Helter Skelter tales from an Animal Shelter

In this episode of Vet Life, I welcome Meha, a newly registered veterinary technician (RVT), to discuss her journey in the veterinary field and the importance of veterinary technicians and share humorous and heartfelt stories from her time working in an animal shelter.

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @drcliffworldwidevet.com
Listener questions, episode suggestions, or if you have a good idea for a guest, email me at dr.redford@vet905.com
Additional information can be found at drcliff.ca

Transcript

Dr. Cliff Redford (00:00)
Hey everyone. Welcome to this episode of vet life with me, Dr. Cliff. this is your, let's call it your Christmas episode because this launches, this drops on, December, damn December 24th. This one's going to, going to go out. So hopefully you guys aren't listening to this Christmas Eve day or the day of Christmas Eve.

that you guys are spending time with your family, or doing what I'm going to be doing, which is last minute shopping. I kind of like it though. I like going to the malls when things are crazy. and you know, I, I take enough time. I don't have a lot of gifts to get. I take a lot of enough time that I'm not in a hurry. I know what I want. And if I can't find what I want, it's okay. I'll be able to find something else. So I kinda, I kinda get a, jazzed up and excited or, or, or.

I find it fun. I find it fun when I go there and I see some people freaking out and I'm relaxed and then I'm in a line and I see, you know, someone behind me and maybe their kids are getting tired and they want to go home. So I let them in in front of me and it's okay. You know, I can, you know, the teller will be there to take my money five minutes later. So I kind of get, I like that vibe. So happy Merry Christmas to everybody.

And I hope if you're listening to this after the 24th, I hope you had a great Christmas. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you had some time off regardless. And for those that are working through Christmas, like they do at movie theaters, we're probably not going to a movie theater during the Christmas break, but we, those who do go, we appreciate that you're there. I have done that a few times Christmas day. I think shortly after I became divorced, I took my kids to the movies Christmas day. And for a while it was a tradition for a couple of years.

And I was really appreciative of the people that were working. So with that, today we have, I want to talk about one Christmas thing, but today we have a guest, a good friend of mine and a teammate. Her name is Meha and Meha is a veterinary technician and is now a registered veterinary technician. She passed her R license, her registration license. We call it, she got her R. So she is now an RVT, which is a big deal.

she's part of now the Ontario association of vet technicians, where she is, that is, that is a self-regulated profession, which is again, a big deal. were the first self-regulated. Veterinarian technician association in all of North America. This was probably about 20 years ago. This happened, but it was, it was a big deal. They're, they're highly skilled, and, underappreciated at times. hopefully mayha does not feel underappreciated by me.

I appreciate you very, very much as I do the other five technicians that work for me. I am very, very lucky and blessed to work with them and I could not do what I do without them. So we have a nice talk with her regarding some of the fun stories, interesting stories she had when she worked at the shelter. We ended up calling this segment the helter skelter stories from an animal shelter segment. And it's something we're probably going to do regularly. But before I go to that.

I wanted to find, had, read this one post on Instagram and it's regarding Christmas and it's regarding one of my favorite Christmas movies, Die Hard. And for those that say Die Hard is not a Christmas movie, Bruce Willis says it is not. I don't know if the director or producer what they say, but there is a great post. I'm just going to read it flat out here. Breaking news. This is from Totally Awesome's 80s. Totally Awesome 80s.

Breaking news study confirms Die Hard is more of a Christmas movie than Rudolph. In a shocking turn of events, Reacher's at the Yuletide Institute for Cultural Studies, YICS, have released a groundbreaking study proving that Die Hard qualifies as a Christmas movie more than Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The study analyzed over a thousand holiday films based on five criteria. Presence of Christmas themes, amount of holiday music,

family reconciliation subplots, Christmas Eve setting, and use of Christmas decorations as plot devices. Lead researcher, Dr. Holly Evergreen. Damn it. So I scanned through this and I did not pick up on the Yuletide Institute for Cultural Studies or Dr. Holly Evergreen. I'm starting to think that this is fake, that they didn't actually do studies. But anyways, lead researcher, Dr. Holly Evergreen explained, while Rudolph is a charming tale,

It scored surprisingly low on Christmas ambience due to its lack of Christmas Eve stakes and overall generalized holiday cheer. Meanwhile, Die Hard scored off the charts with its heavy use of Christmas songs, a plot centered on a Christmas party, and Bruce Willis literally using wrapping tape to save the day. Key findings. Die Hard features 21 Christmas trees, while Rudolph has only four. The soundtrack of Die Hard includes Let It Snow,

and Winter Wonderland compared to Rudolph's titular song. Single title song. call it that. Bruce Willis shouts ho ho ho, albeit sarcastically, after defeating a bad guy adding bonus points. Yeah, ho ho ho, now I have a machine gun. No, it's now I have a machine gun, ho ho ho. He writes on the dead guy's chest in lipstick, I think.

