When to Consult an Online Vet? 10 Common Pet Problems You Can Solve Instantly

Written by ThePetNest Editorial Team  |  Medically Reviewed by Dr. Vikas Mahajan, MVSc (VCI Reg. No. VCI-MH-2019-10043 — 6 years of clinical practice in small animal medicine, Pune)

Quick Verdict — Read This First

Is your pet breathing normally and alert? Start with an online consultation.

Is your pet collapsing, seizing, bleeding heavily, or struggling to breathe? Stop reading. Go to a clinic right now. The rest of this guide will be here when you're back.

Before You Scroll: Emergency Red Flags

Get to a physical vet immediately — do not wait, do not call online — if your pet shows any of the following:

• High fever (above 104°F / 40°C) or shivering with a cold body
• Continuous vomiting — more than three times in a few hours, especially with blood
• Heavy bleeding that doesn't stop within two to three minutes of steady pressure
• Difficulty breathing — open-mouth breathing in cats is always a critical emergency
• Suspected fracture or total inability to bear weight after a fall
• Collapse, seizures, or sudden loss of coordination
• Suspected poisoning — rat poison, human medications, toxic plants like Dieffenbachia or Oleander
• Bloated, hard abdomen in large-breed dogs — this can be life-threatening GDV (gastric dilatation-volvulus)

Rush to a physical vet immediately. No platform, however well-staffed, can examine, X-ray, or stabilise a critically ill animal through a screen.

Sudden behavioural changes — a playful dog who's gone quiet, a cat hiding more than usual, uncharacteristic aggression. Pets signal discomfort behaviourally before physical symptoms are visible.

Loss of appetite for more than 12–18 hours — especially critical in cats, where skipping meals can escalate to hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) far faster than most owners realise.

Skin or coat changes — patches of hair loss, redness, excessive scratching, or a coat that has lost its sheen over the last few days.

Minor injuries — small cuts, mild limping, or a scrape you're not sure needs stitching.

Jump To

1. Mild Vomiting and Upset Stomach
2. Diarrhoea or Loose Motions
3. Ticks, Fleas and Skin Irritation
4. Ear Itching or Head Shaking
5. Mild Allergies
6. Red Eyes or Eye Discharge
7. Minor Cuts, Scratches and Injuries
8. Coughing, Sneezing or Cold-Like Symptoms
9. Loss of Appetite in Cats (Act at 12–18 Hours)
10. Anxiety, Stress and Behavioural Issues

1 Mild Vomiting and Upset Stomach

Dogs vomit. A lot. Sometimes it's because they ate grass, scarfed their food too fast, or found something unpleasant during their morning walk. One or two isolated episodes of vomiting, in a pet who is otherwise alert, drinking water, and not in obvious pain, is usually not an emergency.

An online vet will help you differentiate between dietary indiscretion — the clinical term for “your dog ate something it shouldn't have” — and something that warrants closer monitoring. They'll typically guide you through a 12–24 hour bland diet and tell you exactly which signs should send you to a clinic: blood in the vomit, more than three episodes in a day, or progressive lethargy.

2 Diarrhoea or Loose Motions

Loose stools are one of the top reasons pet parents call vets in Indian cities. The cause is almost always benign — a sudden switch in food, stress, street food scavenged on a walk, or sensitivity to a new treat. But diarrhoea dehydrates pets quickly, and in puppies or kittens under six months, even 18 hours of it can become serious.

An online vet will assess frequency, stool consistency, and whether there's blood or mucus involved. They can recommend oral rehydration and dietary adjustments immediately and tell you if the situation warrants a stool culture or physical exam.

3 Ticks, Fleas and Skin Irritation

In Indian cities, especially during and after the monsoon, tick and flea infestations are extremely common. Dense-coated breeds — Huskies, Golden Retrievers, Shih Tzus, Lhasa Apsos — are particularly prone. Tick-borne diseases, including Babesiosis and Ehrlichiosis, remain among the most underdiagnosed conditions in urban Indian pet dogs.

An online vet can examine your pet's coat via video, identify whether you're dealing with ticks, fleas, mites, or contact dermatitis, and recommend specific prescription-grade or OTC products by name. They can also walk you through safe tick removal — twisting incorrectly and leaving the head embedded is a very common mistake that leads to secondary infection.

For grooming-related skin care between vet visits, our Ultimate Guide to Pet Grooming in India covers prevention and coat maintenance in detail.

