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From mixed animal practice to canine rehabilitation with Dr. Miki Mannino · My Veterinary Life

0:10
Speaker 1: Welcome to this week's episode of the My Veterinary Life podcast.
0:13
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Dr. Annie Chavant, and my pronouns are she, her.
0:17
Speaker 1: And our guest today is Dr.
0:18
Speaker 2: Mickey Menino.
0:19
Speaker 1: Dr. Menino is a canine rehabilitation therapist and owner of
0:23
Speaker 1: Canine Kinetics Rehabilitation and Sports Therapy.
0:26
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to share Dr.
0:28
Speaker 1: Menino's story today, but before we do, I want to
0:30
Speaker 1: give a thank you to our podcast partner, NBA General Practice.
0:34
Speaker 1: NVA helps great vets become even greater with multiple paths to.
0:38
Speaker 2: Build a career that's uniquely yours.
0:41
Speaker 1: Lead a team, explore a specialty, own a practice, or
0:45
Speaker 1: shape care across their network of over 900 neighborhood clinics.
0:48
Speaker 1: Wherever you want to go next, NVA has a path
0:51
Speaker 1: to help you get there. Visit careers.nva.com to find your
0:55
Speaker 1: next role. And with that, welcome to the show, Dr. Menino.
0:59
Speaker 3: Hi, thanks for having me.
1:01
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for sharing your time and your story
1:04
Speaker 1: with us. We're going to get started at the very beginning.
1:07
Speaker 1: So how did you first become interested in vet med?
1:11
Speaker 3: So I have one of those really boring, when I
1:13
Speaker 3: was three, I wanted to be a vet sort of stories.
1:17
Speaker 3: And so when I was 14 or 15, I started
1:19
Speaker 3: working at the local clinic down the street. And at
1:22
Speaker 3: the time I just thought, you know, dogs and cats.
1:26
Speaker 3: And then the owner of the clinic was actually a very,
1:28
Speaker 3: very small woman. And she was a large animal vet.
1:30
Speaker 3: And I was like, If she can do it, I
1:33
Speaker 3: bet I can do it. And so I started following
1:35
Speaker 3: her around and just absolutely adored the way that she
1:40
Speaker 3: handled herself and her clients and just fell in love
1:42
Speaker 3: with large animal medicine. And so decided to go to
1:46
Speaker 3: vet school to be a mixed animal practitioner.
1:49
Speaker 2: Amazing.
1:50
Speaker 1: And yes, while we do have many early identifiers on
1:54
Speaker 1: this show, every story is unique and important. And I
1:58
Speaker 1: also think that yours is a nod to that value
2:01
Speaker 1: of representation, right? You might not have even considered that
2:04
Speaker 1: career path, but you saw it done by somebody who
2:08
Speaker 1: maybe you didn't think would be the most likely candidate
2:12
Speaker 1: for that position, and it kind of opened up your eyes.
2:15
Speaker 1: So I think that is something that's really important to share,
2:17
Speaker 1: that seeing that person and maybe being that person for
2:21
Speaker 1: somebody else later in your career is super, super powerful.
2:24
Speaker 1: She was, and she still practices.
2:26
Speaker 3: She's a little bit older now, but she was one
2:29
Speaker 3: of those people that you just look at her and go,
2:31
Speaker 3: how is she doing that? So yeah, I watched her,
2:34
Speaker 3: you know, do all these amazing things that she's still
2:36
Speaker 3: continuing to do. And so, yeah, she was a huge
2:39
Speaker 3: inspiration to me. Oh, that makes me so happy to hear.
2:42
Speaker 3: And that those are the kind of people that are
2:44
Speaker 3: out there representing our profession today. You're inspired to go
2:49
Speaker 3: into mixed animal practice. What did those early career years
2:52
Speaker 3: look like for you? So when I graduated vet school
2:55
Speaker 3: in 2011, I had my whole life figured out. I
2:59
Speaker 3: knew exactly what was going to go on. I was
3:02
Speaker 3: a mixed animal practitioner. I love dairy cows. I was
3:05
Speaker 3: going to go back to the hometown clinic that I
3:07
Speaker 3: always worked at. And of course, you know, I was
3:11
Speaker 3: going to work 23 and a half hours a day.