Dr. Evergreen also noted that Die Hard depicts family reconciliation on Christmas Eve, a hallmark of holiday genre. Whereas Rudolph, while adorable, is more of a tale about workplace discrimination. That's what got me laughing my asses off. Public reaction. The results have ignited fierce debates online. Die Hard has Christmas, explosions, and Alan Rickman in a Santa suit. What else do you need?

Alan Rickman in a Santa suit. I don't think that was ever happened. At holiday hero. Rudolph is a classic. How dare you compare it to a movie about glass filled feet at red nose loyalist. This gets better and better. I didn't read this. Why ICS researchers hinted that their next study will determine whether Home Alone or It's a Wonderful Life is the ultimate Christmas movie with elf as the dark horse contender.

For now, one thing is clear, Die Hard isn't just a Christmas movie. It's apparently the most Christmas movie. Yippee-ki-yay, holiday fans. I love it. That's the best. It is my second favorite, maybe my third favorite Christmas movie. First and second, I'm going to say second is Christmas Vacation, National Lampoons. And first is always A Christmas Story with Little Ralphie, who wants the Red Rider air powered BB rifle from Santa.

And everybody just says, you'll shoot your eye out kid. A hilarious movie. And one for the legends for sure. Anyways, so everyone stay tuned for the great interview with my good friend RVT Mejha. Here it comes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (07:36)
All right, everyone. Welcome back from the quick little intro of that life with Dr. Cliff. As I mentioned, I have my good friend, Mayha with me and Mayha is recording.

her little foster kitten that she graciously agreed to take care of, patient of ours named little Freddy. How's Freddy doing?

Meha (07:55)
She's doing really well. She's gained about 125 grams in about a day and a half. She's taking her meds well. She's eating well. She's still having a little bit of diarrhea, but that's okay. But she's doing well. Yes, yes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (08:01)
my goodness.

She's turning into fat Freddy. That's good.

we, we discovered Freddy came to our clinic a week and a half ago, almost two weeks ago, vaccines, a little Kijiji kitten, which means we don't really know what we're getting. And the quality is very suspect of the, of the air quotes breeder. And unfortunately, a couple of days after the visit, she basically crashed. stopped eating, had horrible diarrhea, was diagnosed with coccidia or isospera.

also known as, and, you know, the worry is often kittens with isospera have other parasites that don't show up in the stool sample yet, cause they're not laying eggs yet. and this girl was losing weight, losing weight, losing weight, having horrible diarrhea, not eating. we were worried about fading kitten syndrome, which is basically a slew of viruses and a weak immune system due to all various reasons. And the kittens just kind of fade away. just.

slowly lose weight and disappear. And she started to do well and then she started to not do well again. And so, the family were overwhelmed and, and, know, understandably so. And, thank goodness they, they agreed and why wouldn't they for us to take the kitten temporarily, but then you guys found a lump that she had a lump in her groin. So now she's got a giant hernia that while not now she has a giant hernia. She's probably added her whole.

kit in life, but we discovered it or you guys discovered it. it's going to be a, it's going to be a long haul, but, thank you so much for taking her cause, skilled skilled TLC might be all that she needs. And, we're going to say skilled and this is my not so subtle segue into you being an RVT now you, you pass the exam. Let's quickly talk about that before the main segment.

Meha (09:42)
and

Yeah, I just passed it about a week ago, which was exciting. It was a challenging exam, but the passing was rewarding. So that was, yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:11)
Yeah.

Yeah. And this is a big deal. Like, you know, it's okay. If you didn't pass, we would still love you. We would still enjoy working with you and you'd still be saving lives and you could still take care of a little Freddie there and do your thing. But, for you on a professional standpoint, having your are, meaning you are an accredited registered veterinary technician. So you passed essentially the licensing exam.

you know, that opens doors for you for the next 20 or 30 years, depending on how long you plan to stay in this, industry. I think you're going to pass the, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to go way beyond the curve as far as the average technician staying as a clinical technician, which I think is something like six years. cause there's a lot that leave for family reasons, leave for children, leave for.

Financial reasons, Lord knows technicians don't get paid what they should. that is not a opportunity for you to ask for a raise. do you know you get a raise though? Now that you got your R. You did. right. Okay. Good. You're like, I was going to, I was going to talk to you about that if that didn't happen. well you deserve it. but it's a big deal. I mean, the vet technicians.

Meha (11:22)
Yes, yes, I have it in me well.

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:37)
In Ontario, Ontario association of vet technicians were the very first, self-regulated veterinary technician association in the world. which basically means you guys are responsible for your own screw ups and you're responsible for your successes as well. so, yeah, you must feel you felt you, you looked. Lighter.

Meha (11:47)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:02)
Like you looked so much more relaxed when you came in. It might've been because it was also the day after our Christmas party. you passed your, your R and then you, drank at our Christmas party. not as much as some of the team. And, and then you came to work on Monday seeming much more relaxed. that's, that's fantastic.

Meha (12:25)
Studying for the exam was quite stressful. It was a lot. We don't practice large animals, so I don't often get to focus on that. And we only do it for a couple semesters in school, so it's not something that sticks in my brain a lot. So focusing on large animal parasites, large animal medicine was a little difficult. So now that it's over, I have forgotten half of the large animal stuff. I know horses, gastration...

