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Articles, Videos, & Training on Pets & Veterinary Medicine

Jessica Vogelsang DVM

What Changes When You Add One Letter to Alone? Everything.

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Guest Author JASON SWEITZER DVM
Guest Author JASON SWEITZER DVM

I’d like to correct a logical error we, as veterinarians, have been making, that we should look at as more of a typo. In veterinary medicine we should change the spelling of alone to allone.

I have felt alone and helpless in my darkest times. I am a thirty-four year old veterinarian with ADHD, elementary school puns, and pre-pubescent humor; married for over ten years, with two children under the age of five each with their own problems; working 60+ hours a week in 4 days, living back in the town I grew up, racking up several injuries, in braces recovering from jaw surgery; and love to teach and care so much about others that I don’t take time for my family or myself and break down crying on the freeway at 2:45 AM coming back from work. That kind of alone.

Thankfully, I had recently joined a veterinary support group. A group dedicated entirely to supporting each other, in whatever way we may need. I shared my unique story and problems. Through my colleagues, I shared every single struggle, every aspect of my life.

My colleagues helped me shine a light in the darkness of my life and realize that I shared everything. We shared everything. Someone had been through what I was going through, often multiple people, and they had survived. They offered insight, resources, support, and something much greater.

Owner holding a cat

I am proud to be a part of a profession of colleagues so great that they take time out of their equally busy and stressful lives, for me. I would like to pay forward a small part of that. In the darkest and most obscure situation, where not another car or light could be seen anywhere for miles, I had felt alone, broken, clinically depressed, and starting down a path towards suicidal ideation. Through their efforts, I realized that I am not alone. We are not alone. We are all-one. I submit we need to edit our mental autocorrect to permanently change alone, to allone. We are ALLONE.

[tweetthis]Someone had been through what I was going through, often multiple people, and they had survived.[/tweetthis]

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.

Guest Author JASON SWEITZER DVM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jason Sweitzer, DVM, RVT is an associate veterinarian at Conejo Valley Veterinary Hospital in Thousand Oaks, CA. He does general practice and emergency medicine for small and exotics animals, as well as wildlife, with special interests in behavior medicine, management, and teaching. He balances his life with family, playing field hockey, and voluminous quantities of bad jokes and puns.

I’m a Vet and a Panicky Pet Owner – and Here’s Why Specialists Rule

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HEATHER LUCAS DVM
Guest Author HEATHER LUCAS DVM

I’m not the calm, logical pet owner you’d expect a veterinarian to be when my own pets’ health and wellness might be in question. I’m the pet owner who calls ASPCA Poison Control when Biggy steals a bag of Crispy M&M’s because I can’t figure out the EXACT chocolate content. I’m the spouse who freaks out when Delicate One has been squinting all afternoon and my husband didn’t think to tell me about it. I’m the vet who rushes Little Wolfman in for radiographs at 11pm when he stumbles and doesn’t stop hobbling after five or ten minutes. Yup, that’s me.

I don’t know why my mind jumps to “worst case scenario” with my own pets. My husband says that I have an “expect the worst and hope to be pleasantly surprised” attitude towards life. I don’t recommend it. It’s not the easiest lifestyle to sustain, or to get rid of.

Nonetheless, I LOVE having doctors who can be more objective than me when assessing my pets. New clients, I mean it when I say, “He’s excellent, he takes care of my own pets” as a way of introducing my colleague. And the dozen or so specialists my pets have seen over the years when they need care beyond what I can provide? I don’t know where we’d be without them.

[tweetthis]I’m a vet and my mind jumps to “worst case scenario” with my own pets.[/tweetthis]

When Little Wolfman had a couple of seizures and some mild bloodwork abnormalities, an internist worked him up for a portosystemic shunt and thankfully found nothing. A veterinary behaviorist helped me come up with a management plan for his fear-based aggression issues. When Delicate One fractured a forelimb while we were moving cross-country, three different orthopedic surgeons were involved in her care to ensure that she healed properly. When Biggy needed full-mouth dental radiographs and oral surgery, she visited a veterinary dentist. And when she needed repeated mast cell tumor excisions and eventually radiation therapy, she was cared for by several oncologists and soft tissue surgeons.

For those one-off situations, I want for my pets what I’d want for the rest of my family: top-notch care provided by passionate doctors with advanced training.  The most promising therapies available, maybe even enrolling in a clinical trial. And an educated, honest perspective that I could never ascertain without dedicated study.

Two dogs look up at their owner

Veterinary specialists are fantastic. They are internship and residency-trained; many are board-certified. They provide options and advanced care, and they use their expansive knowledge to provide realistic expectations for clients. Every time a pet or patient of mine visits a specialist, I learn something. And even if the pet owner isn’t “all in,” they still provide incredibly valuable information.

