Don't Call Me Catty
Don’t Call Me Catty is the unapologetic, plain-talking podcast for veterinary professionals who want real conversations, not sugarcoating. Hosted by Jillian Carr, a veterinary financial strategist, and Leilani Saad, co-founder and CEO of a 24/7 veterinary teletriage company, the show dives into the messy, meaningful parts of vet med: burnout, boundaries, big decisions, money moves, and midnight emergencies.
The podcast began as a pop-up at a veterinary trade show, where unscripted, in-the-moment conversations with the community struck a chord and sparked something bigger. Today, it continues to grow into a movement connecting vet med professionals and their clients through honesty, humor, and the courage to say the quiet parts out loud. Whether you’re leading a practice, on the clinic floor, or you just love animals, this is your space for truth, tools, and the occasional F-bomb.
Episodes
29 episodes
Vet Med Has a Judgement Problem | Dr. Ellen Nicklassen, DVM, MACP
Veterinary medicine asks a lot of people clinically. But what about the human skills that determine how we handle mistakes, conflict, vulnerability, and each other?Dr. Ellen Nicklassen is a veterinarian, practice owner, trained counsello...
The Vet Med Ladder Could Start in High School | Tamara Anderson, RVT
What if the next generation of veterinary professionals got to test-drive vet med before they even graduated high school?Tamara Anderson, RVT, BA Sociology, is an instructor in the Veterinary Technical Assistant program at Olds College o...
Vet Med Already Uses Virtual Care. So Why the Pushback? | Dr. Chris Armstrong, DVM
If your veterinary practice has ever answered a phone or an email, Dr. Chris Armstrong has news for you: you’ve probably already practiced some form of virtual care.So why does the idea still make parts of veterinary medicine uncomforta...
The RVT Glass Ceiling: Pay, Diversity & Finding Your Place in Vet Med | Marina John, RVT
What happens when you stop accepting “this is just how vet med works”?Marina John, RVT, joins Leilani and Jillian at the CVMA Convention in Charlottetown to talk about building a veterinary career on her own terms.Marina sh...
Pressure Is a Privilege? Building a Vet Practice Your Way | Dr. Jennifer Hurford, DVM, CVA, CTPEP
What does it look like to build a veterinary practice around the life and workplace you actually want?Dr. Jennifer Hurford, owner of Foxboro Veterinary Hospital in Ontario, joins Leilani and Jillian for a candid conversation about veter...
F*ck Death: Pet Hospice, Loss & What Comes After | Dr. Emily Hawrysio, DVM, CHPV
Grief is messy and uncomfortable, and it seems no one really knows how to navigate it. We don’t always want to think about these topics... until suddenly we have to. They’re a brutal reality, and we can all do each other a favour by understandi...
Wait… What If I’m the Toxic One? | Jen Cote, RVT
What happens when you realize you might have been part of the problem?Jen Cote, RVT, joins Leilani and Jillian for a candid conversation about nearly 20 years in vet med. They discuss the lessons that came from changing roles, getting un...
Is Vet Med Confusing Resilience with Endurance? | The Founders of Boop
What if the problem in veterinary medicine isn’t that we need to be more resilient, but that we’ve gotten really good at enduring things we shouldn’t have to?In this special episode of Don’t Call Me Catty, Leilani and Jillian si...
You’re More Capable Than You Think: POCUS, Failure & the Future of Vet Med | Serge Chalhoub DVM, DACVIM (SAIM)
Season 2 is here, and we’re kicking things off with Dr. Serge Chalhoub: internal medicine specialist, professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, co-founder of the Calgary Veterinary POCUS Academy and, apparently, Pri...
Hot Wings & Hot Takes: Burnout, Business & Big Feelings in Vet Med
What happens when two veterinary industry leaders put themselves in the hot seat with actual hot sauce? 🌶️In this special episode of Don’t Call Me Catty, hosts Leilani Saad and Jillian Carr take on a hot wings challenge while answering ...
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She Was Told to Say Goodbye… Then THIS Happened | Jen Gibson & Ellyse Bacelic-Grgic, RVT (Felix and Fido)
What if veterinary care didn’t stop at the clinic door?In this episode of Don’t Call Me Catty, we’re joined by Ellyse Bacelic-Grgic (RVT & Founder) and Jen Gibson of Felix and Fido, a ...
