Effective Date: October 15, 2026 Version: 1.0 Applies to: All Clients who book or attend a telemedicine consultation through the Platform, and all Veterinarians who conduct one.
Article 1: Introduction and Scope
1.1 This document states the terms that govern telemedicine consultations booked through the Platform: what the Telemedicine Service is, who provides the veterinary care, what a Client may expect and shall do, the fees, the records position, and how liability is allocated. A Client accepts this document by booking a consultation or by attending one.
1.2 The Telemedicine Service is a distinct service with its own instrument. This document is separate from the Terms of Use, which is the master agreement for the Platform and applies in addition to this document, and separate from the Tele-Triage Terms, which govern the automated tele-triage service. Tele-triage is not a telemedicine consultation, and a telemedicine consultation is not tele-triage.
1.3 The Company provides the Platform: the booking flow, the consultation room, and the payment path. The Company is not a veterinary practice, does not practice veterinary medicine, and does not provide the clinical care given in a consultation. The Veterinarian who conducts a consultation is an independent professional who is solely responsible for the veterinary medicine practised in it.
1.4 Telemedicine is not emergency care. A Client whose animal is in distress, is injured, or shows signs of an emergency shall seek in-person emergency veterinary care immediately and shall not wait for, or rely on, a telemedicine consultation.
1.5 If a provision of this document conflicts with the Terms of Use, this document controls for the subject it governs. If a provision of this document conflicts with the terms of a program in which a Veterinarian participates, the program terms control for that Veterinarian's participation.
Article 2: Definitions
2.1 Client: the animal owner, or the owner's authorized representative, who books or attends a telemedicine consultation through the Platform.
2.2 Consultation: a scheduled real-time video appointment between a Client and a Veterinarian conducted in the Platform's consultation room.
2.3 Telemedicine Service: the service described in Article 1: booking of Consultations, the consultation room, and the payment path for Consultations.
2.4 Veterinarian: a veterinarian licensed in the state in which the patient animal is located, who conducts Consultations through the Platform.
2.5 VCPR: a veterinarian-client-patient relationship as defined by the law of the state in which the patient animal is located.
Article 3: The Service and Its Legal Limits
3.1 A Consultation is offered only where, and only to the extent, the law of the state in which the patient animal is located permits telemedicine for the matter presented. The law of that state governs licensure, the establishment and scope of a VCPR, prescribing, and every other clinical question. No provision of this document authorizes a practice that applicable law forbids.
3.2 A Veterinarian may decline to proceed, or may end a Consultation, where the matter presented cannot lawfully or safely be handled by telemedicine, where an in-person examination is required, or where the law of the patient's state does not permit the service sought. The Veterinarian's decision on a clinical question is final for that Consultation.
3.3 The Platform states the Veterinarians available, the appointment times offered, the consultation fee, and the cancellation terms at booking. The Company may change the Veterinarians, times, and fees offered prospectively; a confirmed booking is honoured on the terms stated when it was made.
3.4 The Client is responsible for the equipment, connection, and quiet setting a Consultation requires, and for joining at the appointed time. A Consultation that cannot proceed because of the Client's equipment or connection is treated under Article 7 as a Consultation the Client did not attend, unless the failure is the Platform's.
Article 4: The Veterinarian's Role
4.1 The Veterinarian exercises independent professional judgment in every Consultation. The Company does not direct, review in advance, or override a Veterinarian's diagnosis, advice, treatment, or decision not to treat, and no Company policy requires a Veterinarian to reach a particular clinical conclusion.
4.2 A Veterinarian prescribes only within a valid VCPR and only as the law of the patient's state permits. A Client is not entitled to a prescription, a diagnosis, or a particular treatment by booking or attending a Consultation, and no Consultation carries a promise of a clinical outcome.
4.3 Where a Veterinarian determines that an animal needs in-person examination, emergency care, diagnostics, or treatment the Telemedicine Service cannot provide, the Veterinarian shall say so in the Consultation, and the responsibility to obtain that care rests with the Client.
Article 5: Client Obligations
5.1 A Client shall give accurate and complete information about the animal, its condition, its history, and every medication the animal is receiving, and shall correct information the Client learns is wrong. Advice given in reliance on information the Client provided is given on the footing that the information was true.
5.2 A Client shall present the animal at the Consultation as the Veterinarian requires, shall follow the Veterinarian's reasonable instructions during the Consultation, and shall not permit any other person to attend, listen to, or record a Consultation except as the Veterinarian agrees.
5.3 A Client shall not record a Consultation in whole or in part except with the agreement of the Veterinarian and as applicable law permits.
5.4 A Client is responsible for follow-up care: for obtaining in-person care the Veterinarian directs, for administering treatment as directed, and for seeking care promptly if the animal's condition does not improve or worsens.
Article 6: Consent
6.1 By booking a Consultation, the Client consents to receive veterinary care by telemedicine on the terms of this document, having been told that a Consultation is a video appointment with the limits Article 3 states, and that it is not a substitute for an in-person examination where one is required.