If you’re a pet owner and your primary care veterinarian recommends a specialty consult, please consider it. If referral is not practical for you, your primary care vet is not going to think any less of you. We might feel a little disappointed but we’ll still work together to provide the best care we can for your pet.

As for my troublesome trio, they’re all doing just fine—for now!

[tweetthis]Every time a pet or patient of mine visits a specialist, I learn something.[/tweetthis]

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.

HL Picture

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Heather Lucas, DVM, is a small animal general practitioner from the Midwest currently living in Southern Arizona. She shares her home with her husband, three dogs, and an assortment of pocket pets. Learning countless new things every day and building relationships with clients top the list of her favorite things about the veterinary profession.

There, I Said It: I Was Fired

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Hands writing on old typewriter over wooden table background

Welcome to There, I Said It- a column where we give you, the reader, a chance to get something off your chest in an anonymous fashion. Be it embarrassing, frustrating, or just something you didn’t want to admit out loud, it still might make someone else having a bad day feel just a bit better. If you have a story of your own, unburden yourself at TISI@drandyroark.com.

Guest author ANONYMOUS
Guest author ANONYMOUS

 

This is very difficult for me to say: I was fired.

I felt like had let myself down, and my friends and my family. Why me? What will other people think of me? Am I a good veterinary technician? Is this the career choice I want? I had many sleepless nights with a lot of crying. What was I going to do?

I was fired after working only a couple years at a practice. It was my first real job as a veterinary technician, and I was devastated after it happened. I was given statements on why they were firing me that I felt were both mean and untrue. I tried to talk to the owner of the practice, but they refused to hear my side of the story. The decision was final.

I sent dozens of resumes out and got very little response back in my surroundings area. The interviews I went to went terribly and would never be a good fit. I started to look statewide. That meant me having to uproot and look for a new place to live and selling my house. I was scared: What am I going to do financially? Am I going to be able to find a place to rent that will allow me to take a large dog?

I found a part-time job at a retail store to help make ends meet financially. They were very supportive of helping me find a veterinary technician job. I sent out more resumes daily to clinics I found online and clinics that were not advertising they were hiring. I went on more interviews that were not a good fit. I went on some where I felt I would be a great fit, but the positions were part-time and meant I would have to move to that area. I did not want to move for a part-time veterinary technician job with no promise of a full time job.

A young woman searching for ads and job in the newspaper.

After keeping at it, I finally got some interviews where I felt confident and thought I would be a great fit. I received a job offer- two, in fact. Now came the hard decision of picking one. I listed out my pros and cons and made my decision.

I started my new job a few weeks ago. My coworkers are fantastic. I feel I am trusted, which is something I never felt at my last practice.  The more I look back on my experience of being fired, I feel like it was a blessing.  I would not have gotten through it without the support of friends and family. Reading some of these articles produced by anonymous people have also helped.

Sometimes you really do need to go through something horrible in order to find something better waiting for you on the other side. I was fired, and it was a good thing.

[tweetthis]Sometimes you need to go through something horrible to find something better waiting for you[/tweetthis]

TISI banner

The views and opinions featured on There, I Said It are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team. Submissions may be edited for content and clarity.

Why I Love Being a Practice Owner, Bruises and All

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Rachael Kuhn-Siegel DVM
Guest Author RACHAEL KUHN-SIEGEL DVM

I’m a practice owner, and I LOVE it! While I’m new to this practice owner thing, I’m not new to business. Nonetheless, I wonder some days why I do not experience compassion fatigue or depression. It would be easy to do with the demands of my profession, especially with this new step in my career. I do feel abused many days by my staff, my clients, and the world in general.

I am just like a previous author where I am not beaten nor bullied, although some people have tried the latter. Currently my staff are the best I have ever had and my clients make me smile. Heck, I just got a hug from one of my clients just yesterday for saving their puppies. These are the good days.

The Bad Days

That isn’t always the case though. I have had employees steal, employees not show up for their shift, clients leave without paying, banks who try to jack up rates and people who try to sell you things you don’t need. Who takes the hit every time? I do, the practice owner. There is so much more to being an owner that no one else sees. I am the boss, the business woman, the bank negotiator, the landlord shark preventer, the electrician and the one who has a half million dollar loan behind her name. I am a single doctor practice owner.

I’d make more money doing almost anything else. Last year I would have made more money as an intern but I love what I do, most days. And eventually as my practice grows so to will my paycheck.

