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| Dr Karen Teasdale. |
I first spotted Dr Karen Teasdale from across a massive auditorium at the AVA conference. Just about everyone else was in the "vet uniform" (jeans, collared shirt, RM Williams boots or variation of) and she was glowing in a 1950s style dress complete with victory rolls. Fortunately she was unperturbed when I raced across the room and requested a photo. And I learned there is so much more to this veterinarian than her style. She runs two businesses and manages a family. And she was generous enough to answer some questions about her life and career.
What's your day job?
Like all
jobs, my day job (being a vet) is a mix of many different disciplines in
medicine and surgery...but my formal day job is the Practice Principal at
Angourie Road Veterinary Surgery in Yamba, Northern New South Wales. I have a single person practice, but hope to
change that soon!
As well as
running the practice, I also have a second business making memorial candles for
grieving pet owners, but more on that later.
And of
course, my other very important job (in fact the most important) is being Mum
to my two human kids and my one fur-kid.
Fewer vets are owning practices these
days. What made you take the plunge?
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| Not the best composed photo on my part (it was taken as another conference session was about to begin) but a very well composed outfit... |
A number of
factors came together at the right time to make practice ownership
appealing. I was not planning on owning
a practice, and did not make a sweeping, 5 year plan to get into practice
ownership. This is unusual for me, as I
like to plan everything (my nurses think it is hilarious that when I go to
conferences I have a spreadsheet planned of what I will wear on each day...down
to the number of bobby pins I will need to pack!).
It was only
after my son was born and my husband and I were living in Brisbane that I
started looking, randomly one day, at a veterinary employment website. It had a small, two line advertisment about
Angourie Road Veterinary Surgery. What intrigued
me about the practice was it's location...my husband is a surfer and to us, the
location was perfect. Brisbane was just
not doing it for us. So we went to the
practice and quickly realised that it had huge scope for us to be able to build
the practice to reflect the way I had always wanted to practice. We bought the practice the next day, without
really thinking it through too much. It
was a case of biting of more than I could chew, then chewing like hell!
I learned
everything about practice management and running my own clinic on the job. I was very fortunate to have come from a
family that encourages business acumen, so I had some basics down. But really, there is no business course in
the world that teaches you how to run a business like running a business. I think many vets are scared about the whole
business side of things --- we get basically zero training at vet school about
how to run a business, so it is a daunting thought. I am so grateful and happy with our journey,
though. Having a small clinic, and
building it up, can provide so much scope for learning and eventually crafting
a clinic that really reflects you, your passions, skills and the way you wish
to practice.
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| Karen's shoes on day one of the conference. |
It is, of
course, an awful lot of work. SO MUCH
WORK. It never ends. So vets often have to make the decision about
excactly how much control they want over their lives and the way they
practice. For a control-freak like me, I
don't think I could ever go back to working for someone else. Every time I get down about having to try to
juggle all the vet stuff with making all the finiancial decisions, managing the
marketing, dealing with HR, doing the BAS etc, it can seem a bit much. But then I remember that I have wonderful half
hour consults, I can work out exactly how many days I wish to do dental work vs
seeing dermatological patients, and I feel pretty fortunate to be able to have
that control.
By far and
away the best thing about owning my own practice however was the ability to
have my kids at work. My son was 8
months old when we took over the practice.
My daughter was (almost!) born at the practice...working through the
initial contractions were a great distraction! We have the freedom to build
special areas for the kids, who think of work as their second home. They are happy and comfortable at work, and I
like that I can just have them around.
My advice to
other vets, if they are thinking about owning a practice, is to have a serious
think about what is important to them.
If freedom trumps everything else --- the freedom to practice your own
way, the freedom to set your own hours, the freedom to structure your life
according to your own philosophies and desires --- then perhaps practice
ownership is for you.
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| Karen with another incredible look (note the shoes). |
I met you at the AVA conference because
you stood out. Tell me about your wardrobe and hair? Why go to so much effort?
Like
everyone, what I look like now is a culmination of all my experiences so far
this life. As a teenager, I was never
very confident. In fact, thanks to
bullying all through primary and secondary school, I had very low self-esteem. I always thought I was too something...too
fat to wear whatever was fashionable at the time, too ugly to dare wearing
makeup, my hair was too fine and too straight to do anything with. I thought that I would have to be content
with being academically well off, and not blessed with being attractive.
