For Veterinarians
Every article written for this role, by area.
Getting started
- Welcome to VivetraVivetra keeps every patient, owner and visit in one record, whether your practice runs a general clinic, a hospital ward, boarding kennels, a shelter, or equine or livestock wor…
- Signing inEach practice has its own Vivetra address. Your practice manager will give it to you. Bookmark it, because it's the same every day.
- Finding your way aroundVivetra has one menu down the left-hand side of every screen. On a phone or small tablet it's folded away behind the Menu button at the top.
- Your account and settingsMy Account, at the bottom of the menu, is where you change your own details. Nothing here affects anyone else.
Records & admin
- Record a bite incidentWhen an animal in your care bites or scratches someone, record it under Bite Incidents. The record keeps who was hurt, how badly, the animal's rabies status, whether you reporte…
- Find or add a patientPatients lists every animal your practice has on file, whichever module it came in through. Use it to look a patient up by name or species, or to add a new one.
- Find a personVivetra keeps one record for each real person, however many roles they have at your practice: a pet owner who also fosters for your shelter is still one person. Find a Person se…
- Track outside lab resultsLab Results is your follow-up queue for anything sent out of the clinic: samples to a reference lab and referrals to a specialist. Log each one when it goes, and it stays on the…
- Manage callback tasksCallback Tasks is the staff to-do list for patients: the day-after call following surgery, a recheck in two weeks, chasing a lab result. It's for the team, not the client. Remin…
- Work the patient recall listPatient Recalls shows every recall that's overdue or due in the next 30 days: vaccines, refills, wellness checks and the like. Use it to see who needs contacting and to tick off…
- Set up the controlled drug listBefore a controlled drug can be logged or counted, it has to be on your Controlled Drug List. Add each drug and strength you stock, in the unit you want its balance kept in.
- Log a controlled drug eventEvery movement of a controlled drug goes in the Dispensing Log: stock received, doses given or sent home, waste, adjustments and anything lost or stolen. The log is append-only.…
- Do a controlled drug countA physical count checks what's actually on the shelf against what the dispensing log says should be there. Every count is witnessed by a second person, and Vivetra tells you str…
- Set up chart templatesChart templates hold starter text for the four parts of a SOAP chart. A clinician picks one on a new note and then edits it freely, so a routine wellness exam doesn't start from…
- Use emergency accessEmergency Access Override gives you full access for a short time when an animal's care can't wait and the person with the right permission can't be reached. For example, you nee…
- Chart treatments and vitals on the flowsheetThe Treatment Flowsheet is the hour-by-hour record for a patient staying with you: what was ordered, what was done, their vitals and any drips running. Each hospital stay has it…
- Contact supportContact Support sends a message straight to the Vivetra team: a question, a billing query, a feature idea or a problem. Anyone at the practice can use it.
- Keep the problem list and allergies up to dateEach patient has a problem list (what's wrong with them now, and what was wrong before) and an allergy list. Keep both current: allergies to formulary drugs are checked automati…
- Log a shift handoffWhen you hand a case to the next clinician, log it. The handoff log is a permanent record of who held the case and what they passed on, so nothing gets lost between shifts.
- Record a dental chartA dental chart records what you found tooth by tooth at one exam. Each chart is saved as its own dated entry, so the patient's dental history builds up over time.
