DrAndyRoark

Everyday there are barrels of virtual ink being spilled on the ills and hardships of veterinary medicine. A lot of this ink is well deserved, and some of it comes directly from me. Veterinary medicine is a difficult, complicated, and rapidly changing profession that can take a toll on those who practice. At the same...

Dr. Ivan Zak, DVM, entrepreneur and former CEO of SmartFlow and Galaxy Vets, joins Dr. Andy Roark to dig into one of the spiciest topics in vet med, whether production pay is actually “bad,” and what happens when salary-only pay gets weaponized as burnout prevention. They unpack Ivan’s experience switching Galaxy Vets to straight salary,...

What I’m about to tell you is simple but very important. Here goes: We have a new graduate veterinarian at our clinic. She joined our team less than 2 months ago, and she’s doing great. Last week, she saw a dog that had a ruptured eyeball [I’m realizing now that maybe I should have put...

Tabitha Kucera, a veterinary technician boarded in behavior and founder of Chirrups and Chatter (and creator of Small Paws Education), joins Dr. Andy Roark to tackle a common post-op problem: telling clients to “keep them quiet” without explaining what that actually means. They discuss post-surgical enrichment as a way to support comfort, reduce stress, and...

Dr. Roberta Westbrook, DVM, takes us inside the world of shelter medicine and challenges what many of us think we know about high quality, high volume surgery, access to care, and animal welfare. From the evolution of modern shelters to the realities of pet homelessness, community responsibility, and the future of keeping pets with the...