..For Animals.
There are hundreds of pages on the internet about the benefits of social media in healthcare, the fantastic Patient Opinion site, lets people share their stories of their illness and how they coped with it, to sharing opinions on healthcare services they have used. Some opinions are good and some are bad. The main thing is once they are online and in the public domain they can be used to benefit many more people.
Anyways, what about animals? How can you use social media to help with the healthcare of your pets?
You could get them a Facebook page, or even their own webpage (I have to hold my hands up and say I have done this), but this won’t really help with the healthcare. You can join one of the many forums, 27 million results on Google where you can share and ask for advice. Or there are some more practical things you can do.
So how do you use social media to help with the healthcare of your pets? Bare with me I’m getting there..
Borris is nearly 11 years old and has been looked after by Pat since he was born. He goes every year for his anual check up and inoculations as well as other visits as required. Now we like to see Borris as this nice calm happy dog.
Sunbathing
When in fact he can turn in to a screaming banshie if he happens to see another animal he takes a dislike to. So as you can imagine trips to the vets can be a whole lot of fun. So now we are finally at the bit I enticed you in to this post with.
How can you use social media tools to help with the healthcare of your pets?
This week Borris has developed a cough, quite a nasty one, he doesn’t cough all the time and you can gurantee that when we take him to see Pat the vet, he won’t be coughing. So I made a short video on my flip this morning stuck it on YouTube and mailed the link to Pat.
Borris has got this cough, that comes and goes, have a look at this
and tell me what you think.
He doesn’t cough all the time, it can be days apart but sometimes it goes on for an
hour or more. I got it videoed for you because you know as well as I do he’ll be
so mental and wired if we come to see you it won’t happen.Let me know if I need to come in with him and see you.
Now all we need to do is wait for a response from Pat to say if there is anything to worry about and do we need to go and see him.
This is NOT A SUBSTITUTE to actually going and seeing your vet but if you have a vet who
- Knows your Pet
- Is digitally connected
- you have a good relationship with
Then it is a good way to use social tools to help you and your vet.
The chances are I would not get an appointment this morning for Borris and Borris may not need to actually go and see Pat as he was there for an operation recently. If he does need to go Pat will tell us to go to surgery tonight and we are no worse off.