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:47)
Only half. That's pretty good.

Meha (12:54)
No, a horse is, I don't even remember actually. Maybe 90%, I've forgotten. Let's say 90%.

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:00)
Maybe, there you go. Hey,

look, I'm a much better veterinarian now than I was 26 and a half years ago when I graduated. I had to do that math. think that's right. A long time ago, but I couldn't pass the NAVLA, the North American Vet Licensing Exam. I've forgotten so much of the minuscule details, which are important to know that you comprehend them.

Meha (13:26)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:26)
but then as you get into your practice, you sort of focus on some of the more important, you know, life, life saving procedures or, you know, long-term health procedures or, or knowledge or whatnot. So, but it's like that with every industry. I'm sure it's like that with absolutely every industry. You pass the bar exam to become a lawyer and then you end up, you know, a year later, really only knowing about the level of law that you're.

that you're specializing in, let's say. so there you go. All right. So we're going to talk. started, we started having fun at the clinic and you, may, you've made it this comment a few times and it'd be fun to do, but how we should just have some sort of hidden hidden camera reality show about the shenanigans that go on at a veterinarian clinic. And shenanigans is a good way of describing it. We are very serious when we need to be.

And, but 90 % of the time we don't need to be serious and we take that, shenanigans very seriously. and, yeah, we were talking about shelter life and whatnot. You said, no, think I then jumped in and said, Hey, you should come on the podcast. We could talk about this. So I've decided to name this segment. Helter Skelter stories from an animal shelter. I got to think of, we to think of a shorter one. Helter Skelter shelter.

Skelter now, I like the first one helter skelter stories from an animal shelter And you've got most of the stories. I'll throw in some stuff in between I want to I want to segue into The smoking turtle tell me about that. Is that what you cut titled it?

Meha (15:09)
Yeah, smoking turtle. So I used to work, I've worked a lot of different positions at the shelter. One of them was our admissions department where folks would call in to surrender animals or if they were having any sort of medical issues that they couldn't financially cover, a little bit of a sad kind of focus. Smoking turtle was kind of a funny but sad story. I got a call from a very panicked mother saying that her turtle was smoking and I was very confused.

and didn't know what that meant. And she said she had put the the red, the heat lamp a little close, too close to the turtle and it had burned the turtle. So I went to the vet, I triaged at the time. We didn't have a lot of space for turtles because they require special habitats and everything like that. And we did have turtles at the time, but we were mostly full capacity. Based off of the triage, I told the vet and what I heard, we had assumed it would be a euthanasia.

that the turtle wasn't really moving, it was at a burn, it wasn't gonna live. So we said, okay, come in, we'll euthanize the turtle. The family showed up with a pencil case, a little bit of water, some pencil shavings in the turtle with a massive burn on the neck, but otherwise was fine. So we couldn't euthanize the turtle, unfortunately, because it was healthy technically, but it had, with the mother.

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:34)
That's not unfortunate. That's

good.

Meha (16:36)
Yeah, I mean, yes, it was good that the turtle

was healthy. Unfortunately, we didn't have a space for the turtle at the time. So then I fostered her. Her name was Myrtle. She was my first ever fostered. Sorry.

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:42)
Gotcha.

You're a sucker.

Myrtle, you're a sucker. You are. Yeah, that's how you got Freddy. Did you name Myrtle the turtle Myrtle or what was Myrtle's name prior?

Meha (16:52)
Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, and we're a little turtle.

I don't remember, truthfully. But Myrtle the Turtle, Sock the Beach. Red Eater Cider.

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:07)
Cigar man, cigarette man. Myrtle the turtle. Alright, what kind of turtle was Myrtle?

Red-eared slider. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which are invasive here in Ontario. I don't know originally where they came from, but they're not supposed to be here and now they're everywhere. Because people have let them out into the sewers and onto the lakes when they couldn't drop them off to the nice lady at Humane Society named Mayha. So you kept Myrtle the turtle.

Meha (17:39)
Yes.

Yes, it was a very funny foster. We didn't have a big enough tank, so every couple hours I would have to manually dry dock her. So she would be in the water and every couple hours I would take her out and she would dry dock. She was my first ever animal at home, so I quickly learned how fast turtles run and how sharp their nails are.

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:02)
Now there, there, red eared sliders are in the subcategory of terrapins, right? I think, which is like, they spend a certain percentage of their time out of the water. They need to be out of the water. Whereas a sea turtle or some of the soft shelled freshwater turtles spend almost all their time in the water. Terrapins are kind of like hybrids between the water turtles and tortoises.

Meha (18:09)
I believe so.

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:31)
which are different species, obviously, and, and, and live, almost exclusively out of water. and yeah, so for, so for those listening, if you have a Tara pin, like a red eared slider, you need to have a section for it to dry dock itself, for it to come out of the water and it, and it, and it kind of gets warm on the heating lamp, hopefully not too warm. And, they sometimes hold their feet up in the air. So they sort of do this,

Meha (18:37)
Okay.

