Shawn McVey, MA, MSW, chief cultural officer of Veterinary Growth Partners, on stage at the Fetch Charlotte conference.

“The grass is always greener on the other side” is a thought process that can often cause people to move on to something that seems better, but in reality, moving doesn’t always solve the problems you had to begin with. If you are unhappy in your veterinary practice because the workplace culture is not healthy, sometimes moving to a new practice can seem like a good option. And sometimes it is. However, Shawn McVey, MA, MSW, chief cultural officer of Veterinary Growth Partners, would argue that, most of the time, if you leave a practice because of its cultural, there is still going to be a problem at the next clinic. 

McVey told attendees at the Fetch conference in Charlotte, North Carolina during his keynote presentation

 that, “for the vast majority of you to work on the business need, you have to work on yourself. And my experience in veterinary medicine has taught me that many of you do not like working on yourself. In fact, many of you will go to the ends of the earth to avoid working on your stuff, including changing practices, changing partners, changing cities, only to find out that wherever you go, there you are. And you still have to deal with 

McVey explained that working on yourself first is crucial to bringing your best self to work. An entire workplace culture can suffer if each individual team member is not showing up to work with a positive attitude and energy. “There's this key element in any practice that actually makes it valuable, and that key element is culture,” he added.

According to McVey, there are 6 elements that contribute to a clinic’s culture and how each member of the team carries these elements:

“Culture is the collective opinions, beliefs, and attitudes of the people that make up any organization,” McVey said. However, he also reminded attendees that the culture is active when people 

 on these opinions, beliefs, and attitudes. A practice culture comes from how people act each and every day at work. It sometimes doesn’t matter what values the practice may have, it’s more about the actions of the team, rather than the words. However, if a practice wants to live up to their values, then their actions need to reflect that. “We don't talk about it because when we start to talk about culture, we have to start talking about people's behavior,” McVey continued.

McVey cautioned clinics to avoid referring to their culture as a family. “A lot of people say that we have a family environment in our hospital, and it makes me want to throw up in my mouth when I hear 

,” he said jokingly. “In family, you make a conscious decision to put up with people for 30, 40, 50, 60 years. And you come up with coping strategies to work around them for 50 or 60 years, including only seeing them a couple times a year. We can't operate like that at with people at work, there can't be untouchable subjects at work.” A veterinary team is people you work with everyday and it would make daily work difficult to complete if you had to tip-toe around certain people all the time.

According to McVey, stress is the single biggest response for a negative work culture. Inconsistency in a work environment and especially from leaders can create uncertainty and stress. “Stress comes from not knowing when the other shoe is going to drop. I don't know what the rules are. The rules change every single day,” McVey explained.

So, how do you make a good culture? McVey believes that the following elements can help improve your culture:

Focusing on well-being and work-life balance.

Strong leadership that embodies the good culture of the clinic.

McVey shared a 1400-response survey that showed veterinary practices received the following scores for workplace culture:

McVey emphasized that most of these scores would be a failing grade in a regular academic setting. If veterinary students are held to a higher standard for passing classes, then veterinary practices should be, too. All of these areas of a veterinary business can be improved. And if the leadership in a veterinary practice starts to take this seriously, the employees will have more respect and loyalty for the place they work.

McVey left attendees with one more note: “Finally, you have to respect the culture.” He explained that once you improve the culture, everyone in the practice needs to respect it by upholding the values that were collectively decided on.

McVey S. Culture karma: What are you creating in your practice? Presented at: Fetch dvm360 conference; Charlotte, North Carolina. March 15-17, 2024.

Articles

Keynote speaker for the Fetch conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, Shawn McVey, MA, MSW, explained how to first evaluate yourself and then apply that awareness to your workplace culture

How do you contribute to your clinic’s culture?

Many veterinarians care for exotic pets from various species. Providing medical care for these patients requires handling unique to each species. As such, many veterinary professionals are not comfortable working with exotic patients, according to Katrina Lafferty, BFA, RLAT, CVT, VTS (anesthesia/analgesia), senior technician in the anesthesia and pain management department and director of the veterinary technician internship program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.

