D r . A S H L E Y (2024)

09/12/2024

“I could never do what you do. I care too much about animals.”

Let me start by saying that I know this sentiment is not meant with ill will. I think that most of its meaning relates to people being uncomfortable around pets in pain or in performing euthanasia.

It is important to note that vet professionals struggle with this too. What helps us do our job is that we do everything we can to advocate for pets to treat and prevent pain and suffering.

I bring this up because it can be a big trigger for vet professionals who care deeply about their patients…often at the hands of burn out and compassion fatigue.

The holidays bring a tough time of year for vet professionals. Money is tight. Emotions are high. Euthanasia numbers increase. It’s hard.

Consider a reframe on this sentiment. Thanking your vet professionals for their hard work and remembering that we are here to work together as a team. Share your goals for your fur baby with us so we can make sure we are aligned and communicating well. We love your animals too and want the best for them. ♥️

04/12/2024

As we close out the year, it is a good time to reflect on the experiences we had—both the highs and the lows. Each moment has shaped us and brought us to where we are today.

2024 pushed me harder than I have ever been pushed before. The year started out with a bang with Sophie’s birth, surgery and postpartum eclampsia. It rounded out with her having a balloon dilation, and SO far, she is doing great!! I also found that juggling two kids while working was harder than I thought. There were many days I second guessed my path, felt lost and wondered if I could sustain what I was doing.

While I am still finding my rhythm, I found a way back to my why… prioritizing family while helping people and pets when they need it most! On top of that, I love my team and ensuring we provide a good work environment where they feel valued and love their job. ER life is not for everyone, but there is nothing I love more than being there for families through tough times. This year’s experiences provided me with a new layer of empathy, and I have renewed energy and connection to this working vet mama journey.

The holiday spirit is all about togetherness, gratitude, and spreading joy. I’m here for it. Cheers to 2025!

10/11/2024

VEG Carolina’s with the first NFL partnership. Only fitting our mascot is a panther. 🤗✌🏼🚀

For any pet emergency, VEG provides 24/7 emergency care with 89 locations nationwide!

Our Carolina hospitals are located in Charlotte, Cary, Asheville, Greenville and Charleston! Call and speak to a vet at at any hour.

Check us out veg.com

23/04/2024

Claire is THREE!! Where does the time go?

Three years ago she was born the day before her baby shower catching us all by surprise. I should have known then she was just like me when she wanted to attend and enjoy her moment. 😜

Thank goodness for modern medicine and saving you when you were born 7 weeks early. 🥹🫶🏻

Fast forward to our vibrant lil threenager. She looks like Alexis and acts like me. She’s silly, sweet, meticulous, brave, independent, curious, bossy, clean, caring, and I have loved every minute of getting to know you!! 🤍

We love you so much Claire bear. Grateful for you every single day. 🤍

21/04/2024

🤍 Let’s get real. 🌟 I have loved reading posts from this trend and wanted to hop on it in the spirit of openness.

A negative of social media is that majority of what you see is the story people want to tell. This ends up as a highlight reel and doesn’t often share the entire picture.

Behind the smiles, makeup, cute clothes and poses, there is more depth. I wanted to share my inner thoughts in hopes that it helps others know they are not alone.

I am an overall positive, bubbly person, but I have my moments too. It is hard to be so open and vulnerable when others aren’t, so I hope participating in this trend helps keep this dialogue going. 🫶🏻🤍

Do any of these resonate with you?

14/04/2024

✌🏼Thankful for… 21 weeks of maternity leave. 🫶🏻

In a now female dominated field, this is a job benefit that is not common place. My first two jobs did not offer anything beyond unpaid time, aside from use of PTO.

How did I get so much time off with VEG?

21 weeks broken down to…
- 6 weeks at 60% of my salary (short term disability for natural birth)
- 10 weeks full salary (perk of VEG for full time employees)
- 2 weeks of PTO
- 3 weeks unpaid

We spend majority of the time home but are using the last two months to travel to family and on trips to enjoy the nice weather as we transition into our family of four routine.

I added a few weeks unpaid so that I could bridge to a nanny as well as finish out Sophie’s doctor appointments. With Claire, I went back around the same time at 5 months. I felt ready for the transition then and would have struggled with it being anytime before the 3 month mark.

