Veterinary Ethics Bio

Kisses from Cookie

I was asked to do a podcast from the Vet Ethics Committee. With that I had to add a bio. ChatGPT helped. It was an odd way to add an unknown perspective to a life I have outside of the clinic and its reach. Here's what I submitted...

Dr. Magnifico is an innovative veterinarian and passionate animal welfare advocate. She hopes to continue to build a legacy of being known for her commitment to an innovative, ethical and a patient-centered approach within veterinary medicine. She sees every animal, and their caregivers, as being worthy of compassion and is committed to preserving and maintaining the bonds we have with the pets we call family. She is currently specializing in the management and treatment of FUO/blocked cats by utilizing a minimum database, managing costs with outcome and budget as the starting point, and never giving up regardless of the obstacles presented. In essence she practices the way her patients need her to; the old fashioned way when integrity, loyalty and trust were all paramount to longevity and viability.

As the owner of Jarrettsville Veterinary Center, Pawbly.com, founder of the Pet Good Samaritan Fund (a 501c3) and Not One More Pet, Dr. Magnifico operates with a strong ethical foundation, prioritizing compassionate care and client education. A key area of focus is finding solutions to economic euthanasia, where financial barriers often force difficult decisions for pet owners. By offering a spectrum of affordable care from the onset, Dr. Magnifico ensures that every animal, regardless of their owner’s financial situation, has access to the veterinary services they need, thereby preventing unnecessary suffering and premature decisions.

Dr. Magnifico is an advocate for fair access to care, transparency in treatment options, and informed consent in every facility, in every case. She has proven that you can do good and do well in your practice. For every act of kindness, good will, and pro bono care the return has doubled. She shares her cases, challenges, and obstacles on multiple social media outlets and has built an Army of change who support others in kind. It is possible to be ethically driven and financially successful. She has also proven that it is also possible to wear your grubby, fragile, intense heart on your sleeve and be peacefully content within your practice. It is possible to be the vet your little girl self dreamt of becoming.

With a dedication to both medical innovation and ethical integrity, Dr.  Magnifico works to shape a future where veterinary practices are accessible, sustainable, and rooted in compassion for both animals and their families. 

Thank you again for considering me and for all that you do to help others.

With gratitude,

Krista

The Ethics Of Choosing Welfare Over Profits

One.

There isn't one hour of any day that we don't discuss the financial impact of veterinary care and its influence on the pets we share our homes with. 

The strategy for balancing care and cost is to prioritize animal welfare and focus on providing the most effective, cost-efficient care possible. This may involve recommending alternative treatments or procedures that are less expensive but still effective, or working with clients to develop a treatment plan that meets their needs and budget.

I have been asked to give a talk on ethics in vermed to the SVME, or, Society of Veterinary Medical Ethics. Now maybe every veterinarian doesn't spend as much time in the veterinary mire as I do, but, every veterinarian, heck, every human is muddling through this minefield every day.

For me it comes down to who I am. Why I am here. What veterinarian did I set out to be all those years ago. The years when I was small, helpless, feeling overlooked in a world of other meek beings who were always at the mercy of someone bigger and stronger. The perspective of need was the place I dwelled. I was alone in a world that had other creatures around me in the same bucket of existence between luck and mercy. I grew up primarily on a farm. For all of the beauty and joy it held there was disease, suffering and death. I was never a child to go quietly into the night. I was, as those around me taught me to be, resourceful, resilient, and determined. Every dog, cat, sheep, horse, bird, bug and other showed me how to be at one with my surroundings yet waiting for fate to come challenge you at your most vulnerable. I learned this at a very early age. I learned value was relative. It came with a perspective that dictated fate based on the pocketbook, whim, and emotional value its own placed upon them. I also learned too early, that I had little to say in matters of care when a bill was included. When our dogs found porcupines and cried in the laundry room all night awaiting the vets office to open. When the cat got stuck in a fence but wasn't worthy enough for surgery. I never accepted that my dearest companions were any less worthy than any other being around us. I failed miserably at state fairs, thanksgiving dinners, and any other event/entertainment that allowed animals to be used for amusement or waste at our expense. I was shaped by so many instances of seeing the world differently because the animals who insulated my life brought love and I couldn't be a part of cruelty to any of their brothers or sisters. 

I was, and remain the same girl. The girl who looked so deeply into the eyes of her sheep and horses that she saw a reflection of herself within them. At least a reflection of gentle kindness she wanted to be. Those moments of companionship for comfort were my first biology, anatomy and ophthalmology lessons. I was learning as I was being cared for and to them I owe lifetime of debt.