3:13
Speaker 3: I was going to look 29 for the rest of
3:15
Speaker 3: my life. I was going to have several perfect babies,
3:19
Speaker 3: but never be tired and eventually, you know, own that practice.
3:22
Speaker 3: And so I would say the first two to three
3:26
Speaker 3: years of really being a mixed animal practitioner on call
3:30
Speaker 3: all the time, it was hard. It kind of knocked
3:32
Speaker 3: the wind out of my sails a little bit, but
3:34
Speaker 3: it was very much... living and working in what we
3:39
Speaker 3: fondly called the trenches, you know, small town, not a
3:43
Speaker 3: lot of referral practices around. So we learned really, really quickly.
3:47
Speaker 3: And we learned through just trying and doing things. And
3:50
Speaker 3: I think even though those were probably the hardest years
3:53
Speaker 3: of my life, it made me a very capable practitioner,
3:56
Speaker 3: even though it didn't feel that way in the beginning.
4:00
Speaker 3: But it was a little bit of a whirlwind. the
4:02
Speaker 3: first few years until you settle into, you know, the
4:05
Speaker 3: sleepless nights and the on call all the time and,
4:08
Speaker 3: and all the fun stuff that happens when, when there's
4:12
Speaker 3: no other options. So it was definitely not what I
4:15
Speaker 3: expected better in some ways and not quite living up
4:19
Speaker 3: to my expectations and others, but it was, I think
4:22
Speaker 3: a very different start than I expected.
4:26
Speaker 1: I think that that experience will resonate with many of
4:31
Speaker 1: our early career, mid-career listeners because most of us have
4:36
Speaker 1: spent the majority of our time prior to that first
4:39
Speaker 1: veterinary job as professional students and not having that real-world
4:45
Speaker 1: full-time job experience unless they're a second career veterinarian. So
4:48
Speaker 1: you can't really know until you're in it. But what
4:52
Speaker 1: I like to hear from you is that There were
4:55
Speaker 1: things that exceeded your expectations. There were things that didn't
4:57
Speaker 1: quite match, but you're holding both of those things in
5:02
Speaker 1: the category of what you learned from that time. It's
5:05
Speaker 1: such a definitive time in each of our careers. Now,
5:09
Speaker 1: you mentioned you had your whole life planned out.
5:13
Speaker 2: How did things match up after that?
5:16
Speaker 3: Wow. So bless my own heart, because I really just
5:21
Speaker 3: thought that I knew exactly what I was going to do.
5:25
Speaker 3: And I mean, because I think as veterinarians and veterinary students,
5:30
Speaker 3: it has worked out that way for us so far.
5:32
Speaker 3: We make a decision to become a veterinarian. We go
5:34
Speaker 3: to undergrad. We graduate undergrad, most of us with flying colors.
5:38
Speaker 3: We go to vet school. We struggle, but the end
5:40
Speaker 3: result is the end result. And then I had this plan.
5:44
Speaker 3: They were going to notice how fabulous I was. They
5:47
Speaker 3: were going to sell me the clinic within a few years, right?
5:50
Speaker 3: I was going to be a business owner. I was
5:52
Speaker 3: going to do it flawlessly. And it just... Life just happened.
5:58
Speaker 3: So I ended up, I worked at that clinic for
6:01
Speaker 3: quite a while. I ended up, by the time I
6:04
Speaker 3: moved on, I had worked there from the age of
6:06
Speaker 3: 15 to almost the age of 30. So just almost
6:09
Speaker 3: about half my life at that point. And I ended
6:12
Speaker 3: up moving on to an interim job and then to
6:16
Speaker 3: another mixed animal position. All fabulous learning opportunities. I think
6:23
Speaker 3: at that point, so that was probably around 2017, I
6:29
Speaker 3: really felt like my life was still on track, even
6:32
Speaker 3: though I had changed jobs for ownership and mixed animal
6:36
Speaker 3: practice forever. In 2019, I started to get really sick.
