We recently connected with Nicole Savageau and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nicole thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

This past March I broke my leg quite badly (my tibia was sticking out of my skin!). I am a single woman so when something like this happens you start to strategize about logistics and how you move forward on your own. I was completely blown away by the immense kindness of my family and friends. My parents both took turns flying into town to take care of me (I was not able to walk for 6 weeks), despite having busy jobs and lives themselves. My friends also surrounded me with so much love and support. They delivered meals almost every day, and kept me company. They brought me books and little gifts to brighten my day. I realized during that time how incredibly important it is to foster strong friendships and community. If I did not have the wonderful community I have here in Austin I would have been struggling to get through that season on my own. My leg healed incredibly quickly and one of the doctors was telling me there is a study happening at UT now that ties hopelessness to delayed healing, and hopefulness to expedited healing. I will forever be grateful for the hope and love my friends and family gave me, which resulted in both stronger mental and physical health in that season.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

After traveling the world and working as a veterinarian in Australia for six years, I moved to Austin in 2017 to continue my veterinary career. I have been a veterinarian for the last 13 years since completing my undergraduate degree in Animal Science from Cornell University and my veterinary degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

During the pandemic, I decided to start making sweet, short videos for kids. My goal was to create fun and educational content in 10 minutes or less to teach children about different species of animals, focusing on what makes each species unique and how to best care for that species. Thus, “Animal Kid-dom with Dr. Nicole” was born! I created pages on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram to post the videos, which include common species such as cats and dogs, as well as exotic pets like birds, small mammals, and reptiles. I even have a few videos on wildlife such as bear, elk, and flamingos from my travels to National Parks. I have had so much fun making these videos, and they have renewed my passion for my profession. The kind and positive feedback I have received from both kids and adults has been so rewarding! I would love to take what I have learned to create a television show for kids one day.

In the last year I have also embarked on a career change and have been doing house call appointments for dogs and cats with a wonderful company called The Vets of Austin. It has been a fun adventure and so rewarding! The clients have been amazing and constantly tell me how grateful they are that we come out to their house. It has been a wonderful service for so many people, including stay-at-home workers and parents, elderly clients and patients, and patients who have severe anxiety in vet clinics or on car rides.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I am so thankful I became a veterinarian, but if I am being honest there are so many times where I have questioned my career choice. My profession has one of the highest suicide rates of any profession in the world due to the extreme student loan debt required to become a veterinarian, the terrible debt to income ratio, extremely long work days, unrealistic expectations of staff, slander on social media, and emotional manipulation from clients. It takes eight years of education to become a veterinarian as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars. The veterinary industry has also been even busier than usual since the pandemic with the spike in pet ownership and many veterinarians and veterinary support staff leaving the industry, which means there are not enough vets to meet the current demand. Despite all of these issues and the countless personal and financial sacrifices that I had to make to get me where I am today, I would do it all over again. I love being a veterinarian, especially at my new job with The Vets doing house calls! I love animals, I love helping them, and I love the connection I make with clients who just want the best for their pets. It is rewarding and important work. It just takes a lot of resilience!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My career has taken me to the other side of the world and to multiple states within the US, which has been so much fun! I started off as an intern in New Jersey after I finished veterinary school. My first big change was making the leap to accept a job on the other side of the world in Australia. It was a huge decision to move across the world to a country I had never been to and that I knew absolutely no one, but ultimately it was the greatest decision I have made both personally and professionally, and I came out a better doctor for deciding to pivot to something new. I was able to work with veterinarians from all over the world at my hospital and learn how many different and wonderful ways there are to treat the same diseases. I also learned about great medications that are available in other parts of the world that are not available here in the United States, which gives me the ability to make a wider range of recommendations to my clients. Australia is also where I continued to work with exotic animals and wildlife and further developed my skills with these species. When I moved to Australia the Australian dollar was stronger than the US dollar (this was after the economic crash in 2008). After living in Australia for over 5 years the United States dollar kept increasing while the Australian dollar decreased. I found myself in a position where I was losing quite a lot of money every time I transferred money back to the US to pay my student loans. Because of this I had to pivot again and make the decision to move back to the United States to more effectively pay off my student loan debt and further my career. I eventually ended up in Austin and absolutely love my career and my life in this city! Being flexible and having the ability to pivot when you need to can bring incredible rewards both personally and professionally.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/animalkiddom
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/animalkiddom/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-savageau-b8959224/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCHAtWSRy1PW0R1gNwXsTlgA

Image Credits
Nicole Savageau