A Nontraditional Path Shaping the Future of Vet Med | Dr. Christie Long

In this episode of Vet Life Reimagined, Dr. Christie Long shares her nontraditional journey into veterinary medicine and how fresh perspectives are helping shape the future of the profession.

Christie began her career outside of vet med in software and business before making a bold pivot into veterinary medicine as a second career. Since then, she has practiced clinically, helped pioneer veterinary telehealth, worked within large organizations, and now serves in a leadership role at Modern Animal, where she focuses on building sustainable, high-quality veterinary care models that support both patients and veterinary teams.

This thoughtful conversation explores identity shifts, career pivots, innovation, and failure — and what it truly takes to build a profession that can evolve with the needs of veterinarians, clients, and animals alike.

Resources:

• Episode on YouTube
• Modern Animal website
• Listening with Dr. Christie Long Podcast

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Transcript

Christie Long: [00:00:00] If you work for open ai, you show up every day to work ready to innovate. But the same is not true of modern animal, right? You show up every day at work to take care of your patients, and so how do you do that in a way that creates safety and sustainability in the job, both to the people and to the pets?

Megan Sprinkle: Welcome to Vet Life Reimagined. As we approach the end of the year, we're getting closer to our now annual episode where we look ahead at what's next for veterinary medicine. But before we future cast, we are continuing to spend time with people who are actively building that future right now and today's guest is one of them. Dr. Christie Long has one of the most fascinating and non-traditional journeys into veterinary medicine. She didn't grow up dreaming of becoming a veterinarian. In fact, her early experiences with veterinary care were anything but inspiring. She started her career in software and business, built a life far outside of Vet VetMed, and then through a series of moments.

That included global travel, [00:01:00] deep reflection and an unconventional but clear nudge. She completely changed course bringing her to us in vet med. Christy came to veterinary medicine as a second career, bringing with her a systems and innovation mindset and a deep appreciation for listening. Since then, she's practiced clinically, helped pioneer veterinary telehealth, worked inside large organizations, and now plays a key leadership role at Modern Animal.

Where she's helping rethink what sustainable high quality veterinary care can look like for both clients and the veterinary team. In this conversation, we talk about identity shifts, career pivots, innovation and failure. We talk about what happens when veterinarians are given the space to listen, to experiment, and to build together.

And we talk honestly about the challenges our profession faces and what Christie believes actually moves us towards a more sustainable future. This is a thoughtful, reflective conversation with someone who has seen veterinary medicine [00:02:00] from the outside, the inside, and the edges, and is using all of that perspective to help shape what comes next.

So let's get to my conversation with Dr. Christie Long.

 So you have a longer, entrance into veterinary medicine and I actually learned this from your podcast when you were sharing your story as the first episode and, and that's like you didn't actually have great memories of veterinarians and veterinary clinics when you were a child.

So do you mind sharing just a little bit about, you obviously had pets 'cause you went into the veterinarian, but share a little bit about like growing up and your experience with animals and, and just kind of like the early years.

Christie Long: Oh gosh, Megan, well first of all, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I'm so excited to have a conversation with you today. I've, I've loved listening to your podcast. You have such a, an amazing pantheon of cool guests, so I'm jealous. And, uh. I'm in awe. Um, I'm gonna have to [00:03:00] date myself now if I talk about my childhood and my experience with pets.

You know, I think one of the strongest memories of my childhood was wanting a horse, and trying to convince my parents that I, that we should get a horse. And, you know, we lived in, I grew up in a small town in Tennessee. , we didn't live in. , In the city. I mean, , let me be honest. There was no city, but , you know, we lived in like a suburban house and had a backyard. And I was sure that we could just put a horse in the backyard and my parents were of course not hearing about that they don't not wanna hear about, but I remember reading every book I could get my hands on about horses and learning about how to take care of them. , We had dogs, , we had like a, a dog that lived outside and a dog that lived inside. And it was the time of life when dogs were allowed to run around outside without, being, , on a leash. I don't remember that we spayed and neutered our dogs, so [00:04:00] it was a long time ago. And I think as a child, obviously your, values and your mindset is fueled by your parents.

And, , , my parents both grew up in the country and. They loved animals, but animals very much had a specific strata in the family. And, uh, they did not think of our animals, our pets as members of the family as we do now. So, uh, yeah, I remember going to the vet with my mom.

I don't ever remember going for like preventive care. I'm sure we never ran blood work on our dogs. But, you know, we always, we went when there was a problem and, , I remember it was really dirty place. It smelled really bad. vet himself seemed like of the most unhappy people I had ever encountered in my short life.

So there was no way I, that made an impression on me as like, this is something I wanna do. It just, just wasn't something I I ever thought about at that [00:05:00] time. So.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. So you, you shared that as you were, in school and going to college, kind of the thing to do was to focus in on business. So, what was kind of going on at the time that kinda guided you that direction?

Christie Long: Yeah, my husband tells the same story. He and I are about the same age, you know, his, his parents were kind of guiding him the same way. So, you know, computers were starting to really become, uh, just a, a very big part of daily life. I mean, they already had in a sense of like mainframe computers, but personal computers that people had in their homes.

