OBLIGATION OR MARKETING?

From January 2017, Vets are obliged to register at RIVIA (local microchip database), every rabies vaccination we inoculate to dogs, cats and ferrets. When registering the injection we have to declare: owners name, DNI/NIE/passport, address, microchip number and pet passport number (if applicable), and microchip database if the animal hasn’t been registered at RIVIA.

One of the most important things is we have to declare date given and expiration date of the vaccine as well. What is implied on this fact? We don’t know what is going to happen from January 2018. Maybe a reminder with the date when the animal is due for the next injection will be sent, or maybe not. Anyway, this hypothetical reminder would be a government’s matter, not ours. In our practice, we just remind vaccination and deworming treatments dates to those clients who ask us to do it. In that case, one of the three Vets who work at the practice will phone (or email) the owner in order to remind the date and, if necessary, to book an appointment.

chihuahua and syringe in front of white background

Our clients details are absolutely confidential, and are not given to anybody, with the only exception of government or Justice. For example, when an animal is chipped or injected against rabies, the Vet is obliged to notify it to RIVIA, which is a governmental agency, and RIVIA’s database is fully available to Town Halls, which are a part of the government as well.

A completely different case would be corporations which sell veterinary medicines, such as antiparasitic ones. Those multinationals offer us “services” or “info” in exchange for our details: we can download a free app for watching a video about fleas, and this way our details get registered at their databases, so, from that moment, they can legally remind us to buy their product every month.

Is not a bad thing they remind us the date our pet is due for the next worming treatment, but is true that most owners don’t need to be told all the time what they should do or buy. Lots of people believe this kind of messages are sent by their Vet, but, at least in our case, this is not true, because we don’t believe in cut-and-paste reminders. We think every animal is unique, so it has a tailor-made treatments pattern according to its age, lifestyle, pathologies, etc.
If want, we will remind you when your pet is due for any kind of treatment, but it always will be a personal communication, not a pre-cooked commercial.

Clinica Veterinaria

Gran Alacant Exotics

Tel: 966 698 569