The Wagging Tail

In the past I have typically only made New Year’s resolutions that related to my personal or home life, e.g. diet, exercise, family game night, etc. I’ve been thinking a lot this year (that’s why it’s almost March and I’m still contemplating New Year’s resolutions) about making a work-related resolution. Certainly my family would like it if I made a resolution to work less and certainly my employer would like it if I made a resolution to work more. I don’t necessarily think that either one is going to happen!

What I have been trying to figure out is a way to work smarter, better and more efficiently while I’m at the hospital so that I can grow the business and not stay late or take work home with me. That way when I’m home, I’m focused on home and it’s almost the same as working less.

So, I would like to hear ideas from everyone on how to:

1. Work smarter while at work
2. Grow the business without picking up extra hours
3. Don’t stay late
4. Relax and focus on home, while at home, because all of the work stuff has been dealt with while at work.

I’ve been contemplating things like the number of Paraprofessionals per Pet seen, customer service, quality medicine, advocating what’s best for the Pet, delegating, associate performance plans, reviews, average patient charges, etc. I haven’t come up with a solid resolution yet but maybe we can start a discussion that would help us all.

It’s amazing what veterinary grad students have to go through, not to mention veterinarians in academia and a clinical setting. What are your thoughts about visiting state parks and wildlife refuges to collect ticks in order to do research on Lyme Disease?

I don’t know that they liked it per se, but two students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Veterinary Medicine did just that. The worst part of it, however, was when one of the students found a rather large tick stuck up in her belly button and she couldn’t get it out. She burned it, and then tried to pull it out with tweezers, but only pieces of it would come out. She had to leave a part of it in and periodically check for infection.

The organizer of the project would go out with students to a designated park and into the woods— complete with brambles, thorns, spider webs and mud— having to drag thick woven sheets behind them designed to catch ticks and crawling insects. Every 10 meters or so, they would stop and pick the ticks off the sheet and drop them into vials of ethanol. I can only imagine what it would be like to look down and think you have black dust on your legs but then realize that it’s hundreds of baby ticks!

Here are some other dirty jobs worth noting:

• Students were instructed to create “ideal” environments for mosquitoes that can harbor the West Nile virus from designated hot-spots around the suburbs of Chicago.
• Several students went to Uganda to trap rats, looking for disease. Others collected monkey “samples.”
• Second-year students studying parasitology were told to bring in fecal matter from their Pets to be analyzed in class. Students who didn’t have Pets had to go look for it elsewhere (one students had to ask a stranger for his Pet waste).
• How about chopping up rats for the raptors.
• Faculty studied the cross contamination of cat feces mixed with swine feed in habitats (which can transfer a parasite that causes toxoplasmosis).

It’s all for a good purpose, though. I agree with the college of veterinary medicine in that, “Without these scientists and their students and student workers, valuable data and research is never collected. These people save the lives of animals and humans, keeping our environment and health safer and sounder!”

Tell us what some of your messiest encounters have been like.

“What do you think about protein shakes?,” my client, Kelly, asked me, as she sat up from her last set of chest presses. I love this kind of inquiry because it gives me an opportunity to challenge popular beliefs that aren’t always accurate. “I have nothing against them,” I answered, “if you want to be a bodybuilder.”  I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic. I was just trying to make a point. As we moved on to another exercise, I added, “it’s not that I think powders, bars and supplements are inherently ‘bad.’ I just think their purpose is misunderstood. How many times have you had a protein shake or energy bar in place of lunch because you couldn’t step out of the hospital to get real food?”

If these products were bought with the intention of being consumed now and then, I wouldn’t see a problem, but most people buy them with the intention of eating them every day. What I see is an “all or nothing” mentality that seems to go along with the purchase. What do you foresee happening when you inevitably get bored with the one-meal option you’ve allowed yourself? I mean, even broccoli, which is a powerhouse of nutrients, isn’t something you would eat everyday. 

Throughout my years of personal training, speaking and tele-training, I have found that most people, including veterinarians, don’t want to look “ripped” or “cut,” and they aren’t interested in winning first-prize for the best body out there. They just want to lose some weight, improve muscle-tone, feel better and not have to hide under their scrubs or lab coat. So the bottom line is this, unless your goal is to create a competition-ready body, the self-discipline needed to eat the same thing every single day is not only unpleasant, it’s unachievable.

If you’re looking to improve your health for the long-haul, make a vow to never start something that is so rigid. It’s impossible to maintain, no matter how appealing it sounds, or how enthusiastic your friends are about their miraculous results. As you consider options and ways to improve your health, ask yourself, is this an eating plan? Is this a workout regimen I can see myself adhering to, for a long time? If your honest answer is no, don’t set yourself up for failure.

Here’s a protein shake alternative. This smoothie recipe is sweet, creamy, nutritious, and satisfying to both your taste buds as well as your hunger. It’s easy to make, healthy and something you can incorporate into your eating plan for the rest of your life.

In a blender combine:

½ c juice (orange, pomegranate, whatever)
½ c soy or skim milk (your preference, again)
½ banana (I freeze bananas when they become over-ripe)
1 c frozen fruit (I like a combination of berries)
4 8 oz. container of low-fat yogurt
*add or subtract ingredients to taste

You probably have a nutritious, quick and tasty snack you like that you can easily take to the hospital. If so, what is it?

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece about how capital (loan funds) is still available to borrowers who are willing to do what it takes to qualify for those loans. There is no substitute for good old fashioned planning and preparation to either start a new practice or expand your current one. However, in these times of uncertain and unstable financial markets, all the best planning can still leave you short.

For those of you who are already practice owners, you may have taken steps along the way to plan for your growth by establishing lines of credit with your bank which allow you to borrow capital (cash) when you need it and pay it back when profits (cash flow) allow for it. And, for those of you about to start or acquire a practice, you too may have made arrangements with a local bank or commercial lender for what is called a “working capital line of credit.” Good for you if you did, but beware at the same time.

Recently, I was working on a project to finance a new start-up practice and the process called for the new practice owner to issue a $10,000 commitment deposit. He had arranged with a local branch of a large regional bank for a $200,000 revolving line of credit, to be used for this sort of purpose. I received the check and was in the process of distributing it to a supplier when I received an urgent email from my client telling me to stop! That very day he had received a letter in the mail from his bank stating that his line of credit had been reduced from the $200,000 approval level to what he had already borrowed (drawn down) on it, or just $20,000, and the check he had written would be no good.

How could it be that his $200,000 line of credit was now reduced to $20,000 and he could borrow no more? It’s a matter of math and fear on the part of the lender. Lenders partially base the amount they are willing to lend you on the value of underlying secured assets they perceive are available to liquidate (turn into cash to pay off their loan, such as your home, stocks, bonds, or other real estate) if the business fails. If they perceive that the value of those assets has declined substantially from the time they approved the line of credit, or they fear that they may decline in the future, most loan contracts allow for the lender to reduce the amount available to borrow.

Since most folks here in the U.S. have been subjected to declining real-estate values and declining investment portfolios, now may be the time to make that investment in your practice and borrow the funds before your bank decides to unexpectedly reduce your line of credit.