It was only
when I got to vet school that I suddenly felt like I had found my people, my
tribe. In fact, I can remember sitting
on a narrow strip of grass near the Veterinary Research Institute at the
University of Melbourne and having the epiphany that all these other people,
these other vet students, were just like me.
They all worked hard at school and here we were, together. The mood was radically different to high
school, and I felt like I was home. I
felt like I could start the journey to really find myself.
Since then,
it's been a journey of trying to become self-realised and understanding that
it's ok to be confident and happy with yourself. It's ok to experiment and find your own
style. It's ok to indulge in something
as frivolous as snood styles of the 1940's and still be a serious vet. It's ok to wear makeup and play around with
hair. In fact, it's more than ok, it's
easy! It's never been easier to check
out new ideas and tutorials than now, with youtube tutorials for everything.
So, in
summary, I guess the main reason I do it is because it makes me feel good. My husband says that it's a community
service...I see people looking at me and smiling. So I have brought a smile to someone's face,
what a lovely thing to be able to do!
I am also
hoping that by setting an example of being happy with myself and my body, and
being happy to “play” with clothes, that my daughter will see that and have a
positive body influence. She is a
super-confident, outgoing and sweet girl, who seems to have no limitations on
what she thinks she should look like, so I hope that so far it is working.
And honestly,
it's not a lot of work. It took about 20
minutes to get ready each day of the conference. I don't wear makeup to work (only because I
have to go into theatre) but I do wear my hair “done”. I am even in the process of doing a study
looking at correlation between hairstyle and economic performance of my
practice. It seemed like a silly premise
to start with, but it really is startling that patterns that are starting to
emerge. Perhaps people with buns and
victory rolls seem more trustworthy than those with ponytails? Stay tuned for more data...
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| Karen with Dr James Moody. |
What non-human(s) do you share your
life with?
I have a
sometimes grumpy FIV positive heat seeking cat named Moobycat. He is very much attached to the idea of just
me and him, and would not stand to share my affections with any other
non-humans.
How did you meet?
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| Moobycat in his hoodie. |
Mooby was a
kitten at the RSPCA with advanced cat flu.
He was pretty unpleasant at the time we met – basically a whole face
full of snot. He was tiny and needed
someone to love him better. He sneezed
in my face and went to snuggle me. We
kind of stuck together – almost literally!
So I decided that (like all cats) he chose me. That was back in 2003.
What do you do to spend time
together?
Moobycat is
the conisseur of warm, comfortable places.
His favourite place to sit is on me, or on my laptop, or on the
biochemistry machine...anything that you are currently working with, and gives
out a heat source, will be Moo's favourite.
He also enjoys cuddles, snuggles, and lying with me in the sun looking
for patterns in clouds.
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| One of Karen's candles. |
You began making candles for people
whose pets had died. How did this come about?
We have been
hand making candles for our clients who are grieving for a lost pet for a few years now. We used to send bunches of flowers --- until
one very honest client called and informed me that watching the flowers die was
just as bad as watching their pet die again.
Although
flowers were ruled out, we still wanted to make a meaningful gesture to people
at their time of grief. For many
clients, we vets are the only ones that truly understand the magnitude of their
grief, and also their intense need to be able to grieve. By developing a specific memorial candle, we
see it as a way of giving owners permission to grieve. We give them to owners at the time of
euthanasia or death, and we ask that the owners light the candle when they are
ready to remember their pet’s life. We
believe that ceremonies – and the simple act of lighting the candle is indeed a
ceremony – are an important part of helping our clients navigate through the
difficult time of losing a furry family member.
With more and more clients turning to us for hospice and end-of-life
care, it seems fitting to be able to mark the time of death with a respectful
gesture of love, compassion and understanding.
What could we do to make the world
better for non-human animals?
First do no
harm!
Any advice you’d like to share with
veterinarians and future veterinarians?
Thank you Dr Karen. You can check out Angourie Road Veterinary Surgery on facebook here.
