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This veterinarian is building a platform for pet care advice: Pawbly

Krista Magnifico, who runs an animal hospital in Jarrettsville, wants to get credible internet info to pet owners.

Pawbly makes sure this guy is taken care of. (Photo by Flickr user Mosman Council, used under a Creative Commons license)

As a veterinarian, Krista Magnifico is always dispatching information about pets. But she realizes that pet owners are often on their own once treatment is complete. The patients can’t even tell their owner if they’re feeling better.
AmidĀ all of the memes, the internet has a wealth of pet care advice. Just Google “Does rubbing a dog’s nose in poop work?” if you need to be convinced.
This may shock you, we’ll let you sit down, but some of the information that’s out there isn’t correct.
“I realized there was a big need out there to get more accessibility for people to get information about their pets,” said Magnifico, who has run theĀ Jarrettsville Veterinary Center in Harford County for about 10 years.

magnifico-with-dogs

Krista Magnifico. (Courtesy photo)

To get the information out there and make sure it’s credible, she and two other animal lovers created Pawbly. It’s a social platform where people can get answers from experts on pet health issues, as well as training, grooming and other pet care topics.
The team, which includes No Kill Harford director Adam Wysocki, has been building the site for two years. The platform runs through a website and mobile app, all developed while Magnifico continues her vet practice at full tilt.
Download Pawbly for iOS
The free social network allows users to create profiles and share info about their pets. Topics are broken down into categories by animal, as well as pet care topics. Pet owners can follow a topic, then ask questions.
To answer your immediate questions: (1) yes, the platform includes the capability to post pictures, and, (2) yes, there is an exotic animal category.
On the other end, experts like Magnifico are there to provide answers, or direct them to internet content that’s credible. In several cases, the questions provide opportunities for the experts to urge a trip to the vet.
Magnifico believes the service-focused concept is distinct from the vast market of pet goods that dominates most of the animal-loving internet. She’s looking for funding, but wants to be very selective about who to bring onboard so the mission stays intact.
“I want this to be a longstanding, viable project,” she said.
Making new tracks in the social realm requires an understanding of the audience that goes beyond knowing how to market a cute doggy sweater. Magnifico said the team is constantly making adjustments based on their understanding of what users want. It’s required them to rewrite some of their plans, but Magnifico ultimately believes the users drive the site. The intimate understanding that comes from the adjustments also provides knowledge that can help create advertising or direct traffic to sites that fit the audience the best, Magnifico said.
“The big advantage of having a specifically tailored platform is no one else understands our users, and we can help make incentives specific to them” she said.
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