Were starting to become, I'm like sounding really old now. Back when we switched from stone to paper? No, . I think our, you know, our parents were just, it, it wasn't even so much about business. It was about train for a job that will pay you a good salary. Like there was no discussion of what is it that you really wanna do, like what do you think is cool?

And I remember my [00:06:00] father openly ridiculing people who had degrees who, or who were majoring in things like art history, you know, like. So, , he just didn't see the reason for that, and he didn't see the path to supporting a family and, and doing all the kinds of things that he valued tremendously.

So again, that was, what I picked up on. So, yeah, I was encouraged to, I was actually, my father's first dream was that I go to West Point and go into the Army, which is. , Pretty funny if you know me. It's really funny. I'm one of the least disciplined people out there. Uh, , but then it was, you know, yeah, they go into business.

And then, uh, there was a company at the time, EDS and EDS was owned by Ross Perot. If you remember, Ross Perot, he ran for president. , He was , kind of a short man who, , said a lot of funny things. He was very successful, , with this company. He started and they had just been bought by General Motors, and so they were hiring a whole lot of new college grads and they were like, come [00:07:00] join us.

We will teach you how to be a software engineer. I had taken one class in programming. I didn't really know much about it, but I was like, this sounds good. They wanna hire me and, they're gonna train me, so I'm gonna do this. And like that is, that is how I got started in my job. , Will you hire me? Great, I'll go work there. I mean, I had other opportunities, but that was the best one. And that's what I took. So

Megan Sprinkle: Now, is that where you met your husband? I, I

Christie Long: did I met my hu I met my husband on a rental car bus at the Dallas airport because we were both sent to Dallas for a training program. And I got on the bus and he was the only other guy there. And then Megan, we had been assigned seats next to each other in class, so. The rest is history, basically.

Megan Sprinkle: Well, that's fascinating. We hadn't talked about that before. so . You have to kind of enlighten most of this audience about technology and software and what it's like working in this environment. , What was day to [00:08:00] day like? What were you learning about? I know kind of up to a certain trip, but before we get to that point, , what were you experiencing?

Christie Long: You know, , it's even so much different now. Like software development now is so much different than it was then. Back then the emphasis was on creating very bespoke solutions for a specific business problem. You know, so say for example, let's say you need, you need a system to do your accounting. You need a, you, you just go buy QuickBooks or, you know, and, and you get something off the shelf to do that, right? So EDS made very specific solutions and they hired a whole bunch of people, a lot of young people, who were willing to work tremendously.

Crazy hours. You know, it was like, this job is your life and this is what we're gonna do, and they would bid on a job. And then it was our job to create whatever software solution the customer needed. And a lot of that, involved [00:09:00] talking to the customer to understand, you know, what is it exactly that you want the system to do. So I guess if I had to track back to that experience, like that's where I first learned. Kind of how to really interact with customers and, and people, the people who are paying for whatever solution you're providing. And, and I think really, I think I'm a really good history taker as a veterinarian, and I think that maybe is part of why I am, if I could pat myself on the back about something.

Megan Sprinkle: Well, no, that's very insightful because I do believe that along our journeys in life, we always take things with us. Like we always learn things and we can take it forward in, in multiple settings. So that's very observant too, because that is a certain skillset to be able to truly understand. The problem that you need to solve, that listening, that open curiosity.

In fact, I was just hearing my husband talk about this very thing, so my husband's in IT. And he was. Talking to a younger colleague [00:10:00] about, he needs to quit telling people the solution. He needs to stop and, and listen to the customer to hear why they do certain things, because there's probably a reason, even though you may have a better solution, there may be a reason why they're doing it.

And it's really important to stay curious and seek to understand before you seek to problem solve. So that's, that's a really good skillset I think.

Christie Long: Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's easy to think you have the answer and you want to jump to the end and start working, but. The real work is in the gathering of the actual requirements for the solution, I think, and that's, where people mess up. and it's very similar to what we do now at Modern Animal, right?

A lot of the work we do, we focus on building technological solutions, either to make it easier for veterinarians to do their jobs or to make it easier for customers, clients to access care, right? You gotta ask people what they need, and , you gotta be willing to listen to 'em.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, I didn't mean to say the name of your podcast [00:11:00] too. I think it, uh, isn't it called listening?

Christie Long: It is. Yes. There you go.

Megan Sprinkle: Connections. Look at.

Christie Long: Look at Connects. Yeah. 

Megan Sprinkle: and you were telling me in, in our pre-call that you appreciated that ability to create solutions But even though you talked about like, these companies kind of expected this to be your life,

Christie Long: Yeah.

Megan Sprinkle: this was not like a calling, this didn't feel like you had this grand purpose.

And, and so that's kind of different from a lot of the way that we speak to our profession sometimes. So. You said that there was kind of a big, pivotal moment, and this is where, I heard in, in your episode you talked about your husband too, wa was struggling with work and things, and, and so the both of you decided to take a long trip kind of around the world.

Do you mind sharing a little bit about those moments that those struggles, the decision to leave and kind of what you decided to do and, and what happened?

