Veterinary Review Policy

1. Why this page exists

A great many pet websites imply veterinary authority they do not have. A stock photo of someone in scrubs, a phrase like “vet-approved” with no name attached, a byline reading “Our Veterinary Team” — none of it means a veterinarian read the article, and all of it is designed to make you think one did.

We would rather tell you exactly what stands behind what you are reading, even where that is less impressive than what our competitors claim. You can then decide for yourself how much weight to give it.

3. What we do instead

Not having a veterinarian on staff is a reason to work harder, not a reason to be vague. Every health-related article goes through the following before it is published:

• Claims are traced to veterinary associations, teaching hospitals, peer-reviewed research, or standard clinical references — never to another blog.
• A second editor opens each cited source and confirms it says what the article claims it says.
• Every number is verified: ages, weights, durations, frequencies, temperatures.
• Any sentence stated more confidently than the evidence allows is flagged and rewritten.
• Anything that crosses from general information into diagnosing or prescribing is removed.
• Warnings and risks are placed before the instruction they relate to, not after it.

This produces well-sourced general information. It does not produce clinical advice, and we do not present it as such.

4. What a reviewed article looks like

If and when an article is reviewed by a veterinarian, you will see all of the following on that article — not some of them:

A name

The reviewer’s full name, not a title, a team, or a first name alone.

Credentials

Their veterinary qualification and any board certification, written out.

Licensing jurisdiction

Where they are licensed to practise, so you can verify it independently.

A review date

When they reviewed it. A review from three years ago is disclosed as such.

A profile

A page describing their background and every article they have reviewed for us.

Scope

What they reviewed. If they checked one section rather than the whole article, we say which.

An article missing any of these has not been reviewed, whatever else it may appear to say.

5. Who we would accept as a reviewer

We would engage only someone holding a veterinary degree and a current licence to practise, verified by us against the relevant registering body before any article carries their name. Board-certified specialists — in behaviour, nutrition, internal medicine, emergency and critical care — review within their specialty rather than across everything.

Certified trainers and behaviour consultants are not veterinarians. Where we quote one, we name them and their certification and describe them accurately. Their input is not veterinary review and will never be labelled as such.

A reviewer with a commercial interest in a product discussed in an article does not review that article. If a reviewer has any relevant relationship — a brand, a manufacturer, a clinic chain — it is disclosed on the article.

6. What a reviewer does

Veterinary review, where it happens, means the reviewer reads the article in full and confirms that the clinical information is accurate and current, that nothing is dangerously incomplete, that risks and red flags are present and correctly placed, and that the article does not stray into diagnosing or prescribing.

A reviewer can require changes before their name goes on an article, and can withdraw their name at any time. If a reviewer withdraws, we remove the review credit and say on the article that we have done so.

Reviewers are paid a flat fee for their time. They are never paid by outcome, and no advertiser or affiliate partner has any contact with them.

7. What review does not mean

Even a reviewed article is still general information. A veterinarian who reviews an article has not examined your dog, taken its history, or run a test on it. Review confirms that an article is sound in general. It says nothing about whether the guidance fits your animal.

Your dog’s breed, age, weight, existing conditions, medications, and history all change what is right for it, and those are exactly the things no article can know. A veterinarian who can examine your dog can weigh them all at once.

8. Content we treat with extra care

Some subjects carry more risk of harm when written carelessly. On these we apply the strictest sourcing, write more conservatively, and direct readers to a veterinarian more insistently:

• Symptoms and anything a reader might use to judge whether a situation is an emergency.
• Medication, supplements, and anything ingested.
• Toxicity and poisoning.
• Puppies under sixteen weeks, pregnant and nursing dogs, and senior dogs.
• Vaccination and parasite prevention schedules.
• Diet changes, restricted diets, and home-prepared food.
• Aggression, and any sudden change in temperament — which can be a sign of pain.
• Post-surgical and post-injury care.

On these subjects, if we cannot write something both useful and safe, we do not publish the article at all.

9. What we never publish

• Diagnoses. We will not tell you what is wrong with your dog.
• Home medication dosages. Dosing depends on exact weight, organ function, and other medications. Getting it wrong kills animals.
• Emergency triage instructions that could lead someone to manage a crisis at home instead of reaching a vet.
• Encouragement to delay veterinary care in any form, including implying a symptom is probably nothing.
• Unnamed veterinary endorsement. No “vet approved” without a named, credentialled, verifiable person.
• Reader case advice. We do not answer emails or comments describing a symptom with a clinical opinion.

10. When sources disagree

Veterinary guidance is not uniform. Associations differ by country, practice varies, and evidence on some questions is genuinely thin.

Where reputable sources disagree, we say so in the article and show the range, rather than picking whichever answer makes a cleaner sentence. Where the honest answer is that the evidence is limited, we write that. A confident article built on thin evidence is a worse failure than an article that admits uncertainty.

11. When this page changes

If we engage a veterinary reviewer, this page will be updated before any article carries a review credit — never afterwards. The change will also be reflected on our about page, contact page, editorial policy, disclaimer, and terms of service in the same session, so that every page on this site says the same thing.

Until you see that change here, you can take it that nothing on this site has been reviewed by a veterinarian.

12. If you are a veterinarian

We would like to work with you. We are looking for licensed veterinarians and board-certified specialists to review our health content, on a paid, per-article basis, with your name and credentials on the work.

We will not ask you to endorse anything you have not read, put your name on something you have not approved, or attach you to a product recommendation. You keep the right to require changes and to withdraw at any time.

Write to info@kennelandkin.com with your credentials and areas of practice.

If you are a veterinarian who has spotted an error in something we published, please tell us at contact@kennelandkin.com. We take those reports seriously and act on them quickly.