6:40
Speaker 3: And it was one of those situations where I wasn't
6:44
Speaker 3: quite sick enough for people to really believe that something
6:47
Speaker 3: was happening, but I was sick enough that it was
6:51
Speaker 3: slowing me down. And so it gradually slowed me down
6:54
Speaker 3: and I became so ill that by 2023, I went
6:58
Speaker 3: ahead and put in my six months notice and said,
7:01
Speaker 3: I'm going to have to retire from bed med. It
7:04
Speaker 3: was a really rough time because I think, especially as
7:07
Speaker 3: the perfectionist that we are, the veterinarian perfectionist that we are,
7:11
Speaker 3: we've been through and I had been through the sleepless nights,
7:14
Speaker 3: the feeling terrible, the working with the flu, having a
7:17
Speaker 3: baby up all night and still going into the clinic
7:20
Speaker 3: in the morning. And so I thought, and everyone around
7:22
Speaker 3: me thought that I could handle anything. And so when
7:26
Speaker 3: I ended up getting really, really sick and no one
7:29
Speaker 3: could tell me why, and I'm, I'm not talking about like,
7:32
Speaker 3: I'm a little bit sick and I've gone to some
7:33
Speaker 3: doctors and it's kind of like, eh, I mean like
7:37
Speaker 3: no white blood cells, Couldn't hardly stand up for longer
7:40
Speaker 3: than five minutes. Suddenly had POTS, all of these problems.
7:44
Speaker 3: Went to the Mayo Clinic, stayed for a week, nothing.
7:47
Speaker 3: They couldn't help. So I put in my notice and
7:50
Speaker 3: right before my retirement date, and my plan for retirement
7:55
Speaker 3: was to go home and be as much of a
7:57
Speaker 3: mother to my kids as I could. I knew that
7:59
Speaker 3: I didn't have a lot of time left. I didn't
8:01
Speaker 3: know why, but I could... And right before my retirement date,
8:07
Speaker 3: maybe a month before my retirement date, I was diagnosed
8:11
Speaker 3: with severe lead poisoning. And suddenly there was a reason
8:17
Speaker 3: for everything. but there wasn't a guarantee that I would
8:21
Speaker 3: ever be the same person again. So that threw a
8:26
Speaker 3: huge monkey wrench, if you will, into all of my
8:30
Speaker 3: perfect plans because suddenly I was retiring from a job
8:34
Speaker 3: that I had loved, but I had been slowly retiring
8:37
Speaker 3: from that job anyway. You know, if you can't even
8:39
Speaker 3: stand up for five minutes... You're not going to jump
8:42
Speaker 3: up and run out of a pen if a cow
8:43
Speaker 3: decides she doesn't like you. So I had retired from
8:45
Speaker 3: large animal medicine. I had started doing less small animal medicine.
8:50
Speaker 3: And so by the time that retirement came around, even
8:53
Speaker 3: though there was a reason for the illness, it had
8:55
Speaker 3: been over five years and there was no guarantee that
8:58
Speaker 3: I was going to be the same person. So I
9:02
Speaker 3: actually left vet med altogether. I think the redemption portion
9:07
Speaker 3: of the story is that I did get better and
9:10
Speaker 3: I went through lots and lots of treatments and I
9:13
Speaker 3: realized that my life wasn't going to be what I
9:16
Speaker 3: thought it was going to be, but that it could
9:18
Speaker 3: still be something. So on a whim in 2023, I
9:26
Speaker 3: saw that the Canine Rehabilitation Institute was doing continuing education
9:31
Speaker 3: in canine breastfeeding. physical therapy, basically rehabilitation. And I thought
9:36
Speaker 3: that's so different than anything I've ever done. And already
9:39
Speaker 3: at that point, I knew that I wasn't well, and
9:42
Speaker 3: then I probably would never practice the same way. And
9:46
Speaker 3: it just looked like something interesting when I was so
9:49
Speaker 3: burned out. So I had gone to this course and
9:53
Speaker 3: loved it, loved it. You know, did all of the
9:56
Speaker 3: at-home stuff at night when I couldn't sleep because I
9:58
Speaker 3: was in so much pain. I was like, I'm just,
10:01
Speaker 3: I'm learning. You know, I'm doing all of the things.
