Terms of Use

Effective date: October 8, 2026

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your use of independentvet.com, the Independent Vet apps for iPhone and Android (the “apps”), and the map, forms, accounts, content, and related services we provide (collectively, the “Services”). By using the Services, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Services.

Questions may be sent to info@independentvet.com.

Purpose of the Services

Independent Vet is an informational and editorial resource intended to help people discover veterinary practices that may be independently owned. We gather information from public sources, practice websites, community reports, owner submissions, corporate records, and other evidence. Our methodology and definition of independent ownership are explained on the Independent Vet List Methodology page.

Our classifications reflect editorial judgments based on the information reasonably available to us. They are not legal determinations about a practice’s ownership structure.

The apps also offer optional tools for keeping your own pets’ records, medications, and reminders, and for sharing them with people you choose.

No Veterinary or Professional Advice

The Services do not provide veterinary, medical, legal, financial, employment, investment, brokerage, or other professional advice. They are not a substitute for consulting a qualified professional or independently investigating a veterinary practice.

If an animal may be experiencing an emergency, contact a veterinarian or an appropriate emergency service directly. Do not rely on the Services to determine whether a practice is open, available, qualified, or able to provide a particular service. Emergency hospitals, saved practices, and other information the apps show may be out of date, especially when the apps show information stored on your phone while you are offline, so call ahead when you can.

Pet records, medications, and reminders

The apps’ pet tools help you keep your own records. They do not check whether a medication, dose, schedule, or vaccination is right for your pet, and they are not a substitute for your veterinarian’s instructions or a product’s label.

Reminders may not arrive. Medication, refill, and vaccine reminders are scheduled on your phone and depend on its settings, notification permissions, battery, time zone, and operating system. Do not rely on the apps as the only way to remember a dose or treatment.
Check what scanning reads. Text read from scanned records and medication labels can be wrong or incomplete. Check it against the original document before you save it or rely on it.
Medication names and information. Medication name suggestions come from public lists and may be incomplete or out of date. Links to medication information, such as Veterinary Partner pages and regulators’ product information, lead to third-party content that we do not control and that does not consider your pet’s circumstances.
You are responsible for the accuracy of what you enter in the apps and for following your veterinarian’s instructions.

Listing Accuracy and No Endorsement

Practice ownership, personnel, services, hours, addresses, affiliations, and operating status can change without notice. Although we work to improve accuracy, we do not guarantee that any listing is complete, current, or error-free.

The presence, absence, verification, claim status, or placement of a practice does not constitute an endorsement, accreditation, recommendation, condemnation, or guarantee of clinical quality. Users should confirm important information directly with the practice and appropriate licensing or regulatory authorities.

Alerts about a change in a saved practice’s ownership, or about practices near your area, may be delayed, incomplete, or not delivered, and we may not learn of a change when it happens.

To report a suspected error, use the reporting tools on the map or in the apps, or email info@independentvet.com.

Submissions, Reports, and Claims

When submitting practice information, reports, corrections, or claims, you represent that:

The information is accurate to the best of your knowledge and is not deliberately misleading.
You have the right and authority to provide it.
Your submission does not violate another person’s privacy, confidentiality, intellectual-property, or other rights.
If you claim or speak on behalf of a practice, you are an owner or an authorized representative of its owners.
You will not submit patient medical information, payment-card information, passwords, or other unnecessary sensitive information.

You retain ownership of original material you submit. You grant Independent Vet a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to review, verify, reproduce, edit for clarity or length, publish, display, archive, and otherwise use the submission as reasonably necessary to operate and improve the Services and their listings. This license continues for material incorporated into listing history or editorial records, subject to the privacy rights described in our Privacy Policy.

We may contact you to verify a submission. We may accept, reject, edit, investigate, postpone, or remove any submission or listing in our editorial discretion. Submission does not guarantee publication, verification, or any particular classification.

The claim form identifies information, such as an approved practice message or social-media link, that may be displayed publicly. Contact information supplied only for verification is handled as described in the Privacy Policy.

This section does not apply to your pet records or other content you keep in the apps, which are covered by Your Pet Records and Other App Content.

