New Episode out - Veg ER

Pets Are Family Podcast | Pet Care Tips, Animal Wellness & Real Talk for Pet Lovers
Hosted by Jessica Abernathy and Tricia Montgomery, Pets Are Family is the podcast for people who treat their animals like the family members they are. Each episode covers pet care advice, dog and cat wellness, responsible pet ownership, and honest conversations about what it really means to put your pets first.
In today's episode, we sit down with Kat, a veterinary professional at Veg ER, for an inside look at what it's really like to work at a veterinary emergency room. From the cases that keep staff on their toes to the compassion it takes to show up every shift, Kat pulls back the curtain on emergency vet care and what pet owners should know.
Whether you're a new pet parent trying to figure things out or a lifelong animal lover looking for practical guidance and community, you'll find something here that speaks to you.
Now streaming on YouTube and Red Coral Universe — subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to VEG ER and Its Vision
05:53 The Importance of Owner Involvement
12:01 Creating a Supportive Team Environment
17:56 Hiring for Compassion and Skill
24:03 Advice for Pet Parents on Emergencies



🐾 New episodes dropping regularly | Pet care | Dog tips | Cat care | Animal wellness | Veterinary emergency | Veg ER | Pet parenting | Responsible ownership

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello everybody and welcome. I'm Jessica Abernathy and with me today is Trisha Montgomery and you are listening to Pets Our Family.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Welcome back to Pets Our Family Podcast. Jessica, it is so good to see you. Gosh darn it.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Yes, it is you too.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

It's been a little bit a little bit of a hot minute here because we are now streaming on the Red Coral Universe platform. We're also on YouTube and you can find us anywhere on Spotify and all kinds of those other great channels. Guys, today we are beyond thrilled to have Kat Strong with us. She is a hospital manager for Veg ER out of Fort Myers. And I will say to you, I have been in the veteriness since 1993. And when I walked into the open house of Veg ER, I was blown away. Just blown away. Kat, welcome to Pets or Family the podcast. We are beyond thrilled that you're here.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Thank you guys so much for having me. This is such an honor.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Oh, it is our honor. I want to talk to you, Kat. Really, you guys, in my in my opinion, and I would imagine many others, and probably your founder, you have completely reimagined what the ER experience looks like from pet care. And you've done this, but was there something broken in traditional emergency vet care that needed to change?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

You know, honestly, I don't know if I can say it's broken. I'll leave that up to the listener, truthfully. But all I can say is prior to working at VEG, I did work in general practice. I, of course, had pets of my own, and my pets are my children because I don't have any human children yet. And so if I ever experienced an emergency with them, I my expectation was that if I were to go to the ER, I would be able to stay with them and remain with them just like you would a human child. But I found that that wasn't the case. And oftentimes they were taken away from me, removed, like to the back room, the mysterious back, which I only really knew what that meant because I was in vetmed. But thinking about it from the customer's experience or the owner's experience, they it's terrifying. You don't know what's back there, and you can only imagine what's in that treatment room or what's in the back, and all you hear your other pets or your own pet may be crying, and that sounds terrifying. So at Veg, we're completely open concept. We just we eliminated the waiting room, we eliminated the reception desk. So when you first walk into the hospital, you're in the treatment area. You're in the back. You're where the magic happens. We never separate you from your pet the entire time you're at the hospital, even if they're hospitalized, even if they go into surgery, you can be right there if you want to.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

I am just fascinated by this. So you I we were taken for the open house in Port Myers. Um, we got taken into the back area and you've got a pullout couch. So you can actually sleep with your pet and you and you can scrub in for surgery. Talk to me about that. How does that work?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