10:04
Speaker 3: And once I got the certification, I pushed it to
10:08
Speaker 3: the wayside because I was so sick. Once I realized
10:12
Speaker 3: that I was going to be okay, but very different,
10:16
Speaker 3: I pulled that right back out. And it's... a career
10:20
Speaker 3: path that I didn't see myself ever taking, but it
10:23
Speaker 3: has been an absolute game changer for me because even
10:29
Speaker 3: as well as I am now, which I mean, I
10:31
Speaker 3: feel like a million bucks compared, I still could not
10:35
Speaker 3: do a 12 hour clinic day. I still can't do
10:38
Speaker 3: large animal medicine. So it was kind of a matter
10:41
Speaker 3: of finding a new niche and going with it. And
10:45
Speaker 3: canine rehab therapy has been that for me. So all
10:48
Speaker 3: of my well-laid plans got absolutely destroyed. But I'm so
10:55
Speaker 3: happy on the other side of that, that it's kind
10:57
Speaker 3: of cliche to say everything happens for a reason. But
11:00
Speaker 3: for sure, you don't have to follow your plan to
11:05
Speaker 3: a T like you did during vet school and through graduation.
11:10
Speaker 3: You can pivot and change and things can be amazing.
11:14
Speaker 3: which I think is something that I wish that I
11:15
Speaker 3: had known coming out of vet school because I had
11:18
Speaker 3: always just been so regimented and everything had to go
11:21
Speaker 3: just so. So it was a learning experience for sure.
11:25
Speaker 2: Wow.
11:26
Speaker 1: That is quite the journey and quite the unexpected pivot.
11:32
Speaker 1: But I think it's so important to talk about these
11:35
Speaker 1: stories because you never know how many other veterinarians are
11:39
Speaker 1: out there that... to your earlier point, when you first
11:43
Speaker 1: started getting sick, you felt that you were sick, but
11:46
Speaker 1: it wasn't as visible or as obvious to the people
11:50
Speaker 1: that you're working with.
11:51
Speaker 2: And so you're having to navigate that.
11:53
Speaker 1: And I can only imagine that it would feel like
11:55
Speaker 1: you were alone, even though you had a support system
11:59
Speaker 1: and had people to turn to. But maybe before we
12:04
Speaker 1: move on to talk a little bit more in detail
12:06
Speaker 1: about the redemption portion, as you called it, which I liked,
12:09
Speaker 1: any advice, that you might have for folks who are
12:15
Speaker 1: considering a health-related pivot within the profession?
12:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. So I think you're completely right. There is
12:25
Speaker 3: a very much a feeling of being very alone, especially
12:28
Speaker 3: as a healthcare professional that is not getting any answers
12:33
Speaker 3: because we swirl in our own minds. My first... piece
12:37
Speaker 3: of advice would be to trust your gut and don't
12:41
Speaker 3: give up on yourself because we're medical professionals and we
12:45
Speaker 3: know if there's something wrong. So trust your gut when
12:49
Speaker 3: you feel like things are not working well for you
12:52
Speaker 3: and do change. Do allow yourself the grace to go,
12:57
Speaker 3: this isn't working for me and it's not because I'm
12:59
Speaker 3: a failure. It's not because I can't do my job
13:02
Speaker 3: well or because everything that I try is too hard.
13:06
Speaker 3: It's because your body's trying to tell you something. And
13:08
Speaker 3: whether it's an illness or stress or, you know, sometimes
13:13
Speaker 3: we let ourselves get kind of down a little bit
13:16
Speaker 3: of a spiral of the imposter syndrome, which is one
13:19
Speaker 3: of my favorite things to talk about. That is real.
13:22
Speaker 3: You really just have to trust your instincts on it.
13:26
Speaker 3: And then the second piece of advice would be to
13:30
Speaker 3: realize that you're going to have to break the mold.
