Rick LeCouteur: [00:00:00] Animals, wildlife, the environment all need people with the passion of a veterinarian to help in this journey.
Megan Sprinkle: Welcome to Vet Life Reimagined. Our guest is kind and funny. It's Dr. Rick LeCouteur. I'm going to say Dr. Rick, despite my Southern upbringing, Dr. Rick graduated from veterinary school in Sydney, Australia in 1974, and he has a lot of life and career to reflect on, and he hasn't lost an ounce of enthusiasm.
He came to the US and became a neurologist and neurosurgeon. This man studied brain tumors. He performed one of the first CT scans. He was the first chief veterinary officer for the NAVC, and we don't talk about those things in this episode. We talk about moments in his career that show his values and personality.
We talk about persistence. And people who see our potential. We talk about his motto by teaching. We learn, which he lived out in his many years [00:01:00] teaching at UC Davis. He also became an amazing wildlife photographer while leading veterinary professionals on wildlife expeditions, and now he uses his artistic talents of photography and storytelling to write impactful children's books.
To inspire future generations for conservation. I feel very lucky to have crossed paths with him. His books are truly remarkable. If you are looking for a great gift or books for your waiting room, these would be ideal. I'll link them in the description below. I want to thank Dr. Rick for being such a huge supporter and encourager for me on this podcast mission. And I want to thank you as well. I love creating these for you and your support keeps me going. Now let's get to the conversation with Dr. Rick LeCouteur.
When did you know you wanted to get into veterinary medicine?
Rick LeCouteur: , I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a vet, probably six or seven years of age when a veterinarian came out to our farm [00:02:00] and took care of my horse.
And I was just fascinated by it. And from that point on, it was tunnel vision. I often wonder if I'd been exposed to other things, whether I may have chosen a different career and I look at today's young readers and I'm just so thrilled that they are exposed to so many possibilities. But back in my day, you sort of decided and that was your course and you stuck to it and people expected you You just stick to it.
The most common question I ever heard was, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I knew I needed an answer for that. I wonder in retrospect, whether perhaps, I should have started writing and illustrating and photographing wildlife a lot earlier in my life, but, uh, better late than never.
Megan Sprinkle: Yes, exactly.
Now, just to set the stage for everyone, you grew up a little West [00:03:00] or maybe a lot West, depending on your perspective of Sydney, Australia. do you mind sharing just a little bit about your childhood? What did your parents think when they heard you say that you wanted to be a veterinarian?
Rick LeCouteur: Yeah. So, I spent my childhood about 50, 50 between our family farm, which was.
almost 300 miles west of Sydney. , not quite to the outback, but very tough country. And we grew sheep and cattle and wheat and, and oats and, and alfalfa. And it was a typical mixed farming enterprise. And, I used to go to Sydney to go to school and then every other second I would spend at the farm outdoors, which is, something that is.
Unusual today where kids have so much screen time, they don't get outdoors as much as they should. But my childhood was spent outdoors. And, , as I've already said, I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a [00:04:00] veterinarian. And of course my parents were, extremely supportive. I come from a long line of, Educators and, so I, I received a lot of encouragement along the way.
Megan Sprinkle: I guess schooling in Australia is a little bit different than the U S. So is your university kind of. With vet school, how does that work in Australia when you were going through?
Rick LeCouteur: Yeah, it's a little, it's a little different, but I must say it's a trending towards adopting the American model, which is pre vet and vet, but I went straight out of high school at the age of 17.
And my admission to veterinary school was based on my matriculation from high school performance. And I went into my first veterinary class at the age of 17, which is quite different. It's a five year course in Australia, and, uh, yeah, started very young [00:05:00] and, Megan, I have to make a confession to you, uh, because it's very relevant to persistence and patience.
And that is that I failed my first year of veterinary school. So it took me six years to get through. And the reason I failed my first year of veterinary school was because I was so immature. I had been to an all boys school. I went to university, discovered that there was more than one gender, uh, bought myself a sports car, found the rugby club, and I'm afraid that my studies came forth.
I, I'm so happy that the system told me that I needed to come back again. And so, uh, yeah, Sydney, university is in Australia is where I went. And yeah, it's still rather different in the sense that, , the pre vet requirements are limited in Australia. I really am an advertisement for a [00:06:00] pre vet period of time, because had I been to college.
and experienced what it was to be a grownup. I don't think I would have failed that first year of veterinary school.
Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. There is something to be said of that undergrad years of you're, you're really there to figure out yourself, who you are, responsibility and all of that. Now, When you thought about being a veterinarian when you first went in and, you know, had the rude awakening of, okay, yeah, and I don't need to study. Did you have a picture of what that looks like? Like, did you want to do small animal, large animal mix? And did that change at all?
Rick LeCouteur: Oh, that's, uh, that's cutting right to the heart of things, Megan.
Yes, I did have a preconceived notion. Having, ridden horses since, a very young age, my, parents used to call me a pimple on a pumpkin [00:07:00] because I was so tiny and riding a big thoroughbred horse. Um, I was going to become an equine veterinarian and I certainly channeled all my efforts into that throughout vet school.
And I, got to the end of my training probably five years of training and one year of growing up, but I realized that there were a lot more opportunities to practice advanced therapies. in small animals, and so I decided to go to a mixed practice, which dealt with goats, horses, cattle, dogs, and cats.
And after spending a year there, I really reinforced the idea that I wanted to take veterinary medicine one step further, and that Equine practice was not quite the direction I wanted to go. So I ended up [00:08:00] taking the small animal path.
Megan Sprinkle: Now how long did you stay in Australia before you decided to come over to the United States?
Rick LeCouteur: Ah, so I graduated in, , 1974. So this is a long time ago. As a matter of fact, I, I just celebrated with my classmates, our 50th vet school graduation, and, went to Australia and it was so interesting, Megan, a bunch of old people turned up and I thought I was in the wrong place.
And then I happened to glance in a mirror and I saw that. We're all old, but, lots of young spirits there. It was really a wonderful experience, but, I came to the States after about 18 months in small animal practice, not because I didn't love it. Because I had heard about these wonderful new things called internships.
And internships were in their inter infancy in 1974, and I wanted to travel the [00:09:00] world, learn a bit more. And so I applied for internships and was rejected soundly by every single school I applied to. I think there were 10 or 12 that I applied to, and uh, the reason given was my academic record. Doesn't help if you have a failed year on your resume.
, I had no idea what that was about, but decided to hop on a plane. So with a one way ticket, I flew to the U S and Canada, and I determined I would go to every single vet school. And Megan, surely once they saw how enthusiastic and motivated I was, they would hire me. So the first place I stopped was Guelph in Canada.
I went to another Commonwealth country, Because I thought it would be a nice transition to the US, went to the Ontario Veterinary College, asked to see the head of department. They said, have you got an appointment? I said, well, no, I was hoping he might see me. And so I made an appointment for a week later, went in, [00:10:00] interviewed with him.
And he showed me that I had ranked 124 out of 124 applications for a single position. And I said, Oh, um, where do I go from here? And so I asked if I could stay and observe because clearly I had no idea what North American veterinary medicine was about. And he gave me that permission. I stayed there for two weeks and at the end of two weeks, the chairman of the department, who's actually a very famous veterinarian, Dr.
James Archibald, who. Was a surgeon and authored a lot of books and was that one person who changed my life at that stage and he said Rick it's been fun having you for two weeks I've had quite a number of people coming in and saying we should find a way to keep you. He said, some of them actually said it's almost as though you've been staying at the vet school because you're here all the time.
Well, [00:11:00] Megan, I had been staying at the vet school, a young man with a limited budget. I, Discovered the vet school showers, and I found that the chairs in the waiting room were quite comfortable. And so after everybody had gone home, I reemerged fully showered and sleep in the waiting room. And I did that for two weeks.
He knew this, but he wasn't going to let on. And so he said, look, if you want it this badly, I'll see if I can find something for you. And I went on my merry way to visit other schools. And two months later, I got a letter from him saying they'd found money for me to come back and do an internship, and that was the start of my career.
And it's so interesting looking back, you can pick out the individuals, the people who made a difference. I wrote a blog recently, it's called, it's about the people stupid, which is a play on one of our former president's words, but it truly is about the people. This man, Dr.
