Today was a good Thursday. I saw a litter of kittens that have clearly been well loved and taken care of. I had a bunch of appointments for diarrhea (diarrhea… it comes in waves) and they were all fine. I had to stay a little bit late because my last appointment was a dog having… Read More
Perspective
We Desperately Need Maverick GPs
A contractor doing work on my house called me on Sunday after spending Saturday night at the emergency vet clinic. The previous day, his dog ate a bag of rawhide treats and then, inhibitions thrown to the wind, a bunch of other stuff. He began retching and vomiting shortly thereafter. At the emergency clinic, radiographs… Read More
This Could Be the Last Time
One day you are going to watch your cat play like a kitten or your dog run with complete freedom for the very last time, and you won’t know it’s happening. What does that mean? My youngest daughter and I make fairly regular trips to Atlanta. Every time we go she mentions that she’ll have… Read More
State of the Veterinary Front Desk
Dr. Andy Roark welcomes Caitlin Palmer (aka “the desk wench”), a veterinary receptionist at Southern Vet Clinic and a member of the President’s Advisory Board for the North American Association of Veterinary Receptionists (NAVR), to talk about the state of the front desk. They discuss how changing communication preferences and tools like AI may increase… Read More
Be Careful What You Make Important
I recently talked to a medical director that was struggling. He was moving to a new part of the country to be closer to family, and the practice he was joining already had a medical director. My friend has taken the job as an associate veterinarian and told me he is really struggling with that…. Read More
Are We Morally Breaking Our Technicians?
Dr. Nathan Peterson, DVM, DACVECC, takes us straight into one of the most uncomfortable questions in veterinary medicine: are we sometimes prolonging suffering, and what does that do to our teams? In this episode, Dr. Andy Roark and Dr. Peterson unpack medical futility, moral distress, and veterinary burnout in a way that feels both honest… Read More