Tails from a Vet Tech

Content Warning: This episode does include a discussion of mental illness, depression, self harm, and suicide.

Disclaimer: Discussions about mental health are personal and unique. In this podcast, Meghan is not acting as a therapist or providing therapy in any capacity. This podcast covers broad discussions of topics related to mental health and is not intended to serve as therapy or a replacement for therapy. Views and experiences expressed by Meghan are her own and do not represent the field of counseling.

It is mental health awareness month. It's important to educate, fight stigma, and advocate and support people with mental illness and their families every day.  In this episode, Tabitha shares her personal mental health struggles and successes with her friend and licensed professional counselor, Dr. Meghan Breedlove. 

If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States.

Call 1-800-273-8255 (or 9-8-8!) to talk to someone.

Meghan Breedlove Bio:
Meghan Breedlove is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Ohio. She graduated with her Masters in Human Development and Family Science with a specialization in Sexuality Studies from The Ohio State University. She also graduated from Arizona State University with a Masters in Clinical Counseling and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Counselor Education and Supervision program at The Ohio State University. Her dissertation is focused on using restorative justice practices to repair harm and resolve conflicts among individuals in school settings. 

Meghan has worked with couples, adults, teenagers, and families in various settings. She has experience empowering clients to resolve relationship issues and family conflicts, navigate major life transitions, explore values and career interests, build communication skills, and cope with anxiety and depression. She believes in the importance of creating, communicating, and maintaining healthy boundaries in all aspects in life and seeks to support clients in this process. 

Meghan uses a range of interventions in therapy and is flexible in her approach depending on the needs of the client. She uses a Client-Centered approach and draws on techniques from Family Systems, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness, Motivational Interviewing, Reality Therapy, and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy in her work with clients. 

If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States.

Call 1-800-273-8255 to talk to someone.


Support the show :

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Support Tabitha's work via social media:

• TikTok: @behaviorvettech
• Facebook and Instagram

Support the podcast via social media:

• X: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
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This week, Jessica Benoit joins Tabitha to discuss cooperative care. 

Cooperative care involves training an animal to not only tolerate handling and husbandry procedures, but to be an active, willing participant in these experiences. The animal either gives consent by performing a behavior or is easily distracted by food during a veterinary procedure. 

Many animals feel fear, anxiety, and stress at their veterinary visits and with husbandry procedures. Cooperative care techniques provide animals with some choice and control which decreases fear, reduces stress, and increase comfort for the animal. Cooperative care gives the animal a voice and a choice and a way to say, “no, not right now” or “I’m not comfortable”. Empowered choice of the animal met with respectful actions of the handler builds the animals trust in the handler and in the care process itself. By having your animal become a willing participant of their own care, their confidence will increase, thus increasing their tolerance of future handling and veterinary care. 

Jessica and I discuss what is cooperative care, benefits of cooperative care, applications of cooperative care in the veterinary setting, and more! 

Also, keep an eye out for future cooperative care online and in-person events from Jessica (CVC Animal Training) and I (Chirrups and Chatter)

About our guest:
Jessica graduated from the NAIT Animal Health Technology program in 2010. She is a Registered Veterinary Technologist and the co-owner of Companion Veterinary Clinic, a Fear Free Certified Practice in Alberta, Canada. She is a Veterinary Technician Specialist in Behaviour, a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner. Jessica is also a Fear Free Certified veterinary professional, trainer, and speaker. 

Jessica developed the training and behaviour program at Companion Veterinary Clinic in 2013, developing curricula for dog training classes, kitten classes, trick training, and offering private training and behaviour modification sessions. 

Jessica enjoys educating and sharing her knowledge through speaking engagements which include Doggone Safe presentations for children, guest lecturing for post-secondary institutions, providing client education seminars as well as continuing education events for veterinary professionals. In addition, she provides mentorship for veterinary technologists and trainers interested in animal behaviour. In her spare time, she loves reading and being outdoors with her husband and two children, 2 dogs, 1 cat, and 13 chickens!

Related Show Resources: 

• Companion Vetinary Clinic CA (Jessica's business):

       https://www.companionvet.ca/training/

• Cat and Dog Behavior Consulting and Education US (Tabitha's business):

       https://www.Chirrupsandchatter.com

• Cooperative Veterinary Care Book by Alicea Howell and Monique Feyrecilde:

       https://www.fearfreepets.com

Support the show :

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Email

Support Tabitha's work via social media:

• TikTok: @behaviorvettech
• Facebook and Instagram

Support the podcast via social media:

• X: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech

This week, Mara Velez of Shelter Playgroup Alliance joins Tabitha to discuss enrichment for shelter dogs. 

