Latest / My Veterinary Life / Infectious disease, academia, and Ask a Vet with Dr. Jane Sykes

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Infectious disease, academia, and Ask a Vet with Dr. Jane Sykes · 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. Jane Sykes. Dr. Sykes
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: is the director of the Center for Veterinary Postgraduate Education
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: and a small animal medicine professor at the UC Davis
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Weill School of Veterinary Medicine, and is also the Ask
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a Vet columnist for the Washington Post.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: I am so excited to share Dr.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Sykes' story today, but before we do, I want to
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: give a thank you to our podcast partner, NBA General Practice.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: NBA helps great vets become even greater with multiple paths
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to build a career that's uniquely yours. Lead a team,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: explore a specialty, own a practice, or shape care across
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: our network of over 900 neighborhood clinics. Wherever you want
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to go next, NBA has a path to help you
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: get there. Visit careers.nba.com to find your next role. And
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: with that, welcome to the show, Dr.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Sykes. Thanks for the opportunity to join. Absolutely.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: We are so happy you are here and we like
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to start our conversation at the very beginning of the journey.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: So how did you first become interested in veterinary medicine?
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Yes, like most veterinarians, I grew up having pets and
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: I decided I wanted to be a vet when I
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: was a kid.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: My dad was actually a doctor.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: He was a biochemical pathologist and I was always interested
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: in what he did. And so for a while, I
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: went back and forth between human medicine and veterinary medicine.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: But in the very end, I chose vet med. And
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: I think my fascination with public health topics and infectious
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: diseases still reflects my combined interests in both human medicine
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: and veterinary medicine.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: And just a plug for the amazing diversity of options
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: in our profession that you can find ways to combine
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: various interests.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So what a great origin story.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: So followed that passion, went to vet school, and then
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: embarked on the start of your career as a veterinarian.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: So what did those early years look like for you?
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so actually doing vet school, I did an amazing
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: summer research scholarship in a microplasma research laboratory with a
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: microbiology professor who was very inspiring. And after that, I
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: was encouraged to pursue a PhD in research by that
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: mentor who was Dr. Glenn Browning, an amazing person. And
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: I explored all sorts of topics for my PhD, but
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: ultimately I wanted to do companion animal infectious disease research.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I was still really passionate about having a better understanding
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: of dog and cat diseases. And so I had this
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: vision to do a small animal internal medicine residency when
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I finished my PhD. And there was actually some of
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: the very first internal medicine specialists in Australia doing a
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: PhD alongside me who really inspired that course as well.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: And so then during my PhD, I got this scholarship
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: from the University of Melbourne to travel to the U.S.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: and present my research at the ACVIM Forum and then
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: look at different residency programs. And it was there in Florida.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: That's the first time I came to the U.S. that
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: I met many people who inspired my career, like Craig Green.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: author of Green's Infectious Diseases of the Dog and Cat,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: Mike Lappin, Ed Breitschwert, and also Niels Pedersen. And so
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: after my PhD, I was fortunate enough to match at
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: the University of Minnesota for a residency training program. And
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: that's how I began my internal medicine career.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Amazing.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I love the trail of influence that can be traced
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: through the start of your career of finding people who
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: are motivating and inspiring and using them as guides to
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: chart your next step. So you knew you were interested
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: in infectious disease, pursued the PhD, pursued the residency, and
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: then you ended up post-residency at UC Davis.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: So what led you to that path?
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I kind of always knew during my residency
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: that I wanted to do a career in academia focused
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: on infectious diseases of dogs and cats. I saw this
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: real need. There weren't that many people in the field.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: And so right at that time, and the timing was
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: really quite perfect, Dr. Niels Pedersen, who discovered FIV and
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: did a lot of really critical work on FIP was
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: commencing a staged retirement from UC Davis. And so UC
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Davis was looking for an assistant professor of internal medicine,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: someone who had an interest in infectious diseases. So I'm like,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: that's the job for me. It fitted perfectly with my
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: career goals. And it was also in a relatively good location,
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  Speaker 3: relatively good location for periodic travel home to Australia, you know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: to see my family as opposed to where you are
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: in Maryland, which is a really huge hike to get
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: back to Australia. So, you know, the location and the
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: people at UC Davis, certainly very inspiring place to pursue
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  Speaker 3: a career in infectious diseases, a very strong medical school
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: with a great infectious disease program there. And so I
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  Speaker 3: applied for the job and here I still am.