- Record vaccinations and weightsEvery vaccine given and every weigh-in goes on the patient's chart, so anyone can see what's due and how the animal's weight is trending. Open the patient's record and pick Vacc…
- Review changes made offlineSome screens keep working when the internet drops. What you save is queued on your device and sent once you're back online. Usually that just happens. When a change can't be sen…
- Use the patient recordThe patient record is the one page that pulls together everything about an animal: who's responsible for it, its problems, visits, files and links to the rest of its chart. Open…
- Write a prescriptionRecord a prescription on the patient's chart from your formulary. Vivetra checks it against the patient's recorded allergies, and for controlled drugs against the prescribing ve…
- Write a SOAP chartEach visit has one SOAP chart: Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan. You write it while the visit is open, then sign it, which locks it for good. Anything you need to add…
Vet Practice
- Find or add an ownerOwners is where you look up a pet's owner and add a new one. Everyone can search; adding an owner needs permission to edit owner records, which front desk staff and practice man…
- Handle refill requestsOwners can ask for a prescription refill from the client portal. Those requests wait in Refill Requests until a vet approves or declines them. Approving one records a real dispe…
- Book an appointmentThe Schedule shows every appointment for a day or a week, and the booking form underneath it is where you add a new one. Open it from Vet Practice Scheduling › Schedule in the m…
- Review online appointment requestsPet owners can ask for an appointment from the client portal. Those requests wait in Appointment Requests until someone at the practice approves, declines or follows up on them.…
- Use the appointment waitlistWhen the schedule is full, put the client on the Waitlist. When a slot opens up you can offer it to them and book it, and Vivetra shows you who's waiting each time an appointmen…
- Create an estimateAn estimate is a quote you give an owner before a procedure, such as a dental or a spay. It shows a low and a high price, because the final cost often depends on what the vet fi…
- Create an invoice and take paymentAn invoice is the bill for a visit. You create it for an owner, add what you charged, send it, and then record the payment. Open it from Vet Practice Billing › Vet Practice Invo…
- Run financial reportsTwo reports under Vet Practice Billing show where the practice's money stands: which bills are still unpaid and how old they are, and how much each vet has brought in. Only vets…
- Enroll a pet on a wellness planSign a pet up on one of your practice's wellness plans, see what the plan still covers, and approve plans clients ask for in the portal. Vivetra records the plan and counts the…
- Manage a booked appointmentEach appointment has its own screen where you check the patient in, confirm, start the visit, reschedule, cancel or record a deposit. Open it from the Schedule by selecting the…
- Record consents and attestationsTake a surgery, anesthesia or euthanasia consent for a visit, and record an emergency-treatment attestation when you had to treat without reaching the owner. Consent is captured…
- Work with an owner's recordAn owner's record holds their contact details, tags, portal account and the pets they're linked to. Anyone can view it. Changing it needs permission to edit owner records, which…
- Write discharge instructionsThe discharge sheet is the printed page a client takes home after a visit: your written home-care instructions, plus the visit's plan, medications and vaccines. You write the in…
Hospital
- Use the ward boardThe ward board shows every patient currently admitted to the hospital on one screen, grouped by triage level. Use it at the start of a shift, on a wall monitor, or whenever you…
- Admit a patientAdmitting a patient opens a hospital stay. Once admitted, the patient appears on the ward board and you can write treatment orders for them. Use this for planned admissions and…
- Manage the blood bankThe Blood Bank keeps your blood donor programme and a record of every bag of blood product you hold: whole blood, packed red cells, plasma and so on. Each unit is one physical b…
- Take in a new referralReferrals is the inbox for cases sent to your hospital: by referring vets, from emergency walk-ins, internal transfers or owners coming to you directly. Record each one as soon…
- Manage referring practices and vetsReferring Contacts is your list of the practices and vets who send you cases. Add them here once, then pick them when you record a referral.
- Read referral reportsReferral Reports shows how your referral network is doing: how many cases each referring practice sends you, and which relationships have gone quiet. It only reads your referral…
- Build a treatment-plan estimateA treatment-plan estimate tells the owner what a course of treatment is likely to cost, as a low-to-high range. You build it as a draft, send it, record whether the owner approv…
- Bill a hospital stayA hospital invoice is the bill for a stay. Each one starts from an approved treatment-plan estimate: converting the estimate creates the invoice with its lines (see treatment-pl…
- End a hospital stayEvery hospital stay ends one of three ways: the patient goes home (discharge), moves to another facility (transfer), or dies. The End Stay screen handles all three, and is also…
- Keep an anesthesia recordThe anesthesia record is the sheet for a procedure under anesthesia during a hospital stay: the procedure and ASA status, the key times from premedication to recovery, a timelin…
- Log contact with the owner during a stayThe owner contact log is a record of every time the hospital tried to reach a patient's owner during a stay, and what happened. Log failed attempts too ("no answer", "left voice…
- Record a death in hospitalWhen a patient dies during a hospital stay, the death record captures what happened: when, how, whether CPR was attempted, how the owner was told and what happens to the remains…
- Record a patient's code statusA patient's code status says what the team should do if their heart or breathing stops: full resuscitation, closed-chest or open-chest CPR, or do not resuscitate (DNR). Record i…
- Record a transfusionThe Transfusion Record holds everything about giving blood to one patient: crossmatch results, each transfusion, and any reaction. Reactions are classified on the four separate…
- Record a trauma or neurologic scoreThe trauma score screen holds every Animal Trauma Triage (ATT) and modified Glasgow Coma Scale (mGCS) score recorded on a visit, and shows how they've changed. The first score i…
- Work a referral caseEach referral has its own page where you move it through its stages, assign it to a department and specialist, attach the records that came with it, and send reports back to the…
- Write treatment ordersTreatment orders are the instructions for an admitted patient's care: medications, fluids, feeding, walks, monitoring and procedures. When you give an order a dosing interval, V…
Boarding
- Log daily care during a stayThe Husbandry care screen for a stay holds the owner's care plan (feeding, medication, walks, play) and a check-off log of what was actually done. If a boarded pet needs real me…
- Record belongings and incidentsEvery stay has a Belongings & incidents page. Log what the owner left with the pet at drop-off, mark it returned at pick-up, and file a report when something happens during the…
- Send a stay report cardA report card is the note you send an owner during a stay: how their pet ate, who they played with, a couple of photos. Once published, it appears in the owner's client portal.…
Equine
- Find or add a horse ownerOwners is the list of everyone who owns a horse your practice looks after. Search it before you add someone, so the same person doesn't end up on file twice.