2024 Fetch dvm360 conference in Charlotte

, North Carolina, Lafferty discussed basic techniques for safely and humanely handling rabbits for medical procedures.

 “[Rabbits] are probably the most common species that you are seeing if you have a practice that sees any kind of exotic animals,” she told the audience. “These are the third most popular pets after cats and dogs.”

Lafferty first discussed how improper restraint can injury a rabbit. Fractured legs, damaged pinna, vertebral dislocation or fracture, are some of the consequences of mishandling and can lead to euthanasia.

 “This is why everybody is afraid of bunnies because they’re afraid that they’ll break their back,” she said.

Although muscular in the thighs, she said, rabbits are lighter boned than other species.

 “The reason for this is so that they can move quickly away from a predator,” Lafferty said. “If they’re not against the ground and they kick out their back legs with nothing to stop them, they can actually make a full 180 [degree] arc. That’s where the fracture comes into place. If they kick out their back legs without anything to stop them, that’s where they can dislocate or fracture their backs.”

To prevent vertebral dislocation or fracture, Lafferty said, ensure hind legs are secured. “You’re always supporting the hind end,” she added.

 Handlers should also avoid restraining a rabbit by the ears, which can cause pain and cartilage damage.

Veterinary handlers can also become injured when using an improper restraint technique with these pets. Lafferty noted that deep scratches and bites are common consequences of mishandling rabbits.

In removing a rabbit from a cage, Lafferty recommended that handlers do not lift the patient but rather slide the animal toward you. The feet should be on the ground until the rabbit is in the handler’s hand, she noted.

Handlers should be holding one hand on the scruff of the neck while supporting the rump and /or hind legs firmly with the other hand. Proper restraint of the hind legs will help prevent the pet from kicking, avoiding injuries to the rabbit and handler.

Lafferty said she also secures rabbits during transport by holding a hand on the scruff of the neck, and the rump in the other hand while transporting these patients. “I’m making sure that I’m controlling both ends of the patient,” she said.

Restraining a rabbit during transport can also be accomplished by holding a pet like a football, Lafferty said. In doing so, the patient’s head is placed in the crook of the arm supporting the body with the other hand holding the scruff of the neck.

 “They go into a state of ‘if I can’t see anything, nothing can hurt me’,” she said.

Another restraint technique is “the burrito.” This method requires a towel and swaddling the rabbit, “like a baby,” Lafferty said. None of the limbs should be able to kick out, but she cautioned about wrapping the towel too tight, which can restrict the airway and breathing.

Additionally, with the burrito technique, the ears should remain exposed.

 “They thermoregulate through their ears,” Lafferty said. “If you have those ears tucked within a towel or a blanket, they’ll overheat rapidly.”

Characteristically nervous, timid and excitable, rabbits can be startled when approached and sometimes resist restraint. Excessive stress is a concern for both the rabbit and handler. Restraining a rabbit in a gentle but firm manner will often cause the animal to calm down.

“Never remove them from the cage without supporting the back end. Never pick a rabbit up by its ears, and never put a rabbit into a cage head first,” Lafferty emphasized.

For more coverage from Fetch Charlotte, visit our dedicated conference news page at

You gotta know when to hold ‘em: exotic animal restraint. Presented at: Fetch dvm360 Conference; Charlotte, NC. March 15-17, 2024. Accessed March 15, 2024. 

https://ce.dvm360.com/learn/course/fetch-charlotte-2024-proceedings/proceeding/fetch-charlotte-2024-conference

Rabbit handling. University of Bristol. 2023. Accessed March 15, 2024. 

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/vetscience/documents/clinical-skills/Rabbit%20Handling.pdf

Animal specific training: rabbits. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Animal Care Program. Accessed March 15, 2024. 

https://uwm.edu/animal-care/training/manual/rabbits/

In a lecture at the Fetch Charlotte conference, Katrina Lafferty, BFA, RLAT, CVT, VTS (anesthesia/analgesia) discussed the dangers of improper handling for rabbits and best practices for improving outcomes.

