You are three days into a beach vacation in Destin when your dog stops eating, or your cat suddenly seems off, and your regular veterinarian is 300 miles away. Spring break and summer are exactly when this happens most — when families are filling every rental along the Emerald Coast with pets in tow, far from anyone who knows their medical history.
We exist for this moment. Vetzi is a Florida-based, vet-owned and vet-operated telehealth platform founded by Dr. Azza Diasti-Kennedy. We connect vacationing pet owners in Destin with a licensed veterinarian through a live video visit — often the same day — so you get real answers fast instead of spending your trip searching for an unfamiliar clinic.
✓ Available 7 days a week ✓ No insurance needed ✓ Florida-licensed vets
A sick pet in the middle of a vacation throws off everything, from dinner reservations to the rest of your itinerary. With a video visit, you get a licensed veterinarian who can see your pet’s symptoms directly, ask the right questions, and help you understand what is actually going on before you decide on next steps.
This is especially useful for the kinds of issues that tend to show up on trips: a stomach upset from new food or water, minor cuts or paw injuries from a day at the beach, sudden lethargy, or a skin reaction to an unfamiliar plant or bug bite. Bringing a few clear photos or a short video of the symptom to your call, along with your pet’s normal weight and any medications, helps our veterinarian assess things quickly. Many of these common travel-related questions are worth reviewing before your call so you know what to expect.
Florida law gives our veterinarians real authority to help you virtually, and it is worth knowing exactly what that covers before you need it. Under the state’s Providing Equity in Telehealth Services Act, a veterinarian can establish a valid veterinarian-client-patient relationship through a live video visit alone. A text-based chat or symptom questionnaire cannot do this by itself, which is why every consultation with us involves an actual conversation with a vet, not a form to fill out.
That same law shapes what we are able to prescribe during a telehealth visit. We can support up to a 14-day supply of most medications, or up to one month of flea and tick prevention, before an in-person exam becomes necessary. Controlled substances always require a physical exam, with no exceptions. We are direct about this from the start, so you always know whether your Destin trip needs a video visit or a local in-person clinic.
Most vacation symptoms are manageable with guidance and monitoring, but a few situations call for local, in-person attention right away, even in the middle of a trip:
If your pet shows any of these signs, we will tell you directly and point you toward the nearest emergency animal hospital in the Destin area rather than trying to manage it virtually.
When your regular veterinarian is unreachable, and every local clinic near your rental is booked solid during peak season, a video visit gives you a fast, professional read on the situation. It also spares an anxious dog or a stressed cat the added ordeal of a car ride to an unfamiliar clinic in an unfamiliar town, on top of everything else already disrupting their routine.
A telehealth visit can also help you decide, quickly and clearly, whether your pet’s symptoms call for an in-person emergency visit or can be safely managed for the rest of your trip with guidance and monitoring. The CDC notes pets face greater risk of certain illnesses while traveling and recommends a daily health check to watch for physical or behavioral changes, contacting a veterinarian right away if anything seems off. A few situations we see often from traveling pet owners include a dog with mild vomiting after drinking from an unfamiliar water source, a cat who seems unusually withdrawn after a long car ride, and a dog limping after a day of extra activity on sand or rocks.
Destin’s location brings two situations that come up more here than almost anywhere else we serve. Hurricane season can close local clinics with little warning, right when families are trying to evacuate or shelter in place with pets that are already stressed by the disruption. A video visit stays available when the roads are not, giving you a way to get guidance on a pet’s condition even if every in-person option nearby is temporarily unreachable.
The stretch of rentals and day-trip traffic along 30A creates a second, more everyday version of the same problem: families staying just outside Destin proper who are even further from a familiar clinic and often moving between multiple towns in a single week. A video consultation does not depend on which town you are staying in or driving through, so a pet’s care does not have to pause just because the itinerary changed.
Vetzi was founded by Dr. Azza Diasti-Kennedy, a practicing veterinarian whose hands-on experience shaped why this platform exists — especially for pet owners caught off guard while away from home.
✓ Same-day video appointments ✓ Florida-licensed vets ✓ No referral needed
Your pet can’t wait. Neither should you.