- Manage stablesStables are the barns and farms your practice visits. Add each one once and it shows up as a location when you book a farm call and when you set a horse's current stable.
- Schedule a farm callA farm call is one stop at a barn on a given day. Every horse you see there is a visit grouped under that stop, and the stop carries one travel fee that's shared across the owne…
- Handle farm call requestsOwners can ask for a farm call through the client portal. Their requests wait in Farm Call Requests until someone schedules, declines or cancels them.
- Create an invoice and record paymentEquine invoices bill one party for work on one horse: either an individual owner or an ownership group. Who can be billed, and their share, are worked out from the horse's recor…
- See the breeding season at a glanceBreeding Overview shows the whole breeding program on one screen: which mares are in season or due soon, which embryos and shipments are still waiting on something, and which st…
- Manage a stallion bookA stallion book is a stallion's season: the mares booked to him, how full the book is, and when he's available. It doesn't hold coverings or pregnancy checks; those live on each…
- Issue a health certificateKeep a record of every Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) your vets issue for a horse, linked to the Coggins test it relies on. Vivetra keeps and prints the record; it d…
- Print a reproductive history summaryThe reproductive history summary puts a horse's whole breeding record on one printable page, ready to send with a referral or to an owner. It's built from the live record every…
- Put a horse on a quarantine holdA quarantine hold records that a horse is isolated, for example after a positive Coggins, an exposure or an import, and who you reported it to. Vivetra records the hold; it neve…
- Record a Coggins testRecord each horse's Coggins (equine infectious anemia, EIA) test result here, so you can print it for travel, sales and shows. Vivetra keeps the record; it doesn't send samples…
- Record a covering and pregnancy checksA mare's breeding record holds each covering, the pregnancy checks that follow it, and how it ended in a foaling. Vivetra records the findings as facts; it doesn't make manageme…
- Record a horse's pedigreeThe pedigree screen shows a horse's recorded ancestry as a family tree, lists its recorded offspring, and is where you record its sire and dam.
- Record a pre-purchase examA pre-purchase exam (PPE) records what a vet found when examining a horse for a prospective buyer. It records findings only. There's no pass or fail and no buy or don't-buy reco…
- Record an embryo transferThe embryo transfer screen records flushes from a donor mare, what happened to each embryo, and the pregnancy in the recipient mare that carries it. A mare's screen always shows…
- Record movement and identity documentsMovement and identity documents are the papers horses need outside the US and Canada: a UK or Ireland horse passport, an Australian Hendra declaration, an export health certific…
- Record semen collectionsRecord each semen collection from a stallion with its quality figures, then any shipments sent out from it and when they arrived. Coverings bred from a collection link back to i…
- Register an authorized agentAn authorized agent is someone the owner trusts to make decisions about the horse day to day, such as a trainer, riding instructor, farm manager or boarding barn. Record them he…
- Set up an ownership groupAn ownership group is a syndicate or partnership that owns a share of a horse as one party. Set the group up once, then give it ownership shares on each horse it owns.