Christie Long: I think that there's something about, you know, traveling for an extended period of [00:12:00] time or, maybe you don't even have to travel, maybe you just get away from the people who expect things from you and like all the things in this life. And I'm like sitting at my house right now and I'm, you know, all the things that have to go on to, to make this work. And like, literally , distill it down to a backpack, and we took, you know, we were, we were gone for 13 months. we each had a backpack and we took a laptop. Sony had 

just 

released a, a product they called the Vio and it was The smallest laptop to date. And we kept a website up along the way. And this was pre-Facebook, pre-Instagram, pre TikTok, pre anything like that. So this was how we kept people in touch with us along the way. and so we, we struck out, we lived in Atlanta at the time. We sold our house. We put all of our stuff in storage. I know Anna. Uh, two cats. [00:13:00] My husband's sister agreed to take our cats. I think she regretted that later after they shredded her leather chair. But, um, we bought her a new one just for the record. We bought her a new one. But we headed south. We went to Mexico, and then we went into South America. Spent a lot of time in Peru.

I know you listened to the first episode of my podcast and I talk about this experience we had in the jungle of Peru with the shaman. And my husband had been really fascinated with, he's always been fascinated with how can you think differently about things and are there. Substances that can alter the way you think. And the indigenous people of South America, namely Brazil and Peru, I think is mostly where it is. they take a substance called ayahuasca and, there's a shaman usually who, who ingest this stuff and then they believe that the shaman sees things and then. Usually u uses it to cure people of mental or physical ailments. And so we had a shaman and we drank this stuff, and I've literally never tasted anything so [00:14:00] awful. Like I cannot even tell you, they give you your own trash can because you are going to throw up. I never threw up. I wished IWI would've killed for a bottle of apomorphine at that point in time. If I had known what apomorphine was at that time, I didn't. And, you know, I think I had some visions, but nothing big. And then the next morning was when the shaman came to me and said, you're a healer. You know, you just think like, it was clearly an indication of like, my mind still being very much back in the real world, for lack of a better word.

Right. And I just brushed it off as like, well, she doesn't know what she's talking about. I'm a software person. You know, like that's who I am. That's my identity. But we traveled on and like we went into North Africa, which was amazing. And like life changing. I mean, just such a different, different culture.

Turkey, Greece, went all through India. I mean, spent two months traveling around India and that's probably where like the [00:15:00] biggest shift really happened. Right. And really started thinking like. what am I doing? Why am I doing this thing that I'm doing? How did I get to do this job in my life? but the backdrop to all of this, right? And if you've traveled outside the us, you know, you're bound to see animals that are in situations, right? Dogs on the streets in Mexico, you know, uh, with varying all kinds of problems or maybe no problems, it's just no owner. Right. But, but I was seeing, like, I remember there was this guy in Egypt who was trying to force this donkey into a cart, and the donkey clearly, did not wanna go, did not wanna, he was just beating it with a stick, you know?

And I, and I just remember thinking like. Who are the people who do something about this? You know, who are the people who are spending their lives, like really making a difference in the welfare of animals? And so we were in Nepal actually, and we were trekking and I was kind of all by myself for most of the day.

And I remember , thinking about this idea. And, [00:16:00] I lit, I had this crazy experience and I'm not, I'm not a woo woo kind of person like. I know I said this on my podcast. I don't really even get the Zodiac stuff, but I looked up onto the side of a mountain and I saw letters that said, why the hell not? And then I, look, I looked back and they were gone. And I, sure, as I'm sitting here today, I know that happened and I just, I didn't know how to interpret that other than like the thing that you have been thinking about that you cannot get out of your head. You need to do it. You need to do it because it's, it is really, it is really your calling. Once I made that decision, I was just like, okay, I'm all in. Like, I'm doing this. I, I didn't know how you got into vet school. believe me, I didn't understand that I had to take a year and a half of prerequisites to even get in. But, you know, we did it. we headed out for Colorado and once we got back and bought a house in Fort Collins and, you know, had a baby, and then, and then I started [00:17:00] vet school and, and here we are.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Well, I just wanna call out one, the fact that I think the shaman almost might've broke a mind set track, but, uh, like gave you permission to think outside the box. Right? It's like healer. It's like, oh, hmm. Lemme think about this.

Christie Long: Right, right. When I thought back on it, I remember being told in high school by a teacher, you know, it's too bad you're not better at math because you'd make a great doctor. And so I was like, well, that, that's that. I guess I can't be a doctor. And I was like, I was like in all the advanced math classes and like, please, Megan.

I mean, you're an internal medicine specialist. You tell me like, how hard is math? It's not that hard. It's like,

Megan Sprinkle: I am a nutritionist. It's a lot of math, but yeah, it's not that bad. It's not calculus.

Christie Long: That's like the hardest math in veterinary medicine is the nutrition math. Right? It's, it is the, it is calculating MER. But, , those are two examples of like [00:18:00] telling somebody something it's consciously or subconsciously it gets into your head right.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Yeah. And then the other thing I just wanna comment about , your trip to you is especially, 'cause it sounded like maybe the, the shaman experience was maybe earlier in the trip and then you had some extra time to kind of like sit with it and keep thinking about it. And I, I think that one important thing is to intentionally have pauses.

It doesn't have to be 13 months traveling the world, but it does need to be pauses where you can stop and allow yourself to think. And I think in today's world it is really hard to do that. Like

Christie Long: Yeah,

Megan Sprinkle: even when we do have a time to think, we pull up our phone and scroll. Right? So just that moment to kind of sit and think about those things and I, I think, is also really valuable lesson that I, I'm taking from that too.