James [00:12:00] Archibald, literally changed my life and, he has since passed, but I stayed in touch with him, for many, many years and what a wonderful man. He gave me that opportunity. I know that's a long answer, Megan, but I hope some of the young listeners will get the message from this, that, that persistence is a wonderful quality and that there are those People out there who recognize that and who, react accordingly.
Dr. Archibald was one of them.
Megan Sprinkle: Yes. Persistence with a genuine heart. I think, you can the difference between persistence maybe for their own reasons and persistence, like, you know, the salesperson kind of persistence versus like the persistence of no, I really, I'm in this, I'm serious.
I want to be dedicated to this. That you can tell. So I'm glad that's where, and, and the first place you went is, they discovered that in [00:13:00] you. And so this internship, was it kind of like a general internship or when did you start to know that you were interested in specializing?
Rick LeCouteur: So I stayed at Guelph for three years and I did an internship in.
Small animal medicine and surgery. They hadn't even specialized more than that back then. And then I followed it up with a residency in small animal surgery. They actually kept me on. And, during that time, there was a. a young Australian neurologist, who had been at Guelph for a few years. His name was Dr.
Clive Eger. and Clive, offered me a place to stay when I first, started my internship and was very, very good to me. He's another one of those people along the way. But he inspired me. I had never really heard of neurology. We, I think it had one or two lectures in veterinary school and we'd had a few more than that on neuroanatomy and it was totally confusing.
And to be honest with you, after finishing vet school, I determined I would never do [00:14:00] anything related to the nervous system ever again. Uh, but this, this as is so often the case, this, Young Dr. Clive Eager was so enthusiastic and such a wonderful teacher. By the time I'd finished my residency, I was absolutely determined that I would become a neurologist neurosurgeon.
Megan Sprinkle: I love that. One of the lessons I will always remember from my mother was never say never. Because it will come back to haunt you. Yeah. And
Rick LeCouteur: there's a second part to that, which is always avoid always.
Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, exactly. And I'm also glad to hear that you didn't have to sleep and live in the waiting room for much longer.
Rick LeCouteur: It was actually more comfortable than the bed I had in Clive's house.
Megan Sprinkle: Okay. Maybe not then. No, and I also agree that there is something about enthusiasm and good teaching that really [00:15:00] makes a difference. In where our futures go, because a good teacher can really change a lot. So I'm glad that you had that.
And I, you know, jumping ahead just a little bit, you're going to end up being that too, in this story, that you become a fantastic teacher that, has very memorable stories, which I Googled last week. You and before I even got onto your website, the first thing that pops up is you giving a lecture with, fear free and making a joke about the amygdala.
I still remember it. So there is something to be said of having good stories for remembering things.
Rick LeCouteur: Oh, thank you. You know, I always felt that I didn't want to teach neuroanatomy the way I had been taught. And so, , when we were taught neuroanatomy, it was largely a disassembly of the brain and no relevance was given to the pieces.
And I think as a really young boy, I was given a gift by my [00:16:00] parents. And the first thing I did was pull it apart. And then I thought, I'll just put this back together again. I ended up with three or four screws left over and the toy never worked again. And there was a valuable lesson there. It's a lot easier to take something.
apart or to pull something down than it is to build something. So I carried that thought on to the first year laboratories that I taught in veterinary neuroanatomy. And rather than taking a sheep's brain and cutting it into small pieces and working out what everything was, we had a curriculum where I gave everybody five or six different colors of Play Doh and they literally built their brain.
from scratch, starting with the brainstem and all the parts of the brainstem and with different colors of Play Doh. And as they built each part, they learned what it did, and its significance in the entire brain, function. And so, I was lucky [00:17:00] enough to be able to apply some of the negative things that happened to me and turn them into positive outcomes.
And that lab was always really fun. There was a lot of laughter. Of course, every single group would make a nativity scene or something else out of their leftover Play Doh. And it all seemed very funny until one group had heard that I had fallen out of a tree while pruning a tree in my backyard with chainsaw in hand.
Now, the first thing I can tell, All your listeners is do not climb a tree with a running chainsaw. It's not a good idea. And second thing is be sure where the branch will fall so that it doesn't knock the ladder from under you. With those thoughts in mind, the students had heard that I had fallen out of a tree and that my chainsaw still running had landed right beside me.