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  Speaker 2: Amazing.
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  Speaker 1: I love hearing when the opportunity is available at seemingly
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the perfect time.
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  Speaker 2: It does sound like a great fit.
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  Speaker 1: And knowing the person who held the position before you,
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  Speaker 1: you had already made those connections based on that opportunity
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: out of Melbourne to come to the U.S. So I
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: imagine that it's a community within a community with infectious disease.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: So being able to know that path and then also
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: think about some of those I'm going to call them
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: X factors, but personal factors that help with job satisfaction
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: and career sustainability. And it's important for us to think
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: about not only the job requirements, but also some of
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: those X factors around it that can really make a
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: difference in what your day-to-day looks like. I'm so glad
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: to hear that you found your fit and you found
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: your fit early on. And that's what I want to
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: ask you about next. So you've progressed your career through
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the university. Can you help us trace that path and
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: some of the thought process around the different roles you've held?
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I would say that one of the best
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: things about academia, of course, as you mentioned at the beginning,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: is just the variety of different things that we can
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: do and how we can shape our jobs based on
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: our interests. You know, I'm really trying to maybe inspire
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: some of your listeners to pursue careers in academia. And
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: of course, all university professors are required to do research,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: service and teaching.
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  Speaker 2: You know, that's a requirement of our position.
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  Speaker 3: And so throughout my career, I've been doing all of
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: those different things in a variety of different ways and
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: ways that have evolved over time, you know, based on
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: societal needs, based on technology and based on teaching needs,
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: for example, as well. When my admin roles at the
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: university actually began when I was infection control officer for
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: the small animal clinic. So because My position was infectious
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: disease oriented. There was a need for infection control in
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: the hospital. And so that involved creating lots of different
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: SOPs and revising protocols. And ultimately that followed with a
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: role as small animal clinic director. And so I think
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: it was just kind of all of that activity. And
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  Speaker 3: I realized I was actually quite good at some of
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: those things, writing protocols and interacting with people. having an
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: impact on the big picture of what was going on.
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  Speaker 3: And so I got interested in that leadership role. And
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  Speaker 3: so then after being small animal clinic director, it kind
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: of led onto this position as interim hospital director. And
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  Speaker 3: then I applied for the role of chief veterinary medical officer.
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  Speaker 3: And as you said, currently I'm the director of our
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: school's Center for Veterinary Postgraduate Education. And I also serve
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: on this amazing committee that makes promotion recommendations for faculty
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: right across campus.
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  Speaker 2: And while those roles.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Are quite a lot of work, they really help you
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  Speaker 3: understand the big picture. And I really love helping other
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: people to advance in their careers and just advancing our
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: profession as a whole.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Well, you certainly have stayed busy and exercised many different
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: muscles throughout the different positions that you've held at UC Davis.
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  Speaker 1: And I do want to go back to what you
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: mentioned at the beginning of encouraging our listeners to enter
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: into academia. I want to dig a little bit deeper
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  Speaker 1: on that and just maybe ask you a broad question.
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  Speaker 2: Why academia?
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  Speaker 1: What would you say to an early career veterinarian or
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: student who is considering this track? Yeah, I think one
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  Speaker 1: of the really amazing things for me has just been
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: that opportunity to do different things.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: And really shape your own job, right? You know, you
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: can choose what you want to do research on. You
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: can choose the way that you want to teach. It's
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: an extremely creative position, right? You can be creative in
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: your teaching, creative in your service. And you're not doing
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: the same thing all the time. So you're constantly, each
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: day is very different and very new. And plus I
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: get to be a clinician at the same time. I
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: still get to see patients and talk to clients. I
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: love training residents and I love teaching students and I
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: learn from them every day. So there's lots of different
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: reasons to pursue a career in academia. You have also
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: wonderful travel opportunities. I've traveled all over the world because
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: of my job and continue to have incredible opportunities to
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: see new places. Next week, I'm going to ECVIM in
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Germany and then to ISKATE in Dublin. So I'm looking
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: forward to that travel as well. So just very, very
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  Speaker 3: diverse position.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what it sounds like. And it's very exciting,
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  Speaker 1: the opportunities that are available. And that's you can make
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: for yourself is what it sounds like you're saying. And
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: so great to hear that from a first person perspective.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: What does your current day to day look like as
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the Director of the Center for Veterinary Postgraduate Education. That
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: is not a title within academia that we hear about
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: every day.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: So can you help us look behind the scenes?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And so that role is a really creative role because
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  Speaker 3: I get to design continuing education programs for veterinarians and
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: veterinary technicians, both hands-on wet lab opportunities, webinars, and in-person events.