[00:19:00] 'cause I think that. It gave you the the time to think and the confidence to build and understand, yeah, this is what I'm passionate about. This is my next step.

Christie Long: I think that's it. I don't think I've thought of it in that way until you just said that. My boss, he has gone away on a couple of silent meditation retreats where he, , for days like four to five days, no talking, obviously no phones. You're basically sitting with your thoughts and I, and it's, I think it's been very powerful for him.

Megan Sprinkle: I, I have heard that it's really difficult at first, so if anybody, you might wanna work your way into it, but yeah.

Christie Long: Personally, I think I would fail, but yes. 

Megan Sprinkle: we have a lot to learn from him. So , you come back, , you start looking to figure out how I do this. , Second career is starting over it, it feels starting the over, and the other thing that you, you talked about is when you applied, you were eight months pregnant and.

One. I'm so glad that, that for some [00:20:00] reason didn't make this school say no. Just what was that like? Uh, having, I have a 14 month old, so it's still pretty fresh

Christie Long: Oh,

Megan Sprinkle: to.

Christie Long: right. It's your, your whole identity is pregnancy, right? Yeah, I was eight months pregnant when I was in my interview, so, . I'm working hard to pick the perfect suit, and I'm thinking, oh, I, I don't even look that pregnant in this, which was hilarious because I'm sure I looked. Very pregnant compared to everybody else who wasn't pregnant.

and I remember I had like, I think I had three people on my interview team. They were all men. Some of them later became my professors and I, I was like, remember me? I was the pregnant one. But, uh, uh, my personal email address and the uh, name of our travel website is .

The Longs Strange Trip. 'cause 'cause we're, our last name is the long. Longs and one of the guys who interviewed me was a Grateful Dead fan, and there's a line on Grateful Dead [00:21:00] song, what a long, strange trip it's been, which is where we got the whole name for the website. And so he called that out when I sat down and I was like, great, maybe he's gonna remember that instead of the fact that I'm 8 months pregnant.

But at that time, I mean, I was gonna have a baby well before school started. I think. he was five months old , when I started school. you ever been to Fort Collins?

Megan Sprinkle: Yes, I have actually, yeah.

Christie Long: Yeah. they modeled Main Street Disney on Fort Collins, like it is a storybook town, right? I was just there a couple weeks ago and uh, I would put my bike on the back of my car.

I would take my son to his nanny's house, and then I would go to class and I would sit in class all morning, and then I would jump on my bike. At lunchtime, I would ride down to her house. Because it was just too hard to repark the car, you know, how campus parking is. And so I would just take my bike and, you know, snow, whatever didn't matter, would just do it.

And I would feed him and then I would come back. And that's how I spent the first year of vet school. And you know, I [00:22:00] mean, we're, we're a very female dominated profession. I think we had 30 men in our class out of 135. And so. Everybody got it. Everybody was super sweet and loved meeting him. And I think for me personally, like it was just, it was such, it was so grounding, you know, having this other person, , I knew that was my main responsibility and yeah, I was gonna study and do the best I could, but if I didn't get an A on a test, I was like, this is totally fine. I learned the material and I passed and I'm moving on. I just think it kept me on such an even keel, you know? And then by the time he got to be two and three, you know, and I was a second and third year, he was coming to all the parties and he was like the life of the party and, he doesn't have any memories of that, but he had a great time.

Megan Sprinkle: Oh, he grew up in VetMed. Yeah, 

Christie Long: Sure did. Yeah.

Megan Sprinkle: I, I think that's also a really good call to, and [00:23:00] it was something, 'cause I listened to the first and second episodes of your podcast and, and the second one you're interviewing another. Previous software engineer who turns, and you guys were talking about the perspective of.

Those who, their second career is veterinary medicine. There's a little bit different perspective and I think part of, you know, and a great example of that I think is that you start to understand what's important and kind of like having a child and it's like you understand that having straight A is in vet school is not the most important thing.

Do you wanna speak to that too, of kind of the perspective? Approaching this as a, a second career versus like someone who, , went in right after college.

Christie Long: Yeah, I, I. You know what? Nobody's ever asked me this, so this is such a great question that I, I know I've thought about it, but let me, let me try to coalesce my thoughts. Like, I think that the [00:24:00] biggest impact , of veterinary medicine being a second career for me was how I got in my first career.

You know, I, I just told you like I just. just like, great, thanks for the job. I'll do this. You know, and like that contrast between like really feeling like I was called to veterinary medicine and then, and then meeting all those people who also felt the same way that I did about veterinary medicine.

Like, it just solidified, , everything I was there for and, and all the reasons that I was there. if I hadn't had that contrast, I don't think I would've appreciated it as much, you know, if I didn't have that previous experience. I mean, I've always like kind of been jealous of people who knew they wanted to be a veterinarian their whole lives.

But at the same time, like, I'm kind of glad I got there the way that I did. I wish I could have spent longer in this career, but, I don't know. , It all has really worked out just to maybe, maybe over oversimplify it a [00:25:00] little bit, but it has,

Megan Sprinkle: Well, and you're also able to contribute in such a unique way that this is. But I love getting people with such different perspectives into our profession. 'cause I mean, you're coming with a software background and, I can only imagine knowing our profession of veterinary medicine coming into it with such a high tech background and being like.