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:00)
a footless plank on the bottom of their shell and hold their feet up to dry out. And if you don't do this, they develop like nasty bacterial infections under the shell. They're a harborer of E. coli and salmonella. There was a period where it was illegal to sell turtles. Let's say use it as a larger category. It was illegal to sell turtles at pet stores because of the risk.

for like salmonella and I think there was even some limitations for having them as pets. I can't remember what the exact rules were. I do remember these were in place when I was in vet school and we had four red eared sliders, Lorac, Potvan, Doug and Wendell. So all Toronto Maple Leafs, the first two are goalies and.

Yeah, the other two are not. And we were breaking the rules. I remember noting that we're breaking the rules and we just, you whatever, ask for forgiveness. And no one cared and no one asked, but. And she did okay, Myrtle did all right.

Meha (20:14)
Yeah, yeah, it was a great success story. She ended up adopted. So she was one of the first turtles to actually get adopted because she was quite small. She was just a baby. I'm not exactly sure what her age was, but she was much smaller. Within a couple of months, she was adopted. Her treatment was basically just flamazine on the the burn.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:29)
Nice.

on the thing, why wouldn't

she have pulled her head in?

Meha (20:35)
I'm not sure. I'm not sure. It was kind of strange. It was quite a large bird mark too. Maybe something normal.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:37)
Like that's so strange. I want...

Huh. How you must,

you must get situations where people are dropping off animals that have these strange wounds and you could tell the story is not accurate. You're like, there's no, there's no way this, this dog fell off a couch and broke its femur bone kind of thing. Yeah.

Meha (20:53)
Yes.

Yes.

One that stands out to me is a lady that had brought in a cat that she said was attacked by a dog. So we, she surrendered the cat. And then when we did an exam, we saw a very clean cut on the side of the cat's body, not a, not a bite mark. It was clear she was trying to groom the cat and cut off the skin.

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:18)
All

Yeah. So those are the

situations where it was an accident that wasn't done out of malice. I've had very well-meaning owners bring in their little fluffy long haired cat with a giant laceration on its back because they thought they were going to trim off a mat, and ended up cutting the skin. and how horrific. And now if this woman couldn't afford treatment and also thought she was going to get in trouble,

Meha (21:27)
Yes.

Yeah.

Hey. Hey.

Yes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:50)
then they make up a story and, and you guys just, even if you know the story was BS, you just kind of go, okay, well thank you for bringing fluffy in. Like you just kind of accept the fact and not try and. I don't want to say shame them, but you don't call them out on, on, on what happened.

Meha (22:09)
No, I don't believe, and a lot of the team I worked with don't believe in shaming folks that were brought in animals for surrenders because there are a lot of circumstances that unfortunately folks do have to surrender their animals and we are not one to judge and we are thankful for them bringing them to a safe place that they can get treatment and care and eventually a home that may be able to take care of them as well. So there's no point of shaming these folks that surrender animals.

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:30)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And the reality is, they know, in most cases, they know they did wrong. And if they get another animal in the future and something else happens, even if it has nothing to do with them making a mistake.

They're going to be less trusting of the shelter system. or they're going to tell their friends who are going to become less trusting. It's kind of like that whole drop a baby off at at a fire station and they'll take care of it and, and, and get it to child services. No questions asked. I don't know how true that is. think that's true. my sister and brother have threatened me when I was a child with dropping me off at the fire station a few times and I say, fine. That'd be good. Good.

Meha (22:52)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Thanks.

you

You

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:18)
I was the youngest and, and, and a pain, which I know is hard to imagine. there you go. There you go. now, okay. Now in a situation like Myrtle, would you not consider taking care of her and then giving her back to the original owners?

Meha (23:27)
Yeah, for sure.

In that situation, no. There are very few situations where the animal does return to the owner if they have proven that they are able to take care of the animal long term or shown commitment to the animal. In this case, it wasn't clear and it seems that the mother just kind of wanted the turtle out of her life and it was too much, maybe too overwhelming. Maybe it's something that she didn't think through because turtles do live a very long time. They get quite big.

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:00)
Hmm.

Meha (24:08)
So in that case, wouldn't be an appropriate action.

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:12)
Yeah, we had, we, we gave away our four turtles when we were coming close to graduating and my wife was pregnant with twins. So I got into vet school early. got, I got married early at 21, and had children early. the boys were born when I was 25. So I was 24 and still, like, I remember going to the, like the, the graduation ceremony.

Meha (24:16)
Okay.

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:41)
and showing my friends the ultrasound of the two little jelly beans. Of course, Dr. Gus Stringle, a classmate of mine, Gus was a large animal guy, still is a large animal guy, and he looked at the ultrasound and the two little jelly beans and said, those are good calving intervals, good job. Which, for the normies out there who don't know, calving interval is like the time between

Meha (25:00)
You

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:10)
It's usually looking at a massive hurt, like a herd of cattle, a herd of cows and the time between, the average calf. and so you want to maximize calving interval. and obviously having twins does that. So we joked and I thought it was funny and also inappropriate, but also funny that he was comparing my, the mother of my children to a cow. and that wasn't the, the last joke, in my life where.