So the pull-out couch you're talking about, we have a few exam rooms because, of course, there are going to be those cases where people are more comfortable in an exam room. Pets might be more comfortable in an exam room. So we treat people like people, like humans, and we treat pets like family. So we're like wherever they're most comfortable. First, I'll start out by saying like we always sit on the floor. So whether it's a cat, a little chihuahua, or a big dog, odds are they're gonna be more comfortable on the surface that they're familiar with, which probably isn't an exam table, it's gonna be the floor. So all of our staff is comfortable with being on their knees, sitting on their butt on the floor, and just having a conversation with the owner and performing an exam right there. But then also, if they don't like the chaos, like imagine a cat, most times there's stress being removed from their home environment and brought to this scary area, they're not gonna want to hear all the noise. Or if it's a bird, exotic animal, rabbit, something like that. We do have the exam rooms, which are soundproof, so they don't hear all the madness that's going on outside in an ER. Or for those families that have to make those really tough decisions and just need some privacy and some time alone with their pet, we have that option too. Those exam rooms can be converted and can be converted into, excuse me, what we call the veg hotel. So if their pet's hospitalized and they want to stay with their pet, like stay the night, we'll actually pull out the couch, make it into a bed, and give mom and dad a place to stay with their dog or their cat while they're hooked up to IV fluids and they get all their treatments. It's not gonna be the best night's sleep. I can promise you that. Because it's just like in a human hospital where a nurse is coming in every hour on the hour. So you're not gonna get a full night's sleep, but at least you get to remain with your pet the whole time. And then you mentioned surgery last week. We actually had on two different cases that had a surgery. The owners had no medical experience whatsoever, but they were very intrigued about the surgery. So our nurses helped help them scrub in properly so that they could go into the OR and actually watch the surgery performed with a hands-on experience. So the doctor was able to show them literally what was happening. One was a foreign body. We were removing some um, I can't remember what it was that came out of the dog's belly, but uh, we removed something. And then there was a pyometra, a cat that had the a pyometra. So their owner got to see the uterus when it was pulled out and you know, the infection that it's also that had an impact on them. They got to see the value of what was being done and the care that was being provided to their pet.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

I I I I have no, I have no words. I really I have to say that because you're educating pet owners and you're giving them a glimpse inside the life of their pet. And I think you're really helping them become better pet parents. Because how many times have you had recurring emergencies like, oh, we got into this, now I got a sock, now I did this, now I got, and it's the same old, same old. To me, it's so much more impactful if you see this and you're like, oh my God, this is what's happened. Do you would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Exactly, yes. And I'll even go a little bit further and say, because we're open concept and owners can be around each other in our treatment area, or if your hospitalizes, so imagine you're sitting in front of the kennel where your cat or dog is hospitalized. We'll even let them out of the kennel and sit on your lap. But next to you is someone else that has their small dog there hospitalized. You know, you're naturally going to engage in conversation. Like, what are you here for? What are you here for? And then you start talking about the experience. And so not only are you learning about the experience that your own pet's having, but you get to share that with the people around you and learn from the people around you. So we've had client education experiences just because they got to witness what was going on at the table next to them. It's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

That that's the power of the human-animal bond. And I I think that's just it incredible that you're not separating, that you're allowing that interaction and that relationship because that's really where everything's starting. Emergency medicine, and well, first of all, any veterinary experience, in my in my humble opinion, is emotional. It always is. It's I, you know, it's anthropomorphismorphism, and it's finished where my feelings are coming out through the pet. How do you how do you work with your teams and how and you guys are nationwide? How do you work to do to balance the urgency with the compassion? Because I would imagine that's a fine line we're drawing.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

I honestly feel like a lot of the cases that come in. Now, when I first started with Veg, I was on the customer experience side of things. Uh so I was that first line of defense. When you walk in the door, you saw my face, you talked to me right away, and I took you to the doctor. But um there were a lot of clients that came in, there were those emotionally charged cases where it's like panic. And truly what helped them the most was being seen and heard right away. So, like not being wait, not being met by a waiting room, not being met by a front desk where you have to check in or sign an estimate right away, but having that ability to speak to a doctor immediately put them at ease so much so that they were able to focus on the care that's being provided to their pet. There are those really intense cases. I'm gonna go like really extreme and say for those cases that unfortunately come in deceased and they need CPR, owners are frantic. Either it happened on the way to the hospital or just prior to coming to the hospital. When you're in that heightened emotional state, odds are you're not going to be able to provide information, you're not gonna be able to receive information. Now, I know my team to know, and when I was a uh CEC or customer experience coordinator is what we call them, I knew that my team was going to focus immediately on that patient. All I needed was CPR status from the owner. Do you want us to try to resuscitate? That is a that's what they know. That's all they know when they come in, is like, yes, save my baby. So we get that green light, the team gets going on that. They're not even speaking to the owner. That's my focus. So I'm doing breathing exercises with them, I'm breathing with them. Let's get to do a place where you can at least calm down a little bit. It's actually a passion of mine learning how to like regulate your heart rate in the moment and deal with stress. I love high stress environments, so it I love it. It's just a passion of mine. Um, so learning new ways to navigate those challenging conversations and get owners to a place where I can then tell them what is going to happen. I'm not gonna collect all of your personal information right away. I'm just gonna let you know that right now, they're doing everything they can to save your pet. In a moment, the doctor's gonna come over and they're gonna have some questions for you. So, my focus right now is getting you to a place where you're prepared to answer those questions. What do you need from me? Is it do you need to calm down a little bit? Do you need a minute? Is there anybody with you? Stuff like that. How can I make you comfortable? Can I get you water? Can I get you something to eat? Is your blood sugar low? Stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Yeah. I I I Jessica, any any thoughts here?