When medicine came I knew that I was here for more than a professional reimbursement. I was here to put them, their health, happiness, and liberties above profit and gain. For as much as vetmed emulates and follows human medicine we have lost the connection that binds us so passionately to our professions purpose that we cannot be dissected from it. My mission, the seed of the soul of who I am and why I am here is so metastatically entwined with how I practice that I would walk away from medicine before I would surrender her to it. There are few cases where a humans life is endangered by my patients, these are the choices that I struggle with. The behavior cases, the rabies suspects, the ailing parents who cannot manage their pets care and cannot see that they are incapable of seeing the part their forgetfulness plays in their pets lives. These are the ethical dilemmas I call my minefield. These are the places I cannot tell if I am enabling cruelty albeit disguised as loyalty and ownership.

If human medicines primary ethical obligation is to the patient, why then can't mine be the same? Why would I put a Standard of Care above the ability to provide care? Why does money always find itself at the root of all evil?

If this profession wants to reap the benefits of following in human healthcare, all of the advancements, miracles and yes huge profits then maybe it's time to remind ourselves why our clients are willing to seek, and yes, pay for them. Maybe it's time to remember that our clients come to us because they, just like the little girl I was, and am, want to protect the being in their lives that give it peaceful acceptance and purposeful worth. Maybe it's time to gaze into our clients eyes and see a reflection of ourselves as we want to be seen.

Cookie. How I adore this girl.
Addisonian. The purpose lies within

The physician’s first professional obligation is to his patient, then to his profession. His ethical obligation to his community is the same as that of any other citizen.

The Avenues Of A Legacy

We are open from 8 am to 8 pm Mon through Thurs. On a typical day, I'll pick yesterday as an example, I see about 11 appointments in 30 minute slots and then as many emergencies as call and need to be seen. Yesterday 3 vets, all working a 12 hour shift, saw 17 emergency same day fit-ins.

At 745pm a 9 year old up to date on its annual exam and vaccines presented for an acute onset of lethargy, inactivity and inappetance. Within 1 minute of the physical exam my gut told me this dog was in trouble. It is the gut feeling that you get with experience. I spoke to the owner. I had to have a quick, frank, troubling conversation without any diagnostics to lean on.

"I am worried about your pup. We are dehydrated, the gum color is mucky, and our belly looks distended and is painful. I think you need to go to the ER." She shook her head in agreeance. 

"I just knew something wasn't right." She replied.

"Ok, I am going to go make some calls."

I called the two local ER's both are about 30 mins from the clinic. 

In the days of the ER's opening and inception the primary objective was to honor the referrals of the local general practices. We were the bread and butter of their business model. There was an understanding that if we referred it meant these cases took priority and needed to be there. The acute episodes of milder emergencies would be deferred, or wait. Last night when I called to transfer both places refused to take the case.

I called both of them the next day to try to understand.

I was given very different answers, neither I expected, from the veterinarians who are the medical directors.

The first ER told me that when they say they are full they are full. Hard stop. She did add the perfunctory exception. "We always take the euthanasia's. We don't want to make them wait." Now, it might sound like an act of basic compassion, and in some cases it is, but, it is the easiest money a veterinarian makes. If you cannot make room for patients that are trying to live but dying, versus the dying and can't afford other, then I am skeptical. Disturbed. Irritated. Do I understand the reality of over extending and over burdening an engine? Hell, yeah! There are times where I know I cannot add one more case to the day without repercussions. There are moments that I want to run screaming from the building, ripping my scrubs from my body to be thrown in the trash as some last desperate act of freedom. But, then I remember who I am and why I worked so hard to get here. And, so it remains that many of our emergency patients won't, can't, refuse to go elsewhere. 

The other provided an apology. "We always take veterinary referrals. It is our first obligation." Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I reiterated that I would only send them on after we were unable to provide care. I also promised to go over expected costs and scenarios so the pet parents wouldn't be caught off guard. There is a painful reality to being sent elsewhere with a potentially dying pet and then being given the news that you cannot afford to be here. You have no options and the vet that you knew and felt you could trust has been responsible for it.

The subject of emergency care at our general vet practice is a harried history so long that it bears context and consequence to discuss it.

Jarrettsville Vet has been around for over 80 years. A long, long, long time. Over that time we have been the place for all things animal related. We have seen the transition from farm animals as our primary patients to dogs and cats that are now provided every luxury a human has. We have grown from a clinic with 2 exam rooms renovated from a single story home, to an 8 exam room facility open 7 days a week. We have done (almost) every surgery imaginable. Open chest, transfusions, horrible accidents, wounds, and cruelty. We have worn every hat from every specialty because we had to. We can transform from a bleached, pressed, white coat to a trauma center in seconds. We are still the people of the place this has always been. A rural, humble, practice built upon longevity and honesty. 

