COTC - 17 Dec 2025 - Telehealth for Pets in Michigan?

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Good morning, Northern Michigan.

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This is Cup of Traverse City for the

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12/17/2025,

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and I'm Mike. And as usual, we're gonna

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start with the weather today.

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Some some word that I haven't seen in

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a long time. Partly

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sunny

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with temperature

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falling to around 29 by 5PM. Yeah. Right

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now, it's, something like 34.

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So, yeah, it's looking like things are melting

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down a little bit,

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but, it is gonna cool off below freezing.

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Wind will be five to 10 miles per

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hour

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and from the south.

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So that's interesting. Mostly cloudy with a temperature

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tonight of

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back up to 34

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by 4AM.

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Breezy with a south wind five to 10

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increasing to 20 miles per hour after midnight.

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Winds could get as high as 35

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in gusts.

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And let's see, Thursday drizzle before 1PM, then

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rain showers

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after 1PM. Highs near 45,

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breezy with a south wind 10 to 20,

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and gusts as high as 35. Chance of

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precipitation

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is 90%.

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And I usually don't go on to Thursday

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night, you know, a day out, but,

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rain and snow showers becoming all snow after

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10PM,

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so watch out for freezing.

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That's gonna get sorta ugly, and I don't

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know why my phone decided to, talk to

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me. Anyway,

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the foibles of

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podcasting.

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One interesting story I ran across. I I

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watched it on the news last night, which

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I generally don't watch the news, but, this

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one caught my ear.

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Michigan lawmakers are proposing telehealth

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for pets.

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And up until this point, the

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veterinarians

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had to like, except for during COVID,

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the,

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the veterinarians

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had to have hands on the animals,

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you know, to do anything

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at all

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with, you know, veterinary medicine.

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And

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they've proposed

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a a thing

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where,

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you know, as long as it's the pet's

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vet, so, like, my dog, Benny, you know,

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he goes to

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a particular

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veterinarian,

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practice here in Traverse City. And

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if this law gets passed, I'll be able

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to

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instead of bringing him in every time for

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every little thing,

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I'll be able to do a telehealth appointment

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with him, you know, kinda like we do

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with, you know, with the regular doctors and,

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you know, sometimes.

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So that'll be interesting.

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You know, it'll save some time, save,

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a little bit of driving around, and,

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hey. You know? We talked yesterday about working

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from home. I guess vets could work from

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home part time anyway,

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doing, telehealth appointments with,

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you know, with pets. So what what do

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you think of that?

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That that, again, like I said, it's a

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statewide thing, not not necessarily a Traverse City

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thing.

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And, yeah, one other thing I I wanna

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bring up

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is

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yeah. And I'm not gonna cover this kind

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of stuff

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on this

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little show that I do every morning,

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but there's been a lot

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of violent stuff going on. I got this

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app on my phone, and let me see

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what it's called.

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But it's interesting,

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but it's a little scary at the same

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time.

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Yeah.

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Crime Radar.

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And, you know, it's an AI powered thing,

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and it listens to the police scanner, I

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guess. And, it it but, man, I'll tell

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you, there is some crazy stuff going on

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here in Traverse City and, you know, in

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the area.

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And, you know, I guess that's the same

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everywhere when you see it all the time,

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you know, where you've got an AI watching

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the scanner and then putting out messages.

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It is interesting

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but a little scary, you know, we've had

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an actual murder here,

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recently. We've had a few other,

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you know, things, and and that usually makes

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big news. You know, I had the Walmart

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stabbing

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incident this summer and,

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you know, so, you know,

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be careful out there. You know, we're in

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a relatively safe place,

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but

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no place is perfectly safe. So just be

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careful out there and drive like a sane

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person. We'll catch you tomorrow.