Daniella Cox | What Actually Makes a Vet Hospital Work (Hint: It’s Not Medicine)
What actually makes a veterinary hospital work? It's not all about medicine. In this episode of Don’t Call Me Catty, we sit down with Daniella Cox, Hospital Manager at Boreal Veterinary Centre, to talk about what r...
Dr. Greg Andrews, DVM | Buy Stuff, Tell the Truth, and Don’t Be the Cheapest Vet
Jillian sits down with Dr. Greg Andrews: equine veterinarian, industry leader, and founding force behind Mosaic Veterinary Partners, for a candid conversation on what it really takes to build a lasting career in veterinary medicine.<...
Dr. Heather Murphy, DVM | Beating Cancer Twice, Motherhood, & Vet Med
Leilani and Jillian sit down at the 2025 CanWest Veterinary Conference to chat with the incredibly inspiring Dr. Heather Murphy, a Calgary-based veterinarian from Glamorgan Animal Clinic.Dr. Murphy, a 2016 UCVM grad, shares her unconvent...
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Dr. Jodi Viste, DVM | 150 Baby Gifts, a Practice Sale, and the "Euthanasia Song"
This week, we’re talking to Dr. Jodi Viste, and asking her how the heck she has 150 friends. She is a rural mixed-animal vet, mother, ABVMA council member, and a passionate community member. We’re diving into the "extraordinary ordinary" life o...
Liz Blake (Pets Plus Us) | The $40,000 Wake-Up Call From a Pet Insurance Insider
We sat down with Liz Blake, Sr. Veterinary Sales Representative at Pets Plus Us, for a conversation that starts light but quickly gets real.From Halloween costumes to $10,000 emergencies and lif...
Shannon Gervais, RVT | Redefining the RVT Career Path
This episode is sponsored by Solvet Canada: https://solvet.ca/We sit down with the one and only Shannon Gervais, RVT, at CanWest in Banff for a conversation about leadership, entrepreneurshi...
Kamryn Shaughnessy-Gervais | Grit, Rodeo, and Regenerative Medicine
This episode is sponsored by Solvet Canada. https://solvet.ca/Recorded live at CanWest 2025 in Banff, we sat down with Kamryn Shaughnessy-Gervais: Inside Sales Rep at AniCell Biotech, animal...
Dr. Candace Stuart, DVM | Two Clinics. One Territory. Thousands of Patients: Life as a Yukon Veterinarian
We sit down with Dr. Candace Stuart, a veterinarian practicing in Whitehorse, Yukon, at one of only two veterinary clinics serving the entire territory.Dr. Stuart shares what it truly means to practice medicine in Canada’s North, where ...
Shea Lee, RVT (ABVTA) | Challenging RVT Misconceptions & Advocating for Forgotten Animals
Registered Veterinary Technologists are the backbone of veterinary medicine. But so many people (including pet owners) don’t fully understand what RVTs do, what they’re trained for, or how much they carry.In this episode of Don’t Call Me...
Ashley Nicholls (Reach Ag) | Sticks, Coyotes, and the Human Side of Agriculture
Leilani and Jillian sit down with Ashley Nicholls of Reach Ag for a wide-ranging conversation that blends leadership, culture, and real-world agriculture experience with plenty of laughs along the way.Ashley shares his journey from Austr...
Dr. Phil Buote, DVM | Fear, Facts, and Fairness: How Veterinary Complaints Are Really Handled
Complaints are one of the most anxiety-provoking experiences in veterinary medicine. However, they don’t have to be a mystery, and they don’t have to define you.In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Phil Buote, DVM, Deputy Registrar and ...
Thierry (Jerry) Locati, RVT | Talking to Pet Owners Is His Full-Time Job
We sit down with Jerry Locati, an RVT whose full-time job is talking to pet owners when they’re worried, overwhelmed, and unsure what to do next.Jerry shares his path into veterinary medicine, what led him to become an RVT, and who he is...
Dr. Jeannet Kessels | The Facebook Post That Sparked a Global Climate Movement in Vet Med
In this episode of Don’t Call Me Catty, we sit down with Dr. Jeannet Kessels, DVM, founder of Vets For Climate Action, to trace how one moment of concern turned into a worldwide effort to unite veterinary voices for the planet. From th...
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Dr. Savannah Howse-Smith, DVM | She Was a TV Vet. Now What?
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Savannah Howse-Smith: Métis veterinarian, former star of Dr. Savannah: Wild Rose Vet, and Lead Veterinarian with the Canadian Animal Task Force. We discuss her journey from mixed animal practice to sma...