From the beginning of veterinary school, I suspected I was not going to be a surgeon. In the first semester anatomy lab, cadaver dogs were issued to groups of four students. Ours was a shelter dog we named Barney. We used him all semester to figure out where muscles, tendons, bones, and organs were. On… Read More
Blog
Thanks for the Reminder to Feel
As vets, we have wins and losses. That’s the job. And amidst challenging clients, long work hours, insurmountable debt, huge caseloads and attempts at work/life balance, it is easy to lose track of why we entered this field. We advocate for the innocent, we heal those who are deeply loved (and in that process, those… Read More
No One Warns You About the Loneliness
Everyone tells you that you will learn more in your first year as a veterinarian than your year on the clinic floor in veterinary school. They tell you about the long hours, the mountain of debt, the anxiety and the high rate of substance abuse and suicide, but we are not warned about the loneliness…. Read More
“What Can We Do?”
I have a bad habit of checking social media first thing in the morning, which I know can really set the day off on the wrong foot. This morning, I woke up to see a post from a veterinarian friend that she had two veterinarians in her life commit suicide this week. As I read… Read More
I Watched Your Dog Die Today
I watched your dog pass away today. I did everything I could but it still succumbed to its disease. I watched your dog suffer for days as I tried to comfort it. I watched your dog continue to vomit even with the best anti-emetics. I watched your dog groan in pain even with high doses… Read More
How Eavesdropping Totally Restored My Faith in Humanity
We as veterinary professionals live in a very busy world. We have many things coming at us all at once and must be able to prioritize and juggle several tasks. The society we live in is very different than it was years ago. Society is very technology driven. We can connect to technology in many… Read More