Preventing injury in rabbits with proper restraint

Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, explains what makes diagnosing and treating allergic disease in cats so difficult 

The challenges of feline allergic disease

Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, explained her start in veterinary dermatology and why she is passionate about this field of work. She also described the lack of information surrounding feline allergic disease and the lack of treatment options available compared to what is known about canine allergic disease.

 I had a pet that was my family's dog when I started vet school and she had terrible skin. And of course, this was before we had drugs like Apoquel [Oclacitinib] and Cytopoint [Lokivetmab], available to us. And she would cycle through infection after infection after infection to the point where she had to live in a little e-collar. Our family groomer actually had recommended that we euthanize her. And I just thought this was so terrible... So, I took her to Cornell [University] with me my first year there and the first thing I did was I made an appointment with the dermatology service. They were able to make an amazing, complete transformation in her skin. They literally gave me my dog back, and I saw firsthand what that meant.

Cats are just challenging in general and unfortunately for feline allergy, we don't know as much as we do for the dog counterpart. And unfortunately, we don't have a lot of the same medications for use in cats. There's very little treatment options that are actually licensed and labeled for use in cats and so I think that presents a treatment challenge.

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Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, explains her start in veterinary dermatology, plus what makes diagnosing and treating allergic disease in cats so difficult 

Specialty care

So, tell us a little bit of the clinical signs of why Zahara presented to the veterinarian initially.

So honestly, we didn't have a ton of heads up given for her diagnosis. What happened was, she was getting ready to go for her one of her regular checkups, and it was scheduled on Thursday. And on Sunday, I noticed that I could feel her lymph nodes a little bit when I was just, you know, checking her up in the morning, putting on her collar. And I said, how that's interesting. Maybe she has an infection. I'm going to see the vet anyway, this week, we'll check it out. And they actually, you know, became more distinct over the course of those few days, go into the vet have a normal checkup. And quite frankly, everybody thought that she was doing great. She, you know, she looks like she's in good condition overall. I mentioned she said, "Yeah, I see that you want to get those aspirated to check." And I said, "Yeah, let's, let's do that." So, she takes an aspirate while we're there at the clinic; they check it. And she's, you know, used to her...she was able to take a quick look using the various diagnostics that they've brought in recently and see that there were abnormal cells. So, when she came back, she was like a 180. You know, she came in very optimistic initially, comes back and very somber and said, "You know, I think that she may have lymphoma, and that you should go get a consult with Dr. Wolfe to figure out what is the next thing to do for her." And within just that short period, she went from just detecting them by just palpating them to actually being visible, within a very short period of time. So, my assumption is that this was a very aggressive form of lymphoma. And that when I did get a chance to actually talk to Dr. Wolfe, she asked me if I wanted to start chemo that day. And I said, yeah, you know. I realized that this was dire, and that this was kind of a now or never situation. And I said, "Well, let's give it a shot." And Dr. Wolfe, with her extensive experience, really made me feel comfortable and confident in this decision.

That's wonderful. So what was that experience like then when she referred, knowing that you had a diagnosis of lymphoma, then what happened from that point forward, then the treatment plan?

From that point forward, then we went ahead, and we discussed different options, presented data to her knowing, again, her career background there. And we talked through the different protocols with the most aggressive protocol being CHOP, and what that would entail, and what the visits that would be required in the labs and my expectations for adverse events and financial constraints. And we talked through other options. We did talk through other options that were available, other protocols that were available, but we made a decision together that we were going to pursue CHOP. We had a long in-depth conversation about that I'd never done chemotherapy on a Basenji and so there was a healthy apprehension there and she wasn't your traditional Pitbull/Terrier/Boxer type of case there. And so, we kind of worked together to anticipate any adverse events that we might have. And together, we made a decision that we were going to move forward with CHOP, and we started that day.

Did you use a consultation service at all, too?