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  Speaker 3: And I also am lucky because I get to sit
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: in lectures and watch teaching opportunities and learn from them myself.
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  Speaker 3: So I get to attend lots of different lectures that
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't otherwise be attending. And it gives me new
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: insights into what's going on in our career. So I
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: feel very fortunate to be in that role. It's quite
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: a different role to being a hospital director, which involves
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: a lot more interpersonal interactions, management, people management. and logistics
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: of hospital activity. So I always say everything comes down
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: to logistics, communication, and infectious diseases. And certainly all of
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: these roles involve those things.
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  Speaker 2: Those sound like some good words to live by. I
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  Speaker 2: like that. Wonderful.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Well, it's clear from the roles that you've chosen and
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: your enthusiasm in talking about them that additional education and
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: education for the profession is a passion of yours. And
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: we see that in your career story directly as well,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: because you've pursued several additional advanced education opportunities. So how
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: have additional opportunities like your MBA and MPH enhanced your career?
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I decided to do an MBA when I
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: was hospital director. And like most people in academia, found
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: myself having to help with business decisions when I had
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: really no business skills. And I was surprised to learn
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: that the MBA gave me all sorts of other really
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: important skills like negotiation skills and decision-making skills, organizational behavior
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: and skills in people management and teamwork. And so all
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: of those have been incredibly helpful for other organizations that
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: I've been involved with, such as ACVIM and also the
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: International Society for Companion Animal Infectious Diseases, which is an
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: organization that I founded in 2006.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: And right at.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: The end of my MBA, that was May of 2020
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: is when I graduated. So that's right when the pandemic hit.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: And I realized the importance at that time of companion
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: animal infectious diseases of public health significance and the role
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: that companion animals played in the pandemic and also other
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: emerging infectious disease problems like antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, influenza, and
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: so forth. So having really enjoyed going back to school
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: to do the MBA, which I did at the University
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: of Georgia, I decided to do a master's of public health.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: And that was done remotely through Kansas State University. And
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: many people questioned why I was doing that so late
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: in my career.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: They're like, why would you want to go back to school?
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Why would you do that?
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Why would you make yourself take all those exams when
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: you're already a professor of small animal internal medicine doing
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: what you love to do? And I had to think
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: long and hard about it, but I'm so glad that
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: I did do it. It taught me so many important
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: things I didn't expect to learn, including writing skills. And
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: I thought I was a good scientific writer, but I
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: learned more about writing in my MPH than I ever
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: thought I would learn. And also skills in epidemiology that
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: have really helped to shape my current research. It's also
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: really helped me to build interdisciplinary research teams by allowing
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: me to have more informed conversations with people from different disciplines,
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: not just public health officials and physicians, but from my
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: MBA conversations with people who are on the finance side
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: and doing accounting and making business decisions, writing grants, all
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: of those things, these degrees have been incredibly helpful for. Wow,
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: that is so encouraging to hear the number of ways
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: that you can transfer skills across these additional opportunities. And
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: maybe to your point, in both cases, actually, skills that
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: you weren't even expecting to gain, but then provided skills
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: advantages in your current role or your full-time position at
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: the time as well. So I actually, I love hearing
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: a little bit about the opposition at first, because I
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: feel like sometimes having some pushback from our peers and
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: colleagues helps solidify the.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Decisions in our minds.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Then it sounds like that experience really gave you returns
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: many fold afterwards and are still using some of those
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: principles and transferable skills today.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: And in fact, one of the things that we had
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: to do as part of a writing course in our
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: Masters of Public Health degree was to write a column
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: and to actually write a column for a newspaper. I
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: even submitted my column, which was on valley fever in dogs.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: It didn't get accepted. I tried the New York Times,
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: didn't get accepted, tried a few other outlets and then
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: gave up. But It taught us some different types of
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: writing skills, different to traditional scientific writing skills.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: And I thought, oh, well, this is fun. I'll probably
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: never do this again.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: But actually what I didn't know was coming was this
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: opportunity to write columns for the Washington Post. And so
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: I had already had this practice in column writing and
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: some training before I had this opportunity to be a
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: column writer.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Who would have guessed?