What time warp did I jump into?

Christie Long: Exactly.

Megan Sprinkle: So what was that like? You know, getting out into practice and, and then also with, you know, bringing this unique perspective into it. 

Christie Long: I think like one of the first things that struck me was that I was very used to being thought of as a professional, you know, like, uh, 'cause I was in software sales actually when I left software. So, you know, I'm playing golf, I'm having lunch, I'm doing all the fun things that salespeople get to do. I was still technical, but, Then I, I got into this job where people called me doctor. I mean, like there is no, [00:26:00] there is no higher professional status, right? I mean, I'm obviously generalizing, but like, it felt so good to be a doctor, but like, I was at work until eight o'clock, you know, every night or eight 30, and I ca I carried my phone everywhere.

I was on call all the time and like. You know, obviously we work weekends in veterinary med. I get that. I know that. But like. I remember just thinking like, I, I feel like I took a step back. Oh, and, and a, and a massive pay cut, by the way. Let me just say that. Massive, massive, okay. Salaries for veterinarians have finally caught up, but they had not the 2007 era.

So, , yes. When I graduated. So I think that was like the big general kind of shocker that, you know. You don't really feel like a professional anymore. I like, you know, my son got sick, I kind of had to figure out a different way to take care of him. Like I couldn't just take the day off. You know, I had patients who depended on me.

[00:27:00] Right? So that's just who we are. And I remember, I always think back to graduation because the, the dean spoke and he said, to whom much is given, much is expected. Have you ever heard that?

Megan Sprinkle: I have. Yep.

Christie Long: And I just remember thinking like, yeah, he's right. Like we are doctors. Like we, we have to show up for our patients, , almost at the expense of our . Personal lives, at least that that's what it felt like to me in the beginning. Right. And then like on a more like micro level, like all of the things, all of the inefficiencies, like I'm getting, I'm in one system and then I gotta go over here on this computer and be in another system. And then we're using Cornerstone, which I don't know if you've ever had the pleasure of using Cornerstone, but know, I was just like, really?

Like client server. Is this where we are? then just the, all the phone calling, like being on the phone with people un until, you know, two hours after everyone else [00:28:00] had left the clinic, emailing clients and, and getting emails back and having to call that. I just, it was really surprised at just the amount of time, my personal time that everything took, you know, and, and so many times the questions that I would be dealing with did not need me to answer them, you know? They could have been answered by somebody else. So I think, sure, the technology was terrible, but like it was, there was more things just around the job. And I guess I'll just say one final thing, like I just really felt like we tolerated a lot of really toxic people because of their skillsets and because we always felt like it was really hard to hire people.

So we let people get away with really bad behavior. that would never have been tolerated in another professional setting. and so, , I was not prepared really for any of those things. And those were the, the big things that really stood out in contrast to me from my prior [00:29:00] experience,

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Well you said 2007. Wasn't that like, that's the.

Christie Long: the

Megan Sprinkle: Yes. So, so like, they're, that's probably why they're not paying well, and like they're,

Christie Long: that.

Megan Sprinkle: yeah.

Christie Long: Yeah.

Megan Sprinkle: My goodness. Yeah. So I mean like all these things too. , I think the other thing that I admire so much of, of people is that they, they take some action , or when an opportunity arises, they rise to it too.

And is this about the time . When you start to meet somebody and decide to do the telehealth or like how, how do you start to pivot and transition to the next step?

Christie Long: Well, you know, Megan, I don't know a lot, a lot of my life feels like it's happened to me. You know, like I honestly, you know, I meet people who have their path all. Do you know who Dr. Emily King is?

Megan Sprinkle: Why is that Probably

Christie Long: She, , she used to have a vet clinic in Indiana called [00:30:00] Allstar Veterinary Clinic

Megan Sprinkle: okay.

Christie Long: she's pretty big on social media.

She's hilarious. I just talked to her the other day and she was telling me about her whole path through college and vet school and then how she has had it all laid out like that was not me. And so, at some point, I think I was like seven years into practicing. , And honestly all the bad things I just said. I loved practicing. No one in software ever came up and hugged me and thanked me for saving their animal's life, That doesn't happen in any other profession. People value what we do so much. So that was amazing. I loved that. We wanted our son, our son is now getting to be like late elementary school-ish, fourth or fifth grade.

Right. And, , I think my husband kept bringing up like, we need to do another long, strange trip. Like, we need to do it. And, I knew like, what are we gonna do with this like 10-year-old? , He's obviously gonna go with us, but like. I think he's gotta be in school.

I think they frown on you just taking your [00:31:00] child outta school for a year. So we knew that we, we really couldn't travel, but we thought like, what if we moved somewhere else? So we found this little town in Mexico called san miguel de allende. , It's in the, , Sierra, Gora Mountains. It's, it's right north of Mexico City by about three hours.

