We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Veronica Moffat. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Veronica below.

Hi Veronica , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.

I have a thirteen year old chihuahua named Olive who owns my heart, soul and, if I’m honest, household. When she was much younger, she was experiencing uncontrolled shaking, lethargy and was generally extremely ill for a time and I had taken her to several Veterinary clinics with no answers and a condition that worsened with each passing day. After an emergency stay up at the Colorado Veterinary Teaching Hospital, she was diagnosed with an adrenal disease and brought back from what would have been the end of her very short life. The disease was found with a single blood test. If the other clinics had run the same panel, she wouldn’t have gone into a crisis and all my heartbreak and anxiety and the near death of my sweet girl, could have been entirely avoided. As the years passed, I dove headfirst into Veterinary Medicine. This wasn’t just for her, this was for all the animals that weren’t her and were not so lucky. At the end of that experience, I had come to realize that what I experienced was not quality medicine but luck. I saw a gap that needed to be filled, so I sought to fill it. I began a journey into Veterinary Research and spent my nights studying Veterinary Medicine. I decided that animals should never be subjected to suffering due to a lack of knowledge or even simple laziness of Veterinary staff. I owe my career to a five pound, now geriatric, happy chihuahua who, thanks to the right people and thanks to my unwillingness to give up on her or any other companion animal for that matter, has a disease that is very well managed. The first Veterinary Hospital after this that showed real care and attention to her and acknowledged the work I had put in, is the same hospital I work for today and have for many years now and will for many years to come. I’ll never stop learning, I’ll never stop searching for the answers and I’ll forever be thankful to my team and my dog for showing me what direction my life needed to go in.

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 back background and context?

I am, at my core, a Veterinary Technician, leader, animal lover and voice for the voiceless. I live and breathe Veterinary Medicine. I’m a scientist at heart and an avid student of astrophysics, particle physics, weather science (I’m of a Storm Chasing family) and culture. When I’m not loving my work, I’m traveling with my sister. We’ve been traveling since she got her first car and by now we’ve seen nearly every dive bar, every greasy spoon, every rooftop pool, every state sign, every desert highway, every coast line or tree line or backlit city skyline this country has to offer. We spend a lot of time in the sky and in rental cars. Every chance we have to travel, we take it. No road is too long and no city is too daunting and no place is too foreign. We’ve always been the wild and free types and we’ll forever be wanderers.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

In Veterinary Medicine, you have to unlearn routine. Even in general practice, there’s no such thing as a “smoothe day.” And you have to be fearless and level headed on a level that’s unlike anything else. Anything can and DOES happen. Your patients are unpredictable and often afraid and you cannot explain to them that you are providing them with essential care. I’ve been mauled and beaten up, exposed to Zoonotic disease, bitten, scratched and had every single bodily fluid you can think of on my scrubs. You just have to persevere. You have to remind yourself that it’s not about you, it’s always about them. Then you get back up and provide the utmost gold standard care. Clock out. Do it again tomorrow.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I think people tend to forget that your employees, associates, colleagues and even clients are ALSO human. I tend to look at my team like a family. I’m not talking about the stereotypical “we’re a family here” line that big box companies feed their underpaid and overworked staff. I’m talking about real, human connection. The love and respect I have for my staff is genuine. You have to take time to be selfless. You need to get to know who you work with. Even as a leader, this is the only true way I have to actually connect with my team. I care about their lives and their families and their mental and physical health. If you don’t care for your team the way you’d care for a sibling or a friend, then you don’t have respect nor do you deserve respect in return.

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