It could have been a different ending. And so they had made a Play [00:18:00] Doh mock up of me. On the ground in my white coat next to a tree, with a chainsaw beside, and I hate to say this, it's a bit gruesome, but a severed foot. So luckily they had red Plato, which they used liberally. And so, , these labs were fun, but they actually came away, I'm convinced, knowing where all the bits fit together and there was no formulin involved.
Megan Sprinkle: Yes. And, no, Animal was harmed in the making of that presentation. No, that's fantastic. And so, I mean, you, you sound like a very natural teacher How did that come into play from, you know, becoming a neurologist and then becoming a professor?
Rick LeCouteur: To some extent, teachers are born, not made, however, there are many, many exceptions to that. both my grandfathers were schoolmasters and so on, [00:19:00] actually very highly respected schoolmasters.
And then my father was a school master and, and he always instilled. those wonderful principles involved with teaching, uh, you know, to excite people about the topic, uh, not to inflict the topic upon the people and to be enthusiastic. we've, you and I've both had those teachers who just don't seem to enjoy their subject.
I love my subject. I am a neurophile through and through. And so, I think, the influence of my parents on me, genetically, probably, um, was part of it, but then to be confronted, and I use the word confronted advisedly, by great teachers along the way, you know, the one thing I remember, Megan, about my education at Sydney University was our facilities were Let's just say very [00:20:00] limited.
nothing to compare with many of the vet schools in North America. I mean, nothing at all. Very, very minimal. However, great teachers walk those halls, and I learned the valuable lesson that It's not the facility that makes the teaching and learning experience. It's the people once again, coming back to the people.
And I, there were some inspirational role models amongst our faculty back in the seventies. And actually I've made it my business to try and visit those of them that are still living today, when I go back to Australia and. And to let them know, what a huge impact they've had on me. And, you know, I love, I love that so much that, I've endowed a scholarship at the University of Sydney and I hope to do more as I can afford it, For [00:21:00] veterinary students to pursue their dreams. It's, uh, the LeCouteur family fellowship. And, I'm very proud of that. And one other aspect of, being taught is to find ways to give back to those people who taught you. So by visiting them and saying things like you were absolutely wrong. I didn't turn out to be hopeless.
So I actually am a little bit on the positive side of hopeless and, to be able to look them in the eye and, talk about that, and then to actually contribute. I've found since living in North America for the past many, many years, that philanthropy is alive and well in this country. And even in current circumstances, philanthropy is alive and well.
And, in Australia. It's not viewed the same way as here. It's changing. But, this country is amazing when you go [00:22:00] to the medical side and the veterinary side with regard to philanthropy. I am just so amazed by how generous people are in giving back to their alma mater in this country. Amazing.
Megan Sprinkle: Well, and you started to get into something I was actually gonna ask you, I wanted to praise you for going back to those individuals and telling them how much you appreciate them, because that, that's something that I think we forget to do.
We learned so much from these individuals, and we take it and we're, grateful, but we kind of forget to tell 'em that they're wonderful and they need to hear it. And so. I was going to ask you, is there a particular comment that stands out of a student that has come back to you and thanked you?
What in particular did they say that they appreciated when they learned from you?
Rick LeCouteur: Oh, so many to choose from, uh, [00:23:00] Megan. I'm, I really, uh, I never wanted to be the student's friend. I didn't go to many student functions, but I always wanted to be. there for them. And so I think you can make that relationship a little bit too familiar as a prof.
I wasn't the guy who played on all the student sports teams and did all that sort of thing. Although I would have liked to, but, I think the one comment that sticks with me and comes to my mind based on the way you answered the question is one from my time, at Colorado State University on the faculty there.
And. my neurology course fell in the fourth year my clinical neurology course and a student performed very poorly in it. And my marginal grade in that course caused her to have accumulated enough marginal grades that she was asked to repeat the year. I turned up to [00:24:00] the Colorado State University vet hospital one day to be greeted by her lawyer, who happened to be her father in a big suit, and he sat down with me and said, you failed my daughter. Why did you do that? And I said, well, because she didn't make the grade and I want to make sure she gets out of here with this information.
It's going to be vital to her career. And we talked for quite some time and he said, I support you. And so that student avoided me the year she came back to finish her course. And it was about 10 years later, she came racing up to me at a conference and I saw her coming and was not quick enough to escape.