- Track a mare's heat cyclesThe heat cycles screen is where you record what you find each time you check a mare: teasing scores, scans, follicles, ovulations and the cycles themselves. From those records V…
- Track horse insurance policies and claimsKeep track of a horse's insurance policies, and of any claims and the paperwork each one needs. Vivetra only tracks status. It never sends a claim to an insurer; someone submits…
- Work with a horse's recordEvery horse, pony, donkey or mule has an equine record on top of its ordinary patient record. It holds the horse-specific facts: registrations, markings, its current stable, who…
Livestock
- Set up farm clients, operations and premisesEvery livestock record hangs off three things: the farm client (the person or business you bill), the operation (a production unit that client runs, like a dairy or a feedlot) a…
- Manage animal lotsA lot is a group of animals you manage and treat as one unit, such as a pen of feeder steers, identified by a USDA group/lot identification number (GIN) rather than by individua…
- Run a preg check at the chuteA preg-check session records a chute-side run at one operation: every animal's outcome, its breeding cycle and body condition, then a report you can hand the producer before you…
- Build and apply herd-health protocolsA herd-health protocol is a reusable vaccination or treatment program, like "fall-born calves: first vaccine at weaning, booster 21 days later". You build it once as a template,…
- Record a treatment authorizationA treatment authorization records standing permission to treat from whoever has legal authority over an operation's animals. It covers the common case where a feedlot manager or…
- Set up a herd health contractA herd health contract records an ongoing retainer or consulting arrangement that covers a whole operation, rather than one visit. From the contract you can generate each period…
- Write a veterinary feed directiveA veterinary feed directive (VFD) is a vet's written authorization for a medically important antimicrobial given in feed. Vivetra records the directive and lets you print it. It…
- Read the antibiotic use reportThe antibiotic use report shows how much antimicrobial your practice's livestock clients used, as milligrams of active ingredient per population correction unit (mg/PCU). Use it…
- Plan a livestock farm callA farm call is one stop at a premises: the date, the attending vet and a single travel fee. The visits for the animals you see there are grouped under it, so the travel fee is c…
- Bill a farm clientLivestock invoices bill one farm client for one operation. You create a draft, add line items, then take payment or mark it paid. Invoices can also be started from a herd health…
- Print and send a preg-check reportThe pregnancy-check report is the desk copy of a preg-check session: the same report the producer was handed at the chute, for the practice's file, for printing, and for sending…
- Put a lot under a quarantine holdA quarantine hold records that a whole lot is under a regulatory disease hold, such as a TB reactor herd, a brucellosis trace or an HPAI order, and who you reported it to. Vivet…
- Record a breeding soundness examA breeding soundness evaluation (BSE) records a bull's exam: scrotal circumference, sperm motility and morphology, physical findings and your classification. Vivetra records the…
- Record a group treatmentEach lot has a group-treatment ledger: a permanent record of every drug given to the pen, or to one animal pulled from it, with its withdrawal date. The ledger feeds the lot's w…
- Record disease tests and movement certificatesFor an individually tracked animal you can record brucellosis, TB and trichomoniasis tests, keep the herd's routine TB schedule, and issue a movement certificate. Vivetra keeps…
- Track an individual animalSome animals are worth tracking one by one: a herd bull, a show heifer, a sick steer pulled from a pen. These are individual (Tier 1) animals. Each has a normal patient record p…
Shelter
- Record an intakeEvery animal that comes into your care gets an intake: one record for this stay, from arrival to outcome. You record it on the Intakes screen, then keep it up to date on the int…
- Track litters and cohortsA cohort ties together animals that arrived together, such as a mum and her kittens, a bonded pair or a hoarding seizure. Each animal still has its own intake and its own outcom…
- Place and release holdsA hold keeps an animal from becoming available while something is pending, such as a stray's legal holding period, a bite quarantine, a medical isolation or a court case. The Ho…
- Log behavior and assess an animalRecord what you see an animal do, every day, in a sentence. Those daily observations build a running behavior record, and every so often you write a summary assessment over them.
- Check census and length of stayCensus & Length of Stay shows how many animals are in your care right now at each of your sites, how long they've been with you so far, and the average stay for animals whose ep…
- Read the live release reportThe Live Release Report shows your live release rate and every outcome recorded in a date range, grouped the way the Asilomar Accords and Shelter Animals Count group them. Use i…
- Track legal casesLegal Cases keeps the court facts for cruelty, neglect and custody-dispute cases: the docket number, seizing agency, court, bond and hearing dates, and which seized animals are…
- Record an outcomeAn outcome records how an animal left your care: adopted, returned to its owner, transferred, released, or died. Recording it closes the intake, and it's what the live release r…