4 Ear Itching or Head Shaking

If your dog is scratching one ear and shaking their head repeatedly, it's almost certainly ear-related. The question an online vet helps you answer is: what's causing it? Wax buildup, a trapped grass seed, an early-stage yeast infection, or ear mites all present similarly but need different treatment.

A vet on a video call will ask the right diagnostic questions: Is there a smell? Is the skin inside the ear red or inflamed? Is there a dark discharge? Based on your answers, they can often differentiate between something manageable at home versus an infection that needs prescription ear drops — and guide you on proper cleaning technique to avoid pushing debris deeper into the ear canal.

5 Mild Allergies

Allergies in Indian pets are increasing, driven by changing diets (more ultra-processed food) and urban environmental factors — construction dust, seasonal pollen, certain indoor plants. They typically present as red itchy skin, paw licking, watery eyes, recurring sneezing, or a rash on the belly.

An online vet can help you map patterns: Does it flare after a walk? After a specific meal? During a particular season? That diagnostic conversation — history-taking and pattern recognition — is something a well-structured video call handles quite effectively.

6 Red Eyes or Eye Discharge

Redness, discharge, or excessive blinking in your pet's eye can look alarming but is frequently benign — mild conjunctivitis, a dust particle, or a blocked tear duct. An online vet can guide you through basic first aid: a gentle saline rinse, keeping the area clean, and the specific signs that indicate something more serious — a corneal scratch, uveitis, or cherry eye — that needs in-person attention.

7 Minor Cuts, Scratches and Injuries

Small wounds from rough play, a run-in with a thorny plant, or a scrape on concrete can almost always be assessed and managed at home with the right guidance. An online vet can look at the wound via video, assess its depth and edges, guide you through cleaning and bandaging, and tell you clearly if the cut looks deep enough to need stitching.

This is one of the most practical applications of pet telemedicine — expert eyes on the injury without the added stress of transporting an already anxious, hurting animal. For home first aid essentials, our Pet Grooming at Home guide includes a basic wound care kit checklist worth keeping handy.

8 Coughing, Sneezing or Cold-Like Symptoms

Dogs and cats get upper respiratory infections, just like we do. In cats, herpesvirus and calicivirus are the two most common culprits — causing sneezing, nasal discharge, and mild lethargy. In dogs, kennel cough (infectious tracheobronchitis) is a frequent post-boarding or post-park visit complaint, especially in cities with a dense dog park culture.

An online vet can assess symptom severity, determine whether you need supportive home care or prescription antivirals, and advise on isolation protocols if you have multiple pets at home.

9 Loss of Appetite in Cats (Act at 12–18 Hours)

Dogs can be picky eaters and occasionally skip a meal without immediate concern. Cats are a different matter entirely. Going without food for more than 12–18 hours puts cats at meaningful risk of hepatic lipidosis — fatty liver disease — because of how uniquely their metabolism functions. Unlike dogs, a cat's liver begins processing stored fat for energy very quickly, and once this cascade starts, it becomes significantly harder to reverse.

Do not wait for the 24-hour mark. If your cat has not eaten for 12–18 hours, that is the window to place a video call with a vet — not to observe for another day.

An online vet will ask about water intake, recent activity level, any environmental changes, recent vaccinations, and whether there has been any vomiting. In most cases they'll identify a likely cause and give you a clear next step — which may well include “come in now.”

10 Anxiety, Stress and Behavioural Issues

This is the most underutilised reason to use an online vet — and one of the most impactful. Separation anxiety is at near-epidemic levels in Indian cities, largely because pets raised during 2020–2022's work-from-home years are now alone for eight-plus hours daily. Sudden aggression, destructive chewing, excessive barking, regression in toilet training, and compulsive behaviours are all things a vet — often working alongside a certified animal behaviourist — can begin addressing through a structured consultation.

A video call with a vet is, in many ways, ideal for behavioural concerns. The vet can observe how you interact with your pet, assess the home environment visible on camera, and tailor recommendations to what they actually see rather than what you describe.

The best thing about online vet consultations isn't that they replace physical care. It's that they help you figure out, fast, whether physical care is what your pet actually needs right now — or whether you can breathe, follow a home care plan, and monitor quietly through the night.

That clarity alone is worth a lot at 11:30 PM when your dog won't stop scratching his ear.

Medically Reviewed By

Dr. Vikas Mahajan, MVSc

VCI Registration No. VCI-MH-2019-10043 •  6 years of clinical practice in small animal medicine  •  Pune, Maharashtra

Last reviewed: April 2026