Doctors, be it veterinarians or humans would sort of compare children and the birthing process of my wife and all these things to that that we might see in a field on a cold spring day. So yeah, veterinarians can be insensitive at times, but there you go. That's also the theme of this general podcast is that we're insensitive at times. Yeah. So the shelter, mean,

Tell me about, well, what else you got? mean, I got some questions, but give me, give me like your top, top three or four Myrtle the turtle. That's a good one to start with. Good ending.

Meha (26:18)
Yeah,

I've worked quite a bit of departments in the shelter. I've also worked in adoptions, which is the opposite side of the admissions department, where we, the animals, get to go to a loving home. However, setting expectations is a big, big part of going to a shelter and adopting an animal. Just because shelter animals, whether they're young or old, do have their own set of behavioural or medical problems, or they're perfectly fine.

but setting that expectation is very important with the client. One of my favourite I've had is during COVID, we had locked our doors so folks couldn't come in. We would kind of do appointment-based visits. A lady was very adamant about wanting a palm ski. If people don't know what a palm ski is, it's a pomeranian husky mix. And she came to the shelter demanding a palm ski. And I said, we don't have a palm ski here.

And she said, no, I saw a Pomski and I said, I don't, it's not like a catalog system. We have what we have. We can show you the different dogs we have, but I guarantee you a Pomski is not hiding in the back in our inventory. She was very upset that I could not give her a Pomski. Another one is a lady, we were doing a virtual call at the time during adoptions. She wanted a cat. It was an orange cat, specifically.

wanting the markings of her previous cat that had passed. And I said, I can't unfortunately guarantee you a cat that looks exactly like your previous cat. So she was also disappointed that I couldn't do that.

Dr. Cliff Redford (27:57)
This is the story that got us into deciding to do this chat today because we were joking about that and it was a long winded sort of, we found very funny, but I'm sure a lot of other people wouldn't have found funny. But then we got to the point where, yeah, you tell us the story of the woman that was adamant that she wanted an orange cat with a little white marking. I think it was on the forehead or something like that. Exactly the same as her previous cat.

Meha (28:22)
Okay.

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:24)
And, you know, you weren't able to give it that. And then the joke I made was you say, well, what was, that's very nice. What was your cat's name? no, I think we were like, we could give you this cat. This is a brown tabby, but it's not an orange. you know, what was your cat's name? my cat's name was George. my God. This name, this cat's name is George as well. This, this is, this is fate. And it's like, but it, says Myrtle on the cage. Well,

No, that was the old one. That was the other one. I think it's a girl. It was nowhere like it's a calico, which has to be a fast. Yeah. Which happens to be a female, but you know, did you guys ever do that? Like, did you ever sort of try and talk people into animals that they necessarily, they weren't coming to get, like they were looking for a Palm ski, but you knew based on their lifestyle, they would also be a good fit for whatever breed.

Meha (28:58)
I think that was a turtle.

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:22)
mean, obviously you wouldn't pawn them off onto a family that it's not going to work. got two senior citizens, one with a, with a broken hip, you know, a fake hip, a metal hip, and you're going to hand them over a German shepherd puppy or something like that. You're not going to do that, but have you like, is it kind of like you go and you go shop for a car and if they don't have the kind of car you want that salesperson tries to find another one for you.

Meha (29:47)
Yes, there is a lot of sales aspect to adoptions, but I'd often find myself talking people out of adopting animals and kind of waiting or maybe a different species of animal. Like instead of an elderly couple with a puppy husky that's going to unfortunately be too high energy, maybe a cat or maybe an older dog. And that's happened a couple of times as well. Again, setting that expectation of

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:56)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Meha (30:16)
A puppy's going to live a long time, and also a puppy has a lot of high energy. That's the other expectation with kittens and puppies is, life span is something to look into.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:20)
And maybe, and maybe you won't.

I would be so insensitive. I'd be like, this puppy's going to live 14 years. you have children that you can will this dog to? And they'd be like, what? Because I don't know. I'm looking at you. I'm not so sure you're going to make it the full 14 years. It's like a parrot, right? Like people, I want to get a parrot. Okay. It's going to live 60 years if you take care of this thing, right?

So are your children gonna take care of it afterwards? you have no children? I see. Yeah, maybe don't get a parrot. But yeah, I would, how many, you guys must've got complaints. Mayha was so rude. She wouldn't give me the palm ski that I saw online that I know existed. I saw it. It looked the same. It was 10 pounds. And they're like, yeah, that's a three month old husky cross. You know, it's gonna be three times that size.

Meha (30:54)
Okay.

Exactly.

