One of the new aspects to vetting that has emerged during lockdown is the virtual consultation.

Increasingly we are trying to triage patients over the phone or online. This means that a lot of initial enquiries by owners involve them sending us a photo of a lesion on their pet. What we are finding is that these photos vary massively in their quality; we see everything from the David Bailey photographic masterpiece to the blurred camera phone shot which could be any part of any hairy creature’s anatomy. I have huge sympathy with clients – I find it hard enough to take a photo of my pets looking in the right direction, let alone accurately show a worrying skin lesion. I look forward to the day when we can see all these pets with our own eyes and give them a good prod and poke.

One area where the camera phone has come in handy over the last few years (since well before coronavirus and lockdown) is in diagnosing seizures and other “funny turns” in our pets.

Many neurological and some heart and metabolic illnesses will present with intermittent collapse, fits or odd activity. Because these episodes are intermittent, they often do not happen in the consulting room, so it is really useful if owners can video them in their own homes. This way we have more of a chance to judge what might be causing these episodes and plan further diagnostics tests and treatment.

It may be a while before the way we work returns to normal – I suspect I will have a few more moments of staring at an emailed photo of a hairy mass thinking “Is that on a bottom or a forehead” before life returns to normal.

*Alice Moore is a vet at Castle Veterinary Clinic, Dorchester and Weymouth. Tel 01305 267083.