13:33
Speaker 3: I really felt like my kids were so proud of
13:35
Speaker 3: me because I was a large animal vet. Man, that's
13:38
Speaker 3: hard anyway. But it's even harder when you're a smaller
13:41
Speaker 3: woman in this type of rural community. That was very
13:45
Speaker 3: much my identity. So the most painful part for me
13:49
Speaker 3: was leaving that behind and realizing that that's not going
13:53
Speaker 3: to work. with who I am today and what I
13:57
Speaker 3: can accomplish. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going
13:59
Speaker 3: to be equally as great on the other side of things.
14:02
Speaker 3: But you have to be ready to admit that the
14:05
Speaker 3: mold that you're in is something you created for yourself.
14:09
Speaker 3: It's not something that you have to live within those
14:12
Speaker 3: lines in order to be a successful veterinarian or person.
14:16
Speaker 3: But as type A perfectionist people, we create these scenarios
14:20
Speaker 3: and we think that we should live in that and
14:22
Speaker 3: that we should do everything right within that. And so
14:25
Speaker 3: that was probably one of the hardest things for me
14:27
Speaker 3: was to say, I'm not a large animal vet anymore.
14:31
Speaker 3: That's still hard for me. And I mean, when I
14:33
Speaker 3: drive past a dairy farm, I'm like, oh, you know,
14:36
Speaker 3: DA surgeries. Those are fun. All of the things that
14:39
Speaker 3: I used to do, but it doesn't change anything. who
14:43
Speaker 3: you're about to be. Like you can change who you
14:46
Speaker 3: are in this moment and still just be so happy.
14:50
Speaker 3: But that's the hardest part is just admitting that you
14:54
Speaker 3: are going to leave that part of you in the past.
14:57
Speaker 3: I will say though, that veterinary medicine is so multifaceted
15:01
Speaker 3: that you can find anything. I mean, you can have
15:05
Speaker 3: so many challenges, but still find that piece that works
15:10
Speaker 3: for you. Like my little curse is that the leftover
15:13
Speaker 3: from the lead poisoning is pots. And that's hard because
15:16
Speaker 3: you're not good at standing. Well, son of a gun,
15:19
Speaker 3: like a lot of veterinary medicine is standing. But for me,
15:22
Speaker 3: I can make my own schedule. I'm an individual practitioner.
15:26
Speaker 3: I spend a lot of time with my patients on
15:28
Speaker 3: the floor. When they're in the underwater treadmill, I'm crouching
15:32
Speaker 3: in front of them, giving them, you know, so much cheerleading.
15:36
Speaker 3: My life is so much cheerleading. but I found a
15:39
Speaker 3: way to make it work and you can absolutely do it.
15:43
Speaker 3: And because veterinary medicine has so many options, for me,
15:47
Speaker 3: while I was starting my business, I reached out to
15:50
Speaker 3: a local shelter and I said, hey, do you need
15:53
Speaker 3: any help? Because no, I'm no good for a 12-hour day,
15:56
Speaker 3: but I can do surgery sitting down for four hours
15:59
Speaker 3: and I can do it a few different times a week.
16:02
Speaker 3: And I can come in and help you with surgeries
16:04
Speaker 3: and emergencies. And that's how I've supplemented my income as
16:10
Speaker 3: I've been building this practice. And again, you just have
16:13
Speaker 3: to go in and be honest and say, hey, this
16:15
Speaker 3: is what I am. This is what I can offer you.
16:18
Speaker 3: But there's so many needs out there. And they were
16:20
Speaker 3: so great. They were like, yes, absolutely. We don't care
16:24
Speaker 3: that you have to sit on a stool while you
16:25
Speaker 3: do surgery. We don't care that you can only do
16:27
Speaker 3: three or four hours at a time. Come in, help us.
16:30
Speaker 3: And so that's also the way that I've kept some
16:33
Speaker 3: of my identity as a practitioner is by doing those surgeries.