Luckily for myself, very few times I had to escalate to a supervisor. I did have one case where I did have to escalate to a supervisor of a young college student that had come in wanting an emotional support dog. And this young fellow had chosen a dog which had separation anxiety already and was quite anxious. And I said, this is not a good fit if you're looking for

emotional support animal. I also found out that he lived on campus so I had to get permission. I was said, you have permission from your campus? Are you allowed to have pets on your whatever your boarding facility is etc. He got quite upset saying you know I want an emotional support dog you're not helping me so I had to bring in the supervisor at that time yeah. But again expectations were not really met.

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:09)
Yeah. Do you think he kind

of felt like entitled that he deserved it and by you not giving it, you're almost kind of discriminating against him? Yeah.

Meha (32:20)
I believe so. I also think

some folks come into the shelter with a hero mentality that they want to, that why won't you let me adopt this animal? It's better with me than in the shelter where sometimes it's actually not the case where it might not be better in that home.

Yes.

you

Yes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:43)
and you got to rescue, you got to truly rescue this thing, but the reality is, is you guys do a good job taking care of them at the shelter. And, yes, they would, they would do better with the family and with the forever home, but the right one, is, is key. And, and yeah, I can, I could see people getting pissed off. I could see, you know, they've, they've, they've built up the sort of commitment and the emotions and they've probably imagined their life with.

Meha (32:58)
Exactly.

Dr. Cliff Redford (33:12)
with an animal and this is what we're gonna do and it's gonna be so good for little junior to be able to see, know, to have a best friend and et cetera, et And then that mean lady isn't gonna give us what we want. And said that we should maybe go get a turtle instead. Don't do that. Instead, so wow, that's tough. mean, you guys must feel pretty burnt out after a time, eh?

Meha (33:31)
you

Yeah, at certain points I was doing about 10 interviews a day, which can be about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on what type of animal we're going through. So it was quite extensive. I enjoyed the work. I did enjoy it quite a bit, especially when you do have the perfect family and the perfect animal fit. That was always really great. An example of that is we had a really

Dr. Cliff Redford (33:47)
Wow.

Meha (34:06)
overweight beagle that had come in for surrender and this family was interested and they had a really fit beagle and they we did a meet and greet it went really well and the family then emailed us a couple of months later the dog was losing weight was doing really well was healthy and things like that are really what drive me or drove me a lot to continue the work that i was doing is the really happy success stories that we got

Dr. Cliff Redford (34:32)
We had a, this, this gorgeous Labrador chocolate lab, named Duchess that came to our clinic for years. And Duchess was well cared for, but you could see as Duchess got older, she became less important. or at least the care that let's say the, attention she was receiving was less because she had more demands on her life, right? Her eyesight wasn't as good.

Meha (34:57)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:01)
pretty sure she had developed, I remember correctly, a low thyroid problem and that wasn't being managed properly. And she had these just horrendous ear infections. And it got to the point where we were realizing due to things that were said by the owners, like they would refer to her as that dog. I can't believe we have to spend more money on that dog. And all that dog does is sit outside in the backyard and bark.

Meha (35:23)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:30)
Like, well, maybe it wants inside. Like it used to stay inside and they didn't want it inside anymore. Cause he smelled, she smelled because of her ear infections. Right. And, we ended up working with a, guess it was the SPCA who agreed to take over the dog's care. We ended up having to send, that's it. We had to send animal control because we felt the dog was, was being abused at him neglect and they agreed.

Meha (35:31)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (36:00)
They forced, okay, this is the treatment plan you're going to have to follow. This is what it's going to cost over the course of a year. The family signed off that they're not willing. So they gave the dog up. We agreed to take the dog temporarily to foster it basically at our clinic. but it was, you know, sort of air quotes owned by, by the shelter and they found a home for it. And they found a home, you know, a hundred kilometers away. I think it was, you know, probably a little bit farther. was out in Hamilton.

And this family that adopted Duchess had another senior Labrador. And they ended up sending us photos and sending us medical records from their vet who was able to clear all the problems just by just follow the recommendations. And Duchess lost weight, her thyroid was under control. She stopped barking because she was allowed inside. Her ear infections.

sort of cleared up and they sent us photos that year right before Christmas of Duchess and her new brother like passed out on the couch cuddling each other and they had an entire couch just to themselves and it was the most you know it went from being such a stressful situation where I had to basically call the cops on a client to

Meha (37:23)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (37:25)
You know, seeing this patient who's my responsibility, the client's not my responsibility. Just like you guys at the shelter, your responsibility isn't to the, to the person who wants a support animal, it's to the animal. and it was, it was, it was incredibly rewarding. And, and those are the things as you pointed out that sort of get us past the rough times, past the complaints, past the, difficult cases where the animals don't.

Meha (37:38)
is

Dr. Cliff Redford (37:54)
don't survive, you know, regardless of all of our, our attempts and our good efforts from, from us and from the owners. so it's nice to see these stories, but how long were you at the shelter?

Meha (38:05)
I was there for five years, five, six years. It's my starting point to animal care. I never imagined doing animal care before the shelter. I actually started off at HR at the shelter and then I slowly, yes, yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (38:08)
Right.

Yeah.

