Existing law, the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act, establishes the Veterinary Medical Board for the licensure and regulation of the practice of veterinary medicine and makes a violation of those provisions a crime. Existing law creates various exemptions from the act. Among those exemptions, existing law exempts practicing veterinary medicine as a bona fide owner of one’s own animal, as specified.

This bill would exclude a surgical or dental operation, as defined, from this exemption. The bill would also exempt from the act an unlicensed person who provides teleconsultation to a California-licensed veterinarian, as specified.

Existing law generally prohibits a veterinarian from treating an animal unless a veterinarian-client-patient relationship exists, except when the animal patient is a wild animal or the owner of the animal patient is unknown.

This bill would create an additional exception for when a rabies vaccination is prophylactically administered to the animal patient to prevent disease or loss of life.

Under existing law, a veterinarian-client-patient relationship exists if certain conditions are met, including that the veterinarian possesses sufficient knowledge of the animal patient and has communicated with the client a medical, treatment, diagnostic, or therapeutic plan, as specified. Existing law places limits on the duration of a veterinarian’s prescription of a drug that varies depending on how the veterinarian-client-patient relationship was established. If the veterinarian established the relationship by examining the animal patient in person or by making medically appropriate and timely visits to the premises on which the animal patient is kept, existing law prohibits the veterinarian from prescribing a drug for a duration that is longer than one year from the date that the veterinarian examined the animal patient in person or visited the premises and prescribed the drug. If the veterinarian established the relationship using synchronous audio-video communication, existing law limits the duration of the prescription to 6 months from the date that the veterinarian examined the animal patient or prescribed the drug.

This bill would revise and recast provisions regulating the veterinarian-client-patient relationship. In this regard, the bill, among other revisions, would remove the requirement that the veterinarian has communicated with the client a medical, treatment, diagnostic, or therapeutic plan to establish the veterinarian-client-patient relationship. Instead, the bill would make that communication a requirement for each medical condition for which the veterinarian may prescribe, dispense, or administer treatment. Additionally, the bill would delete the above-described time limitation on the duration of a veterinarian prescription of a drug, and would instead impose similar time limitations on the veterinarian-client-patient relationship. Specifically, the bill would make the veterinarian-client-patient relationship expire one year after examining the animal patient in person, one year after making medically appropriate and timely visits to the premises on which the animal patient is kept, or 6 months after examining the animal patient by use of synchronous audio-video communication. Additionally, the bill would authorize a veterinarian-client-patient relationship to continue in the absence of the veterinarian if, among other things, the subsequent veterinarian has assumed responsibility for making medical judgments regarding the health of the animal patient. The bill would also authorize a subsequent veterinarian, in the absence of the originally prescribing veterinarian, to prescribe, dispense, or furnish a refill of drugs for use on the animal patient on an emergency basis for a traveling animal patient or if the subsequent veterinarian serves at the same location as the originally prescribing veterinarian, as specified.

Existing law creates various exceptions under, and exemptions from, the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act related to the practice of veterinary medicine in the context of animal shelters.

Existing law authorizes a licensee, registrant, or permitholder to apply for their license, registration, or permit to be placed in inactive status, as specified. Existing law prohibits the holder of an inactive license, registration, or permit from engaging in any activity for which an active license, registration, or permit is required. Existing law subjects the holder to the normal renewal fee, but exempts the holder from any continuing education requirements for renewal.

Existing law makes a license, registration, or permit expire within a specified period of time if it is not renewed, as specified. Existing law authorizes a licensee, registrant, or permitholder to renew an expired license, registration, or permit within 5 years of its expiration if certain delinquency fees are paid. If 5 years or longer have elapsed since the expiration, existing law prohibits the license, registration, or permit from being restored, reissued, or reinstated, but authorizes the person to apply for and obtain a new license, registration, or permit.

This bill, instead, would allow restoration of a license, registration, or permit that has been expired or assigned retired status for 5 years or longer if the licensee, registrant, or permitholder meets the requirements for initial issuance of the license, registration, or permit. The bill would prohibit the restoration of an out-of-state veterinarian license or veterinary technician registration with retired volunteer status.

Existing law requires all veterinary premises to be registered with the board. To register a veterinary premises, existing law requires the owner or operator of the veterinary premises to submit an application that includes, among other information, the name of the responsible licensee manager. Existing law authorizes substitution of the responsible licensee manager by application to the board, as specified. If the owner or operator of a veterinary premises is a corporation or other artificial legal entity, existing law requires certain changes in the owners, officers, directors, shareholders, general partners, or agent for service of process, as specified, to be reported to the board within 30 days.

The bill would make related and conforming changes.