Don't Call Me Catty

Jillian Carr and Leilani Saad
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Don’t Call Me Catty is the unapologetic, plain-talking podcast for veterinary professionals who want real conversations, not sugarcoating. Hosted by Jillian Carr, a veterinary financial strategist, and Leilani Saad, co-founder and CEO of a 24/7 veterinary teletriage company, the show dives into the messy, meaningful parts of vet med: burnout, boundaries, big decisions, money moves, and midnight emergencies. The podcast began as a pop-up at a veterinary trade show, where unscripted, in-the-moment conversations with the community struck a chord and sparked something bigger. Today, it continues to grow into a movement connecting vet med professionals and their clients through honesty, humor, and the courage to say the quiet parts out loud. Whether you’re leading a practice, on the clinic floor, or you just love animals, this is your space for truth, tools, and the occasional F-bomb.

  1. Oct 8

    Is Vet Med Supporting Its People, or Just Talking About It? | Charlotte Fahy, BA MBA ACC

    We go to the conference. We attend the mental health session. We come back inspired. Then someone calls in sick, the surgical board fills up, and everything goes back to normal. So what actually changes? Recorded at the CVMA convention in Charlottetown, this episode features Charlotte Fahy, business development manager at Kelowna Veterinary Hospital and co-founder of The Practitioners' Lounge. With a background in corporate hospitality and senior living, Charlotte brings an outside perspective to the way vet med leads, supports its people, and responds to change. We talk about promoting great technicians into management without giving them leadership training, why conference learning needs a plan when you get home, and how much responsibility managers carry for burnout. Charlotte also shares her approach to recruiting kind people, building trust, and talking honestly about money without making the team feel like money is all that matters. Plus, what corporate and independent practices can learn from each other, why thriving should mean you actually want to come to work, and a few chicken-related tangents. Charlotte's parting message for anyone who feels they should be doing more? You're enough. Connect with Charlotte: The Practitioners' Lounge: https://thepractitionerslounge.ca/ Kelowna Veterinary Hospital: https://kelownavethospital.ca/ About Charlotte: Charlotte Fahy is a business leader, certified coach, and veterinary practice consultant with over 20 years of experience in leadership, client experience, and business development. As Hospital Manager at Kelowna Veterinary Hospital and co-founder of The Practitioners' Lounge, Charlotte is passionate about helping veterinary teams build psychologically safe workplaces, strong cultures, and sustainable careers. She brings a practical, people-first perspective to leadership, wellbeing, and the realities of modern veterinary practice. Support the show Follow us on Instagram @dontcallmecatty Visit Animal HealthLink Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Visit Steady Gait Planning Instagram For podcast inquiries, please contact dontcallmecatty@gmail.com

  2. Sep 30

    Vet Med Has a Judgement Problem | Dr. Ellen Nicklassen, DVM, MACP

    Veterinary medicine asks a lot of people clinically. But what about the human skills that determine how we handle mistakes, conflict, vulnerability, and each other? Dr. Ellen Nicklassen is a veterinarian, practice owner, trained counsellor, and founder of The Practitioners Lounge. She joins Leilani and Jillian to talk about the parts of veterinary medicine that don’t always get taught in school. They get into psychological safety, mentorship, anxiety, vulnerability, and what happens when we tie our mistakes to our self-worth. Ellen also challenges a familiar vet med narrative: when a workplace feels toxic, how do we recognize when the environment needs to change, and when we might need to look at our own behaviour, too? The conversation explores what judgement looks like within the profession, how we respond when someone makes a mistake, supporting new graduates, navigating difficult client interactions, compassion fatigue, and the communication and self-awareness skills that can make or break a veterinary workplace. Because mistakes are inevitable. How we respond to them, and to each other, is where culture shows up. About Dr. Ellen Nicklassen Dr. Ellen Nicklassen is a veterinarian, practice owner, and clinical counsellor whose work sits at the intersection of veterinary medicine and mental health. A 2013 graduate of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, Ellen is the owner of Kelowna Veterinary Hospital in British Columbia and holds a master’s degree in counselling psychology. Drawing on her experience both in clinical practice and counselling, Ellen focuses on the psychological realities of veterinary medicine, including burnout, compassion fatigue, anxiety, trauma exposure, moral distress, and the emotional weight that can come with a career in a caring profession. Ellen is also a co-founder of The Practitioners’ Lounge, a clinician-informed practice offering counselling and wellbeing support alongside business and leadership services. Her work aims to give veterinary and healthcare professionals a place where the realities of clinical work are already understood. Connect with Dr. Ellen Nicklassen Learn more about Ellen and the resources available through The Practitioners’ Lounge: The Practitioners’ Lounge Website: https://thepractitionerslounge.ca/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Practitioners-Lounge/61577167332277/ Kelowna Veterinary Hospital https://kelownavethospital.ca/ Support the show Follow us on Instagram @dontcallmecatty Visit Animal HealthLink Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Visit Steady Gait Planning Instagram For podcast inquiries, please contact dontcallmecatty@gmail.com

