Episode 18: Fur Pet's Sake—Veterinary Dr. Jeanette Wilson

Jeanette Wilson, DVM, sits down with Izzy and David to discuss her holistic and western mixed veterinary practice, "Happy Earth Pet Hospice," where she specializes in at home end-of-life and quality-of-life care. Wilson discusses her passion and how it led her where she is today.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Hello and welcome to Voices of the Albemarle. I'm your host, Izzy Kelly Goss, and I have my co-host David Prizer here as always.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

I'm here.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

He is here. Today we're going to be speaking with Dr. Jeanette Wilson, who is a veterinarian from Barco. Dr. Wilson owns Happy Earth Pet Hospice, where she provides gentle and loving end of life and hospice care for the furry family members of northeastern North Carolina and Southern Virginia. But before we jump into that, uh to start things off for our three little news pieces, the weekend that this episode comes out, the second Bassmaster Elite Series tournament will be held here in Elizabeth City.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

Speaking of pet hospice.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Okay. If you have a Oh, fish. Yes. Well, I don't think those are pets. I think they tend to run a little wild, swim a little wild.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

But the tournament will be held from June 11th until the 14th. Last year's tournament was the first time in Elizabeth City in years and years and years.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

If they are if there are bass masters, are there bass PhDs?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

I know there's bass amateurs, but I don't that's that's all I got for you. I don't know about bass PhDs. Where would you go? School of Fish. I crack myself up. Anyways, last year uh was the tournament's first time in Elizabeth City for a long time. I think it was the Bassmaster Elite series first time, but Bassmaster has a few different tournaments. Um, the winner, Kyle Welcher, actually won the majority of his fish right here in Pasquatink in the river. Very, very no near the as opposed to Main Street. No, in the Pasquatink River, but the the anglers were allowed to go pretty far. I think some of them went closer to like the outer banks. Oh but he caught 20 fish here for a total of 118 pounds, 12 ounces, and he caught them right off of Waterfront Park. He stayed pretty nearby. Um, so I think that bodes pretty well for for the Pasquatank River.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Uh he's probably fished the whole thing out though.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

No, actually, you'd be surprised. Bass fishing is becoming a lot more popular here. This is their second year. Um, and uh from what I've understood, it's actually pretty rare that they return somewhere two years in a row. Oh, so we must be pretty special.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Oh, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

But speaking of waterfront park, um, the free summer movie series hosted by Elizabeth City Downtown Incorporated, kicked off on June 2nd with Bewitched, and we'll continue every what? With what Bewitched, have you ever heard not the TV series, the movie with Nicole Kidman and Will Farrell? Um although the TV series, that was pretty good too. I've seen that. I watched that a lot as well.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

I like Will Farrell, but that wasn't my favorite movie.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

I thought it was pretty good. I liked it. Um but that will continue as Anchorman. Well, no, they're very different movies. I should hope it's nothing like Anchorman.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Sandiagol.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

The summer movie series will continue every Tuesday night at 6 p.m. until July 21st. This year's lineup from the time this episode airs will include Nights in Redanthi, Drumline, The Dish, Hancock, Temple Grandin, and Steel Magnolias. I love Steel Magnolias. Have you ever seen that movie?

SPEAKER_03 3:34

It sounds like there's a lot of chick flicks.

unknown 3:37

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Hank have you ever seen the movie Hancock?

SPEAKER_03 3:41

No, I don't even know what it is.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

Is it by John Hancock? Is it by the signing of the Declaration of Independence?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

No. All I will say is I'm pretty sure that out of those movies, Steel Magnolias is the only one that is what you call a chick flick.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Okay. Well, I'm not.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

But just so our audience is aware, while the previous screenings have been held in Mariner's Wharf Park, this year the movies will be screened at Seven Sounds Brewing Company. Um, according to ECDI, it just makes things a little bit easier, makes it a little bit more weather resistant. So everybody should be sure to check that out. It is free. It's exciting. I did it a lot as a kid. My parents used to take us. It's pretty fun. They have snacks, they have concessions. Um, and then for our third news piece of the day, a meteor weighing as much as an elephant broke the atmosphere above New England, going 42,000 miles per hour the weekend of May 30th, which when we're recording this is a very good thing. Tons. Literally, literally tons. But the meteor was five feet wide, so shorter than me, but five feet wide? That's yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