[tweetthis]There is so much more to being a practice owner that no one else sees.[/tweetthis]

Now I don’t expect to be able to live like a queen but I have been scavenging for leftovers from CE courses, drug reps and garage sales since I graduated 10 years ago. Doing so has allowed me to pay my student loan bills off, have three kids, own my own house and start my own hospital from scratch. It gave me the freedom to choose what I wanted in my career. What I want is practice ownership. I have worked harder and smarter than ever before. I have worked for 30 days straight multiple times for over two years. I have endured hundreds of emotional punches from all directions. I LOVE being an owner but I refuse to allow my practice, my home life or myself to suffer.

The punches come at you from all directions. From the banks who want higher interest rates, the employee who brings drama from home, the other employee who hates feedback, the client who screams at the “rich” doctor, the client who thinks you can’t be the boss because you are a woman, the associate who believes your medicine isn’t quite good enough, and finally from yourself.

a happy dog runs in a field of green grass

100 MMA Fighters and Me

We are a profession of perfectionists who treat each other and ourselves in ways that leave us miserably disheartened. When you are an associate you have a sense of what happens but it isn’t until you are in the arena of ownership that you fully understand. Some days I feel like there are a 100 MMA fighters vs me. They are ready to give it a go and I haven’t had my morning coffee yet.

In the arena of practice ownership you will get beat up. As Brene Brown says, “you will get your ass kicked…. But it is not the critic who counts.” The ones who count are us, the practice owners, to stand back up when our employees, our families, our clients, the uninformed and the internet trolls complain about our decisions. Maybe it is the cowgirl in me but I plan to see my practice through to being not just good, but great.

I plan to get back up after my employee steals from me. When my associate complains he doesn’t get paid enough I won’t say “suck it up, buttercup”. Instead, I will teach him financial and business acumen so he can make better decisions that will help him and my hospital in the long run. I plan on paying my team a livable wage, on getting paid for my time and expertise, on drinking margaritas with my husband after a tough day, on crying when I euthanize my patients, on dancing for joy when I send my ICU patients home. I plan and I plan but most importantly I plan on Succeeding. Succeeding gracefully as a woman, a practice owner, a mom, a wife and a daughter, and living my life with compassion every day.

[tweetthis]I plan to see my practice through to being not just good, but great.[/tweetthis]

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.

Rachael Kuhn-Siegel DVM

About the Author

I am Dr. Rachael Kuhn-Siegel who owns Prairie Animal Hospital in Peoria, Il. I am married to a wonderful husband with three humans kids and 5 fur kids who take up all my free time.

Five Things I Wish I Could Tell Younger Me About Vet Medicine

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Ever since I watched Doc Brown leap out of a frozen DeLorean and tell Marty McFly they’re going Back….to the Future, I’ve dreamed about all the ways time travel would make my life better.

The trilogy taught me some important lessons: namely, mucking about with gambling winnings is an overall bad strategy, as is meeting your parents and disrupting the fabric of space and time. Taking this into account, I think I would prefer a more subtle approach. Maybe just a few words of wisdom to my younger self to help ease the transition into this whole adulthood and career thing, preferably wearing a compelling disguise.

But, since time travelling DeLoreans and flux capacitors are still but a happy dream, I can settle for the next best thing and write it here, for those still young enough to wonder what the future holds, instead.

One: Lift With Your Legs

I will never forget it: an older clinician in vet school asked me to lift an 80-pound retriever on the table since his own back was wrecked. I did it, with terrible form. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me I would regret lifting with my back. The very next day, I realized he was right.

It was the first of a long line of back pain experiences, unfortunately. Now I’m the older one standing with my hand on my lower back asking the younguns for help. I’m not old-old, just older than I was when I was young and stupid, and now I have the whole rest of my life in orthopedic shoes and a Posturepedic bed to look forward to. We wag our fingers because we care.

Two: Don’t Underestimate the Power of that First Job

Your first job sets the tone for your experience of veterinary medicine, whether you feel you’ve made an awful mistake or the best decision of your life. If you are fortunate enough to find a great one, value it, and the staff. Be kind. They are worth it.

If you got into a not-so-great first job (it happens to a lot of us!) remember: it does not have to define your career. I was shocked to see how many vets bounce all over the place for various reasons; we live in a different world now. Learn what you want from a job and don’t be afraid to look for a true mentor.

Three: Always Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

Sorry for the Pinocchio quote, but seriously, it’s true. You will be asked to do things you don’t agree with. You will see things that bother you. You know in your heart what is the right thing to do- that won’t change over time. Effect change if you can, say no when you must, and realize that a job that asks you on a regular basis to do things that feel wrong is not healthy for your mental well-being.

Four: Learn to Float on the Vast Sea of Stupidity

From day one, you will be confronted with articles, “facts”, and assumptions about your work and your motivations, along with a very healthy helping of some of the worst advice known to man. I’ve been working on this one for many years now, but it boils down to this: You are but one person with a bucket looking out on the open ocean. Don’t worry about draining the ocean, just bail out your boat when you need to so you don’t drown. And for god’s sake, don’t go swimming. There’s sharks in them there waters.