16:38
Speaker 3: and supplementing that income. But people really need veterinarians. We're
16:42
Speaker 3: needed out there. So there are things that you can
16:44
Speaker 3: do that have nothing to do with getting up and
16:47
Speaker 3: going to a clinic for 12 hours a day. You
16:49
Speaker 3: can supplement your income and it's really out there, but
16:53
Speaker 3: you can't be afraid to ask for help. Reach out
16:55
Speaker 3: and talk to people because other people have all of
16:58
Speaker 3: these different experiences and they can help you and they
17:01
Speaker 3: can tell you what they've done. But sometimes I think
17:04
Speaker 3: we tend to hole up a little bit and we
17:05
Speaker 3: don't necessarily want to ask for help because it's just
17:08
Speaker 3: not in our wheelhouse. But that would be a good
17:11
Speaker 3: piece of advice, I think, is don't be afraid to
17:13
Speaker 3: talk about it because the more you talk about it,
17:16
Speaker 3: even the struggles, people will help you and you will
17:20
Speaker 3: find ways through it by expressing it out loud.
17:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, so many great points to consider and advice for
17:29
Speaker 1: navigating challenges. I think the thing that really stood out
17:32
Speaker 1: to me the most is your attitude.
17:36
Speaker 2: Towards the mold.
17:38
Speaker 1: And the mold that we might find ourselves constricted by
17:42
Speaker 1: is one that's likely of our own creation, essentially. And
17:47
Speaker 1: so Asking ourselves those questions, like what constraints am I
17:51
Speaker 1: putting on myself? And are there ways that I can
17:55
Speaker 1: help myself get out of those or ask for help
17:58
Speaker 1: for others to help me get out of those? Because
18:02
Speaker 1: even your example with the surgery opportunity, That wasn't a
18:05
Speaker 1: job posting that you were looking.
18:08
Speaker 2: For, right?
18:08
Speaker 1: That was reaching out, knowing your needs, but what you
18:12
Speaker 1: could also offer within those confines. And you're able to
18:16
Speaker 1: find an amazing opportunity that also helped with the financial situation.
18:19
Speaker 2: And so I think.
18:21
Speaker 1: You know, regardless of whether folks are going to find
18:23
Speaker 1: themselves in your specific situation, taking those principles can be really,
18:28
Speaker 1: really valuable.
18:29
Speaker 2: So I really appreciate you sharing.
18:31
Speaker 1: Some of those lessons learned, hard-earned lessons, and seeing where
18:36
Speaker 1: you've gotten today. navigating those challenges. And so that's where
18:41
Speaker 1: I want to move us next. You teased your next
18:43
Speaker 1: phase with the rehab certification in 2023. We now know
18:48
Speaker 1: that you are a practice owner, but I'm curious a
18:52
Speaker 1: little bit about that evolution because there are many options
18:58
Speaker 1: for how to utilize certification in rehabilitation and sports therapy.
19:03
Speaker 1: And So you chose to go out on your own.
19:06
Speaker 1: Did you consider other options or how did you choose
19:09
Speaker 1: the path you chose with that particular skill set?
19:13
Speaker 3: I really wish that it was the straightforward answer of
19:16
Speaker 3: how I thought about it and I made a solid decision.
19:19
Speaker 3: But actually, I kind of put my feelers out on
19:21
Speaker 3: a lot of different things because I didn't know enough
19:25
Speaker 3: and I didn't trust myself enough to say, oh, I'm
19:27
Speaker 3: just going to go out on my own. Really what
19:30
Speaker 3: I did was I looked at the situation around me,
19:33
Speaker 3: which is there's a lot of practices around, but we're
19:36
Speaker 3: in a more rural community. We're just this side of
19:39
Speaker 3: the river in Illinois across from St.
19:41
Speaker 1: Louis.
19:42
Speaker 3: And a lot of people over here are not comfortable
19:45
Speaker 3: driving across the river. I know that sounds silly because
19:48
Speaker 3: it's not that far away. but that's just kind of
19:51
Speaker 3: the mentality. And we didn't have a rehab therapist for
19:54
Speaker 3: 60 miles. And so it was something that I did
19:59
Speaker 3: reach out and put my feelers out to other clinics
20:02
Speaker 3: in the area, but I really didn't get anything back
20:05
Speaker 3: as far as someone wanting to incorporate rehab into their practice.
