Online Pet Health Advice

One of the major problems with getting information from the internet is that almost anyone can masquerade as an expert in any field. Just because the person on your favorite dog owners' forum says he is an experienced veterinarian without any particular bias doesn't mean he is. That "veterinarian" could just as easily be a marketing agent for a seedy brand of pet medicine who will tell you anything to get you to buy their product. Therefore, it's important to choose your informants carefully before acting on their advice.

I avoid getting pet health advice from any site that is affiliated with a particular brand or product. Of course, sometimes it's not easy to tell if a website is owned by a particular company. One of the simplest checks to do is to look at the "About" section of a website. There have been many times when I've gone to what appeared to be an unbiased site, only to find by clicking on the "About" link that the site was owned by a major manufacturer.

I also avoid relying too much on user forums and chat rooms. Granted, there are times when these places can be useful. If you're looking for simple advice on a concern that's not really that serious (e.g. the best way to clip your dog's toenails), then a forum can be super helpful. It's also a great place to get a whole lot of opinions at once. When I start to get wary is when my pet has a serious problem that needs solving, or someone recommends a solution that sounds rather drastic.

The best place to get information on pet health is from a veterinarian, right? Then why not check out websites associated with trusted veterinary associations? The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) devotes a section of their site to animal health information for the public. It's not as spiffy a site or as easily navigated as a commercial site, but it can be trusted. AVMA-recommended experts also provide pet health information on this site.

It's also useful to find out what sites other pet owners like to use. This is where user forums and chat rooms can perhaps be the most helpful. Log on to your favorite message board and ask if anyone knows of good places to find information. If you've found a good community of pet owners online, they probably know some trustworthy spots. But of course, always do your own background check on the site to see if it's associated with a brand, as described above. The best sites will feature advice from actual veterinarians.

Now that I've given you some info on how to find reliable pet health websites on your own, I'll tell you about my favorite site for finding pet health information. A while ago my Maltese started running into some major health issues. Specifically, he had something I discovered was called Shaker Syndrome. When I ran a Google search, I found this article on PetMD.com. After reading the article, I ended up taking my dog to the vet, and she confirmed everything that the article had already told me. I was so impressed by the site that I have regularly gone back to their dog section for info ever since.

The site also has information on many other types of animals. I really love the blogs, too. There have been a couple of times now where they've tipped me off to dog product issues I was unaware of. For instance, a post on pet medicine tipped me off to the fact that instead of buying both flea medicine and heartworm medicine (I'd paid for both this and this for years, and that adds up!), I could just purchase one product that took care of both issues (something called Revolution). I also learned about a recall on Iams dog food that saved me a lot of heartache.