Enrichment is a need for all shelter animals. Animals have natural behaviors and needs, and they must have opportunities to express those behaviors. Enrichment provides needed mental and physical stimulation, improves quality of life, decreases stress, decreases unwanted behaviors, and length of stay. It helps to increase adoptions, provide choices, can manage, and prevent behavior problems, and keeps animals in their new homes. 

Mara and I discuss the importance of enrichment, the struggles we have seen due to animals having inappropriate or no enrichment, what appropriate enrichment is, and more! 

About our guest:
Mara Velez, MA, CPDT-KA, is the Executive Director of two non-profits: the Shelter Playgroup Alliance and Humane Dog Training Advocates.  She is also a Certified Professional Dog Trainer.  Mara has been working in the shelter setting for almost 15 years.  Mara was a behavior and training consultant at Contra Costa Animal Services where she collaboratively designed, developed, and implemented behavior program structures, including a robust volunteer training program, revised behavior evaluation, canine enrichment and playgroup guidelines.  It was these guidelines that served as the basis for the Shelter Playgroup Alliance guidelines. Mara holds both a bachelors and master’s degree in psychology and completed all of the course work for a doctorate in education.  

In addition to completing several animal behavior and training-related programs, Mara continually develops her skills and knowledge of canines by attending seminars and reading science-based canine literature. To date, she has completed over 3,000 hours of continuing education. Mara also enjoys training other species because it expands her training and observation skills. She has worked with: cats, bunnies, wolves, foxes, guinea pigs, coyotes, buffalo, donkeys, goats, alpacas, chickens, birds, and fish.

Related Show Links:

• Shelter Playgroup Alliance
• SPA Shelter Behavior and Enrichment Conference 
• Humane Dog Training Advocates

Support the show via social media:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech/

Have a question you'd like answered on the show? Send us an email!

• [email protected]

Support Tabitha's work via social media:

• TikTok: @behaviorvettech
• Facebook and Instagram

Support the podcast via social media:

• X: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech

 The success of our veterinary practices relies on the performance of the whole veterinary care team. An important – and often underused – role is that of veterinary technicians. Having credentialed veterinary technicians on our teams with the skills we need is a critical part of building an efficient practice; so is using those skills efficiently.

This week, Liz Hughston joins Tabitha to discuss all things Technician Utilization.

Liz is an advocates’ advocate, dedicated to advancing veterinary technology,
technicians, and assistants through training, mentorship, and support. 

About our guest:
Liz Hughston, MEd., RVT, CVT, LVT, LVMT, VTS (SAIM)(ECC)
Liz practices as a relief veterinary technician, trainer, and consultant in the San
Francisco Bay Area. Since her graduation from Foothill College’s Veterinary
Technology program in 2006, Liz went on to become certified as a VTS in both
Small Animal Internal Medicine and Emergency and Critical Care in 2012. She
has authored articles and textbook chapters and is a co-editor of Cannabis
Therapy in Veterinary Medicine (Springer Nature) and the upcoming 2nd edition
of the Small Animal Internal Medicine for Veterinary Technicians and Nurses
textbook (Wiley).

Liz is President of the National Veterinary Professionals Union (www.natvpu.org),
Co-Founder of the Veterinary Cannabinoid Academy
(www.vetcannacademy.com), an Administrator of the Not One More Vet Support
Staff group (www.facebook.com/groups/nomvsupportstaff), Credentialing
Committee Chair of the Academy of Internal Medicine for Veterinary Technicians
(www.aimvt.com), and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of dvm360.
Liz is an advocates’ advocate, dedicated to advancing veterinary technology,
technicians, and assistants through training, mentorship, and support.

Support the show via social media:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech/

Send us an email
[email protected]

Support Tabitha's work via social media:

• TikTok: @behaviorvettech
• Facebook and Instagram

Support the podcast via social media:

• X: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech

Vet Techs leaving the field isn’t a new issue, although the pandemic has brought more awareness to it. There are various reasons why veterinary technicians are leaving the field including not being utilized, being underpaid, no room to grow, and more!

This week Tabitha talks to April Bays about why technicians are leaving and how we can help them succeed and thrive. We also share our stories of leaving general practice to start our own businesses. 