  3. Sep 23

    The Vet Med Ladder Could Start in High School | Tamara Anderson, RVT

    What if the next generation of veterinary professionals got to test-drive vet med before they even graduated high school? Tamara Anderson, RVT, BA Sociology, is an instructor in the Veterinary Technical Assistant program at Olds College of Agriculture & Technology, where she teaches high school students through dual-credit programming. She joins Leilani and Jillian live from the 2026 CVMA Convention in Charlottetown to talk about her own winding path from failing college courses to emergency and referral medicine, ophthalmology, and eventually education. Tamara breaks down what veterinary dual credit actually looks like, what students are learning, and how early exposure can remove barriers for young people who might never have considered a career in veterinary medicine. They also get into the profession’s workforce shortage, career paths beyond the traditional DVM/RVT route, negotiating your first job, building confidence, and why mentorship can have a much bigger impact on a student than we sometimes realize. Plus: ER pranks and a deeply unfortunate misunderstanding about a forelimb amputation.  About Tamara   LinkedIn Tamara Anderson, RVT, BA Sociology, is an instructor in the Veterinary Technical Assistant program at Olds College of Agriculture & Technology. With nearly 20 years of experience in veterinary medicine, Tamara’s career has taken her from general practice into emergency and referral medicine, ophthalmology, and eventually education. Today, she teaches high school students through veterinary dual-credit programming, giving young people the opportunity to gain hands-on experience, earn post-secondary credentials, and explore careers in veterinary medicine before they graduate. Tamara is passionate about breaking down barriers to the profession, helping students build confidence, and showing the next generation that there are many different ways to build a career in vet med. Olds College Veterinary Technical Assistant Certificate Support the show Follow us on Instagram @dontcallmecatty Visit Animal HealthLink Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Visit Steady Gait Planning Instagram For podcast inquiries, please contact dontcallmecatty@gmail.com

  4. Sep 16

    Vet Med Already Uses Virtual Care. So Why the Pushback? | Dr. Chris Armstrong, DVM

    If your veterinary practice has ever answered a phone or an email, Dr. Chris Armstrong has news for you: you’ve probably already practiced some form of virtual care. So why does the idea still make parts of veterinary medicine uncomfortable? Live from the 2026 CVMA Convention, Chris joins Leilani and Jillian to unpack the resistance to virtual care, the fear that technology could disrupt the veterinarian-client-patient relationship, and why the better answer may be a hybrid approach rather than choosing between virtual and in-person medicine. They also talk about retaining experienced RVTs, creating new career paths outside the clinic floor, AI and emerging technology, mentorship, veterinary workforce shortages, and how nearly 40 years in the profession have shaped Chris’s perspective on change. About Chris: Dr. Chris Armstrong is a British Columbia veterinarian with nearly four decades of experience in companion animal practice, ownership, and veterinary leadership. After graduating with distinction from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in 1987, she joined Scottsdale Veterinary Hospital and became a partner the following year. She spent 30 years practising small animal medicine, dentistry, and surgery while helping manage the AAHA-accredited hospital. Chris has served as president of the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia, a director of the Society of British Columbia Veterinarians, and British Columbia’s representative on the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association Council. In 2026, she joined the CVMA executive, beginning her path toward serving as president. Chris has contributed to national work on telemedicine and virtual veterinary care and speaks on telemedicine, informed consent, and provincial regulations. Outside veterinary medicine, she is a longtime CSIA Level 3 ski instructor at Whistler Blackcomb. LinkedIn Support the show Follow us on Instagram @dontcallmecatty Visit Animal HealthLink Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Visit Steady Gait Planning Instagram For podcast inquiries, please contact dontcallmecatty@gmail.com

  5. Sep 10

    The RVT Glass Ceiling: Pay, Diversity & Finding Your Place in Vet Med | Marina John, RVT