And she came up to me, threw her arms about me, and said, You changed my life. I was gonna [00:25:00] have a bump in the road somewhere. You made me have it at a time where I could I reset and I can't thank you enough. So that is probably the comment that has stuck with me most vividly because, it's, as you said, she came back.
and told me that. Had I never heard from her again, I would have always felt that that was an unfinished story. So that, yeah, thanks for making me remember that, Megan. I must, find her and give her a call. and see how she's doing these days. I remember her name, of course.
Megan Sprinkle: And that goes to everyone is you say, well, it's been so long.
They won't remember me. It's not true. It can be 10 years. It can be 50 years. I think you always can make somebody's day by going back and letting them know how much they meant to you and where you are today. Now you you were in academia for a very [00:26:00] long time and then there was a day where You wanted to make a change.
and we don't use the word retire apparently in this profession. So that secret R ish word, uh, when did you decide to leave being a full time academic professor and find a new adventure?
Rick LeCouteur: Yeah, I was, uh, it was 2015 and I made the decision sort of overnight. I was 64 years old, which was a little early to retire.
You can continue at UC Davis until you're 70. And then with special dispensation beyond that. And I was looking at all the people I'd trained, residents and young faculty and, who I'd worked with. And I didn't want to be that person who stays around too long. So then I set up about finding the perfect time to retire.
And I spoke with my wife at length about this. And [00:27:00] she said, you're never going to know almost everybody stays at least one minute or one day or one week too long. Some stay a lot longer than that. So I went. to work the next day, thought about this and tended my resignation before I'd even thought about what I wanted to do next or what would happen because the neurology group at UC Davis was in good hands.
Wonderful young faculty who I love to this day and I do keep in touch with them on almost a weekly basis. But It was time. And, I wrote an editorial, a guest editorial one time. Which was entitled it's time. And it was about, change and how you make change. And it was published in vet surgery.
It's the longest guest editorial they've ever published. It was five or six pages, which probably doesn't surprise [00:28:00] you, but somewhere inside it was just time. And it was. A good thing I made it quickly. Do you know, Megan, I have not set foot back into the veterinary hospital and have barely set foot on the university since I retired in July 2015.
It's up to the next generation. I don't attend rounds. I don't answer case oriented questions, although I do for others. , and I have stayed out of the mix and they're doing fantastically without me. and to take that one step further, I wrote a blog, called, Starting Older.
And so, I, like you, have some problems with the word retirement. It implies the end of the road. You hang up your boots and never play again. And, I couldn't see that. So I call retirement starting over. And so for [00:29:00] me, starting over was a very simple decision. I had started to be the director of education for a wildlife company, veterinary expeditions.
with my friend Dr. Carol Walton and that was so inspiring and through that I became addicted to photography and from that I needed to write again and I decided to put the photography together to make illustrations for children's picture books and that's what I do today and it is the most satisfying expenditure of time that I have ever had.
ever contemplated and experienced. It is just magnificent. Imagine being able to provide an education to young readers, young minds like your daughter, and to influence their views, [00:30:00] hopefully, about animals, wildlife, the environment, biodiversity, and conservation without scaring them about the downside of climate change and all of that stuff and without talking about oil and gas and wind power and, and all those other things, just inspiring them by the beauty, the wonder of nature.
It is. It's such a wonderful vocation and it is my vocation and I, I get up every morning and blog and new books and get to talk with brilliant young minds like yours who inspire so many people. it's a good life, as they say, it's a good life.
Megan Sprinkle: And I think I heard you say that you actually learned about photography from the people who went.
On the trips. Is that correct? So it was like you were leading and teaching them, [00:31:00] but then they were leading and teaching you. That's something that ended up being a big deal.
Rick LeCouteur: Yeah, isn't that often the case? You learn more from your students than the students learn from you. And I have a wonderful.
memory of a Latin proverb, which I just, it's, it's my motto. And it is, I'm going to miss about mispronounce the Latin, but it's docendae discimus, which means teaching, teaches us or through teaching. so we learn. And so the opportunity to, teach young people again, is beyond measure the most exciting and challenging thing I've ever done.