We, the team at JVC, has learned together that there isn't much we cannot do. We are never alone in our cases and we never abandon each other. Maybe that is the marrow of a legacy that 80 years grants you? Maybe it is just the collective fabric of a group that has always understood their place, their importance, and the legacy that time and dedication grants you.

Resting

 

Resting

I don't own a comfortable chair.

...something is unsettling about becoming settled.

"no rest for the weary" meets "idle hands," and all the bad lot that follows.

I have always run along a timeline. Able to see the hourglass sands finding their way to gravities desires and not complacent in its calling my name aloud. Running so fast the destination is as obscure and fleeting as the journey. The days fly by as the clock with its unyielding and unforgiving schedule gets fatter, fuller, and more demanding. Most days I wake up on Monday only to find it Thursday afternoon. 

While I don't have a soft inviting chair, I do have a cloudy resplendent bed. It is the only place I go to rest. The rest is, well, kinetic chaos to complete a task list that includes peaceful compassion to allow every living thing to flourish. I don't seek accomplishments only a dreamers canvas. There has to be sleep even in the obsequious near absence of relaxation.

Wally. Cats and hair ties.. 

Over the top is what best describes it. Over the top is what describes it all. Every last moment is so full I cannot ever look back with regret or remorse. I filled every day with all of it. Every intention to be as full as it could be. Ask hard questions, look for challenging answers. Never walk away from someone or something you can help with. Push so hard there is just a wall that reminds you this is the end. Doesn't everyone want their end to be simply because there was no gas left in the tank?

Maybe being a veterinarian, the profession with the highest suicide rate, the most compelling reasons for death, is exactly the place to know how fragile it all is. Maybe seeing the reflection of your own soul in the eyes of every other soul that comes to you is the best mirror. Maybe this life was meant to be so full of need that you didn't have time to ask yourself if you ever needed the bullshit that floods social media. Maybe the billionaires seeking more stuff are so lost the clutter is a way to fill a hole that just gets bigger from indifference? Maybe the secret to life is living it in all of its hardship while you make the moment last just a little longer than everyone else can by giving it all away.

Perla, pyometra

I'm not wishing for anything other than what I have. I wouldn't do a single second of it any differently. I am, however, looking for a more peaceful plod through it all. A way to be grateful, purposeful, and feel alive. I don't want to go back, do it over. Find the pieces easier the next time, but it would be appreciated to not feel so worn out by Friday. There is the key I am missing as I chase the sands through the bottle neck to settle in the shore of time.

The Insulation of Greed.

I routinely post the same content on multiple social media outlets.

For the last 15 years here's what I have noticed.

The more we become insulated as a society, community, country, (the list goes on), the harder it is to relate to others who are not in our position. I also believe that some of us choose to take from those who have less as we (believe) we all have to fight for the same pieces of wealth.

Why does such a divide exist when there is so much wealth around us? Why would we choose to take more, deny more as we continue to try to insulate ourselves from some unknown fear? We are not living in poverty. We have a home, clothes, possessions, people who love us and yet we spend so much time and effort trying to deny others the same? It is so difficult for me to understand.

I recently chose not to put up a flagpole because I am not going to be told to fly the flag for a domestic terrorist who made friends with the like, and not lower it for those who actually do deserve a military honor. I would have lowered it for Jane Goodall. A universal symbol of unity, peace, and kindness. My husband and I have both worn a uniform and sworn an oath to the constitution. We have more right to posting that big flying flag in black and white with "We the People" etched on it than all of the white men in trucks who paid to have it put there and never once took a second to contemplate protecting justice, tranquility, general welfare, but merely to defend their bunker of assault weapons that has only made school children more afraid, and likely to die from mass casualty shootings. I could go on, and on. 

Jarrettsville Vet has created this sanctuary for its people. We are a wide brush safety net for our patients and clients. When I post about the despair present in vetmed. The collateral consequences is insulation that despair happens to others. Routinely people show up at a veterinary medicine facility and cannot afford much, if any, of the treatment plans offered. 

When I do put up a post about economic euthanasia in vetmed on our JVC facebook page it gets no views. It feels like it is not relevant. It makes me wonder if I am insulating and fueling the indifference?

"Hope is about action." Jane Goodall. 

Hope is not wishful thinking. It is observing a problem, rolling up your sleeves and working hard to achieve the thing you are hoping for. I am hoping for compassion, kindness and sharing all so that we all can thrive.

