The Cyber Vet.
Dr. Jeffrey Feinman, C’82, V’85, will never see some of his patients’ tails wag in gratitude, because they live thousands of miles from his Weston, Conn., veterinary practice. But he does enjoy dispensing advice over the Internet to pet owners as far away as Australia and Africa.
Feinman introduced his HomeVet Web site last November to educate his local clients, but soon pet owners outside his county and even his hemisphere began e-mailing him with questions.
Some are just looking for a second opinion, but others lack adequate veterinary care in their area. For example, he says, “There was a dog in Peru with a disease which they didn’t have proper drugs for treating; we had to kind of jury-rig a proper treatment for the dog using what they had in that country.”
Responding to the messages takes a couple of hours a day, but Feinman finds it “very intellectually stimulating.”
The Web site includes holistic health-care advice, tips on choosing and training a puppy, and even space for people to share success stories or eulogize deceased pets.
By Susan Lonkevich