Megan Sprinkle: And I've seen some of the pictures on your website. They are amazing. and they are inside of these books for children. You learned also to take those photos and make them artwork. And I do, I have to admit, I love the story of when you'd actually decided to write and that was with.
being with your [00:32:00] grandchildren. Do you mind sharing that story?
Rick LeCouteur: Yeah. So just to finish the previous thought. Yeah. so the photographers on the trips were, had big lenses and things. And I initially thought, Oh, I'll get a big lens and that'll make me a photographer. I found out that wasn't true that it's actually the person behind the camera, but they were very people like Stephen Button and Doug Mater and, Rick Beldergreen who have, They are true wildlife photographers.
They taught me so much about photography and I was inspired, but To all your listeners, it's not the camera, it's the person behind the, camera that matters. And so my grandchildren, well, I love my grandchildren. And, uh, as I've said so many times, I do have a favorite, but it's not always the same one.
I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but But, uh, by transferring the favoritism a little bit between them, it keeps them on their toes. spoken like a true educator, right? Although I'm sure [00:33:00] child psychologists would have a field day with that. So, I would read to them in the evenings and I just became a little bit disillusioned.
It was fun at first for me and then To see penguins eating pizza and penguins going to school and, all these different things, anthropomorphism taken to its extreme. I didn't mind that the animals could talk and that they could talk the same language that we talk and that they had human emotions that seemed to be integral to the stories.
But I hated seeing penguins sitting in living rooms eating pizza. And so I determined that I would find authentic, realistic children's picture books for my grandkids. And I found that there were not many of them and particularly not many of them about wildlife. And I didn't want the books to be populated with my pictures.
So I learned to make illustrations from my pictures and I wrote these books for my grandkids. That was my motivation to [00:34:00] give them this balance. I think whimsical fantastical books are essential. Absolutely. They, that teaches humor and enthusiasm and so on to young readers. And, and I mean, Dr. Seuss and all the ones in that category, they're just amazing books and they're fun.
But a little bit of realism and authentic, storytelling mixed with that, that balance, it's been shown scientifically actually in, in a lot of studies that that balance is really important to help young children or young readers, with a true knowledge of what nature is about rather than this idealized view, which is based on, on human experience.
And so I started writing these books for my, grandkids and, they were apparently well received by an audience of four and, uh, but I loved it. And, uh, so I kept writing them and then one day someone saw one and said, you should publish [00:35:00] these. And I thought, oh, I really don't want to. But then I thought.
Boy, that would get the messages out to, a much wider audience and that would be better for all the things that I believe in, biodiversity, environment, wildlife, conservation. And so, so that's what started the picture book writing and I'm now to my third book. one and have two more in the wings.
And, I just love writing about the animals in an authentic and realistic way. By the way, my, I do anthropomorphize to the extent that my animals speak English and have human thoughts. But beyond that, you do see penguins in Antarctica, not in your living room. And so that's just a balance. And I think that's my mission, really
to find that little bit of space that exists in a world of 300, 000 new picture books every year in the United States. I think my books address that little bit of [00:36:00] space that's left in that very, very crowded, environment. And so, I'm enjoying it. The feedback I have from those who have found my books is very positive.
And so I definitely intend to keep going. I love
Megan Sprinkle: that and I've been able to peek into some of them I love that not only do you have the story one, there's also, a takeaway as well. So not only there's there the conservation message that you can gain from it, but there's often, is it a message?
I can't say moral, right? You don't like the word moral message.
Rick LeCouteur: I think message is a lot less. Less dictatorial you know, if you say this is the moral of the story, it's almost as though you're inflicting your ideas. on the young reader. Whereas if you say there's a message in this book, did you notice it or talk to your kids about, did you get any [00:37:00] messages from this book?
I think that just softens it a little bit. And I like the idea of a message rather than a moral.
Megan Sprinkle: Yes. I grew up with the Aesop's fables. So, there was a message of the story and yes, I had the parents granted. He is a child psychiatrist mentioning the child.
And, uh, so after every, even Disney movie, he would say, so what did you learn from the movie? That's
Rick LeCouteur: fantastic.
Megan Sprinkle: Completely got that growing up and appreciate it now. Cause now is that that allowed our parent, uh, our family to have so much better discussions on so many different levels.
