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Veterinarians are no longer the gatekeepers of knowledge about the best way to care or treat our pet dogs and cats. Good information is out there for every single pet parent to educate themselves.
But so much information is either very over-simplified or actually factually incorrect (and even misleading).
A lot of content is even written by AI!
All of this is why I am so passionate about increasing the accessibility of high quality, evidence based pet health information so that every pet parent just like you can make the best choices possibly, no matter where you are in the world and no matter what challenges you are facing.
Two very different sentiments were produced, but I’d actually challenge you to spot that they weren’t written by a person, and potentially by a person with some training or with some knowledge of dog health and vaccinations.
Further Reading:
Understanding why people who don’t know what they are talking about sound so confident
The importance of getting to know your veterinarian (and finding one you trust)
Full Transcript →
The following is an AI generated transcription:
Welcome to the Call The vet show, the podcast that helps pet parents understand and optimize the health of their furry family so they can live the full and happy life you want for them. And here's your host, veterinarian Dr. Alex Avery.
Hello, Kia ora. Welcome to another episode of The Call The Vet Show. I am delighted to be talking to you again this week. And this is an episode that I've been meaning to bring to you for quite some time and had a prompt in a previous episode. So number 130 with Dr. Cherise Rothwell, We spoke briefly about representation within the veterinary profession and how actually while this is important in its own right, from an industry point of view, this can actually impact the willingness of pet parents to seek veterinary care for their pets.
That was episode number 130. This one is episode 135. And today I want to talk to you about accessibility of pet health information, pet care information as a whole. But before I get into that, if we've not met before, then my name is Dr. Alex Avery, veterinarian, Dr. Alex, and this is the podcast for every parent who wants to know the best way to care for their pet, who wants to dive deep into the topics that that really matter and want to know the steps that you can take to actually make a real difference to the well-being and the health of your furry family members.
So make sure you hit that subscribe button and make sure you share this far and wide. If you do enjoy these episodes, if you're a frequent flyer, if you like, welcome back and I'll be really interested to hear your thoughts on today's episode as well. You can find me on all of the the usual social platforms and at call the vet dot org, which is where this podcast lives. If you if you head to that, then you can check out all the back catalogue. You can get all of the show notes in the links that we speak about in every episode and dive deeper into some of the topics that we we've spoken about in the past. After all, we've got 134 other episodes for you to dive into if you've not checked them out already.
And now on with the show.
And I've actually recorded this episode before. I've recorded it a few days ago, but I wasn't really very happy with it. I thought I was kind of rambling a little bit and not really being very, very clear in my thoughts or the message that I wanted to share. So this is take two. It's being published in a couple of days. So this is going to be the the second and final take with with any luck.
And the reason that I wanted to take such good care of this episode is because accessibility of information, of all information and certainly pet care information is is something that you can imagine is very close to my heart. I work in an area where I see a wide spectrum of people from all different walks of life, those that have got plenty of resources at their disposal and those who are struggling in many ways.
And my job and one of the the real joys in the work that I do in the veterinary clinic is is actually coming up with plans that that work for for everybody, no matter what their resources or their abilities or what they're able to do for their pet, finding something that is actually going to make a meaningful, meaningful difference to the health and wellbeing of of my patient. And that's something that I'm really very passionate about.
But when it comes to the accessibility of pet care information as a whole, my journey into this really starts back five more than five years ago. I'm ten years ago now personally. But our Pets Health and the Call the vet show and the YouTube channel and everything has been going for four five years. And that started going back because my my son was when he was born, he was actually born deaf.
He had hearing aids from the age of four months old, and he actually had cochlear implants at four years of age. Now he's doing incredibly well. He's mainstream schooled. He's kind of right at the top of his class in all of his subjects. He gets stuck in with anything and everything, and he certainly doesn't let his his deafness hold him back in in any way.
So, you know, that's all well and good, but it certainly opened my eyes to a vastly underserved range of people. And that's not just people with hearing impairment, but it could be people who suffer with sight problems or mobility issues or whatever kind of disability or challenge that that many of us do face in one way, shape or form. And and so when I started our Pets Health and I actually had the time because when my son was born, we didn't want him in child care kind of every day of the week of the working week.
