How to Use CCTV in Animal Hospital
The third verification layer watches the waiting room and hallways. Learn the controls, the camera-only tells, and how to scan without draining your sanity.
By Animal Hospital Guide · Site Maintainer: CT
Last updated:
Snapshot, don't stare
Staring at cursed feeds drains sanity fast.
1. Opening the Cameras
Icon or hotkey
Open CCTV with the camera icon in the UI, or simply press C to bring up the feeds.
This lets you watch the waiting room and hallways where the current and next patients linger.
2. Cycling Feeds
Scroll wheel without the menu
Use the scroll wheel to cycle between cameras without fully opening the menu. This keeps your hands free and your scan fast.
Cycle to the feed that frames the patient's face and body — usually the reception or waiting-area cam.
3. Camera-Only Tells
What the window never shows
Censored eyes — blocks or black bars over the eyes on the feed.
Unnatural body or a hollow face that looks wrong on cam.
Staring at the camera — the patient looking directly into the lens.
4. Protect Your Sanity
Quick snapshots over long stares
Cursed feeds can drain sanity if you linger. Take quick snapshots to confirm a tell, then close the camera rather than holding a prolonged gaze.
The Security class can deploy a portable camera, adding mobile CCTV coverage beyond the fixed feeds.
5. The Scan Routine
Same steps, every patient
CCTV only works if you run it the same way every time. A fixed routine does three things at once: it stops you skipping the layer when the queue is busy, it keeps the scan short enough that sanity drain stays negligible, and it makes the tells easier to catch because you are always looking at the same thing in the same order.
- Open the feed before you study the patient. If you check the window first, you arrive at the camera already expecting an answer — and an expectation is exactly what makes a camera-only tell easy to miss.
- Cycle to the feed framing the face. The reception or waiting-area cam usually holds the patient longest, which is where a tell has time to appear.
- Check the three tells in the same order. Censored eyes, then an unnatural body or hollow face, then whether the patient is looking into the lens.
- Confirm, then close. Snapshot rather than stare. The decision is already made by the time a second glance would help, and a second glance costs sanity.
6. Mistakes That Waste the Scan
All four are about timing, not eyesight
- Scanning after you have already decided. Once you are sure the patient is fine, the scan stops being a check and becomes a confirmation of what you want to see.
- Holding the feed open to be thorough. Longer is not better here. The tells are either visible in the first few seconds or they are not, and everything after that is paid for in sanity.
- Treating a clean feed as approval. A clean camera is one of three layers. Patients can pass the cameras and still fail the photo comparison.
- Only ever checking one camera. Cycling the feeds is how you catch a patient behaving normally in one room and differently in another. Which feed deserves your first look is covered on the best CCTV camera page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the CCTV controls in Animal Hospital?
Open the cameras with the camera icon or by pressing C. Use the scroll wheel to cycle through cameras without opening the full menu. Take quick snapshots rather than a prolonged stare.
How many CCTV cameras are there?
There are multiple feeds covering the waiting room and hallways. The exact count has grown with updates, but the reception/waiting-area cam is usually the one showing the patient longest.
What does CCTV catch that the window does not?
Camera-only tells: censored eyes, an unnatural body, a hollow face on cam, and patients staring directly at the camera. None of these appear at the check-in window or on the photo.
Does watching CCTV drain sanity?
The feed itself does not cost you anything. The drain comes from lingering on a cursed feed, which is why quick snapshots beat a long stare — confirm the tell and close the camera.
Can I admit a patient on a clean CCTV feed alone?
No. CCTV is one of three layers, not a verdict on its own. A patient can pass the cameras and still fail the photo comparison, so the feed is a green light rather than a decision.