It's absolutely. Beautiful, breathtaking, UNESCO World, heritage Site, all of those things, and a large expat community. There about 15,000 people from the us, Canada, and Europe. So just like slid into life there. We thought we'd get stay for a year. We ended up staying for three years, and so a couple years in and, and I wasn't practicing, like I didn't get my license down there. I started thinking I need to, I need to do something. I need to get back into veterinary medicine. And I kind of started looking around, for like jobs writing content, you know, I thought that was something that I could do. And I got introduced to a couple of Spanish guys who were starting one of the very first telehealth companies, and their idea was [00:32:00] we're gonna let people come to our site and pay to ask questions that veterinarians will answer simple questions. Like at the time they were like the length of a tweet. I dunno if you remember, like, tweets used to be like 144 characters or something. so we would get these questions where people had tried to abbreviate everything. It was pretty hilarious. But , people from all over the world and when they would come and ask about all kinds of animals, I've never in my life heard of some, I had to Google, you know, some of the animals.

But, uh, we had a community of veterinarians and I was their chief veterinarian. I, , wrote standards and trained people and taught people how to do this work. We ended up selling that business to Petco, uh, a couple of years in, and we all moved to San Diego, which, where Petco is headquartered. so, , that was my experience with telehealth.

I, I loved it, it provided so much value to people because there are so many people out there who are not going to the vet, right? And they need help. Now, a lot of times they need to go to the vet, [00:33:00] but sometimes they just need to hear that from a doctor to tell them to go in. So. It isn't like I was diagnosing, you know, Cushing's disease over telehealth.

You can't do that, but you can certainly tell people about Cushing's disease and explain to them why you're concerned about it and what they need to do about it. So, I think that was really eye-opening. It taught me the value of a virtual experience for people, but it also taught me the need to, to have physical, , married to virtual as well, and providing care on both levels.

Megan Sprinkle: Not to mention. Business and entrepreneurship. I mean, within a few years in, that's huge with like selling a business. , That's pretty incredible to sell that quickly. , And then, , now you're in this big, you know, corporate of, of Petco. What did you do there and, and what did you learn from that experience?

Christie Long: 26,000 employees I think they had at the time. So Oh yes. Huge company. [00:34:00] so , we got to do something very cool. We got to take our brand, which was Pet Coach. And create physical stores. So we took two stores in San Diego that were Petco stores and we completely renovated them. And our idea kind of in a nutshell, was that pet owners want to be able to access services that their pets need in one place. So dog daycare, grooming, self wash, veterinary care, and then a curated assortment of merchandise that is selected by a veterinarian. So you can imagine how power hungry I was because I got to take the Petco merchandise assortment. I gotta take like, you know, the homeopathic dewormers and stuff like that and like throw them out and like, I got to create, you know, a much tighter set of skews. And then we got [00:35:00] to say like, look, this is what your veterinarian wants you to have. These are all recommended by your veterinarian. amazing experience. So cool. people bought a membership to access it. , And I learned so much. That's where I learned to, you know, open a vet clinic and what that entailed. And then Petco's, uh, CEO left and they brought a new CEO in who had the intention of taking the company public. And he really had no interest in expanding to another brand. So yeah, , that was what that was like. We got to operate inside this little entrepreneurial bubble. It was crazy.

Like, I remember the, IT guys at Petco hated us because we had Macs and everybody else had PCs at Petco and they were like, oh God, I don't know how to fix this. You know? It was pretty funny. But, uh, , it was a hoot. It was a great experience.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. They, they call it I think, intrapreneurs. So it's,

Christie Long: entrepreneurs. That's exactly what we were. Yep.

Megan Sprinkle: There's a, there's a book about it too that explains how important it is to allow [00:36:00] that. Innovation bubble to exist. So that, that is a really cool opportunity to be able to live in that. That said, , I think you had, I can't remember if you shared it with me or, or if I heard it, but, , it's not the first time I, I've heard it and, you know, being an industry myself over so many years, there's, uh.

There can be some frustrations on being, science-minded, being entrepreneur minded and working within that setting. Um, because sometimes you, you have these great ideas, you have this great perspective, but , you have to meet all the other things that the business wants and sometimes it just doesn't work that way.

And it can be really frustrating. And you were describing that so. What was it like finally meeting someone where it ya meshed? Like everybody got it?

Christie Long: Man, you're like, you're just telling my life story here because Exactly. I, I. You know, I always tell people like, [00:37:00] medical quality is like art. Like I can't exactly tell you what I like, but I know it when I see it. it's the same thing about medical quality. And I say that having spent the last several years at Modern Animal, like actually trying to measure medical quality.

So I think it can be done, but you know, when Petco let us know that we're they, they were not gonna do the pet coach stores anymore. You know, they said. But we want you to help us build veterinary clinics because we wanna build a whole bunch of vet clinics. Will you please stay and do that? And I was just like, well, what does that look like to you?

You know? And, and I remember sitting in the CFO's office trying to explain to him why you needed a different unit to take dental X-rays than regular x-rays. And like he was kind of like, he was not being rude or anything, but he was just like, yeah, we can just use the one we have. And I was like, no, we really can't.

We have to have another. And so like that was just the start of it in terms of like. Just really feeling like I, I knew, or I thought I knew how things could [00:38:00] be better, but I kept getting told like, yeah, that's great, but the business won't work. Yeah, that's great, but you know, it won't, won't be a profitable business. I got introduced to Steve Idleman, you know, Mr. Silent meditation guy, by my boss at Pet Coach,

Megan Sprinkle: Oh.