Job Listings and Applications

Job listings are supplied by participating practices. Independent Vet does not guarantee that a listing is accurate, complete, lawful, or still available, and does not act as an employer, recruiter, staffing agency, or party to any employment relationship.

When you express interest through the Services, on the website or in the apps, you authorize Independent Vet to relay the name, email address, optional phone number, current location, work experience, qualifications, professional links, and message you provide to the practice that posted the job. You are responsible for the accuracy and lawfulness of your submission. Do not include patient information, financial-account information, government identification numbers, passwords, or other unnecessary sensitive information. Submission does not guarantee receipt, a response, an interview, or employment.

Accounts

An account is optional. The apps’ map, My Vets, pet records, and reminders work without one. With an account you can sync your saved practices, home area, and alert settings, turn on encrypted sync for your pet records, and share pets with a household. Sign-in is provided by Clerk.

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account.
Keep your sign-in method secure. You are responsible for activity in your account. Tell us promptly at info@independentvet.com if you believe someone else has used it.
Your recovery key and passkeys. If you turn on encrypted sync, you are responsible for keeping your recovery key, and any passkey you add to unlock your records, safe. A new phone can open your synced pet records with your recovery key or, on the same kind of phone, with a passkey you added, kept in your password manager. We never receive your recovery key or your passkeys and cannot recover them for you. Without your recovery key, a passkey, or a device that can still open your records, your synced pet records cannot be recovered by anyone, including us. Our Privacy Policy explains how this works.
We may set reasonable limits, for example on storage, the number of devices, or the size of a household, and may change them.
You can delete your account at any time, in the apps or as described on Delete your Independent Vet account. Pet records stored on your phone stay there until you delete them in the app or remove the app.
We may suspend or close an account that is used to breach these Terms, to harm the Services or other people, or where the law requires it. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will tell you first. Closing an account does not remove the pet records stored on your phones.

Your Pet Records and Other App Content

“App content” means the pets, records, scanned pages, photos, vaccinations, medications, schedules, dose history, notes on practices, and other information you keep in the apps.

You keep all rights in your app content. It is not a submission, and we do not publish it.
If you turn on encrypted sync, your pet records are encrypted on your phone before they are uploaded, and we cannot read them. You grant us a limited license to store, copy, transmit, back up, and delete your app content in that encrypted form, and to process your saved practices, home area, and alert settings as described in our Privacy Policy, only as needed to provide the features you use, including sharing with a household you join. The license ends when the content is deleted from our servers as described in the Privacy Policy.
Only add content you have the right to keep and share, such as your own pets’ records and photos you took or may use. Do not use the apps to store content unrelated to your pets’ care, or anything unlawful.
Because we cannot read encrypted content, we cannot review, restore, or correct it for you. Keep your own copies of anything important; the apps can export a pet’s records as a PDF.

With an account and encrypted sync, you can share pets with up to five other people in a household.

Everyone in the household can see, add to, change, and delete the shared pets’ profiles, records, photos, vaccinations, medications, and dose history. Invite only people you trust with that information, and share only pets you have the right to share.
The person who creates the household chooses who joins, can remove members, and can end the household. Any other member can leave at any time.
When someone leaves or is removed, or the household ends, they may keep a copy of the shared pets as they were at that time. We cannot recall copies that other members keep.
Each member’s phone reminds them about shared medications separately. A dose one member logs reaches the others when their phones sync, which may be delayed, so agree directly on who gives important doses.

Permitted Use

You may use the Services for lawful personal, informational, and internal business purposes consistent with these Terms. The apps are licensed to you, not sold, for use on devices you own or control, under these Terms and the app store terms described in App Stores. You may link to public pages of the Services in a way that does not falsely suggest sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation.

Automated Access and Data Use

Except with our prior written permission, you may not use bots, crawlers, scrapers, scripts, browser automation, or other automated means to systematically access, monitor, copy, collect, extract, download, or harvest content or data from the Services, and you may not access the programming interfaces the website and the apps use other than through the website and the apps.

You may not use content or data from the Services to reconstruct all or a material part of the Independent Vet database; create or enrich a competing directory, marketing database, lead list, or commercial data product; train, test, validate, or improve an artificial-intelligence or machine-learning system; or republish, license, sell, mirror, or otherwise commercially exploit the compiled data or editorial classifications of the Services.