I didn't initially with CHOP, I went ahead and elected the 19-week protocol. But after week four, when we had the doxorubicin event, which ended up being a severe hyperproteinemia, hypoglycemia, severe diarrhea, she had to…she actually spent two weeks in our clinic, receiving supportive care throughout this. We knew that we had to change, and that CHOP was not going to be what would be in her best interest. And so at that point, then I did submit a case consultation to the oncology service. I was able to do that online. I was able to schedule an email. That worked better for me. And so she had access to all of the labs. She had access to the images to into the labs, and then my clinical description. And so she gave me different options. And she did it with a little humor as well. There is a funny little sentence in there that made it seem very personalized to me. I could tell that it wasn't any kind of cut and paste consultation. She started by saying, Dr. Wolfe, I think that chemotherapy protocols for COP are a lot like chocolate chip cookie recipes. We each have our own and we each believe that our chocolate chip cookie recipe is the best but at the end of the cooking process, what we have is cookies. And so she gave me different options, but we elected to do COP after that based upon that consultation service. And I did go ahead and respond to her is there one that you have is a favorite and so there's that availability to have dialogue back and forth. So we use the oncology service and decided together that we would move forward with COP, and we are currently on I believe round four.

Oh, That's great. Lisa, having that collaborative approach with the oncologist through the reference lab through Dr. Wolfe. That must give you that confidence to know like we're all in you know on the same page and doing what's best for Zahara, right?

Absolutely. Absolutely. This was you know, again with given my background I really do appreciate getting other expert advice. I really value expertise and so that we had access to just talk to somebody get a consult quickly, really helped make me feel more comfortable and confident in our decisions for her care.

Right. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Lisa Bono and lots of love to Zahara. We love you.

See how a vet and a Zoetis Virtual Laboratory specialist worked together to treat lymphoma

The Power of Collaboration: Tackling the Toughest Cases with Zoetis Specialists By Your Side

Joining us today is Dr. Wolfe's client and patient Lisa Bono and Zahara. How are you, Lisa?

Do you have a little video of your fur baby there somewhere? I understand Zahara's there somewhere?

Here she is. Here's Zahara in all of her glory.

So good to see you. So, tell us about Zahara. And what has your experience been with Zahara and her care through the years with Dr. Wolfe.

Actually, Dr. Wolfe and I started working together just earlier this spring afterZahara’s diagnosis with lymphoma. I had been going to see other vets at her clinic. But then when she got the diagnosis, I was referred over to Dr. Wolfe. So, we've had about half a year of knowing each other. Dr. Wolfe has been amazing. I've always felt like she's been...has Zahara's best interest at heart, and I felt very confident in the care that she's provided for Zahara.

Oh, I love that. So, tell us about her recent health issue that was uncovered.

So, Zahara was, as I mentioned, diagnosed with lymphoma earlier this year, and went to talk to Dr. Wolfe and we began a CHOP protocol for her. She was doing quite well for some time until we hit the doxorubicin in the first round of the CHOP protocol. And she just hit a wall pretty fast with that. Within a few days she had severe, severe diarrhea. This is a Basenji, so she doesn't really drool, and she was just copious drool and fluid from all orifices, shall we say. And brought her into Dr. Wolfe. And she spent some time with her there. And we had to then figure out what was going on for her. And I'm sure Dr. Wolfe can go through some more the details of exactly what we had to do. But basically, we had to figure out what was the problem? Was it liver failure? Was it severe GI distress. And what we were able to do was figure out that it was GI distress, but it was a series of different tests that we had to do to try to narrow it down. And it was quite dire at that time. So, figuring out what we needed to do quickly was a challenge.

Sure. And it sounded like diagnostics and urgency were really important at this time. So how important were those diagnostic tests that resulted that turnaround time for you and Zahara?