6.2 Before a Consultation begins, the Veterinarian shall obtain the Client's informed consent to the consultation and to any treatment proposed, on the consent terms stated in the Telemedicine Consent, and shall not proceed without it. Consent to a Consultation is not consent to every treatment; treatment beyond the Consultation requires the consent Telemedicine Consent states.
6.3 A Client may withdraw consent and end a Consultation at any time. Fees for a Consultation ended by withdrawal are governed by Article 7 as if the Client had ended the attendance.
Article 7: Fees, Cancellation, and Refunds
7.1 The consultation fee is the fee stated at booking, payable when the booking is made. No charge beyond the stated fee is payable for the Consultation itself; a prescription, product, or further service a Veterinarian recommends is a separate purchase on its own terms.
7.2 A Client may cancel a booking without charge up to the cancellation time stated at booking. A Client who cancels after that time, or who does not attend, may be charged the cancellation charge stated at booking, and no other charge.
7.3 Where a Consultation cannot proceed because the law of the patient's state does not permit it, because no valid VCPR can be established for the matter presented, or because the Veterinarian determines at the outset that the matter requires emergency in-person care, the Company shall refund the consultation fee in full.
7.4 A refund under this Article is made to the payment method used at booking. Charges for a Consultation that took place are not refundable on the ground that the Client disagrees with the Veterinarian's professional judgment; a complaint about clinical care is addressed under Article 10 and does not convert a delivered Consultation into an undelivered one.
Article 8: Records and Privacy
8.1 The Company holds the booking record, the payment record, and the consultation-room record of a Consultation. The Company does not hold itself out as the keeper of the animal's medical record for a Consultation: clinical records are the Veterinarian's, are kept by the Veterinarian, and are obtained from the Veterinarian. The Platform's handling of telemedicine data is governed by the Telemedicine Data Handling Policy.
8.2 Personal information given in booking or attending a Consultation is handled under the Privacy Policy. A Client shall give only information the Client is entitled to give.
Article 9: Liability
9.1 The Company is not liable for a Veterinarian's acts, omissions, diagnoses, advice, or treatment, or for a clinical outcome of a Consultation. The Veterinarian is an independent professional and is solely liable for the veterinary medicine the Veterinarian practises, to the full extent of that Veterinarian's liability at law and under the terms that govern the Veterinarian's participation.
9.2 The Company is liable, subject to the liability provisions of the Terms of Use, for the parts of the Telemedicine Service the Company itself provides: the booking flow, the consultation room, and the payment path. Nothing in this document excludes or limits a liability that applicable law does not permit to be excluded or limited, and nothing in this document limits a Client's rights against the Veterinarian who conducted a Consultation.
9.3 The Telemedicine Service is provided without any warranty that a Consultation will produce a diagnosis, a treatment, or an improvement in an animal's condition.
Article 10: Indemnification
10.1 A Client shall indemnify the Company against claims, losses, and costs arising from information the Client gave that was false or incomplete, from a recording made in breach of Article 5.3, or from the Client's failure to obtain in-person or follow-up care a Veterinarian directed, in each case to the extent the claim arises from the Client's own act or omission.
10.2 No indemnity in this document requires a Client to indemnify the Company for the Company's own negligence or for a Veterinarian's clinical acts.
Article 11: Enforcement and Appeals
11.1 The Company may warn a Client, suspend or end the Client's access to the Telemedicine Service, or take measures against the Client's Account under the Terms of Use and the Enforcement and Appeals Policy, where the Client books Consultations the Client does not intend to attend, abuses a Veterinarian, records a Consultation in breach of this document, or seeks a prescription or treatment the Client knows the law does not permit by telemedicine.
11.2 A Client or Veterinarian who is subject to a measure under this Article may appeal as the Enforcement and Appeals Policy provides. A clinical disagreement is not a measure and is not appealable under this Article; it is raised with the Veterinarian, whose records and professional obligations govern it.
Article 12: Term and Termination
12.1 This document applies from the moment a Client books a Consultation until the obligations arising from that Consultation are discharged. Articles 8, 9, and 10 survive the end of a Consultation.
12.2 The Company may discontinue the Telemedicine Service prospectively. A booking confirmed before discontinuation is honoured or refunded in full.
Article 13: Dispute Resolution
13.1 A dispute arising out of or relating to this document, or to the Telemedicine Service, is governed by the Dispute Resolution Policy, which applies to this document as it applies to the Terms of Use.
Article 14: General Provisions
14.1 Questions about the Telemedicine Service are directed to support@aapawz.com. Formal notices under this document are given to legal@aapawz.com. No other address is an address for notices under this document.
14.2 The Company may amend this document prospectively by posting the amended version with a new version number and effective date. An amendment does not govern a Consultation booked before its effective date.
14.3 If a provision of this document is held unenforceable, the provision is severed or read down to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions continue in force. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
14.4 This document, together with the Terms of Use and the documents each incorporates by reference, is the entire agreement between the Company and the Client for the Telemedicine Service and supersedes every prior or contemporaneous statement on that subject.
Related articles