Veterinary AI
Feb 22, 2026
Veterinary Transcription Software: What Vets Need to Know
Share to :
Veterinary transcription isn't new. Vets have been using dictation tools for years — speaking notes into a microphone and letting software convert speech to text. Dragon Medical, Talkatoo, and generic voice typing have all had their place in vet clinics.
But the category has changed dramatically. What started as "faster typing" has evolved into AI tools that listen to the entire consultation and generate complete SOAP notes without the vet dictating a single structured sentence.
If you're still typing notes manually — or using dictation software that hasn't kept up — here's what's changed and what to look for.
Traditional veterinary dictation software converts your speech to text in real time. You speak, it types. The main players have been:
These tools are genuinely faster than typing. If you can speak at 120 words per minute instead of typing at 40, you save real time.
But there's a catch: dictation software only replaces your fingers. You still do all the cognitive work.
Dictation tools solve the typing bottleneck, but they don't solve the documentation bottleneck. Here's why:
You have to dictate in structure. With dictation, you need to mentally organise your note as you speak — subjective first, then objective findings, assessment, plan. You're essentially composing the note in your head and reading it aloud. That's still a significant cognitive load after a busy consult.
You speak punctuation and formatting. "New line. Capital S, Subjective, colon. New line." It's faster than typing, but it's not natural speech. You're operating the software, not just talking.
Drug names and dosages need spelling out. Veterinary medications are where dictation falls apart most. "Amoxicillin-clavulanate" gets mangled. Drug dosages need careful dictation. Most vets end up heavily editing the output for medication accuracy.
Everything gets transcribed — including the irrelevant bits. If you dictate while thinking ("uh, let me check the history... actually, no, start again"), it all ends up in the note. There's no intelligence filtering what's clinically relevant.
It still takes a separate step. You finish the consult, then you sit down and dictate the note. It's faster than typing, but it's still a task you have to do after every patient. At 20 consults a day, that adds up.
The result: most vets who try dictation find it's maybe 30-40% faster than typing, but it doesn't fundamentally change how much time they spend on documentation. The cognitive work is the bottleneck, not the typing speed.
The latest generation of veterinary transcription tools — usually called AI vet scribes — take a fundamentally different approach. Instead of replacing your keyboard, they replace the entire note-writing process.
Here's the difference:
| Traditional Dictation | AI Vet Scribe | |
|---|---|---|
| When you use it | After the consult — separate dictation step | During the consult — ambient recording |
| What you say | Structured note, spoken aloud | Nothing extra — just have your normal consult |
| Formatting | You dictate punctuation, headings, structure | AI structures the note into your template |
| Medications | You spell them out, often incorrectly transcribed | AI recognises and cross-references drug names |
| Small talk | Transcribed literally | Filtered out automatically |
| Output | Raw text you need to edit and format | Structured SOAP note ready for review |
| Extra outputs | None | Patient summary, client letter, billable items |
The core distinction: dictation is "faster typing." AI scribes offload the cognitive work entirely. You have a natural conversation with the client and patient, and the AI produces the structured clinical record.
Whether you're evaluating dictation tools or AI scribes, here's what matters most for veterinary use:
Generic transcription tools struggle with veterinary terminology. Drug names, breeds, clinical terms — they all need a veterinary-trained model. If you're spending more time correcting transcription errors than you would have spent typing, the tool isn't working.
Look for tools built specifically for veterinary medicine, not human medical tools adapted for vets. There's enough difference in terminology, workflow, and documentation style that vet-specific matters.
Most practices use some variation of SOAP. Your transcription tool should output notes in your preferred structure — not dump a wall of unformatted text that you then have to reorganise into sections.
The best AI scribes let you customise your SOAP template so the output matches how your practice documents. Different section headings, different levels of detail, different examination formats — without you having to dictate the structure every time.
The note has to end up in your practice management system. If you're copying and pasting from one tool into another, that's friction that compounds across 20 consults a day.
Look for direct integration with your PMS — ideally one that's included in the price, not charged as an add-on. Some tools charge extra for PMS integration, which defeats the purpose of saving time if you're still manually transferring notes.
Medication documentation is where transcription quality matters most. A tool that transcribes "amoxicillin-clavulanate" as "a moxie silicon clay view you late" isn't saving you time — it's creating work.
The best veterinary transcription tools validate drug names against a medication database and correct dosages and administration routes. This is a step beyond simple speech-to-text — it requires an understanding of veterinary pharmacology, not just audio processing.
Vets aren't always at a desktop. Equine vets work in paddocks. Large animal vets work on farms. Even in-clinic, you're moving between consult rooms, not sitting at a computer.
A mobile app that records in the background — without needing to be open on screen — means the tool works wherever you work, not just at your desk.
Clinical records contain sensitive client and patient information. For Australian and New Zealand practices, data residency matters — where is the audio stored, where is it processed, and does it stay in your region?
This is increasingly a compliance consideration, not just a preference. Check where the tool stores and processes data, especially if you're in a market with data sovereignty requirements.
Whippet Notes is an AI vet scribe — not a dictation tool. Here's how the pipeline works:
The multi-step pipeline is the key difference from tools that just transcribe. Transcription is step one. The extraction, medication correction, and structured note generation are where the real value is — they're the steps that replace the cognitive work of writing the note yourself.
"Whippet Notes has helped me save a lot of admin time by writing detailed medical notes for me." — Dr David Clifford, Rathmines Veterinary Hospital
Integration with Covetrus Ascend and RxWorks is included at no extra cost — select the appointment, record the consult, and the notes sync back to the patient record automatically.
If you're currently using dictation software and it's working for you, that's fine. Dictation is still better than typing.
But if you're finding that dictation saves you some time but not enough — if you're still spending hours on notes, still editing transcription errors, still sitting down after every consult to dictate a structured note — it might be time to look at what AI scribes can do instead.
The vets who've made the switch typically report saving around 25 hours per month. Not because the transcription is faster, but because they're not writing notes at all — the AI does it from the consultation itself.
"Note taking has always been one of my lowest priorities... And now, they actually get done." — Dr Will Gartrell, Frankston Heights Veterinary Centre
Try Whippet Notes free — 10 free consults per month, no credit card required. Record a consult, see what the AI generates, and decide if it beats your current workflow.
Connected