So I should just give you a little bit of background for myself. I'm actually a professor of biology here at Texas Tech University. So, I do research for a living. I really like data, right? And the ability to have these rapid diagnostics, right, every day, Dr. Wolfe would call me up, we'd have like, a long conversation on the phone and literally go through all of her numbers. So, Dr. Wolfe had to teach me a little bit about what diagnostics we had access to. But then we could go through all of the data for her day by day and compare it to the previous day, so that we could see where things were going with her. And that allowed us to make evidence-based decisions in a very emotionally fraught situation. So, we could make a call very quickly about are we going to continue with this approach or another approach or do other types of tests?

I love this. It sounds like it was so collaborative together.

It was absolutely collaborative. I really appreciated it.

Yeah. So having those diagnostic tests made available quickly seemed very helpful for both of you and for Zahara so you can come together for the greater good of our treatment plan it sounds like.

Yes, as she mentioned, we did those diagnostic tests daily. And there was a there was a moment a few days into her hospitalization that we were deciding together if we were going to move forward with her care, or if if what would be more appropriate to stop treatment. And it was having those diagnostics rapidly available that helped me determine that this was GI distress and not some other type of chemotherapy complication.

She's doing quite well. She brings me toys in the evening. She wants to play with that. She goes with us to our local breweries and likes to hang out with people and dog watch with that. And absolutely, without these diagnostics at that moment, I do not think that she'd be with us here today. And we're actually getting ready to celebrate her 11th birthday in a few weeks. Honestly, when I got this diagnosis, I really wasn't sure that we were going to see her 11th birthday, so I'm pretty excited right now.

Oh, that's wonderful, happy early birthday to her. What would you like other pet parents to know about your experience with Dr. Wolfe and how she uses that as diagnostics.

So one thing that was really helpful for me is that we live in West Texas and what may not be obvious to many of your viewers is that this is a fairly remote part of the country. I grew up in New Jersey, and in the northeast, so I was used to, you know, you go to your vet, and if you need to go see a specialist, you can go down the road. And within an hour or less, you can get to see somebody that will know how to handle these situations. But here in West Texas, Lubbock is the largest thing in any direction for five and a half hours. So, if I needed to go see somebody, see a specialist, we would have to actually drive five and a half hours, right. And that would be really limit the type of care that we could have gotten for Zahara, and to have all these things in house and so fast. I mean, like, you know, again, I love fast data, right? So, we could get these results for her within very short periods of time and make these decisions rather than me having to drive five and a half hours and go see somebody for some of this type of equipment, as we would have, you know, back in the day before this kind of equipment was available. So, it really made it you know, accessible, rather than being cost prohibitive and time prohibitive to do these things.

A pet owner and veterinarian share their story of how they used Zoetis’ Vetscan Imagyst® and Virtual Laboratory to diagnose and treat a dog with lymphoma

Zahara’s Story

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, shares what he hopes attendees takeaway from his session at the Fetch Charlotte conference

Takeaways from a zoo medicine session

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, director of Animal Health at the North Carolina Zoo, will be speaking at our upcoming Fetch conference in Charlotte, North Carolina and told 

 in an interview, about what he hopes attendees can learn from his session. He aims at underscoring the similarities between zoo medicine and small- and large-animal medicine so that zoo medicine appears more accessible for any veterinary professional. 

Dr Minter will be speaking tomorrow, March 15, at the Fetch Charlotte conference.

 I think the biggest thing I want people to take away from this session is that zoo medicine is not that scary. It sounds scary because again, most of you don't learn about a lot of the critters that we have here. And I'm going to use a term zoological medicine in a much broader sense, because people think zoological medicine—to them that's bears and lions and elephants and rhinos. But there are there are going to be patients that people are going to potentially see in private practice. Take fish, for example, take snakes for example, or birds for example, those kind of fit under the umbrella of zoological medicine. So I want people that are in small- and large-animal medicine, not to be fearful of those animals. They are a little bit different, but I think we all have that basic understanding of veterinary medicine, and how veterinary medicine works. We have a basic understanding of just anatomy and physiology.

There are some nuances, and it may take some additional continuing education or a book or some journals to read, but it's still medicine and I think everybody has the skill set to practice for that.

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, shares what he hopes attendees takaway from his session at the Fetch Charlotte conference