If you had dinner with a group of veterinarians in any given year B.C. (Before COVID-19), you probably heard variations on these stories: The one about the client who wanted his pet treated but didn’t want to pay for anything The one about the client who wanted medication without an exam The one about the… Read More
Associate Vets Have Voices and Should Use Them
Not every vet wants to be a practice owner. But every vet is made up of more than medical knowledge and surgical skills. I’ve said before, it’s OK to want to be happy at work. We spend a lot of time there. A traditional associate veterinarian is a person who comes gangbusters out of school… Read More
We Are All on the Same Team
We all live in fear of the “Bad Review.” We don’t want to be accused of caring only about money, and we don’t want to be told we killed someone’s pet because we made a mistake. But the thing that hurts the most is to hear someone say we let them down because we just didn’t care… Read More
How Selfies Saved My Career
In 2014, I was teetering on the edge. I was burned out and tired of being a vet and I had only been one for five years. I spent a lot of time thinking about what jobs I might do instead, but would always boomerang back to “but it cost so much, and I worked… Read More
The Associate Vet Cycle of Doom
This is, in a way, a confession. Some of us have this really great cycle that happens after a long day at work: • We pick fights with our partners about stupid stuff when we get home, even though maybe we felt just fine or even energized when we left work. • We don’t answer… Read More
What Running and an Old Cat Carrier Taught Me About Life
James was my heart kitty. He was like a little person. He had stress-induced asthma and I used to sing to him (“Sweet Baby James”) in the car – when we drove cross-country from California, where he was born in an old church, or when I had to take him to the emergency clinic… Read More