And so I dropped my hours to a to work a four day a week when he then went to school and when my. Daughter went to school. That gave me time. An extra day in the week where I could devote myself to a separate project. And that's where our pets health came into being. But I was very mindful when I started producing content that I wanted content that was going to be accessible and available to everybody no matter what challenges they face.
So with it, with every video, there are subtitles. Now, it used to be at the start, five years ago, the YouTube auto generated subtitles were terrible, so I would actually go through every video and correct the subtitles that were generated. Thankfully, they're much better now, and although they're not perfect, I can leave the A.I. machine to do its work and auto generate those those subtitles, those captions for all of the audio pieces of content. I wanted there to be a transcript. And so there is a transcript produced for every podcast, or there is a full comprehensive article written for every podcast that just converts what I'm saying and what my interviews are into maybe a more legible piece of information, but that's something that I feel very strongly about Now.
Those transcripts, they cost anywhere from 10 to $100 sometimes to produce. Certainly if the quality of the audio or the accent of the speakers is a little bit challenging for the AI machine, then I need to actually go and outsource that to a person to produce that transcription for me, which is not a cheap exercise, but it's one that I feel very strongly about that people who can't hear should have access to the same information that's in these podcasts.
Equally, those who can't, who struggle to read or maybe understand the written word, maybe English isn't their first language and they prefer audio content. Then the podcast is available. People prefer to learn through watching and that's where the video content comes into play. So for me, this accessibility of the information that I'm producing is is really one of the key beliefs that I have with the whole app health infrastructure. And I say that it sounds very grand, like there's a whole team, but actually it's just it's just me and I, I outsource the occasional job to, to somebody else.
But really it's, it's, yeah, it's me. But by myself sitting in my office producing all of this content and that's all very well and good. But it used to also be that the only way to get health information was to either buy a textbook, buy a veterinary textbook and try and study and go it alone, or to actually go to your vet and tap into their education and their experience and their knowledge.
Now there is just a wealth of information online, which on the surface level is a good thing. And some of the information is very good, very factually correct, very detailed and very actionable. But unfortunately, a lot is either only very oversimplified surface level information or it's actually factually incorrect or misleading. The problem with producing content online is that if nobody reads it, if nobody watches it, if nobody listens to it, then there's no point in it being there.
And to get those eyeballs on that content, unfortunately, that leads to clickbait content. So that's titles that are maybe misleading or the content itself is over egged and has a certain angle that is maybe more shocking, and I'll come to that in a little bit. And that more shocking content may not be completely factually correct. It may be missing out key pieces of information to actually reflect the true situation that's out there, but that more shocking piece of information is going to have more eyeballs. So it's going to sell more ads. It's going to make the creator more money. And that then also is more likely to get shared. And that information perpetuated through all of the social platforms that it's shared on by the discussions that it generates.
And so this may be factually incorrect or information that's not the whole story actually then becomes the norm. Now, it may even be produced by artificial intelligence. So I spoke about how the transcriptions on YouTube, produced by AI and certainly some of the transcripts that I have for my content is produced by AI, where it's taken the audio and converting that to the written word.
But there are also artificial intelligence writers out there, and they are becoming more humanlike in their terms and they can produce content that is actually very difficult to be able to spot that it is written by a machine, it's produced by a machine and not by a person with experience in that field. So an example is actually I have an AI writing machine that I use to help me. Come up with titles and some descriptions and things. It just helps helps me with some ideas. Now I don't actually use it very much at all, but it's it's a tool that I have at my disposal. And I asked this machine to come up with a couple of paragraphs on the topic of Are dog vaccine safe? And I asked it to create these paragraphs in a shocking tone. And this is what it came up with.
Our dog vaccine's safe. This is a question that pet owners across the globe are asking and with good reason. Recent research has shown that many of the ingredients in dog vaccinations can be extremely harmful to our beloved furry friends. Dogs may appear healthy after receiving a vaccine, but it may not be long before they start displaying serious side effects like seizures, vomiting and fatigue. What's even more alarming is that many of these adverse reactions occur without warning. Pet owners often have little to no idea their beloved pup has been exposed to potentially dangerous substances. Even more worrying is the fact that some of these substances can even cause long term damage or death if left untreated. In light of this shocking revelation, it's important for every pet owner to do their own research before taking their pup in for any vaccinations.
So then I simply changed the tone request to education. Also, I kept all of the other information's the same. Asking for a couple of paragraphs on the topic of our dog vaccine safe in an educational tone. And this is what the AI writer came up with.
