My name is Tyler, I am an emergency veterinarian; my vet techs call me Suggs. I have been in the veterinary field since I was 13 years old. Growing up, I was constantly rescuing animals. Animals have always been a big part of my life. When I was old enough, I started working in clinics as a veterinary assistant and worked my way up to veterinary technician before pursuing my doctorate in veterinary medicine. One thing that struck me when I was a tech was that every time the veterinarian left the room after speaking to the client, the client would turn to me and ask, “What did they say is wrong with my pet?”.

During vet school, we are basically taught a whole new language. Diseases and injuries are complex processes that require this specialized language, but not every pet parent understands our lingo. It is our job to then distill our knowledge and translate it into something more easily understood. This is not easy, nor is it intuitive.

After graduating vet school, I completed an internship in emergency medicine and I have remained in emergency medicine ever since. Time is of the essence during emergencies and I find that I must portray the severity of a situation to a pet parent very quickly. Seconds matter, and I may not have much time to save a pet’s life. Though my goal is to always communicate the complex situation with clear, concise language I know that it is difficult for pet parents to remember everything that was said during our brief exchanges. We often provide a great amount of information that is not easily recalled later on. My goal with this podcast is to bridge the gap between what I (and my fellow vets) were taught in vet school and what is communicated and understood by the pet parent. It is intended as a reference that can be listened to any time there is a question regarding a certain disease or injury. My hope is that this will make veterinary medicine easier to understand and allow the pet parent to take the best care of their pet they can.

Besides veterinary medicine, I also love cooking, hiking, and learning about a multitude of topics. I also produce a podcast for my technicians to be more knowledgeable and have published research about the clients perception of veterinary attire. I love to spend time with my 3 ducks, 11 chickens, 2 dogs, 3 cats, and 1 leopard gecko. The ducks have quite a personality.