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: You never know what opportunities are going to come our
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: way and what preparation we are having that we don't
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: even know what it's for. So I would love to
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: talk about that next and how that opportunity for the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Ask a Vet column came across your desk and what
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: that experience.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Has been like.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so as hospital director for the school and then
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: also as an infectious disease expert, I had lots of
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: opportunities to do media interviews on different topics. And so
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: over the course of my career, I've had to do
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: a lot of media interviews and I've actually become more
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: and more comfortable with them. I mean, early on in
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: my career, I was terrified of media interviews. I was
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: terrified of saying the wrong thing and having it plastered
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: all over the press. And I even took this media
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: and communication class at UC Davis. And although I use
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: all of those tips that were provided now at the time,
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: I actually, all of the do's and don'ts didn't really
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: help my fear of doing these interviews. And so I
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: decided that the only way to overcome the fear was
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: to practice. And so I just embraced every opportunity to
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: talk to media outlets like, yep, I'll do it.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: I'll take that one. I'll do this one.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: And I started to realize that I could actually have
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: a really different kind of impact by speaking about research
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: that I'd done to an outlet like the New York
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Times versus publishing a paper in a veterinary journal. And
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: so this opportunity came about because I had done all
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: these interviews and the Washington Post published who had been
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: running an Ask a Doctor column for a few years,
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: they wanted to do an Ask a Vet column. So
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: their Ask a Doctor is Dr. Trisha Pastrisha, who is
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: a Harvard MD, gastroenterologist. So they were just looking for
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: a top vet school and somebody who could write for
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: the media. And because Campus Communications kind of knew about
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: me from the various interviews I'd done, they approached me
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: and said.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Would you like to do this? It's going to be
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: a lot of work, but we think it would be great.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: And I thought, wow, that is going to be a
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: lot of work writing a column every two weeks. But
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: how could you say no to something like that? How
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: much will I learn from doing that? What kind of
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: impact could I have? And so I thought, well, I'll
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: just give it a go. I've been doing it now
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: for just over a year, and it's been an amazing
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: opportunity to learn more about veterinary medicine in general. build
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: my writing skills and really just communicate with the general
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: public about the importance of what veterinarians do. What a
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: fascinating story and great opportunity to come your way. I
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: think it's really admirable to want to tackle one of
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: those fears head on the way that you did. It's
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: entirely reasonable to be concerned about media interviews and what
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: are you going to say?
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Or how is that going to be spun? The easy
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: option is to avoid that situation. But you did the
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: opposite and really leaned in. And then it presented this
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: unconventional opportunity at the post. So have there been any
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: questions that really surprised you or insights that you gained
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: about the average pet owner?