And it weighed as much as an elephant.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Yes. So imagine how huge it was.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

Well, you just said it was five feet wide.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yeah, but it's that's pretty dense. If it's gonna be like five feet wide, then imagine how was it a rhymed or a parallelogram or everybody will have to read the Associated Press article to find that out for themselves because I did not check. I would imagine it was a sphere of some sort. A sphere, not sphere.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

Imagine.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

But according to NASA, it fell into the Cape Cod Bay along southeastern Massachusetts. That serves them right. Okay, Mr. Chicago over here. Uh, not to be confused with Mr. Chivago. Okay. But on that note, I think we're gonna fly on over to our conversation with Dr. Wilson. Thanks again for tuning into Voices of the Albemarle, and thank you to Dr. Jeanette Wilson for joining us today. Thank you for having me here. We are very pleased you're here, and I'm just gonna jump right on in. Um, you own an end-of-life pet care service. So obviously, with your profession, animals are very near and dear to your heart, but this is not a service that you see every day. So I would love if you could tell us about how this idea came into fruition.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Yeah. Um, so I have been a veterinarian for the last 15 plus years. Um, when I came out of practice, I worked in emergency and general practice. And about the time that I even realized services like this existed, I was starting to have people call the hospital I was working at and saying, we want to schedule a quality of life evaluation with Dr. Jeanette. And it was happening very frequently. And it was clients that had never been to our hospital. And at first I was a little uncomfortable by it, like I was becoming good at something that was a little odd. Um, but the more I did it, the more I realized how helpful it was and how natural I was in that space. And then I met um a doctor in Hampton Roads, which was back in like 2015, who exclusively did hospice end-of-life care. Um, and I followed her for a day. And at the end of the day, I knew this was exactly what I was supposed to do. Um, so I jumped uh into her practice. Um, and I worked with her until about 2022 when she was uh the kind of changed. Uh, she was bought by a big, a larger company. Okay. And so uh that was around the time where I had become certified in acupuncture and herbal medicine and food therapy and all of these very gentle, you know, treatment options for older pets. And so I moved over to the only other private practice in Hampton Roads that did end of life in hospice care. But I was the only one doing all of these non-traditional things. Um, and so I started to get the idea, you know, rather than explaining to somebody else all the value in these things that I've learned and why we need to incorporate this into hospice care and give these as palliative options. I thought I could just do this myself. So my family decided to move to North Carolina um last summer. And so when I moved, nobody had this out here that was located out in North Carolina. Um, and so I said, let me give this a try. Never did I think I was gonna own my own business. Um, and that is was definitely the scarier part because I felt very comfortable in the hospice end-of-life space. But um, it's you know, definitely been a high learning curve. But I I think the community has very much welcomed being able to have somebody located in this area that can come to them more quickly.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