SPEAKER_01 10:58

No, I just I think I just ate chili too, and my stomach's gurgling. Thank you very much for the conversation. You know, and where you're going, don't throw up. Just don't throw up. This is not gonna be good. Um, I didn't think about that before our conversation. So it's it's it's it's cool. It's very cool what you guys have. It's a great concept, you know. I mean, it's but I can see people freaking out, you know, walking in at the same time and and and forever, but losing their, you know, I'm not gonna swear, but losing their mind, you know, losing their poop emoji, you know. Um and that's that's gotta be hard. So I can see your job being very valuable. I mean, more so than ever before.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

I think that it's because we see more success stories than we do those really hard cases. I would say most of our patients walk out the door. Once they come in, they get to leave. And that's what the rest of us celebrate. So me and my staff will celebrate the wins. We will become invested in cases. So when they leave the hospital, like that's a win for us too, you know. We celebrate that. We celebrate that with the family, like we are truly vested in that. And I think because we have uh a motto of like find a way to say yes. So because we have the flexibility and the team knows that like we can bend the rules, you know, just because it's it costs this much and mom can't afford that doesn't mean that we can't bend the rules a little bit and find a way to make it happen for them. So I think because we have that flexibility too, it preserves the mental um, the emotional load of working in emergency medicine. It it really helps us retain our staff and gives them the autonomy and the freedom to make decisions that they feel they need to make in that individual moment.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

We need one of you down the road from my house. I do. I I Trisha knows how I feel about the ERs here. You know what I mean? They're just they're not they're not good at all.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Oh well, I think even the experience that I had and cat, we have band-aids on our fingers. I just noticed that you have a we have kind of matching band-aids going on there. So I don't know. Um, but one thing that struck me was I had an an emergency. I had brought I I won't go into it, but I contacted uh an emergency hospital, and the first thing that they said to me is, it's going to be$500. Do you have a credit card? We have to take your payment the minute, and that was it. That's what happened when I walked in. And, you know, no like lovey, you know, emotional, no, how are you? You know, no relationship, like I need your credit card now. And you know, cold, sterile environment. I'm sitting out alone outside, just the same as you, you know, and you're out there and you hear the cries, you hear the screams, and you know, um, and the whines. And it is that my my pop is that my cat, and you know, just very, very, very impersonal. And I wonder, and looking at, you know, just a thought, is this something that veterinary medicine can now learn from your team? Is uh is that possible?

SPEAKER_00 14:31

I hope so. I mean, I I would say that I would beg to argue that that's what our CEO, Dr. David Bessler, that's what his vision is, is to change veterinary ER and to change the industry as a whole, because it's been a long time coming. We've we've noticed that there's there's a lot of toxicity in Batman. There's a reason why we have the highest suicide rate than any other field. And I think it's time that something changes. And I think I truly believe that I've been with the company for five years now. I truly feel that veg is paving a way for the veterin to get out of that toxic environment that we've been surviving in for however long, you know.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Yeah, I agree. I mean, if you and think about cultural burnout, and then from a standpoint of compassion fatigue and you know, protecting your team, you guys, from what I understand, you are known for being super selective and qualities. And I was at one of your grand openings, and you're one I think your lead veterinarian thanked her parents for getting her to where she was. And I think her parents, it was just I was so moved on that day. It was I I've been in veterinary medicine since '93. I just I look at what you're doing, and you're doing things differently.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

