How the VitalPaws Free Vet Consultation Works

Short answer: every VitalPaws order includes one free 1:1 phone teleconsult with our vet, at no extra cost. Our Pet Care Expert calls you within 24 hours of your order to book it for the 3–5 PM window — the same day if your order is confirmed before 3 PM, the next day otherwise. The team calls you first and brings the doctor onto that same call, and the doctor's written advice comes back to you through the team afterward.

What's included, and when it happens

You don't book anything yourself. As soon as your order is placed, our Pet Care Expert calls you within 24 hours to confirm your dog's details — breed, weight, what you've already tried — and to set up the teleconsult in the same call. It's timed for the 3–5 PM window: same day if your order was confirmed before 3 PM, the next day if it was confirmed later. This usually happens before your pack even arrives, so you're not waiting for a problem to get worse before someone looks at it.

On the call, our team dials you and brings in Dr. Anvesh Chakravarthy (B.V.Sc & A.H., PetPulse Clinic, Secunderabad) together — there's no separate number to call and no app to install. Whatever the doctor advises comes back to you afterward through the team, in writing, so you have it to refer back to.

How to get the most out of the call

A phone consult works best when there's something to actually look at. Before your call, have ready:

• Clear photos of the skin, ears or paws, taken in daylight — not under a yellow bulb, and not blurry.
• A short video if it's a behaviour — limping, head shaking, scratching, a particular way your dog is moving.
• Any reports or prescriptions you already have from an earlier vet visit.

If your dog's main issue is ongoing itching or scratching, it helps to know roughly where it's worst and how long it's been going on — our guide on why dogs keep scratching, ranked by likely cause, walks through the common patterns before your call.

What a phone consult can help with — and what needs an in-person exam

A teleconsult is genuinely useful for a lot of things: reviewing visible signs from your photos and video, talking through your dog's daily routine and diet, following up on a diagnosis or prescription you already have, and general guidance on what to watch for next. It is not a substitute for hands-on veterinary care.

Some things can only be checked in person — a vet feeling your dog's abdomen for pain or swelling, an otoscope exam inside the ear canal, or in-clinic diagnostics like a skin scraping (checking a sample under a microscope for mites) or cytology (a swab checked for bacteria or yeast). If any of the following is true, an in-person exam matters more than a phone call: your dog is in obvious pain, a wound won't stop bleeding, the abdomen looks suddenly swollen or tight, there's difficulty breathing, your dog collapses or can't stand, or something is clearly getting worse by the hour rather than settling.

Want a second opinion on a diagnosis or a bill?

We are not against vets; we are against guessing. If you already have a diagnosis, a blood report, or an estimate and want a second read on it, bring the same things to your consult: the reports, any photos, a short history of what's happened so far, and the estimate itself. For ongoing itching and skin cases, the tests a vet commonly reaches for are a skin scraping, cytology, and sometimes a fungal culture (for suspected ringworm) or a blood and allergy panel — knowing which of these, if any, your dog has already had makes the second opinion far more useful.

This is not an emergency service

Our teleconsult is a scheduled call, not a same-hour emergency line — please don't wait for it if your dog shows any of these. Go to the nearest open clinic right away for: a suddenly swollen, tight abdomen with retching but little coming up (this can be gastric dilatation-volvulus, or GDV, often called bloat, and it moves fast); high fever, sudden lethargy or pale gums, especially after a tick bite (possible tick fever — canine monocytic ehrlichiosis or babesiosis); suspected ingestion of a toxin such as chocolate, xylitol, or rat poison; or laboured, noisy breathing. If your dog is having ongoing loose motions alongside any of this, our guide on why loose motions keep coming back also lists the signs that need a same-day vet visit rather than home care.

On the way to the clinic: keep your dog as calm and still as you can, don't offer food or water if the belly looks bloated, carry the packaging of anything it may have eaten, and call the clinic ahead so they're ready when you arrive.

Not visibly better by Day 30? Tell us and we refund 100% — no forms, no return shipping, keep the pack.