm or choose your veterinarian from a list – change at any time

Matched by algorithm

Matching algorithm or choose from a list – change at any time

Digital Pet Health Worksheets

Yes

No

Yes

Option for Medication Management

No

Yes

No

App Store Rating

4.8

4.8

4.7

Google Play Store Rating

4.6

4.4

N/A

Payment Commitment

Month-by-month default with option to change to week-by-week or quarter-by-quarter

Month-by-month, quarter-by-quarter, or semi-annually

Month-by-month default with option to change to week-by-week or quarter-by-quarter

Monthly Cost

€60 to €100, Depends on location and includes a monthly veterinary counseling session

€86 per month, costs may vary

€15 to €25 per live session

Billed Spot, Weekly or Monthly

All available

All available

Spot payment only

Financial Aid Plan Options

Yes

No

Yes

Payment Options

Credit card, PayPal, Crypto

Credit card

PayPal

For more information about VeterinaryDAO’s services, features, and licensed providers, visit the main FAQs section. If you have specific questions about your experience with VeterinaryDAO, please use the contact page to send the customer success team a message.

Free professional & medically reviewed pet health articles

These articles are written by the VeterinaryDAO Editorial Team, which is made up of professional researchers, writers, editors, and licensed veterinarians.

Some of our veterinary clinicians offering counseling

Some of our veterinary clinicians offering counseling
Some of our veterinary clinicians offering counseling
Some of our veterinary clinicians offering counseling
Our teamSome of our veterinary clinicians offering counseling
Our Veterinarians
Our Veterinarians
Our Veterinarians
Your pet deserves to be healthy

Your pet deserves to be healthy.

Our online veterinary platform has helped pet owners work through an array of pet health concerns during their time with VeterinaryDAO.

Get matched with a veterinarian and start your journey to improved pet wellness with VeterinaryDAO today.