Can I ask you, what's the most I've gone through this before with a pet. And I I guess I'll ask you, do you is your is there a unique aspect about the fact that you use um alternative methods? Or are those excuse me for saying it like this, are those just other ways that you can treat um the animal during this period? I mean, is is that the focus of what you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Yeah, so um I I've spent so much time learning all of, you know, the disciplines in traditional Chinese veterinary medicine. And um, yes, so it offers options that make a significant difference. I can't tell you, you know, when I I joined the practice in Hampton Roads, you know, around 2015, she was certified in acupuncture, and I watched her patients just do amazing where they had no options. And pets that were given a prognosis of a month or two months were living a year or two years. And I mean, that's beautiful. You know, Western medicine is so good at treating things that are acute. You know, you have an infection, you get antibiotics, you have uh, you know, a break, you get a surgery. But Western medicine is, you know, not good at treating those chronic conditions. You know, if you've got a sore leg for the last five years, ibuprofen a lot of times is not enough. You know, you're still feeling sore, you're still feeling achy. And the way Eastern medicine works, it looks at disease in a completely different way. You know, there's an imbalance in the body, something is either working extra, something is not working enough. And you can restore that balance from all the different modalities that, you know, TCBM offers. I can't tell you how many pets I have had that have a specialist, you know, they have an internist or, you know, a neurologist, you know, something uh that they've tried and exhausted all of the options and they're just told, you know, now we're at end of life. Now we need to make the decision. And then somebody searches out these alternatives, and then they come on board and they do amazing, you know, whether it's acupuncture, herbal medicine. And I find a lot of times those are synergistic. So rather than one plus one equals two, one plus one equals 10, um, these pets go on and then they see their specialists and they're like, I can't believe your pet is still here. You know, this this must be a miracle. This must be, you know, they kind of tried to put it as just something that they didn't expect, but they're happy that it happened. But but anybody that studies, you know, Eastern medicine, they know the value that comes with with all of those treatment options.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

My my family was uh an acupuncturist for two-legged beings, not four-legged beings. But um it you Chinese medicine is not just for the hospice, it's for it's for you can you can treat animals and and and humans uh using those modalities to throughout. It's not an end-of-life uh specialty necessarily.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yep. Which that kind of actually leads me to my next question. So thank you, David, for setting me up on that. How often do you uh see patients where you're not just doing end-of-life care, you are doing better quality of life care? Yes. Because you do combine uh Western veterinary medicine with with the traditional Chinese medicine. So I would imagine you see not just end-of-life care, but quality of life as well. So what is what is like the mixture on that?

SPEAKER_01 12:51

So when I worked in Hampton Roads um and I had entered the practice, we didn't have a big hospice patient caseload. And then over the two years, as Tyler kept getting certified in more things with Chinese medicine, and I got my acupuncture certification and kept going that route, it grew incredibly. Um, and I would say probably 25% of the pets that I would see in a week would be hospice palliative care with these modalities incorporated. And about 75% would be end of life. And that could be end of life from a previous hospice care, you know, that we had managed for quite some time. Um, but I would definitely say there wouldn't be a day that I would be seeing pets where I didn't have at least one pet in my schedule that I was either doing acupuncture or seeing for an integrative consult. Right. Since I came out here, I'm getting my name out. Um and so right now um I probably have about 10 hospice patients that I've been seeing for more than months. Um and I would say, you know, even from the very beginning, when I first started the practice in August 25, um, at least one or two pets a month were reaching out specifically for hospice. Right. But it's hard because, you know, hospice can be a hard word to say out loud for a lot of people. Yeah. You know, it's admitting that something is going on that's very sad and, you know, something that they wish was not happening. Um and so I definitely would say I think uh getting in with the regular vet hospitals and getting my name there, that's been really helpful. You know, and my hope over the next year is to actually get to these hospitals and give them a little short, quick presentation on just TCVM, all the things it has to offer, because there's still a lot of veterinarians that don't even know about traditional Chinese medicine. And when they have a patient where they've exhausted those Western options, you know, they have something else they can offer the client. And a lot of times they may even, especially in Hampton Roads, they would offer this before they've exhausted it because they saw the benefits on the pets that we've seen before, you know, so they they refer earlier. So I think it's still getting my name out, but I really do hope, you know, to make that more the majority of my practice. Um, because I enjoy doing traditional Chinese medicine and hospice care and palliative care. You know, we we spend so much time loving our puppies and our middle-aged doggies and doing all these things, and then they get old. And, you know, we feel a little helpless. And these are things that make us feel less helpless. Like we're doing something gentle and supportive.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Isn't isn't traditional Chinese medicine? Maybe maybe not the right words, but health maintenance more than like you said, Western medicine is for the acute, and traditional Chinese medicine is keeping a healthy lifestyle and keeping your your body going and am I right? 100%.

unknown 16:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Keep keeping you in balance.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

