Like many animal people, I’ve always felt way more comfortable in a pile of puppies than a pile of kids. They made so much more sense to me. It didn’t stop me from having (and adoring) two kids of my own, but the truth is that sense of unease never went entirely away. I was… Read More
5 Ways Raising Dogs Made Raising Kids Easier
Ask Andy: How Do I Defeat Dr. Google?
Hey Andy, It seems like every day clients are walking in with worse and worse advice they found online. I cringe every time I open the door and someone is sitting there with a huge stack of papers they (or their breeder) printed out from a random website. It’s getting harder and harder to convince… Read More
UPDATE: AVMA on the Gender Wage Disparity and the Starting Salary Calculator
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has been under fire recently for their online release of the New Graduate Starting Salary Calculator and the way it highlighted the gender wage disparity. Although we know the wage disparity is not the fault of the AVMA, I was disappointed that their new tool seemed to promote acceptance of the… Read More
On a Pale Horse
When people hear I’m a veterinarian, they usually say, “Oh, I love animals. I would love to do that. But I could never put them to sleep.” In truth, I never had any real trouble performing euthanasia during my first years as a vet. It was always sad, but so often necessary and generally so peaceful…. Read More
The Glaring Pay Gap In Veterinary Medicine
We have a problem. Earlier this month, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) released the 2016 New Graduate Salary Calculator Worksheet. This worksheet was created to allow users to “calculate average starting salaries for different segments of the profession in various locations. It takes into consideration variables such as practice type (private/industry/government/etc.), specialty,… Read More
Why Giving It Away Doesn’t Work
“THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS!” My friend is a practice manager, and she was having a bad day. “Why do vets just think they can give everything away?” Apparently there’s a doctor in her practice that has a habit of “giving discounts.” In this case, it was regularly providing subcutaneous fluids to… Read More