By Dr. Lisa McCarthy
Recently, one of my longtime clients asked me to look at an online product she had found while researching ways to help her dog, whom we’ll call Luna. Luna has severe allergic skin disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and behavioral challenges. She’s fortunate to have devoted owners who love her deeply and are willing to do whatever they can to help her.
As a veterinarian, I appreciate clients who ask questions and want to learn. In fact, I encourage it. The website promoting this product featured someone described as a board-certified veterinary dermatologist. Before giving my opinion, I visited the website of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology to learn more about this specialist. There was just one problem: no veterinarian by that name existed.
The “expert” was almost certainly fictional – possibly an actor, or even an AI-generated person created to sell a product.
Could the supplement have been harmless? Maybe. Could some ingredients even have potential benefits? Perhaps. But when a company uses a fake specialist to build trust, that’s a red flag.Fortunately, Luna’s owners checked with me first. Together, we continued the diagnostic plan we’d already started, identified the underlying causes of her skin disease, and found treatments that have her feeling much better today.
Artificial intelligence is transforming veterinary medicine in many positive ways. It can help clinics streamline scheduling, improve communication, summarize medical records, and reduce administrative work, giving veterinarians more time to focus on patient care.
But AI also has a downside. It can generate convincing, but completely inaccurate, information. Even more concerning, it has become remarkably easy for dishonest companies to create fake experts, fake testimonials, and professional-looking websites that appear legitimate.
Your veterinarian brings something AI cannot: years of education, hands-on experience, clinical judgment, and the ability to examine your pet, interpret subtle findings, and tailor recommendations to that individual animal. Medicine is rarely one-size-fits-all.
By all means, stay curious. Read. Ask questions. Learn about your pet’s condition. But treat AI and internet searches as conversation starters – not as final answers.
The best outcomes happen when informed pet owners and their veterinarian work together as a team. If you find something online that sounds promising, bring it to your next appointment. We genuinely want to discuss it with you, help separate good information from bad, and find the safest, most effective plan for your pet.
After all, we both want the same thing: a happier, healthier pet.
When you are looking for trustworthy pet health information, here are some good places to start:
- Your own veterinarian or your veterinary hospital’s website.
- Reputable veterinary organizations such as the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC), and the Feline Veterinary Medical Association.
- AAHA also offers excellent pet health articles and a free Healthy Pet Gazette newsletter for pet owners. Visit www.aaha.org to explore their resources.
- Veterinary Partner offers a comprehensive, easily digestible library of articles for pet owners, which are directly authored and reviewed by veterinary experts.