To all of those I work with on a day-to-day basis in rescue you understand. Encouraging people to go to the shelter, save a life without a breeders lineage tree, (and price tag which for reasons I find mind-boggling insinuates that they are "more desirable," "less likely to have X-Y-Z problem" (which is total idiocy) is arduous and exhausting. The fact that people think they are getting a better guarantee of anything (insert hypoallergenic, no behavior issues, special, etc. with a higher price tag is ludicrous. Rescue people, vet people, know this. The idea that shelters/rescues house animals with hidden defects is also fundamental biased, prejudiced, and wrong. I had a recent equally ridiculous discussion with a person upset that they couldn't take one of the kittens we were helping "for free" and would instead have to adopt them through a local rescue for $150. I tried to remind them that $150 adoption fee is a $350 savings from the price tag of care through JVC for three cat visits, vaccines, spay/neuter, deworming. They could only see "free" which leaves me to question whether that kitten was ever going to get any care after possession. Live a day in the trenches of rescue, factory farming, puppy mills, deforestation, genocide, and let me know how safe you feel.

Here is the post I put on JVC Fb that got no traction. On a rescue page, professional outlet it received both comments, shares, and scrutiny because it is relevant and relatable.

The Recommendation

Many decades ago I was in your shoes.

I see in you exactly the same character flaws. An unwavering blind ambition so strong it can best be described as a rip current. The kind of underwater force that you don't see coming and have to give yourself into it to in fact save yourself from it. A force of nature. An untenable belief that is so powerful you bend to it so as to hopefully not be broken by it. This is what magic, miracles, and civilizations arise from. This is what medicine needs as its nidus to become its next iteration. This is what heals, compels and inspires those that follow us.

In my shoes, so many years ago as I set forth to build my own career, I called it blind ambition. It was my most valuable asset. I grafted it to my compassion and I let it take wing. To this day I am still this girl. A creator of possibilities among a sea of sharks who will never dream of being anything else. They can do them, I am sticking with me. She will carry me on journeys to far away places. She will keep me grounded when the civil war around me beckons me to dump my kindness and throw stones along with the masses. She will be the girl saving the wrens, the bees, and the poppies in the fields. She will never be alone, and she will never seek harm for personal gain. There is comfort in the little beings who need me. Whatever you want other people to know about you is reflected in your belief in yourself and how you live your life.

It is impossible for me, or anyone else, to define, defend, or promote you in any capacity that should ever matter. Life is just that way. A long road of bumps, pit stops, sunbeams breaking from clouds, and trees to find that place that you belong simply by the terms you define it to be. Never consider another opinion, or definition to where your place belongs. Never ask for a letter to remind you who you are not, nor care if they provide it. You are all you ever need to be. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and do good. The world will welcome you and you will find your place.

P.S. IF I can find my original letter to the vet school I will post it. I am sure I have not strayed from its gravitas, but, I hope it remains buried. I don't need to look back to remember where (or who) I want to be.

Skipping on repeat.

 It’s 1:51 pm Friday. I am getting into bed. Wearing the attempt I had at 10 am to go for a run and have a day that might include more than one item from the to do list. 

I’m going to disappoint myself yet again. 

It’s time for bed. Time to give in and admit defeat. 

I lose Friday. It is taken. Collateral damage to the price of Sunday through Thursday. The day that the lord needed to rest. The human equivalent of Monday morning disease the work horses of the early 1900s faced. When men went to work in the factories from Mon through Friday and arrived home to plow a field sat and Sunday. The consequences were horses that tied up by Monday. You have to pace yourself to avoid the painful reality that you are not the athlete you once were. 

The current anguish of my body is this. Everything is worn out. The stuffing is misplaced. The blood isn’t carrying oxygen to the eyelids. They hang like old velvet drapes of a widows cave. Too cumbersome to open. Too frail to collect the edges and fasten in place. They have given up hiding the frosted lens that only seees shadows and ombré. 

The week is a blur of still images slowed to a pause. The names, diseases and dilemmas have all bled together. I ask myself the same questions. I don’t know if I can answer truthfully to most of them hem any longer. 

Yes I did my best. 

No I didn’t abandon anyone other than myself. 

Yes I might be burnt. 

No I don’t want your advice. Maybe this isn’t the bottom. 

Yet. 

And still the world goes on around me. Inspite. Or despite. I have no intentions that I can write down and hold fast too. Just the music of a dance I taught myself long ago. I make the same motions on the same stage. Day after day. Expecting something to be different and never changing any pieces. The definition of insanity fueled by longing within the chaos. A poet or the muse? Does anyone know? Is there any point in asking? 

I’ll get dressed again tomorrow. Tie the slippers. Don the robe and smile once more in the sunshine that skips on repeat. 

Frippie