Are you interested in a family at some point as a vet?

- Negotiate for your contract to include additional PTO or a portion of paid parental leave
- Apply for short term disability and get it before you family plan (usually you need to have it a year before they will pay out on it); 6 weeks covered for natural birth and 8 weeks for c-section
- Save up PTO for it
- Budget and save for your unpaid time off

Just remember… when negotiating, vets are hard to find these days so you are a hot commodity! Relief vets are expensive so sharing your value and willingness to come back can help. Consider negotiating for it later if they are not initially open to it because you will then have data to share why you are important to their practice.

And lastly…there are hospitals out there that value working parents and include these benefits already. It is a nice perk of many corporate practices that they can afford to do this so aligning with a hospital or company with similar values to you is important.

28/03/2024

10 years married. 🥂🤍 It was hard to pick just 10 photos of our decade together.

So far, we have experienced multiple moves, five fur babies (sorry we didn’t include pics - we love yall! 😝), two human children, so many fun trips, France winning the World Cup, citizenship, and laughs on laughs.

Love is never perfect - don’t let insta fool you. The hope is to find someone who loves you in the imperfect moments too.

I am so glad Virginia Tech + Rivermill brought us together that random evening.

12/03/2024

Addressing a common question I get from other vet professionals about our open concept at VEG.

“Is there higher risk of injury to staff with the open concept and pet parents being present?”

VEG does things differently… We
- Keep people and pets together
- We sit on the floor
- We bring people into the treatment area so they can be apart of their pet’s care
- We have people stay with their pets when they are hospitalized.

Why?? I am fear free certified, and the open concept allows this concept to happen naturally. In general, pets are much less stressed when they can stay with their person the entire time. There are rare exceptions, and we find a way to say yes to those with alternative methods.

Here are some quotes from other VEGgies on the open concept…

“The open concept and how we go about treating our patients where they are most comfortable eliminates a lot of extra stress factors that cause animals to react aggressively.”

“The pet parent being able to see how their pet is reacting makes it a lot easier for us to explain the value of relaxant and sedation medications. They are more on board with it than if they were not present allowing us to not push pets too far and keep everyone safe.”

“Certainly, there is responsibility we must take when owners are present to keep a patient’s stress low or to keep owners/us safe (muzzles, sedation, towel wraps, etc.). We also see pets where they are most comfortable so our body position is not as threatening to them.”

Hey VEGgies, add your perspective in the comments. 🫶🏻⤵️

22/02/2024

Quite the journey to get you here, baby Sophie.

From a high risk pregnancy to a congenital variant to a congenital malformation, you have defied odds.

You survived surgery to repair your disconnected esophagus (esophageal atresia) at just 3 days and are thriving every day post-op.

These first 7 weeks of maternity leave have been a total blur as we battled significant stress, and I recovered from postpartum eclampsia. Claire also needed tubes for recurrent middle ear infections, and two of our pets decided to join the party with illness as well.

This life season is about rest, recovery, and enjoying the little things in life.

How am I handling all this? It has been hard but remembering life is precious and fleeting helps ground me back into the moment and focusing on only what I can control. Oh and baby snuggles, walks, and wine help too. 🙃

Thank you for keeping up with me on this journey. There will be many stories to continue to tell!

captured this beautiful moment, and I cannot wait to share more of them with you.

22/02/2024

Quite the journey to get you here, baby Sophie.

From a high risk pregnancy to a congenital variant to a congenital malformation, you have defied odds.

You survived surgery to repair your disconnected esophagus (esophageal atresia) at just 3 days and are thriving every day post-op.

These first 7 weeks of maternity leave have been a total blur as we battled significant stress, and I recovered from postpartum eclampsia. Claire also needed tubes for recurrent middle ear infections, and two of our pets decided to join the party with illness as well.

This life season is about rest, recovery, and enjoying the little things in life.

How am I handling all this? It has been hard but remembering life is precious and fleeting helps ground me back into the moment and focusing on only what I can control. Oh and baby snuggles, walks, and wine help too. 🙃

Thank you for keeping up with me on this journey. There will be many stories to continue to tell!

captured this beautiful moment, and I cannot wait to share more of them with you.