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: So as an internal medicine specialist working in tertiary referral hospital.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: You know, I was expecting to be writing about diabetes,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: about diarrhea, urinary tract infections, cardiac disease, Cushing's disease. But instead,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: I just received endless inquiries about kind of normal behavioral quirks,
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: things like tail whipping and and eating grass. And it's
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: taken kind of over a year of writing columns and
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: also a move of the column to the well and
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: being section, which is also where the ask a doctor
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: column is. And so now I'm actually, after a year
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: of writing these columns, I'm starting to receive questions that
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: are a bit more similar to those that come through
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: the Ask a Doctor column. And so at the beginning,
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: I had to be really creative. For example, I was
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: asked to write a column on co-sleeping with pets. And
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: so I used it as an opportunity to talk about
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: allergies and tick and flea-borne infectious diseases and getting good sleep.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: Quality sleep.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: So, you know, the topics have evolved over time. And
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: I also am very creative with ways to slip in
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: information about what veterinarians do into some of those sort
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: of general behavioral type columns. One of the funniest ones
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: that I got asked to write was one on humping
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: and how to stop dogs from humping. And I thought, oh,
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure if I should write this column. And
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: then I thought, well, no, let's do it. And it
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: ended up being really enjoyable to write. And I also
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: learned quite a lot from our behavior specialists at UC Davis.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: So I get the opportunity to interview experts on these
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: topics too.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: So I learned quite a lot from them.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's such a great window into the
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: pet owner's mind to receive an open call for the
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: questions that they are curious about.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: And I.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Can see how it would be a good exercise in
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: creativity to continue to tie those back to infectious disease
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: principles and education and.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: What your veterinarian does more broadly.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: So I'm so glad that you took the opportunity, despite
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: it admittedly being a significant time commitment, but to stretch
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: yourself into another area of vet med to maybe bump
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: into subject matter experts you might not otherwise get to
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: interact with regularly. It sounds like it's been a really
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: rewarding opportunity for you.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: And I would also say reading the comments, like there's
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: a comment section and you have to be pretty thick
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: skinned when you read them. But you also learn a
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: lot about readers' perspectives. And it's a very different audience
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: than who I encounter in the teaching hospital at UC Davis.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: And it's a very different audience to people who I
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: speak to at continuing education events.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: And so those comments have been incredibly helpful.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: And they've taught me that also ways to be a
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: better communicator, like, you know, sometimes When you get editorial
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: comments back or when you get reader comments back, you
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: realize that maybe you haven't said something the way you
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: intended to say it.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: There's an opportunity to improve over time.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: And I always thought I was a pretty good layperson
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: communicator in the hospital through client communications, writing laypeople summaries
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: for grants and stuff. But writing these columns has really
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: changed the way that I speak even to clients and
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: teach students because they've taught me ways to say things
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: more clearly to lay people.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: And again, maybe unexpected or unanticipated benefit of saying yes
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: to an opportunity. And so as we wrap our time
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: together today, Dr. Sykes, I do want to pick your
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: brain for some advice for our listeners. So looking back
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: over your career so far, is there anything that stands
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: out on advice for early career listeners on whatever topic
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: you choose?
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, again, I would just really encourage early career listeners
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: to think about careers in academia because of just how
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: varied and rewarding they can be.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: And also there's just the joy of research discovery and teaching.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: You know, I still like love research and love finding
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: out new things about companion animal infectious diseases. My research
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: right now focuses on leptospirosis in people who are unhoused.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: And I learn new things about leptospirosis every week and
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: also fungal infections, valley fever in particular. So you never
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: get tired of doing research because there's always something new
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: to discover. And then I would just also encourage listeners
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: to find opportunities to educate the public and also policymakers
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: about what vets do, because I think that we could
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: do a lot more outreach in this area, knowing what
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: I know from writing my columns. There's still a lot
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: of people who don't really understand what vets do, and
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: they don't even know that veterinary specialists exist. So getting
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: comfortable with talking to the media is important. And so
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: I would just encourage people to look for community-based opportunities
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: to get involved with local media outlets.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Two great things to keep in mind.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: One, the career path option of academia and the many
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: different paths within a path that can be really rewarding.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: And to give back to our communities, to be a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: part of them, to understand how they work, how people think,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: and the ways that we can apply our skills in
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: perhaps somewhat of a different way. And I practice those
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: critical communication skills as well. So thank you so much
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: for being an example of both of those things. Thank
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: you for your time today. We've really enjoyed having you
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: on the show.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Dr. Chavent. I appreciate the opportunity. Absolutely.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: And thank you to each of you for joining us
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: on this episode of the My Veterinary Life podcast. We
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: love sharing this journey with you. And remember, we want
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: to hear from you. So please be sure to leave
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or whatever
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: platform you listen to. And you can also email me
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: at mvlpodcast at avma.org.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Take care, and we'll see you next time.