Christie Long: he was leaving Petco also. He was because. they of told us they didn't wanna expand our brand anymore, so he was like, call this guy. He's starting a company in LA , I think you'd like to talk to him.

And so we met at the Veterinary Innovation Summit, which at the time they were having at Texas A&M

Megan Sprinkle: Hmm.

Christie Long: College Station. And I had honestly never talked to someone who was not a veterinarian, who was like, right. I get it. I get it. I understand what you mean when you say like, it takes 30 minutes at least to do an appointment in a way that really gives you time and space to understand every re the reasons that the owner is there and execute on what you need to do.

Like. I get the doctors can't continue to cram patients into their [00:39:00] schedule all day long and still deliver a high quality of care. So he had a ton of ideas around like the client experience, , kind of being like a frustrated veterinary client himself. And then I had a lot of ideas around what it meant to be, you know, a veterinarian and how that could be better. He had already brought on board, , an engineer. Keith was our first employee. And so, you know, we knew we wanted to really lean into technology in a big way. We knew we wanted to have an app. we knew we wanted to have a virtual care team. And you know, you talk about being an intrapreneur or an entrepreneur, like you just set out and you just start doing things and you're failing.

Some things work, some things don't work, but you're doing it fast and you're learning and you're doing everything. Everybody's doing everything. And, I think that that's what Steve created. Was , this safe place for people to come together to execute on those ideas.

Megan Sprinkle: , I think that was something we, connected on too, is the, uh, the willingness to [00:40:00] do things with the risk of failure

Christie Long: Yes.

Megan Sprinkle: and then. Figuring out what happened and get back up again and do it again, or at least learn from it to adjust.

Christie Long: a slightly different way maybe, or not at all? I mean, well, inherently we are very opposed to failure as veterinarians, right? Like. Failure could mean patient death. Right. Or client dissatisfaction, or any of those things that , we just do not want. Right. So I get it that , that's a controversial thing to sign up for in veterinary medicine.

But, I don't really know how you're gonna move the needle, , without having some failures. And, you know, as long as they're calculated failures 

Megan Sprinkle: Right, of course. Yeah. And, and that's a big part of it. It's um, , , it's a constant learning. , You're trying to understand, and actually this all kind of comes back together. I, I know you said you spoke at the last Veterinary Innovation Summit on, and telling stories [00:41:00] about failure and being part of innovation and kinda going back to even problem solving and.

The importance of stopping and listening and truly understanding what's going on before you, you start solving the problem. So from your perspective, and, and since maybe it wasn't too, too long ago, .

How is that all interconnected? So especially pertaining to the veterinary space, which is where you, you're living, how do you explain to people about failure, innovation, , and creating the future that, you know, we want to be a part of when it comes to veterinary medicine?

Christie Long: Well, I guess the first thing I think of is like, it's much easier to operate in that fashion when you're small, . And, you know, we had one clinic for 18 months. It took us almost two years to build a second clinic. And, you know, we micromanage the hell [00:42:00] outta that one clinic. Right. And it was COVID.

And so, you know, we didn't have an office. We were always there like breathing down their necks, like, do this differently. You know, or like, I would get on Slack and say, okay, as of now we're doing this differently. And you know, I just look back on that and it, it makes me cringe so much because that's just so disruptive. They are not there to innovate. They are there to practice medicine and to heal animals. And so it took us a, a while to learn how to do that, how to innovate in a growing business like that, where again, the primary goal, like if you work for Open ai, you show up every day to work. Ready to innovate. But the same is not true of modern animal, right? You show up every day at work to take care of your patients. And so how do you do that in a way that creates safety and sustainability in the job, both to the people and to the pets? You have to be very thoughtful. You have to get a ton of [00:43:00] buy-in.

You know, you have to bring people along. going back to like gathering requirements and what you were saying about, you know, your husband's job, it's like. We have to have the perspective of our teams for literally almost anything we do. Right? Like we have to bring them in. We have a council, the Modern Animal Council, they get nominated by their peers to be on the Council. 

Megan Sprinkle: Oh. 

Christie Long: and we bring 'em together every two weeks.

And some of them are doctors and we take them off the floor, right? And so, I mean, you know, there's a, cost to that. But we do it because we wanna hear what they have to say and, and I think it even goes back to like the recruiting cycle, explaining to people this is going to be not like any other hospital you've ever worked in, because we are gonna innovate and we are gonna change. And you gotta think about whether you're comfortable with that and whether that's something you wanna sign up for. Not everybody does, but I think most people really love this profession and they wanna make it better. So yeah. wanna they wanna be a part of it if they can. So I think [00:44:00] I, I said a whole bunch of stuff just to say like that, my idea of how to innovate has changed dramatically over the last five years since we've had practices. , And I know it has to involve the people who are going to be experiencing the change.

Megan Sprinkle: I love how closely you are working with those individuals, allowing them to. Come to the table and be part of the innovation. , 'Cause like you said, it's like allowing them to do their job, of coming to work, take care of the patients, and then supporting them in the right ways. So you're listening, you're going back, you're, you know, changing things.