Really?

wow. So you were dealing with the pain in the butt staff members as HR, and then you decided to deal with less annoying animals. That's how most veterinarians get into veterinarian medicine as well. So there's no different. There's no different. Would you ever, especially now that you're an R, would you ever head back to the shelter?

Meha (38:33)
Exactly, yes.

you

I think at this time, it's not where I want my career to be going. Shelter medicine has a special place in my heart. And maybe in the future, I will volunteer or be having a part of my life in a different way or a different capacity. But right now, as I've discussed with you before, I'm looking into a specialty in dermatology. I'm still working through, like I'm still a pretty new grad and I want to develop more skills, which I don't.

believe the shelter at this time is where will lead me to that pathway. But it's still a very, very important part of my life. I still foster. I'm still part of their fostering team. So it's still going to be part of my life.

Dr. Cliff Redford (39:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

That's fantastic. Yeah. So let's talk about your dermatology, your dermatology dream. So we've been, we've been at the clinic. I sort of, I don't want to say bullied you, but I definitely tricked you. I sold you on the idea of being a derm diva, dermatology diva. I like dermatology. Dermatology takes a lot of work and it takes, I rely on my team heavily, mostly because I'm lazy.

And, I didn't have anyone that was out of the technicians that was really keen. I tricked you, I guess. I'll tell you, once I came up with the title Diva of dermatology or Derm Diva, your eyes lit up. so I think we all just, we all just want titles and identities. so I had to do it before you got your R.

Meha (40:07)
Is

Okay.

Dr. Cliff Redford (40:28)
because that would have been now your title, but you seemed to really enjoy it.

Meha (40:34)
I do. think skin is such an important part. It's everywhere. all over our body, but it's such an important part. Yes. Yeah, exactly. But it's part of our comfort as well. Like for an animal to be comfortable, they have to be comfortable in their skin, not literally, you know, and I was doing a lot of research in it and it is a number one, not number one, but it's in the top five insurance claims is dermatology related reasons. It's a growing industry. There's a lot of stuff going into it, but it's

Dr. Cliff Redford (40:39)
The biggest organ.

you

Yeah.

Meha (41:03)
In our field, it's quite small. In our veterinary field, there's not a lot of specialists. There's not a lot of employees. There's not a lot of stuff going on. So I looked into, I think it's the Academy of Dermatology or something like that. And I'm looking into CE courses. I think it's a very rewarding field. You see a lot, you see your progress, which is important. And once it fits, you can see the clients are really happy as well.

Dr. Cliff Redford (41:31)
Yeah, it's,

ear infections, which are, you know, a portion of dermatology ear infections, and then let's say skin problems in general. historically are the number one reason, pet owners leave their veterinarian to get a second opinion because they're not happy with the response with the, progress, the cure.

I actually have more success making a client happy when they come to me as a second opinion than I do when the exact same problem is from sort of my, my regular clients, even though I treat them the same, like when I see an ear issue, you know, I will warn them right away that if this continues to recur, we got to look at food allergies or

You know, this is, this may not be a simple solution. It's going to take a couple of visits. or more importantly, if you have overall skin disease, itchiness, lesions, pustules, whatever, colorectal, all these different problems, often associated with allergies, you know, it's not just here's a pill and it'll go away. There's, there's, there's, you know, we've manipulated the, the healthy layer of the skin has been changed potentially over months.

so the bacteria has changed or the bacteria has gone and now it's yeast where there's neither and the oil is under, you know, out of control or all these different problems in it. So it takes time to kill the bacteria that's in there and then allow regular bacteria to regrow and allow regular fungus to regrow. so no matter how much I tell clients, look, this may take a bit of work. it can be frustrating for them, which I totally get.

but when they've come to me and they've been going to a vet every month for six months and little buddy still isn't doing better or like, you know, like that puppy, Joya, that we saw Joya seven months old came in has been going to the vet every single month for about four months and just getting the same allergy treatment. and I kind of said, I don't, could be wrong, but I don't think this is allergies, not

Meha (43:35)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (43:52)
that with this distribution of lesions and not with how young Joya is. And so you and I, you know, we put them through the spiel of treat what we see and then see what's underneath, which is what I learned from Dr. Anthony Yu, a dermatologist. And, you know, we treated the pustules, which is bacteria to see if there's still skin disease once the bacteria is gone. Well, lo and behold, the bacteria is gone and there's no more skin disease. So two weeks and this dog was better.

I did warn them, look, it may come back and then we can kind of deal with things, but they are automatically like, my God, you guys are miracle workers. which I literally was like, no, we're no, we're not. And you know, it can be easier treating this when it's already been seen by another veterinarian and they've tried a, B and C now I can try D but, yeah, you know, you get into derm, even if you're not, you know, an accredited derm specialist, as far as a technician.

if it's a special interest that you have and something that you're really competent and passionate about, it'll, it'll take you far. Cause there's always a demand for it. you know, it'll take you far and, it'll get to the point where I'm to fight to keep you, unless it means you leaving will make you happier. You know, I never want to hold people away from their happiness, but, what is it? What is it going to take for you to.