    What happens when you stop accepting “this is just how vet med works”? Marina John, RVT, joins Leilani and Jillian at the CVMA Convention in Charlottetown to talk about building a veterinary career on her own terms. Marina shares her path from 17 hour ER shifts and veterinary martyr culture to GP, acupuncture, locum work, research, management, and eventually technical services at the Atlantic Veterinary College. Along the way, the conversation gets into what meaningful diversity actually looks like in veterinary medicine, why representation matters, how hiring practices can reinforce the status quo, and what workplaces can do to become genuinely more inclusive. They also trade stories about discrimination in job interviews, the wage gap, the value RVTs bring that never shows up neatly on a production report, and the glass ceiling technicians still face when it comes to pay, leadership, ownership, and advancement. And because this is Don’t Call Me Catty, Marina finishes with a ghost pepper hot take: should RVTs be paid as much as veterinarians? It’s a conversation about knowing your value, making room for different voices, and leaving veterinary medicine better than you found it. About Marina Marina is a seasoned RVT with almost 15 years of diverse experience. She embarked on her veterinary journey after an unconventional start. Following a Specialized Honours Bachelor of Science degree from York University, she found her passion, while teaching ESL in Seoul, when she stumbled upon the RVT Diploma Degree at the University of Guelph.  Marina has worn multiple hats, serving as the Vice President of the British Columbia Veterinary Technologist Association and instructing the Vet Assistant Program at Vancouver Island University. Her expertise spans large animal sciences, lab animal sciences, companion animal ophthalmology, ER, UC, and referral services. With a Veterinary Acupuncture Certification from the Xie Institute, she played a pivotal role in developing the acupuncture department at a small animal GP.  Marina's extensive background includes roles as a swine farrowing tech, Lead Tech, Production Manager, and contributing to a mixed animal practice handling companion animals, exotics, and avian species.  Committed to giving back, she volunteered with a local charity providing veterinary care to low-income and unhoused populations. Marina launched her own locum RVT business, embracing a fulfilling career as a traveling veterinary technologist. Most recently she relocated to PEI and is working as an Assistant Manager at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of Atlantic Veterinary College - UPEI. Get In Touch LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-john-211695282/  UPEI Admin Support the show Follow us on Instagram @dontcallmecatty Visit Animal HealthLink Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Visit Steady Gait Planning Instagram For podcast inquiries, please contact dontcallmecatty@gmail.com

  6. Sep 2

    Pressure Is a Privilege? Building a Vet Practice Your Way | Dr. Jennifer Hurford, DVM, CVA, CTPEP

    What does it look like to build a veterinary practice around the life and workplace you actually want? Dr. Jennifer Hurford, owner of Foxboro Veterinary Hospital in Ontario, joins Leilani and Jillian for a candid conversation about veterinary practice ownership, leadership, motherhood, grief, money, and figuring things out as you go. Jen shares what it was like to buy a veterinary practice just months before COVID changed everything, why she cut Saturdays and made employee benefits a priority, and how she rebuilt after a staff walkout during the pandemic. She also talks about becoming a single parent, losing her dad while growing her business, planning for what would happen to her practice and team if something happened to her, and working toward financial independence rather than traditional retirement. Plus: integrative veterinary medicine, questionable retirement plans, Sphynx cat Baldwin, Canadian Idol, Taylor Swift, and a hot take about mental health, hard work, and why pressure can sometimes be a privilege. It’s a wide-ranging conversation about building a veterinary career that works for you and remembering there’s supposed to be a life outside of work, too. About Dr. Jennifer Dr Jennifer Hurford is a 2013 graduate from the Atlantic Veterinary College. As a small practice owner she has become wildly passionate about providing the best possible care for her patients. She is working towards completing her Masters of Science degree in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine and believes the future of medicine is integrative.  Since purchasing her practice in 2019 (3 months before the pandemic shut downs) she has built a work culture that prioritizes individual growth and a true work-life balance. She partnered with Steady Gait Planning early on so that she could ensure her team was cared for in terms of physical/mental health benefits as well as helping to plan for their futures with an RRSP matching program.  In the last year she has also become obsessed with her rescue Sphynx cats (Baldwin and Owen) and brings them with her to work daily.  Get in Touch:  Follow Baldwin and Owen on Instagram @sphynx.boys.at.work Foxboro Veterinary Hospital | info@foxborovet.com Support the show Follow us on Instagram @dontcallmecatty Visit Animal HealthLink Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Visit Steady Gait Planning Instagram For podcast inquiries, please contact dontcallmecatty@gmail.com