And I think you were also describing how some of the painful moments of, of growth, and , you built your own software. Uh, within modern animal, which is

Christie Long: not me personally, but yes. Long way from that. I mean, I understand that. I understand a lot about it, but I definitely cannot code anymore. So [00:45:00] yes, we did. We did. We, you know, we started out with a, again, an off the shelf practice management system and going back to innovating and changing like we were, we just very quickly saw that we could not wait for this software to evolve. if it ever did. I mean, because remember, , they're getting different customers. , They're signing other people up for their software and they may not want it to do what we want it to do. So we just made the call to write our own. , And we had already, like I said, we'd already written an app.

We'd already written our whole communications platform, so we sorted up in like six months. , The first initial version of it, and it's, it's come a long way since then. It was, a little dicey there for a while. Not gonna lie,

Megan Sprinkle: Change can be hard, and especially with technology and software, I'm sure you of all people know more than, uh, than anything.

Christie Long: I, I gave, I gave away a lot of bottles of wine in those days. Yeah. It's a sorry, presence. Yeah.

Megan Sprinkle: Well, for someone [00:46:00] who is. Actively looking at innovation, you're engaged with people, boots on the ground. , You're very, , thoughtful about the future of our profession. We are coming up on the end of the year and looking at a brand new year. , I hate to say crystal ball, but you know, what are you kind of looking at this coming year for veterinary medicine? 

Christie Long: it would be easy to say, oh, AI is gonna solve all of our problems. Right? And, there's so many interesting things, , that we could do. But like any other innovation, it's just like anything else. It's just like the internet was to all of us, you know, it. However long ago that was, 30 years almost, right?

Like we have to, implement it wisely and use it wisely, but it's just basically a tool that allows us to do our jobs. I think, you know, for me, the challenge continues to be like building sustainability into this profession and like if. If by the end of the, of next [00:47:00] year, you know, there were no veterinarians leaving clinical practice because of burnout , and just stress on the job and like they were able to truly feel fulfilled and happy in their careers and If technology supported that workflow supported at whatever it was. That to me would be like the ultimate and ideal state. And I know that's lofty and it's not gonna happen by the end of next year, but I think, I think ultimately that's what I always wanna work towards. , Whether people come to Modern Animal and work, or whether we inspire other companies to do the same thing or other private practices, whoever it is to make some of the same changes or think about things in the same way, then , that's where I wanna be.

Megan Sprinkle: What do you think is one of the big things that will move us there in that direction? The fastest?, 

Christie Long: I think AI is gonna be the thing. I think it's going to, continue to make us more efficient if we use it intelligently and watch what it does and read the content that it [00:48:00] creates, , I think it's gonna continue to allow humans to do things that only humans can do. Really actually like be self-actualized on the reason we're in this profession. Right? I hope we're all here because we love people. I know we're all here because we love animals, but I think we have to love people too. And I just think that that's one of the great promises of that piece of technology is that it can take away the things that feel like, this is not worthy of me.

You know, this work , it's not necessarily something that I need to spend my time doing. 

Megan Sprinkle: well, definitely a sustainable future, uh, is a bright one, so I'm glad that is what we are, are hopeful for. And it looks like we're going towards, , the last question that I always like to ask people is, what is something you're just really grateful for right now?

Christie Long: Oh my gosh, Megan. Okay. Uh, I will tell you, I am so grateful my son is about to graduate from college. , And not, just because like, yay, I don't have to pay tuition anymore. I am so grateful because [00:49:00] he has really struggled to find his path and. , It caused him , a lot of difficulty and, , he's graduating a semester late because of it. Uh, I think there was a time where he felt super lost and , I hope this never happens to you as a parent. To see, , to know that your child feels lost and doesn't know how to move forward is, is truly the worst thing. I'm so grateful that , he found a path that he wants to pursue and he's happy. he's gonna be here next week for Thanksgiving, so I know. We'll toast to the upcoming graduation.

Megan Sprinkle: may I ask , what his path is?

Christie Long: He wants to own a bar

Megan Sprinkle: Okay.

Christie Long: Yeah. Yeah. He love, he's always loved like, , cooking and as he is gotten older, he's gotten into, you know, mixology as they call

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah.

Christie Long: he's always been really in interested in business. So, , he's very interested in yeah. Owning a bar one day.

Megan Sprinkle: Well, I mean, they do make these , bars slash dog park things, so maybe [00:50:00] there's a future collaboration in there.

Christie Long: Yeah, I love that. Thank you. We have one in la it's called Dog People. And yeah, I did, I did some PR from there a couple of times and , talked about preventive care. It's, don't they just give you anxiety though, as a veterinarian? Like

Megan Sprinkle: Oh, yes,

Christie Long: people are drinking and like socializing and dogs are running around like. What could possibly go wrong here? Yeah. Yeah.

Megan Sprinkle: To me, it's an exciting realization that veterinary medicine will be shaped by people who are willing to listen deeply, question assumptions, and bring the full breadth of their experiences into the profession. I appreciated Dr. Christie's honesty around failure, willingness to learn, and the courage it takes to build something new, especially in a profession that carries so much responsibility at heart.

Her work challenges us to think not only about what kind of animal care we deliver, but how we care for the people involved as well. If this conversation resonated with you, take a moment to follow or [00:51:00] subscribe to the podcast as we look ahead to what's next.

Let's keep listening, keep learning, and keep reimagining what's possible in veterinary life.