You are but one person with a bucket looking out on the open ocean. Don’t worry about draining it.

Five: Have Whatever Family You Want

If you want kids, have kids even though people tell you that parents make terrible, lackluster veterinarians. If you don’t want kids, don’t have kids even though people tell you your life will feel unfulfilled. If you want to live in a treehouse with your BFFs from vet school and form a new wave commune, go for it even though people tell you to grow up and start acting like an adult.

Point is, no matter what choice you make on this matter, someone’s going to criticize you for it. So ignore them. They’re wrong. Your family is the one who holds you up, helps you out, and makes your life worthwhile. When your back goes out because you didn’t listen to my first bit of advice, they will bring you soup and vacuum for you and love you even if you can’t work for a while. Whatever form that family takes, love it and be proud of it, because they matter more than any other thing you have in your life. Even vet med.

No matter what choice you make, someone’s going to criticize you for it. So ignore them.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.

You Can Survive Burnout: How To Regroup When Your Year Really Sucked

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In the ups and downs of life, we have good years and bad years. Some years are like a dream you never want to leave, filed away in the wistful memory banks as “The Amazing Summer of 2011” or whatnot, and others are particularly nightmarish beast-years you want to set on fire and never mention again. I had one of those this year.

As veterinarians, I think we’re often extra susceptible to those sorts of years from hell since we take on such enormous professional burdens. 2010, for example, was my last terrible year, and it involved a deceased patient, lawyers, a loathsome TV reporter, and the demise of my sanity. By the end of the year, I was past burned out and more of a charred, hollow husk of ash incapable of walking into a clinic without hyperventilating. But I learned a lot from the experience, and I wanted to end this crappy year by sharing some of those lessons with you:

  • It’s OK to take a breather.

When you reach that tipping point, continuing to push yourself can be disastrous for your emotional and physical health. If you need to take a break, do it, whether that means a short vacation or a leave of absence from the profession. Will your boss judge you? Who cares! It is never too late to come back down the road. People do it all the time.

  • Sometimes you have to set out with no plan.

We’re Type A, I know it. Quitting a bad job or taking a breather after a traumatic divorce or whatever the situation is, sometimes you are going to be in a place where you are looking ahead without being entirely sure what’s there. Something is there, and that’s all that really matters for now. Better to move forward into the unknown than remain in despair, because hope is really what defines us as humans, right? Never lose hope.

I wanted to end this crappy year by sharing some of these lessons with you.

  • Be open to things you weren’t expecting.

After surviving the Year From Hell, I diagnosed my labrador with osteosarcoma and I started the new year by euthanizing her. Not much of an improvement, no, but the colleague who came by to help asked if I wanted to work with her part-time, and that is how I ended up doing home hospice and euthanasia. It’s amazing work. I thought I understood everything about death after a decade or so in the field, but OH, I was so, so wrong.

  • Have faith that surviving this is going to make you stronger.

Because guess what? After surviving one terrible year you’re probably going to have another. Welcome to being human. But what they say about what doesn’t kill you is entirely true, and I can verify that after experiencing 2015.

Abandoned Cat With Stress Face

Life got much better in the intervening years after 2010. I realized no one pilloried me for saying “I don’t enjoy working in a clinic anymore”, I got to write a book, I went on some World Vets trips, I decided to embrace the whole self-care thing and became a spinning nut. I picked the kids up from school every day. Everything was beautiful. And then- 2015 came lumbering in.

One day I was happily decorating the house for Easter dinner with the kids, relishing the happiness that comes from being surrounded by family who loves you, and the next day my Dad texted me that my mother had a brain tumor. It really was that fast. The next two months were a blur.

She wanted to forego treatment. I fought for her to be allowed to leave the radiologist behind and go straight to hospice, using lessons I learned from my veterinary work to argue with the doctors.

She wanted to live her last days at my home, with the kids around her. I swallowed my fear and brought her in, not knowing what they would be seeing.

I took another break from work, because she needed me. And I needed to be there. There was nothing more important than being present.

I continued to go to the gym, because I understood by that point that taking care of yourself is the only way to fully be there for those who need you.

Dog

My mom died this year, and I’ve never been so sad and lost as I am now. But the garbage that I survived in 2010 was so important for setting the stage and giving me the tools I needed to make it through this year, and I’m grateful for it.

  • Trust in those who want to help.

I know I’m not living some unique People Story of the Week – in fact, I know of four close friends who lost a parent this year alone.

So if you had a miserable hell year, I hear you, friend. Join me over here at the bonfire and let’s light this garbage up and never speak of it again. We got this one. May our 2016 be filled with better things.

One of the glorious truths is that if you allow it, those around you will build you back up.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.