# PetsFirst Health

> PetsFirst's healthcare platform: home vaccinations, at-home blood tests, surgery and hospital booking, and an online pharmacy for pets in Bengaluru. I built the platform and the app behind it.

URL: https://www.mnthan.com/work/petsfirst-health
Year: Jan 2025 - Apr 2025
Role: Platform + app
Tags: Next.js, Node.js, Express, MongoDB, AWS, Flutter
Live: https://health.petsfirst.care

- Google rating: 4.7
- blood test reports: 24 hr
- API, web + mobile: 1

PetsFirst runs its retail business on Shopify. The healthcare side needed things a storefront can't model: home-visit scheduling, lab reports, vaccination records. So in early 2025 I built health.petsfirst.care as a custom platform.

## What it does

Pet parents in Bengaluru book vaccinations and blood tests at home, and surgeries and hospital visits online. Blood test reports come back within 24 hours, and the vaccination side covers everything from kennel cough shots for three-week-old puppies to yearly boosters. The platform also carries an online pet pharmacy, travel certificates, and online vet consultations. The service holds a 4.7 Google rating.

## The build

It's a React stack end to end: Next.js on the web, a Node.js and Express API, and MongoDB underneath, with a Flutter app so bookings work from a phone. Both clients consume the same API, and nothing is duplicated between web and mobile. I wrote more about that decision in [One Express API for a Next.js website and a Flutter app](/writing/nextjs-mongodb-service-platforms).

It runs on AWS and deploys through a GitHub-based CI/CD pipeline.

## My role

Everything: the Next.js front end, the API and data model, the Flutter app, and the AWS infrastructure and pipeline behind them.

## Features

- Home Vaccination: Vaccinations at the pet's home, bookable online, from puppy shots to the yearly 9-in-1 booster.
- Home Blood Tests: Parvo, thyroid, SDMA, and other panels collected at home, with reports back within 24 hours.
- Surgery & Hospital Visits: Online booking for surgeries and in-hospital care instead of phone calls.
- Pharmacy & More: An online pet pharmacy, travel certificates, and online vet consultations on the same platform.

## Challenges

- Beyond a Storefront: PetsFirst's retail runs on Shopify, but healthcare needed scheduling, service definitions, and records. A storefront can't model a home-visit calendar or a lab report, so this became a custom Next.js and MongoDB build.
- One Backend, Two Clients: The web platform and the Flutter app share one API. The discipline is refusing to special-case either client, so a feature built once shows up on both.