Our dog vaccines. Safe dog vaccines are one of the most important aspects in keeping your pet healthy and happy. Vaccinations help protect dogs from a variety of illnesses, including some very serious diseases that can be fatal if left untreated. The safety of these vaccinations is something that all pet owners should consider before deciding to administer them. When discussing the safety of dog vaccinations, it's important to understand how they work. Vaccines contain antigens that trigger an immune response when introduced into the body. This response helps create antibodies in the animal system, which can provide protection against future exposure to certain illnesses or disease causing agents. As with any medical procedure, there may be certain risks associated with vaccine administration. However, modern vaccines are typically considered safe and effective for dogs when administered properly by a veterinarian or qualified veterinary technician.
So two very different sentiments were produced, but I'd actually challenge you to spot that they weren't written by a person and potentially by a person with some training or with some knowledge of of dog health and vaccinations. Also, all of the voices were AI produced as well.
And I bet that more shocking content would attract more likes and comments and ultimately make more money for the Creator so that they can then produce more content like this. And that affects snowballs. So you can get some very popular platforms, maybe some very popular YouTube channels, because ultimately the tool that I use to produce the the voices generates a video for me as well, using just taking clips of different dogs and things like that.
If that gets shared on Tok or Instagram or YouTube, then that's going to earn more money and you're going to get some quite potentially big channels that seem very popular. And that popularity might lead you to believe that the the the quality of information is good and reliable, but it can be incredibly misleading.
And so, you know, this kind of leads me to what is the whole point of this episode, if you like, vets may no longer be the gatekeepers of knowledge. You don't have to go to your vet to learn about how to best care for your pet, to learn more information about certain conditions that they may be suffering from. But it's never been more important, in my opinion, for the veterinarians voice to be heard. You know, producing online content like I do. It takes up a lot of time what I thought might take me a few hours a week in the morning when my kids are at school, takes me most evenings throughout the week, certainly that Wednesday when I'm not working and then some weekends as well.
It takes a lot of time and and to be honest, most the majority of vets, you know, or technicians or nurses, people with knowledge and firsthand experience and good quality education, they just don't have that time on that motivation to jump online. You know, I also deal with a lot of hate and negative comments online. And sometimes that does make me think, well, why do I bother? Why do I leave myself exposed to that? But, you know, I've developed a bit of a thick skin.
You know, this producing the information has also cost me an awful lot of money, but it's something that I feel very passionate about. And if you think that I'm. Raising a lot of money from from this, then? Yeah, that's certainly not yet the case. It would be great if it was. But, you know, this is a passion of mine and it's something that I feel is very important.
And so I guess the overall lesson and this is a lesson with anything that we're finding online, any piece of information, even sometimes in the flesh that we are we are being exposed to, is to be very careful when it comes to believing what you're reading, what you're watching, what you're listening to, really checking what the expertise of that person is, what their education is, and also what the consensus of that field is.
Because, sure, it may be the case that there are uncertainties in a particular topic, but if if everybody in a particular field is saying one thing and there are a couple of lone voices saying something completely, completely the opposite, then the chances are is that those few voices are not not correct and not telling the whole story.
Helping your pet live the happy, healthy life they deserve.
So that's really it for for this episode. I'd love to hear what you think. You can find me on all the socials and I'd love to hear your views in a comment or a DM. Also, if you believe in what I'm doing, if you believe in my mission to improve the accessibility of high quality, evidence based pet health information, then I'd really appreciate you considering I'm becoming a patron to the podcast and to our pets health as a whole.
You can head over to our pets Health dot com slash patron. There's also a link down in the description and the notes to this podcast episode. I'd encourage you to check out one of my courses. There's a few more courses that are going to be coming online as of next year where I dive deep into particular topics to really lead you through the actionable steps that you can take.
So keep an eye out for that, or even simply sharing this episode or another episode with your friends and family on social media to help improve the reach of the content to get more eyeballs on on my content would be greatly appreciated. And with all that in mind, I am looking forward to talking to you and the next episode of The Call The Vet Show. But until then, I'm veterinarian Doctor Alex and this is the call the vet show because they're family.
That's it for this episode of The Call The Vet Show. Be sure to visit, call the vet dot org to join the conversation. Access the show notes and discover our fantastic bonus content. We'll see you next time.
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