You know, and and I definitely would say, um, like you had said, traditional Chinese medicine truly benefits all. You know, the young puppy that's the athlete that is, you know, overexerting their body helps them bring them back to balance better. I've just found, you know, I love puppies. You know, I would be odd if I didn't say that.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

You you love puppies, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Of course I love puppies. If if I'm in a clinic, he was gonna kick me out of the podcast if I said no. Everybody loves puppies, but if I'm in a clinic and the adorable eight-week-old German Shepherd walks in and the gray old pity that's 17 years old slowly swaggers in with his old man walk, uh my soul is nourished from the pity. Okay. And and I love the puppy, and I will kiss the puppy and take the puppy breath. Yeah. But I did my body just gravitates to the doggy that has all the wisdom, that's lived this beautiful life. I just I feel my calling to help that pet. And a lot of people want to help that puppy. And I love that there's people that want to take care of the puppy and set that puppy up to be successful.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

And I think that's a great segue into my next question. Um, you said you've been doing this particular type of care for around 10 years. You've been a doctor of veterinary medicine for over 15. Um, on your website, you have all of these amazing things. You have a pet memorial page, which I read through some of them and I was tearing up. Um, you have grief support information. You obviously view our pets as very important, I almost want to say people, very important figures in our life. And I want to know from your more persp personal perspective, what drew you to this field? Is this something that you've always known you wanted to do? Was there a particular experience where you were like, I would love to be able to take care of animals? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

I I think most of most of us veterinarians, we came out and we started saying, I'm gonna be a veterinarian when I'm older. You know, um, I remember when I was little, my best friend, she was the pediatrician for all of our stuffed animals, and I was the veterinarian, and everybody was happy, healthy, and you know, safe and comfortable. And um I was a smart kid, but I wasn't like, you know, the smartest. And everybody always told me when I was younger, you know, you need to be really smart to be a veterinarian. And I was really um, I was really good at art. And it was just natural and easy. And so everybody kind of pushed me in that direction. Um, and then I went to undergrad in a special program for Bachelor in Fine Arts. And my mom, um, my second year got breast cancer, and she is good and she's fine. Um, but I took, I dropped, I left school. Um, and I came home and I worked in a shelter. And between what was going on with my mom in life and the shelter, I was like, what am I doing here? I need to do what I really wanted to do. I need to be that little girl who was keeping all of those stuffed animals safe. Um, so I went back to school and um I got an advisor and I said, I want to go to vet school. So help me because all I've done is do art. And he said, It's impossible. He said, You will never be able to do that. You haven't taken all the classes. And when he said that, I said, Oh, I'm gonna go to vet school. Thank you. So I in just three years, I took all the prerequisites, I got all the things I needed to. And like I said, I applied to 10 schools, ended up getting accepted to three, and went to Kansas.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

It's a hard field to get into, is it not? I've heard that from like a few people that I know who have gone into either like veterinary technician fields or or full-on veterinary medicine. Um, it's a very hard field to break into. It's very competitive.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Yeah. When I was applying, I want to say there was 24, 25 schools, I can't remember in the United States. Um, and yes, uh, they only have a hundred students in each class. Wow. So that means that really you're only making 2,500 vets in a year. And there are a whole lot more people applying than that. Yeah. So um, yeah. So where did you end up? You said you got into three schools. Where did you end up going? I went to K-State, um, so in Kansas. Uh, and I'm so glad I did. It opened me up to a whole lot of things that I never would have maybe chosen to do.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

So, how did you end up going from Kansas State to Hampton Roads and now into North Carolina?