Meha (45:07)
you

Dr. Cliff Redford (45:18)
to become a specialist as far as a derm technician.

Meha (45:21)
So the specifics, I should have written them down, but I need, I believe you have to be an RVT or an accredited registration, registered vet tech for three years. Not yet, not yet. There's a certain amount of hours of extra or CE credits you need and cases. There's a certain level of number of cases that you have to work and you need recommendations from your vet or whoever you're working with will recommend.

Dr. Cliff Redford (45:24)
That's fine.

Check. Check. Or at least your beginning,

and doesn't have

to be a dermatologist. Wow. All right.

Meha (45:52)
No, no. So this doesn't have to be at

a specific, like a germ facility or anything like that. It can just be at your regular clinic. Yeah. Which is great.

Dr. Cliff Redford (46:00)
Okay. Nice. Wow. That's good. mean, and

it's good that it's, it's not a quick, you know, quick fix that you can rush through it. Like, you know, to, to, to be a specialist, to be recognized as a, specialist in a certain part of your field, should take some time. So, it's nice to have a goal, isn't it? Yeah.

Meha (46:10)
Yeah.

It is, it's nice.

You can start doing more procedures and whatnot once you become accredited. Laser therapy is one of the things that I'm looking into, which would be really interesting. So those are the things that opens up. I can start doing more procedural work, which is nice because you've also demonstrated how to take samples and everything like that. So I'm already ahead of the game.

Dr. Cliff Redford (46:40)
Hmm.

Fantastic. And you wouldn't have been able to do this if you stayed at the shelter. So the shelter got you what you needed. They gave you the passion that, you know, to push you in this new direction. And then you stumbled on Wellington Vet Hospital. You knew, it was Kathleen that you knew, right? Kathleen used to work with you. Yeah. So for everyone listening, Mayha came to us. You were still in tech school. You were finishing up your placement.

Meha (46:51)
We'll

Yes.

Yes. Yes, counseling.

Dr. Cliff Redford (47:14)
you never really thought you would work with us because you live quite a bit of a distance. you already had a job lined up. and then, I think we offered you a part-time gig, which you accepted and you were basically going to be over employed. I remember when you were graduating and I was like, are you taking any time off to, to recover or to relax? And you said, no, I got bills. I got rent. So.

Meha (47:19)
No.

Dr. Cliff Redford (47:43)
You know, I'll probably take a weekend, which I, which I like, mean, it's great to take a week off or something like that, but, I think you and I were talking about, a person I knew who had just graduated from vet school and they were taking three months off to, not only like not to travel and see the world, but it was literally, to recover from the last X number of years of, school, which I thought was a little unusual. but,

You're giving Freddie away. Bye Freddie. so that's good. And then you ended up, we, we, we sucked you into our little cult, cult of Wellington and you decided to work with us regularly, but, but it's been a joy. and I look forward to, this is me wrapping up this interview. I look forward to seeing, obviously working with you. really enjoy working with you, but I look forward to seeing your growth.

Meha (48:15)
Bye.

Dr. Cliff Redford (48:41)
as a vet technician and as a person and getting into, to different things, both professionally and personally. So it's going to be a fun time.

Meha (48:48)
Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me as well.

Dr. Cliff Redford (48:52)
Awesome. For the future vet techs out there and the future veterinarians out there, which is a key number of our listeners, got anything to, any words of wisdom now that you're an R?

Meha (49:06)
I would say failure is okay. It's okay to fail. I have failed multiple times in my journey and I am still a successful vet tech and it doesn't end at a failed test. It doesn't end at a failed exam. You just keep pushing through.

Dr. Cliff Redford (49:21)
Yeah.

Cause you did not pass your first writing of the R the RVT exam. Now I was going to say you wrote it pretty quickly right out of school. and while. Veterinary in school, that's what we do. We write it actually while we're in final year, it's a different, like we're doing four or five years of veterinary school plus.

Meha (49:25)
Exactly and I had a rough yeah

Yes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (49:47)
At least a portion of an undergrad. We've got a long time to study for this. and you guys, your program is what two years. Yeah. So there's not a lot of time to study, and prepare and, and I could, hurts you. It was tough on you when you, when you failed, you know, let's use the word you failed the first time. and.

Meha (49:52)
Mm-hmm.

Two years, yes.

Yes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (50:11)
You know, so we just, okay, take some time and study when it's not too busy and we'll help you out. And I don't think we were that helpful, but, you stuck to it and frigging a man. was, it was a great party because you, found out the day, day or two before the, the Christmas party, that you had passed. So that's, that's pretty fantastic. Yeah. I love that. It's not, none of us should be afraid to fail for sure. Awesome. Thank you very, very much.

Meha (50:21)
Yeah.

It's cool.

it

Thank you.

Dr. Cliff Redford (50:40)
I will, I will tell everyone as I normally do to be kind to animals and be kind to yourself and each other. And especially be kind to yourself when you fail and, just take a step back and keep pushing for those dreams. Cool. Bye everyone.

Meha (50:54)
Thanks, Cliff.

Bye.