About our guest:  
April Bays CVT, VTS (ECC), VCC - April became a Certified Veterinary Technician in 2007 while discovering her love for emergency and critical care medicine. Having found her passion, April pursued her Veterinary Technician Specialty and earned her VTS in Emergency and Critical Care in 2013.

She ultimately became the head technician at her practice, where the massive challenge of meeting the needs of staff, as they meet the needs of the patients, came into focus. April believes that technician education and training have been overlooked while the profession has grown exponentially.

In her leadership role, April recognized the dire need for putting knowledge into action and shifting the paradigm from accepting “the way we’ve always done things” to validating by empowering the powerhouse of the clinic: veterinary technicians. Progress demanded a structured training program, and after many years she developed the Veterinary Technician and Assistant Clinical Development Program.

In 2020, April created Elevative Veterinary Training Solutions in order to focus full-time on technician development and training, and to provide practical, hands-on guidance to practices which are implementing her Program.

April has written for journals, blogs, and co-authored a chapter in the Veterinary Technician’s Manual for Small Animal Emergency and Critical Care. She continues to lecture for conferences - including the prestigious International Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Symposium - on emergency topics and the art of critical care and critical thinking. Her areas of interest include metabolic, endocrine, and respiratory emergencies. She also lectures on topics related to veterinary cannabis medicine and became a Veterinary Cannabis Counselor in 2021. Pain management is of particular interest to April, and she was the recipient of the 2022 IVAPM (International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management) Pain Management Advocacy Award. 

When she’s not eliminating pain, training veterinary professionals, or writing proceedings, you can find her supporting the many local breweries in Oregon, backpacking, and getting lost in the wilderness. Literally.

Elevative Veterinary Training Solutions
https://elevativevts.wixsite.com/mysite

Support the show via social media:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech/

Send us an email
[email protected]

Support Tabitha's work via social media:

• TikTok: @behaviorvettech
• Facebook and Instagram

Support the podcast via social media:

• X: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech

Disclaimer: Discussions about mental health are personal and unique. In this podcast, Meghan is not acting as a therapist or providing therapy in any capacity. This podcast covers broad discussions of topics related to mental health and is not intended to serve as therapy or a replacement for therapy. Views and experiences expressed by Meghan are her own and do not represent the field of counseling.

Setting boundaries is crucial for animal professionals. They are guidelines that we create to identify reasonable, safe,  and permissible ways for other people to behave towards us. 

In this episode, I chat with counselor Meghan Breedlove all about boundaries! Our discussion includes what boundaries are, how we define ours, how to overcome obstacles, asserting them in the workplace, and share some of my struggles with establishing boundaries in my career. 

Meghan Breedlove Bio
Meghan Breedlove is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Ohio. She graduated with her Masters in Human Development and Family Science with a specialization in Sexuality Studies from The Ohio State University. She also graduated from Arizona State University with a Masters in Clinical Counseling and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Counselor Education and Supervision program at The Ohio State University. Her dissertation is focused on using restorative justice practices to repair harm and resolve conflicts among individuals in school settings. 

Meghan has worked with couples, adults, teenagers, and families in various settings. She has experience empowering clients to resolve relationship issues and family conflicts, navigate major life transitions, explore values and career interests, build communication skills, and cope with anxiety and depression. She believes in the importance of creating, communicating, and maintaining healthy boundaries in all aspects in life and seeks to support clients in this process. 

Meghan uses a range of interventions in therapy and is flexible in her approach depending on the needs of the client. She uses a Client-Centered approach and draws on techniques from Family Systems, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness, Motivational Interviewing, Reality Therapy, and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy in her work with clients.

Resources mentioned in podcast: 

• Self-help packet on boundaries: https://cmhawwselfhelp.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WorkbookBuilding-Better-BoundariesFeb2011.pdf
• https://www.betterhelp.com
• https://www.nomv.org/
• https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

Support the show via social media:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech/

Send us an email
[email protected]

Support Tabitha's work via social media:

• TikTok: @behaviorvettech
• Facebook and Instagram

Support the podcast via social media:

• X: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech

Tabitha Kucera previews her new podcast, Tails from a Vet Tech which will drop it's first official episode on Monday March 7, 2022!

Producer Nicholas interviews Tabitha to talk a little bit about herself but focuses more so on what the show will be about and what it's goals are.

Follow us on twitter:
https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech/

Support Tabitha's work via social media:

• TikTok: @behaviorvettech
• Facebook and Instagram

Support the podcast via social media:

• X: https://twitter.com/TailsFromRVT
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/TailsFromAVetTechPodcast
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/tailsfromavettech