20:10
Speaker 3: So I thought, you know what, I'm going to go mobile.
20:13
Speaker 3: So I bought my little laser and I got all
20:17
Speaker 3: of my stuff. And I had just had this duffel
20:19
Speaker 3: bag like stuffed with fit bones and cavalettis.
20:22
Speaker 2: And I did.
20:23
Speaker 3: I was a mobile practice for probably six months. And
20:28
Speaker 3: then I really thought that my patients could benefit from
20:31
Speaker 3: an underwater treadmill. I had two patients specifically that I
20:35
Speaker 3: thought really could benefit and it wasn't something that I
20:38
Speaker 3: could give them. So I did some searching and found
20:42
Speaker 3: out that one of the local pet stores actually in
20:45
Speaker 3: just one city over offered underwater treadmill therapy, just exercise.
20:51
Speaker 3: So I reached out. I actually just walked into their
20:54
Speaker 3: store one day and talked to the person behind the
20:57
Speaker 3: desk who happened to be the owner. So that was
20:58
Speaker 3: just luck. And I said, hey, can I send you
21:01
Speaker 3: some clients for some underwater treadmill work? And she said, actually,
21:06
Speaker 3: I'm trying to sell it because I don't have time
21:10
Speaker 3: for this anymore. And I said, oh my gosh, I
21:12
Speaker 3: wish I could buy it, but I don't have a
21:14
Speaker 3: place for it. And she said, well, what would you
21:17
Speaker 3: think about renting some of the space that we have here?
21:21
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, okay. So I could rent
21:24
Speaker 3: the treadmill and also rent the space And that was
21:27
Speaker 3: my first taste of like a brick and mortar. And
21:30
Speaker 3: I moved out of mobile because I realized everybody really
21:34
Speaker 3: liked the treadmill. And so it was just a luck transition.
21:38
Speaker 3: And then they were amazing, but eventually I got a
21:42
Speaker 3: little bit too big, needed some more time. And so
21:44
Speaker 3: I purchased the treadmill from her and moved to my
21:46
Speaker 3: own place. But I've only really been here two months.
21:49
Speaker 3: So it's been very much just kind of as opportunities
21:54
Speaker 3: present themselves, just taking advantage of I wish that I
21:57
Speaker 3: could say that it was a big decision and that
22:00
Speaker 3: I knew exactly what I was doing, but that does
22:02
Speaker 3: not ever seem to be the case for me. I
22:04
Speaker 3: don't know if other people are having that happen, but
22:07
Speaker 3: as far as me just knowing what the next best
22:09
Speaker 3: step is, it really hasn't happened until it's presented itself.
22:13
Speaker 3: And I just try to take advantage of what I
22:15
Speaker 3: can when it comes.
22:17
Speaker 2: That is so cool.
22:19
Speaker 1: As you were explaining the evolution, I was thinking that
22:23
Speaker 1: to myself as well of, I wonder how many times
22:26
Speaker 1: the best laid plans actually happen versus how we innovate
22:30
Speaker 1: based on the need.
22:31
Speaker 2: The latter is exactly what you did.
22:34
Speaker 3: Why do I even make plans?
22:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. It's like you knew your skill set. You
22:39
Speaker 1: knew the area. I think that's an important first step
22:42
Speaker 1: of planning, right? Like understanding what the needs are, but
22:45
Speaker 1: then what it looks like. Sometimes you just have to
22:48
Speaker 1: knock on the door or walk into the pet store, right?
22:51
Speaker 1: Like that's, that changed the trajectory of what your practice
22:55
Speaker 1: looks like now. And you probably never would have predicted it.
22:57
Speaker 1: So I love this story of being open to opportunities
23:01
Speaker 1: and working with what's available. So as we have to
23:05
Speaker 1: wrap up our time together this week, Dr. Bonino, I
23:09
Speaker 1: would love to ask a bit of a reflection question
23:13
Speaker 1: on your career so far. I can't wait to see
23:16
Speaker 1: what the future holds for you. But looking back now,
23:21
Speaker 1: what advice do you have from your journey that you'd
23:23
Speaker 1: want to share with early career listeners?