SPEAKER_01 21:03

So um, after at the time I graduated in 2009, it was a big thing to do surgical emergency internships for a year. You'd have to apply for them just like you applied for school, and then you get accepted, similar process. So I got accepted into um a really high uh volume practice right outside of DC in Northern Virginia. Okay. Um it was the best experience. My learning curve was very steep. And um, after that, I had always vacationed in Virginia Beach with my family. Okay. And I loved Northern Virginia, but I didn't like that I wasn't close to the beach. So I found a job out here, out in, you know, Virginia Beach area. And um, I moved there and I liked it and I didn't like the job. And I just kind of followed the path that happened organically, and I moved around all the cities of Hampton Roads. And um, you know, when my my My daughter is nine years old. She was born in Norfolk and lived in Chesapeake. Um, and me and my husband, we just always wanted kind of land and calm. And he's from Tennessee. Uh, so you know, we we just started looking and we're like, well, this is so close. And the other thing was when I worked in Hampton Roads, I used to come and do appointments out in Elizabeth City, um, in South Mills, you know, even as far as like CoinJock. And um, every time I would be like, Oh, this is gonna be such a long ride. And then when I come home, I call my husband and I'd be like, I am so glad I went out there because I would meet just beautiful people, be just beautiful. And I was so glad I could support them. So when we started thinking about places, he's like, You always say that when you come back from there. Why don't we actually look out there? And then it just all came together. And I was like, Yeah, and the perfect home, you know, right area. So yeah, it just it felt right.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

And now you guys are in is like the barco area. And while you're there, you do cover, you cover a very large area. You cover, I can't even list them all. It'd take up the rest of our time because you just really have such an expansive area, which I think really is just a testament to how big your heart is for this operation. Um, Pasquatink County, Camden, like you said, Shiloh, Shawborough. Right, yes, yeah. Because you go to people's homes, you go in in home care. Um, and then you still service areas up in Virginia, uh Chesapeake. Yep. So is this operation, is this all you? This this is all me.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

I wear a lot of hats. You do, yeah. And and you know, when I first started, I had a smaller radius, but what was happening was, you know, I get people and there were no options. It's not like Hampton Roads, where there's five of these types of practices. So I get somebody in Kill Devil and I'd be like, I don't come there. And then they would be stuck. And I was just like, this is not okay. Like, you know, and I a lot of like talking to my husband and trying to work through this. And, you know, so now, you know, we go to Nag's head, and you know, I I could only say no so many times to Edenton. And then I was like, There's just too many people out there that love their pets and want to have this experience. So I have expanded the radius, um, and and I feel good about it, you know. I I know what I'm able to do in a day and how far I can go. Um, but yeah, I I so far it's working out pretty good, I think. Um I know people are appreciative of going a little further.

SPEAKER_03 24:37

I have experience trying to with a a pet trying to locate uh a practitioner or a clinic that would help with something close to to end of life. And it was difficult, very difficult to find. And I was I was not here, uh, but uh I'm talking about when I was in San Francisco, we were trying to find something specific, and it wasn't easy, even as big as that is it wasn't necessarily easy to even even identify what it is I was looking for. So it's it's I can imagine even today moving forward, that was uh ten, twelve years ago, I can understand today that that even today that people may not know exactly what they're looking for. They just kind of know I want I want something different for for my pet. And it's it's not like uh a mainstream type of thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

Um, and I can appreciate what you're saying, especially in this area uh you do have to cover a wide area because it's it's it's rural.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

Uh but uh that again that's a testament to you and your and your activity. Um how fast and you you're relatively new, you're getting your you said you're getting your name out there. How fast is your clientele business growing at this point in time? Is it growing is it is it growing fast?

SPEAKER_01 26:00

I I would say so. You know, the first um six, eight months I worked at a general practice kind of just to, you know, support my family as the business was growing. And about two months ago, I stopped that um and exclusively in, you know, doing happy earth.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Um typically when I was in Hampton Roads, you know, it's it's pretty normal to see about 40 appointments in a month. And the summers tend to get busy, and that includes hospice, you know, end-end of life care. Um so in the summers, normally you'll see one person between about 40 to 60 appointments in a month. For the last two months, I've seen about 30 appointments in a month. So I I would say growing pretty quickly. Um and as a one-woman operation, too. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

That's amazing. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 26:51

What kind of animals are do you I'm I'm thinking, bo, my dog, but there are other animals in the world. Uh, what other kinds of animals are you?