You may not evade or attempt to evade rate limits, access controls, robot exclusions, security measures, or other technical restrictions. General-purpose search engines may index public pages solely for inclusion in publicly available search results, provided they follow our robots instructions and do not use the indexed material for the prohibited purposes above.

Public facts may not themselves be owned by Independent Vet. These restrictions apply to access to and use of the Services and to their protected selection, organization, verification work, original content, editorial classifications, and compilation.

Prohibited Use

Unless we give prior written permission, you may not:

Interfere with the Services, introduce malicious code, probe for vulnerabilities, overload infrastructure, or disrupt another person’s use.
Access or attempt to access another person’s account, household, or data, or interfere with the Services’ encryption or security features.
Impersonate another person or practice, submit fraudulent claims, or misrepresent your authority or affiliation.
Use information from the Services to harass, threaten, discriminate against, or unlawfully contact a person or practice, or send invitations, reports, or expressions of interest in bulk or to harass someone.
Remove attribution, copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices.
Use the Services for unlawful, deceptive, or abusive purposes.

Intellectual Property and Third-Party Materials

Independent Vet and its licensors retain their rights in the Services’ original content, branding, graphics, design, code, editorial classifications, and compilation. No rights are granted except the limited permission to use the Services under these Terms.

The map uses OpenStreetMap data and other third-party software, data, or content subject to their respective licenses and terms; the apps credit them in their About screens. Third-party names and marks belong to their respective owners. Use of a third party’s name does not imply affiliation with or endorsement by that party.

Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and retain information, including what the apps keep on your phone and what they send to us. By submitting information, you acknowledge that policy.

Third-Party Websites and Services

The Services may link to veterinary practices, social networks, map providers, public records, medication information, helplines, and other third-party resources. We do not control and are not responsible for their content, availability, security, products, services, fees, or privacy practices. Visiting or dealing with a third party is at your own discretion and risk.

The apps also rely on services provided by others, such as Apple, Google, Clerk, and Cloudflare, and on your phone’s operating system.

App Stores

If you downloaded the iPhone app from Apple’s App Store, your license to use it is Apple’s standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement. If you downloaded the Android app from Google Play, the Google Play Terms of Service apply. These Terms apply to your use of the apps alongside those terms.

Questions or complaints about the apps may be sent to info@independentvet.com.

Availability and Changes to the Services

We may change, suspend, restrict, or discontinue any part of the Services, including the apps, accounts, and encrypted sync; correct or remove content; or limit access when reasonably necessary for maintenance, security, legal compliance, abuse prevention, or editorial reasons. We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free availability, or that notifications, sync, or backups will work at any particular time.

Push notifications are delivered by Apple and Google and may be delayed or not delivered. Some features may need a recent version of an app; an older version may stop syncing until you update it.

If we decide to discontinue accounts or encrypted sync, we will try to give reasonable notice so you can keep your pet records on your phone or export them.

Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Services are provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We disclaim implied warranties of accuracy, completeness, reliability, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. Nothing in these Terms excludes a warranty or right that applicable law does not permit us to exclude.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Independent Vet will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages; lost profits, opportunities, data, or goodwill; veterinary outcomes; missed, delayed, or incorrect reminders or notifications; pet records that cannot be recovered because a recovery key or passkey was lost; decisions made in reliance on a listing or on information in the apps; or conduct of a practice, user, household member, or third party arising from or related to the Services.

Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, it will be limited to the greatest extent permitted by applicable law. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

Responsibility for Misuse

You are responsible for your use of the Services and your submissions. To the extent permitted by law, you agree to be responsible for claims, losses, or reasonable costs arising from your intentional misuse of the Services, fraudulent submission, violation of another person’s rights, or material breach of these Terms.

Applicable Law

These Terms are subject to applicable United States law and any mandatory consumer-protection laws that apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits rights that cannot lawfully be waived.

Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms as the Services change. Revised Terms become effective when posted with a new effective date. For a material change that affects accounts or the apps, we will also give notice in the apps or through another reasonable means before it takes effect. Your continued use of the Services after that date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms to the extent permitted by law.

Contact

Questions about these Terms may be sent to info@independentvet.com. For help with the apps, see Independent Vet app help.