Add to your practice’s revenue streams by recommending, stocking and selling safe alternative therapies.

In the 1990s, when supplements were introduced to the veterinary field, there was great confusion as to where they fit into the greater scheme of things. They weren’t a prescription medication, so they could sit in the lobby and anybody could buy them. They weren’t FDA regulated, so you didn’t have a legal entity to […]

At Oregon State, veterinary students display flexibility and a determination to succeed in a Zoom-dominated learning environment.

The text from my daughter Brooke early in her second year of veterinary school read, “Do you think Sundance had a splenic hemangiosarcoma?” The smile on my face when I got the text could have lit up the world during a blackout. Sundance was a golden retriever we had to euthanize because of a large […]

Pain management is great medicine and good business. It gets even better when the client is an informed partner.

Not that long ago, I went to the ER with my dad, who had heart-related symptoms: weakness, shortness of breath, lightheadedness. As he was being admitted, after his temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure were noted, the admitting nurse asked: “On a scale of 0 to 5, please rate your pain.” The medical record had […]

The veterinary world is getting more complicated. It’s time to embrace change for the good of the profession, clients and patients.

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll remember these two reports: Pew Research Center’s “Future Directions for Veterinary Medicine” (1989) and KPMG’s “The Current and Future Market for Veterinarians and Veterinary Medical Services in the U.S.” (1999). Both reports helped explain what was going on in the veterinary profession then and, more importantly, what the […]

When it comes to fleas and ticks, clients will be motivated to buy preventives from you if you focus on convenience, cost, compliance and a select number of products.   

Fleas and ticks, like cockroaches, have been around much longer than pets and people. They don’t disappear or hunker down during public health crises. They do what fleas and ticks have always done: cause irritation, infection and even infectious diseases. Because of that, veterinarians planning their seasonal or year-round attack on fleas and ticks have […]

Clients will follow your lead if you show confidence in pet health insurance. Veterinary teams need to choose a couple of favorite companies and brush up on policy basics. Appointing a point person is a good idea.

Whether on an airplane, in a restaurant or at the front desk of a veterinary hospital, pet owners ask about pet health insurance. But of course, they usually ask about it too late — after a major medical or surgical expense. That’s because we, the veterinary profession and the decades-old insurance industry, have done a […]

Give yourself a well-deserved and well-justified break by assigning some of your tasks to people qualified to take them on. Everyone from your patients to your staff will benefit, and so will your clinic.

Twenty years ago, the KPMG megastudy on veterinary medicine noted: “The majority of animal care is still being delivered through a highly fragmented and inefficient system. This includes issues related to excess capacity, staff utilization and the use of capital resources.” The report went on to say, “There is some evidence that practices that utilize […]

It was 34 years ago that I received my DVM from the University of Illinois. As I look back to the end of my freshman year, my biggest panics were dealing with really challenging faculty members in virology and immunology and getting past the large animal anatomy final. Disruptions were limited to snow, rain, heat, […]

Cash is king whether it’s coming or going. You should explore all the ways to persevere and succeed during tough times, from negotiating with vendors and lenders to training and trusting your team.

We don’t claim to be economists and can’t begin to fully explain what causes a recession, but we’ve been impacted personally and professionally by a number of them and emerged reasonably unscathed each time. Historically, veterinary medicine has been recession-proof, one of the reasons it’s such an attractive space for investors. However, during the 2007-2009 […]

If you don’t use an online pharmacy, why not? Millennials and just about all other pet owners desire the convenience of home delivery. Start slow and the money will follow. 

Growing up in the shadow of New York City, I enjoyed the small-town feel without all the noise and people. From a local business standpoint, the milk was delivered, the dry cleaning was picked up and delivered, a fully cooked turkey was delivered, and prescriptions and other drugstore products were delivered. And then, most of […]