SPEAKER_01 27:01

I I just see dogs and cats.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Um, there are people that come in home and and see other types of animals. Um, so like your pocket type, you know, gerbils, hamsters, and I even get phone calls about those guys sometimes. Right. Um there is, you know, veterinarians with large animals that can come to your home. Um, but there definitely is less options out in this area, unfortunately. And I know you mentioned, you know, trying to find um, you know, maybe not knowing what you want or looking for a source of information. You know, I do get a lot of phone calls that are outside of my service area that I truly can't get to, that are two hours away or further. Um, and I always try, I always do give them something so that they can at least head in another direction. There are two good directories that I normally give out. One is called Love Baxter, and it has many of the hospice end of life practices in it. It also has grief support, but somebody can just enter their zip code and they get a list of people that are in their service area. So I normally provide for anybody that I can't help that. Um, and the other one is Vet Angel, um, and it has a similar list, but sometimes one practice is on one list that's not on the other list.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

So end of life sounds final. What about let's say I have a pet that has an affliction? It's not it gets around and it's relatively happy, but there is something about the dog that that it it's going to limit at least a full lifespan. Yeah. Is that also the the type of if I want a good quality of life for that animal, I uh are am I looking at you too?

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Yeah, so any anything that becomes life limiting.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

You know, um, whether it's mobility and a lot, a lot of pets that I've helped, you know, they were struggling, they were on all the drugs, you know, the non-steroidal, the gabapentin, the glucosamine supplementation, and they're still can't get up, can't get down. And you add in acupuncture, you start herbal medicine, now all of a sudden there's the light in their eye, you know, they don't need to be gurnieed to go to the bathroom. And I've had pets that, you know, just acupuncture alone added on to all the Western stuff that had already been done. I mean, they've gone on and had years of good quality of life. You know, instead of leaving this world at 12, they're leaving at 15 and in a happy way. You know, and I think most people would agree every extra day that you get, that is a good day. So years of extra days, I mean, that that's a gift.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Absolutely. And just kind of thinking about, I'm sitting here thinking about my sister's dog, who he's so cute and I love him. And Cole, our producer, is raising his eyebrows because he lives next door and I'm sure he hears him bark all the time for snacks. Um, is that correct, Cole? Do you hear him barking constantly? And your little doggy Rufus, he's cute too. But I'm thinking about my sister's dog specifically. Because he's he's getting older. And as he's getting older, like you said, he's dealing with those mobility issues. But as he's gotten older, a large issue that he's facing, which he has faced previously but is continuing to face, are allergies. Yep. He has a lot of allergies, and I'm curious to know if Chinese medicine is helpful for things like that. Because I know in in human medicine, specifically Eastern medicine, can be very helpful in terms of allergies with acupuncture. Have you found that there are things that acupuncture treats more um more adequately?

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Yeah, so definitely the the goal is restoring balance, you know. And so if there is an imbalance in the body, traditional Chinese medicine, veterin can address it. Um, I have definitely had pets that, you know, maybe we're we always want to focus on what the thing is affecting their quality of life the most. So when we do that and we put that imbalance, often the other things that we weren't necessarily trying to make better get better too, because the pet as a whole is stronger. You know, their immune system gets stronger. Um, you know, and when you have a stronger immune system, your gut is stronger. So, you know, everything is linked. I think sometimes in Western medicine we look at things so individually. You know, we're doing this, um, but that doesn't affect this. But truly, anything that you put into the body and you shift is going to affect everything else, even if just a trickle effect. Um, so yes, I have seen pets with allergies that they don't respond well to Western medicine. They've tried all the drugs, you know, and then you add in something herbal normally. And food is a big player too. Not necessarily food allergy, but just giving foods energetically that makes sense with what's going on with that individual pet. You know, some pets run really hot. And so if they're on a food or protein that is energetically hot, we're adding more heat into the body. So we're, you know, even if it's a novel protein, it's not adding, you know, so it's about kind of finding the pattern that's going on with the pet and giving them something that addresses that pattern and shifts balance.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

That is so interesting. Um, shifting over more to, speaking of shifting, over more to the operational side. Um, this is a huge question that I think is important to this particular topic for the podcast. There are going to be people who are listening to this who have not heard of you before and are going to consider your services. Um, obviously, this is very helpful to a lot of people, especially because, like we've talked about, this is a rural area. It can be hard to find. What can people expect when they approach you about this, specifically in terms of people who are searching for end-of-life specific care, end-of-life hospice care?