07/02/2024

Vetmed is one of the rare medical professions where you can easily pivot and not need to go back to school.

You can graduate ready to take on equine medicine and then pivot five years later to small animal medicine. How beautiful is that to help a variety of species!?

On top of that, you can pivot to other aspects such as industry jobs with drug companies, pet food companies, work for the government (FDA, USDA), get into leadership and business, or even speak and consult. The list is endless!

Have you changed your mind?? It could be your track in vet school or your career after 3, 7, 20+ years!

Reshare my third post in your story and tell us how you changed your mind or pivoted in your career. Tag me, and I will share to my stories!! It could be motivation or help to another vetmed professional.

And join me and on Sunday Feb 18th from 7-8 pm for VEGgie Talks as she discusses equine emergency. We can all learn something new together!! Sign up in my linktree.

10/01/2024

My heart is full. 🤍 After one week, we finally were able to hold and feed her!

Sophie has had a wild first week on this planet. A major surgery, drain placement, no milk feedings for 7 days, and the list goes on…

She has proven to be a true lil fighter, like her big sis, as she has healed from surgery and 24 hours after her contrast study is taking small bottles like a champ.

She still has more time in the NICU as she gets transitioned off IVs and on full milk feeds while we watch for any post-op complications, but the major stuff is behind us thank goodness.

We were not blessed with easy starts with either of our girls, but we thank Claire for having prepped us for going through this again. 😅 The NICU and pediatric teams are amazing, and we are so thankful to modern medicine and an army of positive thoughts and prayers.

It is never easy to go through tough times like these, but remembering to focus on the little wins and the day to day helps keep my mind from spiraling. Remembering that life truly is precious and to enjoy every little moment is an important thing to remember because you never know when it or a loved one will be taken away.

Hug your loved ones extra hard and remember to check in with your people regularly. 🫶🏻❤️‍🩹

03/01/2024

Sophie Marie decided to also make a splash entrance like her big sis. She entered the world before her induction date on 1/2 at 3:12 am.

Thankfully, no need for an emergency c-section after help from the vacuum when she ripped her umbilical cord during delivery. She came in at a tiny and mighty 5 lbs.

Our first day was a bit of a roller coaster as she struggled to maintain her temp, blood sugar, nurse and breathe. After a rocky 12 hours, we got her admitted into the NICU and have been running tests to figure out what is going on. Suspicion was raised when a tube would not pass easily into her stomach early this am.

Sophie will be having surgery tomorrow morning for esophageal atresia type C (swipe to see a pic of this). Unfortunately, we are not strangers to the NICU life with Claire having been a preemie too. Apparently, Sophie wants a chest scar like her big sister.

She is in great hands, and we appreciate your thoughts and prayers to get our sweet baby girl through this. 🫶🤍

29/12/2023

And just like that… 38 weeks is here, and maternity leave begins! ✌🏼

Excited for this next chapter of becoming a mama of two! I cannot wait to see Claire become a big sister too. 😍

There will be a definite pause on content while we acclimate, but I will be sure to pop in here and there to update you. 🤍

And not to worry vet students…I’ll be back for VEGgie Talks in Feb!! 🫶🏻

22/12/2023

I’m pretty upset by this to be honest. Seems like a weird hill to die on in some states when there are such bigger issues to address in our medical professions.

This is a recent move that went live December 1st 2023 in NC as well as other states.

I know I have seen such a beautiful change with the transition to the vet nurse title in VEG. On top of practicing in an open concept, this has allowed pet parents to see them hard at work too. Hands down, I’ve witnessed more respect, recognition and appreciation for our nursing team than ever before. It has been magical.

Vet techs gain a degree and work hard for their title. I’m all about title protection and love that for the profession. I’m just baffled how human medicine can “own the term” nurse. Doctors have an umbrella of professionals under them. It makes no sense to me why it shouldn’t be the same for nursing.

What do y’all think? I’d love to hear from you. ⬇️⬇️

D r . A S H L E Y

09/12/2024

04/12/2024

10/11/2024

23/04/2024

21/04/2024

14/04/2024

28/03/2024

12/03/2024

22/02/2024

22/02/2024

07/02/2024

10/01/2024

03/01/2024

29/12/2023

22/12/2023

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