I just don't know. I met so many of my staff's parents that night. It was it was amazing. I'd like to take my mom and my dad.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Thank you for putting me up and the money. I'm like, oh my God, I love you. I just loved it.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely love that because like we we try to find opportunities to come together like that. I I've always tiptoed around the idea, and as a leader, I I've found that it can be really uncomfortable for some workplaces to refer to their team as family because it they don't act like family. You know, like you're not there for me in the hard times. And so I'm very careful about using that type of terminology in my work environment with my people because I don't want them to feel like I'm overpromising. I want them to feel like I'm actually following through on the things that I'm saying. So I expect feedback from my team. I expect them to hold me accountable. If I'm not holding up my end of the bargain, I want to know about it. And I make it very clear to them we're fun, we're playful in that way, too. I want them to know that like we have friendly banter. It's it's part of the Veg culture, too. And you mentioned us being very selective about our team. I can say at Veg Fort Myers, the medical director, nurse, manager, and I, for six months, prior to opening, interviewed almost 400 candidates to select our staff of 30 people. Are you serious? That's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

It's a lot. Wow, that's insane. 400 in a good way, very good way, but that's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

It is so you you went from 400 candidates for and for 30 positions. Mm-hmm. Wow. What qualities are are most important to you and your team, Kat?

SPEAKER_00 18:05

So obviously, skill is very important to us. And we found that um this particular area in Southwest Florida, skill was very hard to find. So we so pairing skill also with the mindset that's comfortable with the open environment. Many people that have been in vetmed for decades just have never worked in front of the owner. And the idea of suddenly doing it in a high case volume, high stress environment, now immediately in front of the owner that's also emotionally charged, that's terrifying for some people. And so I'm not opposed to bringing on a team member that's nervous about it or scared about it. But if they're reluctant and very um um not on board with finding a way to make it happen and curious, I look for that curiosity and that interest in working with owners. I love finding candidates that are interested in client education and that focus a lot on that human-animal bond. It is crucial to us because we want that owner to have a part in their pet's vet med experience. And so I'm looking for people that are interested in saying, Mom, do you want to come over while we're placing this Ivy catheter and just pet your cat's head? Or, Mom, do you mind holding on to your pup real quick while we um give sub Q fluids or something like that? Like I want them to find ways to incorporate the owner into the care. And so I asked really hard questions in the interview process to filter out those people that I I it was actually easy to identify them once we did. Um, but there weren't very many, to be honest. And it's I think it's because it's new, you know, that degree in this area.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Well, and and also bedside manners are not taught in veterinary medicine. They're just not. I mean, uh, you know, they're all about the pets and not about the people. And we know, or at least I that when people go into veterinary medicine, they go into veterinary medicine because they're not, they don't really like people. But you gotta have you gotta have a love for both pets and their parents. You just have to, yeah, and and a personality. You just you you absolutely have to have that is.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

What made it really go ahead? What made it really like even harder for a lot of people is veg is their hail mary, so like they're already burnt out, they're already looking for an exit door to vetmed because they've had such toxic experiences before. So the idea of trying something completely new for some was really refreshing, but for many people it was like very taxing. And the idea of relearning something is just too much for them and just would put them over the edge, they fear.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Yeah, I can see that. I can see that because it's you're it's almost like, what are you going to unlearn? What are you unlearning? What are you learning? And it's, you know, and I think unlearning is as much uh importance as learning is because you have to, you know, you're you you're fishing on the same side of the boat, you know. I'm used to those same thing doing the same way, and how do you break those habits? Is there uh Kat? I know you guys have only been open for a month now, but you've been with the team. Is there a case that has just stuck with you um from you know a human connection standpoint that just stands out that you could share with us and share with our audience?