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Yeah. Um, so, you know, I I look at every family and pet as an individual. So when I get a phone call, you know, my cup is not empty. You know, I listen to what somebody is looking for and what somebody needs, and we kind of work through where we're at and what the best direction to go in is. You know, there's some families that just want to have a conversation, you know, and that is all they need. You know, the the 15 minutes they get at the vet hospital wasn't enough to kind of put out to the world all of the fears, all of the worries, all of, you know, the unknowns. And so I do do virtual consults where we just talk and we work through this and we go through quality of life. And typically with those appointments, I'll have them send me a video of their pet, at least two or three in the last 24 hours, so I can see what they're seeing. You know, I can see that pet moving, breathing, going to the bathroom. And it's amazing how much I can get from just three 30-second videos. There's some people that need to see me in person. They want me in their living room. They want me touching their pet. And a hospice consult, although I have this similar flow every time, you know, we go through history. Um, you know, we talk about observations, current concerns. I do an exam that's not invasive, you know, so it's not stressful, easiest visit of this pet's life, whether we're a cat or a dog. And then we go through quality of life scale. Sometimes that appointment is an hour, an hour and a half. Sometimes that appointment is three hours. There's a lot to be said, you know, but it's very rare at the end of that appointment for somebody not to say to me, wow, I feel so much better. You know, it's just like a weight lifted off because they were able to say all the stuff that was in here that is very hard to communicate in the vet hospital with the puppies and the loud and the, you know, the time limit. Um and then there's some people that reach out and they just know it's time. And, you know, I think we all we go to vet school, we have this degree, that's great. We got letters after our names, but the family knows their pet better than any window we get. And so they've seen their pet every day for a long time. When somebody calls me and they say, It's time, I have no doubt it's time. You know, I I don't ever show up at a home where I haven't seen the pet for a hospice appointment. You know, the first time I'm seeing them is end of life. And when I see that pet, you know, I see exactly what the family sees.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

So um there are some families, you know, they call me for end of life and they want to schedule, you know, today. There are some families that want to schedule three weeks from now. You know, I've I've had pets schedule longer than three weeks from now. They've got a process that they know is not gonna go away. Let's say a German shepherd with, you know, hind-end issues. It's been going on for a while. The dog's still eating and he's looking, but he can't walk on his own. And they say, you know what, we want to make this a Ferrisbular month. We want to give him all the beautiful things, you know, have every cheerleader come over and love him so good. And on this day, we want to say goodbye.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

Um, I also have families where their pets were fine. You know, they were older, they were a little tired, maybe being managed for something. And then all of a sudden we went from okay to black and white. There's an emergency now. Um, and that is not a situation where somebody's missed something. Our pets are just really good at masking how they're feeling. But I've had people call me and say, it's time right now. This is not good. And I just shift things around to get there as quickly as I can. Sometimes it's an hour, sometimes it's a few hours. You know, luckily pet people are very understanding. So if I have an appointment scheduled and it was scheduled a week ago and I have an emergency call, most times I can reach out to somebody and say, hey, is it okay if I just come an hour later? You know, are we in a good place? And people are kind, you know, they want to help their friend.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

Izzy, you do me a favor when it when my time comes, remember the cheerleaders are gonna I will not.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

No cheerleaders for you. Oh weirdo. I know you have a lot of cheerleaders. What kind of are we talking like Dallas Cowboy? I wasn't picturing cheerleaders. I think that's what you meant, unfortunately. Is that what you meant?