23:26
Speaker 3: I would say probably trust yourself, but also trust those
23:31
Speaker 3: around you. So I feel like imposter syndrome is something
23:35
Speaker 3: that's very real in the veterinary community. And I, you know,
23:38
Speaker 3: have had just a terrible case of it. And most
23:41
Speaker 3: really good vets that I know have some level of
23:44
Speaker 3: imposter syndrome and we really don't talk about it. So,
23:48
Speaker 3: you know, I talked a lot in the beginning about
23:50
Speaker 3: trusting yourself if you feel like something's wrong. But to
23:53
Speaker 3: a certain extent, also trust others around you and their
23:56
Speaker 3: opinion of you. Because sometimes I think our opinion of
23:59
Speaker 3: ourselves is is we just always feel like we could
24:02
Speaker 3: be doing better. And we feel like, I mean, I
24:08
Speaker 3: have done surgeries before successfully, hard surgeries, ticas, for instance,
24:14
Speaker 3: and then afterwards gone, wow, I really faked my way
24:16
Speaker 3: through that. I mean, you're not faking your way through
24:19
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff. You're not. If you look around
24:22
Speaker 3: you and people are respecting you and they say, wow,
24:25
Speaker 3: you know, she's a really good vet and they want
24:27
Speaker 3: you to see their animals. Take that to heart because
24:32
Speaker 3: that's very real. And I feel like as a new grad,
24:35
Speaker 3: it's very easy to think I have all of this
24:37
Speaker 3: information and I've made it through medical school, but I
24:41
Speaker 3: don't know anything. And I am not actually good at
24:45
Speaker 3: my job. I'm just, you know, kind of faking my
24:47
Speaker 3: way through it. And that's really, that's not true that
24:50
Speaker 3: your brain is tricking you. That's something that we're all
24:54
Speaker 3: wrestle with even 10, 15, 20 years out of school.
24:58
Speaker 3: We're still wrestling with feeling like we're maybe not as
25:01
Speaker 3: good as other people think we are, but rely on
25:05
Speaker 3: the people around you to kind of prop you up.
25:07
Speaker 3: I think that if we look right and left, we're
25:11
Speaker 3: going to really see the kind of practitioners that we are,
25:14
Speaker 3: maybe a little bit less being self-critical and a little
25:17
Speaker 3: bit more listening to the people around us.
25:20
Speaker 1: Oh, that's such great advice to keep in mind. And
25:23
Speaker 1: you're exactly right. Great advice for new grads. Great advice
25:27
Speaker 1: for any of us in the profession, because we're not
25:30
Speaker 1: immune as we go throughout our careers, unfortunately. But I
25:35
Speaker 1: think that advice of knowing yourself, but also having that
25:41
Speaker 1: trusted group of peers, colleagues that support network around you
25:45
Speaker 1: to be help calibrate that self-perception. It's also so, so valuable.
25:52
Speaker 1: And I'm so glad that you were able to navigate
25:57
Speaker 1: some of those identity challenges, were able to pivot and
26:02
Speaker 1: improvise and embrace the change and come up with something
26:06
Speaker 1: really amazing that's really creating a positive impact for your
26:11
Speaker 1: community today. So I'm so glad that we were able
26:14
Speaker 1: to amplify your voice, amplify your story here on the podcast.
26:18
Speaker 1: And I really hope that just like in the beginning
26:21
Speaker 1: of your veterinary story, this story inspires someone else to
26:25
Speaker 1: follow a similar path.
26:26
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
26:28
Speaker 3: You guys are amazing.
26:30
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
26:31
Speaker 1: And thank you to each of you for joining us
26:33
Speaker 1: on this episode of the My Veterinary Life podcast. We
26:36
Speaker 1: love sharing this journey with you.
26:37
Speaker 2: And remember, we want to hear from you.
26:39
Speaker 1: So please be sure to leave us a rating and
26:41
Speaker 1: review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you listen to.
26:44
Speaker 1: And you can also email me at mvlpodcast at avma.org.
26:49
Speaker 2: Take care, and we'll see you next time.