, and I think that's really important that it's probably starting to slip away a little bit, and it's not too late to get that back, but again, I think these types of books start are great starting points for those kinds of things, and I don't think you can start too young.
I have a two month old and. [00:38:00] I think it's great to be able to have these books to pull out, just not let her chew on them, of course, but you know, I think it's good to start young and I think your books allow that. So I want to thank you so much for everything you do. I'm very excited to see how your enthusiasm, it seems hasn't.
Is not waning at all from your entire adventure from the knocking on the doors of a veterinary school to continuing to put out wonderful things into the world that are involving veterinary medicine. And I think being a veterinarian adds an additional, piece to what you're doing to, like, you can bring not only these wonderful photographs, your conservation, knowledge, but also the veterinary background, I think is also really special.
Rick LeCouteur: Yeah. You know, that's interesting that you mentioned, this is a current, passion of mine is how Well prepared veterinarians are [00:39:00] to do different things. And as I've said to you, I just wrote a blog. I keep going back. It's my, it's my written mind, my written thoughts go into the blog, but I just wrote one today about people leaving the veterinary workforce for all sorts of reasons, which are listed in the blog.
And. How that's a problem that we have to face, but the way I look at it. It's also an opportunity for all these. veterinarians, you're well prepared for just about anything, having, succeeded in completing a veterinary degree and then having a little time dealing with all the pressures that the public provide and the animal, care industry provides.
So part of me thinks, aren't we lucky to be veterinarians? Because if we did want to [00:40:00] change direction, so a little bit, we're well or a lot, we're well equipped to do that, but where I am with thinking about this now is exactly what you just alluded to, uh, Megan, and that is There are so many different aspects of veterinary medicine.
Maybe some of these young people, particularly young women, are not disillusioned with veterinary medicine in general, but just with the part of veterinary medicine which they have found themselves involved in. And so I would urge anybody who has gone through all this training, had the passion to become a veterinarian, not to Go somewhere else, find somewhere within the profession where you can be fulfilled and use your knowledge to, to further whatever aspect of life it is that you want to pursue.[00:41:00]
And so I hope anybody listening today who is disillusioned and thinking of leaving the profession will Narrow that down a little bit and say, I'm going to leave this job that I'm in right now, and I'm going to take a little time to find another part of veterinary medicine that appeals to me.
Because those emotions that caused each of us to become veterinarians in the first place are priceless. And it's such a shame to know that there are some people who leave our profession. And leave all those priceless qualities. behind. Animals, wildlife, the environment, all need people with the passion of a veterinarian to help in this journey.
Megan Sprinkle: Like you said a couple of times throughout, it's about the people. And I think [00:42:00] this profession attracts some amazing people. So I completely agree. So I have this podcast. So if you're interesting and following your advice, start listening to the episodes, it's full of people who have done lots of different things with veterinary degrees.
And yes, I would love to keep all those wonderful people in it somehow and continue to do so much wonderful things in the world. Like you have shared. So. I'm afraid we're running out of time, but the last question I always want to ask my guests, because I think it's also really important to reflect upon, is what is something you are really grateful for right now?
Rick LeCouteur: Oh, I'm grateful for so many personal things, but on a professional level, I'm so grateful to our profession. I just, I'm just so grateful. It has been so fulfilling to take care of people's animals along the way, to meet all the animals and their owners and their dedication and, and to [00:43:00] be part of
teaching young minds and to be part of research into therapies for brain tumors and to be the first one who did a CT scan on a dog's brain in this whole country and On and on and on the profession has given me so many moments to look back on i'm grateful That I'm a veterinarian, Megan, pretty corny answer.
, but I'm grateful to veterinary medicine for the diverse and amazing opportunities that it has given to me. I'm, I can never repay veterinary medicine for, for the opportunities. Never, never, never.
Megan Sprinkle: Our profession is made up of wonderful people like Dr. Rick, don't forget to check out his children's books. Please use the links in the description below. And if you're listening in real time, it is the holiday season. So in the season of giving, consider giving the podcast a five stars [00:44:00] and share it with someone to help us grow.
It will be my daughter's first Christmas. So I know how important it is to be cherishing these moments. So I hope you will do the same. Thank you again. And until next week.
