Veterinary care doesn't happen behind a desk

Veterinary care does not happen behind a desk. Whether you are treating livestock on a farm, making a home visit, seeing horses on a yard, or travelling between appointments, you need patient information, appointments and treatment records wherever you work.

Merlin Mobile is Merlin on a mobile device. Equine, farm and mobile veterinarians can open patient records, document treatments and manage appointments in the field, and carry on if the signal drops. Today it is a mobile web app you can add to a phone. A native app for the App Store and Google Play is in development. The clinician, the practice, and the client stay on the same record.

The result is a more connected experience for veterinarians, staff, and clients alike.

Why does mobile access matter for today’s veterinarians?

While Merlin has long been a desktop-based practice management system, veterinary medicine itself has become increasingly mobile.

As James Bowman, Lead Product Manager, explained, customers asked for more flexibility to use Merlin wherever their work takes them, particularly when caring for patients away from a computer. They wanted the diary, notes, and treatments on hand on a phone or tablet.

That need is especially important as more corporate veterinary groups expand their equine and farm services. "A lot of our corporates are coming on and they have many equine and farm needs," Bowman said. "If you're treating a cow and you need to then be able to access something while you're there, it needs to be mobile, it needs to be friendly, it needs to handle low signal."

Who is Merlin Mobile designed for?

Merlin Mobile is for equine veterinarians, farm veterinarians and other clinicians who regularly work away from the clinic. They can open records, appointments, and clinical information on a mobile device, including where the signal is limited.

1. Equine veterinarians

For veterinarians moving between yards and client locations, appointments, records and treatments on the phone mean less need to return to a desktop between calls.

2. Farm veterinarians

Signal on a farm is often patchy. Clinicians can keep documenting the visit and the treatments, and Merlin Mobile uploads that work when the connection returns.

3. Mobile and multi-site veterinary teams

Merlin Mobile also supports practices with several locations, and clinicians who work outside the clinic. Checking appointments from home, cancelling one on the road, or opening a patient record on a home visit can all happen away from a desk.

What can veterinarians do with Merlin Mobile?

Across these settings, Merlin Mobile brings core Merlin functionality into a mobile-friendly format. Veterinarians can:

• Schedule and manage appointments
• Access client and patient records
• Review patient histories
• Add treatments
• Capture clinical notes
• Record weights and patient updates
• Schedule follow-up appointments
• Search the full client and patient database
• View stock information assigned to specific locations or vehicles

James Bowman emphasised that Merlin Mobile was designed to feel immediately familiar, giving customers a consistent experience across devices. “It’s the same appointments, the same patients, and the same treatments, with the same familiar buttons and boxes to tick,” he said. “You can move between desktop and mobile seamlessly.”

A veterinarian arrives at the farm, reviews the record, treats the animal, enters notes and books a follow-up. If the signal drops, the work stays on the device. When the signal returns, on the drive home or back at the practice, it uploads to Merlin. That shortens the gap between the visit and the practice record. As Bowman put it, the aim is to “capture it in the moment”, rather than write it up again later.

More than mobile: built to keep working when signal drops

On farms, at yards and across rural areas, the signal can change between appointments or disappear completely. Clinicians can keep recording the visit while the detail is fresh, rather than stopping or relying on memory until they are back at the practice. Anything that cannot be sent is held and uploaded when a connection is available again.

For a practice owner, that continuity matters. A lost signal does not have to mean writing the visit up twice, leaving the practice waiting on the record, or pushing the admin to the end of the day. Appointments, treatments, clinical notes and other updates stay with the visit.

How does Merlin Mobile support practice performance?

Keeping the visit moving also helps the rest of the practice.

1. Improve the client experience

Completing the record during the visit shows the client what has been documented, and makes it less likely that a detail is missed later.

“It improves the relationship with the customer, because you are handling it there and then,” Bowman said. “There is less room for error, and more transparency.”

2. Reduce administrative burden

Recording the detail once, while it is fresh, means less need to reconstruct the visit afterwards. “They can spend more time with the client and less time sat at home doing admin,” Bowman said.

3. Give staff greater flexibility

Mobile access is one of the things customers ask for most. It gives field teams more say over when and where they complete the work. Early audiences have responded in the same way.

“Everyone that has seen it, whether corporates, independents or people at the community days, has loved it,” Bowman said.

Merlin Mobile is only the beginning

Veterinary care does not happen behind a desk. For teams that spend their days on farms, at yards and on the road, Merlin Mobile is a practical way to manage appointments, patients and treatments wherever the care happens.