For many pet owners today, accessing veterinary care can feel like a major hurdle. Long waits, high costs, time off work, transportation challenges, and clinic shortages can turn a simple ear infection or skin condition into a weeks-long ordeal to get basic care. For millions, the ordeal ends with no care at all.
Seventy-five million pet owners skipped or declined veterinary care last year due to cost or access. Not because they don’t love their animals — 84% of them consider their pets family — but because care has become something you have to fight to afford.
Veterinary costs have outpaced inflation every year since 2019. Average annual care costs can reach $3,000 per pet, and 67% of families can’t cover a $5,000 emergency vet bill without going into debt. So, they improvise: They cut back on groceries, delay rent payments, and pick up extra shifts. All for an animal they love, in a system that keeps getting more expensive. And when they still can’t make it work, their pet simply goes without.
These aren’t just statistics; these are real families making impossible choices. That’s not a pet problem, that’s a public health problem. Loving an animal is a privilege — affording care for one shouldn’t be.
And where cost isn’t the barrier, access is: 74% of pet owners can’t get a same-day appointment. Clinics close at 5 p.m., but pets — and their health — matter around the clock.
When care gets postponed, the consequences are real. Nearly half of the pets in situations where care is delayed experienced worsening conditions, emergency treatment, surrender, or death. What’s worse, the primary conditions — anxiety, ear infections, skin issues — are entirely manageable when someone can actually reach a vet. The tragedy isn’t just that care was delayed; it’s that for too many animals, no alternative existed.
We are not facing a pet health crisis. We’re facing a pet care cost and access crisis. Those are different problems, and they have different solutions.
The Solution Exists. Laws Are in the Way.
Veterinary telehealth works. California proved it. In January 2024, the state passed Assembly Bill 1399, expanding telemedicine and allowing virtual care relationships between vets and patients. Medical consultations grew by more than 13,000%. One in three new telemedicine appointments now originate in California, and tens of thousands of animals are getting care that simply didn’t exist under the old rules.
One Law Changed. Tens of Thousands of Animals Got Care.
The demand was always there, and the vets were ready. What was missing was permission.
In 2025, a third of veterinarians who applied to practice telehealth were qualified and ready, but they couldn’t be onboarded because of outdated state restrictions. In states where telemedicine is permitted, vet participation is 50% higher. This isn’t a safety debate or a quality debate; it’s a policy one. And 71% of pet owners already agree that virtual care should be available in all 50 states.
Telehealth is a part of the solution. Every consult is with a real, licensed veterinarian — not a bot — and most are after hours, when local clinics are closed. If a case isn’t right for telehealth, we refer immediately. No exceptions. Half of our new members hadn’t seen a veterinarian in over a year before finding us.
That’s not competition with in-person care; that’s reaching people who had no care at all. Over a pet’s lifetime, that access can save a family up to $24,000 — money that can go back into preventive care instead of being thrown at emergencies.
I carry the oath I took — to relieve animal suffering — with me every day. That is why I became a veterinarian. It’s why I joined Dutch. It’s why I’m building clinical guardrails for telemedicine. And it’s why I’m writing this.
Somewhere tonight, someone’s pet is getting worse while they wait and postpone care. For too many, there’s no appointment coming, no clinic within reach, no path to a vet — unless telehealth exists. The technology is here. The vets are ready. The public wants this. What’s missing is the political will to match all three.
Call your state legislators. Ask them where they stand on virtual veterinary care. The answer shouldn’t be complicated. We have the technology to care for our beloved pets and the power to advocate for them.