Get the vet to make house calls? Trust us; your pets will thank you.
This might be the most ingenious thing we’ve seen in a long time.
Just like Uber allows you to summon a cab as fast as your fingers can type, VetPronto is here to provide on-demand veterinary service — in your own home, no less.
We all know that getting our furry friends to the vet can often be a struggle. They can get anxious and panicky in an unfamiliar place, or we know they’re feeling super down in the dumps and don’t want to subject them to a bumpy car ride.
Well, if you’re located in the Seattle area, you may not need to worry about that anymore.
“We were talking to a bunch of pet owners about the challenges around veterinary care and they pretty much unanimously told us that getting to the vet was a major pain,” says co-founder Joe Waltman. “We made the rather obvious realization that an opportunity might exist to provide a great house call service.”
VetPronto operates through a mobile app you can install on your phone. With the push of a few buttons, you can have a veterinarian come to your house at a specified time. While you’ll be able to check availability and make appointments on your end, the vets will be able to use their smartphones, too — to access pet information and upload medical records.
While there are other mobile veterinary services in Seattle, Waltman says that a few things set them apart: flexible scheduling, no waiting rooms or potential infections from other animals and “clear and transparent pricing.”
For instance, there’s a flat rate of $129 for a veterinary house call, which includes the visit, exam, and questions and answers. If need be, you can also add additional services like vaccinations on top of the base fee: it costs an extra $59 for a vaccination package or $25 for an individual vaccine. A diagnostic package, which includes things like blood work, needle biopsies or fecal analysis, is $99.
While it may be a bit pricier than the average vet (depending on where you live), you know upfront just how much you’ll be paying, which often doesn’t happen at your traditional brick-and-mortar veterinary clinic. Most importantly, your pet gets to stay in a comfortable, safe home environment instead of feeling sick and stressed out in an exam room.
Right now, there are three veterinarians on the VetPro team, but we wouldn’t be surprised if that number grows in the near future.
While VetPronto is currently only in the Seattle area, we think this is an idea that’s sure to catch on.
You can learn more about VetPronto by visiting their website.
What do you think? Have you ever used a mobile veterinary service before, or would you?
[Source: GeekWire/ VetPronto]