SPEAKER_00 21:39

I might cry a little bit if that's okay. Um, but I'll try to get through it. So our medical director, Dr. Gonzales, um, her and I worked together prior to Veg Fort Myers. We worked at our South Tampa location. Um, we had an an owner there who was an older gentleman who suffered from um Memory loss. And he would come in about every other day because he believed that his cat, his cat's name was Julie. It was a male cat. Um, he believed that he had uh urinary blockage, and so he was terrified that his cat was blocked, and he kept coming in every other day, forgetting that he was just in and had him checked out, and he kept a little journal that documented every trip. And so we would put notes in there for him, like Julie presented on this day, wasn't blocked. It was okay to go home, but nevertheless, he would come back, didn't have the funds to do anything, but we stopped charging for it. Like we just at this point, we recognized that the need was for him to have that peace of mind and knowing that his pet, his cat wasn't blocked, and that was his whole world. He was all by himself. We sent someone to um do a we even like contacted the county to just make sure that he's okay since he didn't have any well, yeah, like a wellness check just to make sure that he was okay. Um when the hurricanes came through. We made sure that he was okay and that he was um taken care of. But nevertheless, he still came in with Julie, still getting checked out. And uh the doctors at South Tampa, all you know, when you come to an ER, you never know what doctor you're gonna see. So all of the whole team was familiar with Julie at this point. And everyone knew that inevitably it was gonna come the time that Julie was going to pass, and that they did not want to be the one that had to do that, had to euthanize Julie. Um, because Julie was really declining in health too during all these visits. And Dr. Gonzalez was actually the doctor on the case when this gentleman brought Julie in, and it was end-of-life conversation, and we had to document in the journal that Julie had passed, and he called us a few days later. We offered to even go home and bury Julie for him, but he said that he wanted to do that himself. He called back um the next day, forgetting that he had euthanized Julie, so we had to have that conversation with him again. Um, and this happened repeatedly, but you know, that it was took a definitely took a tool on the team, but um, we were just thankful that we could be there for him and be there for Julie when Julie needed it most. Um, and I'm just really proud to work for a team that that loves people that much and loves people's pets that much. So that will stick with me forever as a prime example of how we truly value people and their pets, especially being there for them when they need it most. And we bend the rules. Yeah, we we find a way to say yes.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

Oh that was beautiful. That was so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. I mean, I I think our audience is gonna I think just there is no box. There are no rules, in my opinion. I think there you it's not thinking outside the box, there is no box, and you do what you need to do to make that happen, and and you know, find whatever reason to say yes. I think you've got that on your when you walk in your um in the in your thing. For the uh for pet parents who are listening, what are really I I think sometimes we overlook these signs, but what are some signs that you need to go VR now? What are some things that that pet parents would need to know? And what emergencies do people wait too long on?

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Hmm. Are we talking specifically to the Florida area?

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Just any anywhere, anywhere, yeah. Or I probably I'm probably one of those moms that wait too long. You know what I mean? You know, if you think about it, you know, four hours of his butt bleeding on Sunday probably was waiting too long, you know.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Well, all I can say, um so I'm not a doctor, and so I can't provide medical advice, but I can say that a lot of people are reluctant to go to the ER because they're afraid of the cost, or they're afraid of the amount of time that it's going to take out of their day, or you know, how long is the wait gonna be and stuff like that. So at Veg, we make it really easy. You can call any of our locations at any time and ask to speak to a doctor. You will be on the phone with the doctor that's on the floor, no charge. You can have a conversation with them about the symptoms you're seeing. And if the doctor feels it's an emergency, they'll tell you to come in. If it's not an emergency, and it doesn't sound like you can only triage so much over the phone, of course. Um, but if they feel that it's something that can wait and go to your primary care physician, they'll advise you to do that. We're not just trying to get every case in the door. There will be a lot of times though, where they say, I just I need to get eyes on this pet just to determine that. In some cases, they won't even charge for the exam fee, depending on what it actually is. If it's just for the peace of mind, like just come in, let me take a peek. They look okay, all right, go on your way, type of thing. So I'd say if it's if you are concerned about what your pet's experiencing, don't wait. Just call your vet, call a veg, ask to speak to a doctor, and they'll be able to advise you on next steps.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

How many locations do you all have now, Kat?

SPEAKER_00 27:39

We were the 120th, and I believe there have been five that opened since us. So 125.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Congratulations to you and your I mean to the team and your founder. Absolutely. Where do you see emergency veterinarian five, 10 years? Where do you see it going, Kat?

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Well, I do see Veg having an influence on what the experience looks like for other people. Yeah. I see I've seen a lot of primary care hospitals and other emergency hospitals come to VEG just to sit in for the day, just to say, can I see how this actually works? Or I do have some primary care, like managers and medical directors that own practices, they'll say, like, this is great, but does it actually work? Like, how long does it last? Like, if I were to come back six months from now, would this still be the same? And I challenge them, I say, come back in six months from now. Come hold me accountable. If there's anything that you see different that isn't better, you let me know. So we invite those people to come in, see what's going on in the hospital, and then take that back to their hospital. We don't have secrets, we're open concepts.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

I am absolutely incredible because the thing is, if you share, I mean, if you share, you're only educating, you're only helping veterinary medicine. But if you hide it, it's like, oh, this is mine, mine, mine. Nobody benefits in the alone, including you. So I think everybody's welcome to the party. That I mean, Jessica and I talk about that all the time from being you know, inclusive versus exclusive. Everybody's welcome. I mean, that's with Moose's march. Everyone's welcome. Um what if you could give some advice for somebody entering or wanting to become a veterinary technician or emergency medicine or shelter? What's one piece of advice that you would give Kat?

