Why Dr. Matt McGlasson is obsessed with kittens

Nearly everyone has a regret at some point during their career, but for Dr. Matt McGlasson, that regret was at one point his entire career. After a year of slogging through one of the worst (and first) job experiences of his life, he found himself questioning whether all his years in medical school were a waste.

Luckily, Dr. Matt’s story doesn’t end with his new career as a singer/songwriter, but instead with the changes he made to his career to make it worthwhile. With the support of his wife, Matt chose to change how he handled the world of veterinary medicine, and it helped his career in so many different ways.

He joined Noah’s Ark Animal Clinics, and became the CMO of their Fort Wright clinic. There he chose to make the human-animal connection his number one focus. Rather than overwhelm owners with different treatment options, he thinks it’s best to picture the owner as your own mom, and offer treatments with that same understanding.

His approach to animals and their care has made a profound difference in how he feels, and also how his staff members feel. He really enjoys working in the medical career now, and hopes to continue to make changes to benefit the lives of the people and animals around him.

Once concern that Dr. Matt has about the industry is the situation of vet techs. Vet technicians go through an extraordinary amount of work to become certified, but despite their high degree of training they often receive poor treatment and low pay.

Dr. Matt believes that vet technicians need a more nationalized certification program that smooths out variances from state to state, and also thinks they should be treated like medical nurses—both in terms of respect and pay.

Due to the poor treatment and low pay veterinary technicians are often forced to undergo, these valuable staff members are leaving the veterinary industry in droves. Without enough veterinary technicians to go around, we see the full ramifications when pets aren’t able to get appointments, animals suffer, and more stress is put on those who do remain.

Taking proper care of veterinary technicians, and helping them to feel like valued and important members of the veterinary community, rather than highly trained after thoughts. With treatment and pay on the same level of a medical nurse, we can reduce staff loss, improve care of animals, and improve the veterinary industry as a whole.

Today, Dr. Matt is happy in his career and working towards making the vet industry better in a variety of different ways. He is active on social media and enjoys sharing his tips, tricks, and vision of the industry - strangely enough, most of his social media posts features kittens. He hopes to continue his work to change the vet industry in a positive way, and to focus on the care of the field itself, rather than the front-lines of animal care.

In 5 years, he hopes to still be making cute TikTok videos about the kitten biscuit industry, as well as more serious matters surrounding the veterinary industry.