  7. Aug 26

    F*ck Death: Pet Hospice, Loss & What Comes After | Dr. Emily Hawrysio, DVM, CHPV

    Grief is messy and uncomfortable, and it seems no one really knows how to navigate it. We don’t always want to think about these topics... until suddenly we have to. They’re a brutal reality, and we can all do each other a favour by understanding what loving end-of-life decisions can look like, and how to actually support someone during and after a loss. Dr. Emily Hawrysio, DVM, CHPV, founder of Halo Pet Hospice, joins us to talk about veterinary hospice, at-home euthanasia, pet loss, and knowing when it’s time to let go. She also shares how losing her husband to pancreatic cancer changed her relationship with grief, hospice care, and the work she does with families today. It’s a conversation about death, but really, it’s about what it means to care for someone when you know you can’t take their pain away. About Dr. Emily  Dr. Emily Hawrysio is the founder and owner of Halo Pet Hospice, a mobile veterinary practice dedicated exclusively to in-home hospice care, palliative care, and humane euthanasia for pets throughout Northwest Indiana. A graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Atlantic Veterinary College, Dr. Hawrysio spent seven years in general practice before following her passion for end-of-life care and founding Halo Pet Hospice. In 2021, she earned her certification in hospice and palliative care through the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care. Having witnessed the profound impact of hospice care on both people and animals, Dr. Hawrysio is passionate about guiding families through one of the most difficult parts of pet ownership. She believes there is a unique and meaningful bond formed during the end-of-life journey and considers it a privilege to help pets pass peacefully at home, surrounded by the people who love them most. Through Halo Pet Hospice, Dr. Hawrysio is dedicated to bringing compassionate, personalized end-of-life care to as many pets and families as possible, ensuring that every animal's final chapter is filled with comfort, dignity, and love. Halo Pet Hospice Website | 219-200-4808 Support the show Follow us on Instagram @dontcallmecatty Visit Animal HealthLink Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Visit Steady Gait Planning Instagram For podcast inquiries, please contact dontcallmecatty@gmail.com

  8. Aug 19

    Wait… What If I’m the Toxic One? | Jen Cote, RVT

    What happens when you realize you might have been part of the problem? Jen Cote, RVT, joins Leilani and Jillian for a candid conversation about nearly 20 years in vet med. They discuss the lessons that came from changing roles, getting uncomfortable, learning how to communicate, and becoming the kind of leader she wishes she’d had earlier in her career. Jen’s career has taken her from general practice and emergency medicine to sales, operations, communications, program management, and industry leadership. Today, she works with NVA Canada developing programs that support veterinary teams and their clients, while also serving as President and Chair of the Ontario Association Of Veterinary Technicians (OAVT). Along the way, they get into what it means to own your past mistakes, become a better mentor and leader, take career risks, and stay open to opportunities you never expected. They also talk about why RVT careers don’t have to follow one path, and why it matter to get more RVTs into the rooms where decisions are made. Plus: AI scribes, the problem with pizza parties, disgust over dog saliva, and why she wants the Arkells played at her funeral. About Jen Jen is an RVT and veterinary industry leader with nearly two decades of experience spanning clinical practice, leadership, communications, and program management. She currently works with NVA Canada, helping develop programs that support veterinary teams and the clients they serve, and serves as President and Chair of the OAVT. Endlessly curious and rarely short on opinions, Jen has a habit of saying yes to interesting opportunities and figuring out the details afterward. Outside of work, she loves travelling, time with her husband and friends, and managing a collection of pets, plants, and aquariums that rivals a small public exhibit. Contact OAVT: jenc@oavt.org  NVA Canada: jen.cote@nva.com Support the show Follow us on Instagram @dontcallmecatty Visit Animal HealthLink Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Visit Steady Gait Planning Instagram For podcast inquiries, please contact dontcallmecatty@gmail.com

See All (30)

About

Don’t Call Me Catty is the unapologetic, plain-talking podcast for veterinary professionals who want real conversations, not sugarcoating. Hosted by Jillian Carr, a veterinary financial strategist, and Leilani Saad, co-founder and CEO of a 24/7 veterinary teletriage company, the show dives into the messy, meaningful parts of vet med: burnout, boundaries, big decisions, money moves, and midnight emergencies. The podcast began as a pop-up at a veterinary trade show, where unscripted, in-the-moment conversations with the community struck a chord and sparked something bigger. Today, it continues to grow into a movement connecting vet med professionals and their clients through honesty, humor, and the courage to say the quiet parts out loud. Whether you’re leading a practice, on the clinic floor, or you just love animals, this is your space for truth, tools, and the occasional F-bomb.

Information

  • Creator
    Jillian Carr and Leilani Saad
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Don't Call Me Catty
  • Show Website
    Don't Call Me Catty

You Might Also Like