SPEAKER_00 29:39

I would shadow. I would ask to shadow every type of veterinary medicine that you possibly can think of, even if you're not interested in it. So that means shadow somebody that's in uh general practice, shadow someone that's in emergency, shadow shelter medicine. It all looks vastly different. If you want to try zoom medicine, like try that too. Do an internship somewhere, um, just exposure to all the different options that are out there before honing in on exactly what it is that you want to pursue. Because I found that a lot of technicians only knew GP, and so they went through the process of getting certified. They had to study things related to zoo medicine, shelter medicine, and emergency medicine. But then when they got a career in general practice 10 years down the road, they don't remember anything from emergency medicine. So when they they then decide to transfer over to emergency, it was quite challenging for them. They just had to learn, they felt like they were starting from square one again, and it can be really um discouraging. So I would say just get exposure. Don't be afraid to get eyes on what that position actually looks like before pursuing the career.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Wow, wow, wow. Kat, this has been fascinating. We have a fun thing that we do at the end of the show. We're gonna do some rapid fire questions, and it's just one answer, one answer only. So I'm gonna throw out the question and you're gonna answer very quickly with one answer. One myth about ER care.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

One myth about ER care?

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

That it's all about the money.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Oh, the most common emergency you see. Blocked cat. Hardest case emotionally. One thing every pet parent could have done at home.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

Ooh, that is a really good one. Probably had an emergency savings for their pet.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

How, okay, I'm gonna follow up with that. How do pet parents prepare for emergencies? How do they prepare? What do you what do you recommend?

SPEAKER_00 32:08

I would say have an emergency fund available. I personally just through my experience in vetmed and um when I think about any general emergency, most emergencies you can get by with$1,000. That's not saying like obviously there's gonna be emergency service uh surgeries and stuff that are gonna be much more than that, but having that starting point, like get yourself a good emergency savings of at least$1,000 just to set aside. If you don't need it, amazing. But just set it aside in case of an emergency like this so that there's no questions asked when you come in. You can feel comfortable without feeling like you're not gonna be able to pay your groceries, stuff like that. So just have an emergency savings.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Just a question for you, Kat. Sorry, keep continuing on with this line of questioning. What percentage of the public or the people that come in don't have that thousand dollars?

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Um, I know this statistic only from um, I'm a big follower of Dave Ramsey, who is a financial planner and everything. And know him well. Yeah. One in three families are not prepared to cover an emergency that costs a thousand dollars. So I would say that that's probably consistent with VetMed as well.

unknown 33:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Wow, wow, wow. Cat, uh Jessica, do you have anything else you'd like to ask of Kat?

SPEAKER_01 33:39

No, you cover it all, especially in the rapid fire. You're really good.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Wow. Kat, this is uh we see, excuse me. Hello, Mr. Brutus. How's your how's your butt doing?

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Say it's it's it looks like I got a giant pinful on my butt right now.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

Kat, this has been wonderful. How can people find you? How can people find out about Veg ER?

SPEAKER_00 34:03

You can look up Veterinary Emergency Group or Veg.com and you can learn all about us. You can find the nearest location to you. You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and uh well, all the social media platforms. I don't do that, but uh someone manages it and it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

I love that. Kat, it has been just our honor and our joy to have you truly. Our audience is just, I they're gonna love this. And I I thank you for sharing your experience. I think you could spend your time with anybody. Thank you for spending it with us today.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Well, thank you. I had a great time chatting with you guys. So much.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Thanks and bye-bye, everybody. Bye. Bye bye. Thanks for listening to Pets Our Family. You can find us on all the channels now. Yes, all the channels now. So make sure you share us with your friends, your families, and your coworkers, and anybody that has a pet. Make sure you like us, give us your feedback, tell us if anything that you want us to talk about, all that fun stuff. You can reach me at jessica at petsarfamily.net or Trisha at petsarfamily.net. Thank you for everything that you guys do. But make sure you like us, subscribe, um, check us out on YouTube. You can always see what we're up to. And we want to thank all of our sponsors, all of the people that support us. We love every one of you, and we can't thank you enough. And remember, check out Moose's March, MoosesMarch.com. M O O O S E S. M A R C H dot com. Come check us out. Talk to you guys soon. We'll see you next week. Bye.