SPEAKER_03 38:13

That's what I thought we were talking about.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

That's what no your cheerleaders are gonna be me and Chris. We're gonna come and take a picture of you and and use it for I don't think it's anything. And then we're gonna go, go, David, go. Wow, we're getting way off topic. We'll discuss your end of life care later when we're not on the podcast. No, but um like we've talked about, this is a unique service. And you kind of touched briefly on it, but I do want to ask you more specifically, because this is such a unique service and because this is such a delicate subject, despite David's cheerleader comment, do you feel like your bonds that you create with people? I'm sure they have a lasting impact, but from your perspective, how do you feel like they have a lasting impact, not only on yourself, but on the pet owners as well, on the on the people who you're helping?

SPEAKER_01 39:18

Yeah. So, you know, I always remember when I followed Tyler that first day, I was like, how do you make these relationships so quickly? Like in my head, you know, it takes a minute to, but it's amazing, you know, people know that we're there to help, you know, we we bring the energy with us that's calm and loving. And their pets know when they're being helped, you know. So even the pet that maybe doesn't need somebody they don't know, it's amazing how welcoming they are to you and how they just know that we are doing something that is good for them. Um, so you know, I would say my experience over the last, you know, 10 years, there are people who reach out to me months later, years later. I just had a family that I helped many years ago that was outside of my service area. And she said, you know, her dog, her father's dog was in a place where she needed help becoming an angel. And she said, I know we're not in your service area, but I will drive anywhere. You helped my pet leave this world peacefully, and I want you to help this pet leave this world peacefully. And we've we found a destination. And I mean, she drove a while, and and it was a beautiful day. Um, and the pet left very peacefully. But I feel like the ending is so important. Um, you know, we have this beautiful, spoiled life with all of this good. And sometimes when things don't end the way that we wished, it leaves something with us forever. Um, it could be just heavy feelings, it could be guilt, it could be just not stuff that was consistent with the way the pet lived. So I think people remember the goodbye and um it gives them comfort. You know, it doesn't define the whole life, but if the goodbye is consistent with how they lived, we can look back in a peaceful way and just not have any of those feelings that we don't need.

SPEAKER_03 41:27

I will I will validate that 100%. Two things. You said animals know when they're being helped. And the end-of-life experience I had with with a German Shepherd, I could tell. I honestly could feel uh that the dog was more at peace that I was there and um at the time my wife at the time uh were there with the dog. And I will also tell you that going through that with the dog gave me I I mentioned it to you this before, gave me I don't like to use the word closure, it sounds very selfish, but it it gave me a very positive feeling that I I I felt as though uh the dog really knew that we were there, and that was that was what it was all about. It was it was making sure that the dog knew it was the time to for this to happen. But the dog was okay with it. That's what I I honestly believe that.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

Yeah. I do too. And I think what you do is very beautiful, and um, like we said, we've said this over and over again, but it's it's not something you see every day. So obviously your heart is in it, you can tell that, and I'm sure this area is more than lucky to have you. Thank you. And our podcast has been more than lucky to have you on today as well. So thank you very much. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_00 43:00

And just so everyone is aware, can you give them your business name and and where they can find you?

SPEAKER_01 43:06

Yeah. Um, so uh my business name is Happy Earth Pet Hospice. And if you just add a dot com to that, that's my website. Um, my number uh is 252-310-5858, and that is a textable number. So I do have some people who just are not in a place to talk and they want to text. And so sometimes that's how our conversation flows, and that's okay. Um, I don't have a brick and mortar, you know, so it's just me coming to home. Um, but I have gone. Some people prefer to not be at a vet hospital, not be at their home. And I've gone to every location that possibly could be. So there is no um vacation, no place I wouldn't go to. Um, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

Well, again, like we said, thank you so much for coming on our podcast today. It's been great having you, and we wish you so much luck in getting the word out there. And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in to another episode. We hope you stay tuned. For anyone that isn't aware, we have switched to weekly, so be sure you are checking our Instagram and Facebook page for updates and our Buzz Sprout website page.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Our our Facebook page. That is our daily advanced Facebook page.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

And then our Instagram page is Voices of the Mark.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

Maybe at some point we'll have the Izzy and David page, but not.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Oh, that's a fun idea. Stay tuned for that as well. Thank you so much.