Someone has shared their pet with you, but tapping Chat with AI Vet shows an access message instead of a conversation. Don't worry — the pet's owner can fix this in a few seconds.
What you're seeing
Vet chat access restricted — "You don't have permission to access vet or AI chat for this pet. Please contact the pet owner for access."
Why this happens
Family sharing gives each member specific permissions on a shared pet. AI Vet Chat and real vet chat both sit behind the Consultation permission. Without it, you can still see the pet, but consultations are off-limits.
The fix
Ask the pet's owner to:
- Open Family Sharing for that pet.
- Enable the Consultation permission for you.
Once it's on, reopen the app and try again. Family sharing is covered in more detail in the Family Sharing section of this help center.
Two things must be true
For AI Vet Chat to work on a shared pet:
- You need the Consultation permission on that pet.
- The pet's owner needs an active Premium plan.
Please note: your own subscription isn't used for a shared pet. If the owner isn't on Premium, AI Vet Chat won't open for that pet even if you're a Premium subscriber — and you'll see the Upgrade to Premium card rather than this one.
That's the quickest way to tell the two apart: an access-restricted message is a permission problem, an upgrade card is a plan problem.
What you can do once you have access
- Start AI chats about that pet, drawing on the owner's Premium
- See your own conversations in the AI Chats list at any time
- See other people's conversations about that pet only once they've ended and a summary exists
Important: only the person who started an AI chat can end it. If another family member's conversation for that pet is still open, you can't close it — but it doesn't get in your way either. The one-open-chat-per-pet limit applies to your own chats, so you can still start your own conversation about the same pet.
If it still doesn't work
If the owner has enabled Consultation and you still can't get in after restarting the app, contact the Ask A Vet support team with the pet's name [CONFIRM: support contact channel — email address and/or in-app support route].
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