ECLAP Interview:

In this interview, I got the chance to interview Dr. Harlan. We went over life skills work skills and
staying motivated. At the time of this interview, we were on the road and heading to a vet
appointment. Over the past few weeks, I've gotten to know such an amazing veterinarian and
I've decided that I would like to come back for the summer. I've gotten so many amazing
chances to cool things with Dr. Harlan. My favorite opportunity was getting to cut open a goat
abscess. I couldn't have asked for a better internship site.

Matthew:
OK, you ready? All right. What are your strengths?

Dr. Harlan:
the things that have helped me in my career are strengthening and flexibility. So being open to
changes, whether that's in the day-to-day schedule or what you are planning on doing in general
through your career.
As an example, I planned to be an equine-only veterinarian working only with horses. Now
about half of my schedule is non-horses, goats, pigs, llamas, and all kinds of stuff. One of the
things that helped me or that has allowed me, to do that and to fill up my days with all those
appointments is when the receptionist or somebody comes or a client and says, hey, will you do
this thing that you're not comfortable with or familiar with and having the kind of flexibility to say
yeah OK, sure. We can do that or we can try it.

The other thing that I think is helpful is that I think I do is communicating with people and being,
and being able to work with a wide variety of personality types, whether it's colleagues in the
clinic and being able to communicate with them and work with people from varying
backgrounds, opinions, or communication styles or clients that have a more prickly personality
and sometimes unreasonable expectations.

In most careers, being able to effectively communicate with a wide variety of personality types
and communication modes, I think is a good strength to have no matter what you're doing.
it helps me be able to figure out what people want during an appointment, what's going on with
their animal, and then how we can best work as a team or how we can best effectuate what they
want in their circumstance and make sure that everyone is on the same page and the same
understanding. So there's not a lot of miscommunication, although that happens no matter what.
So I'd say those are probably two good ones that kind of go hand in hand, the flexibility in terms
of being flexible in what you're doing and how you're doing it and you know, flexibility and being
able to communicate well and work well with people around you.

Matthew:
Cool. Thank you, Doctor Harlan. how do you stay motivated in your work?

Dr. Harlan:
 That's a good question. It's an ongoing process. I'll say there are lots of days where you go
through a lot of appointments and you run across people who are, you know, either they're
having a bad day or they're a little bit impatient or a bit upset with whatever is going on with their
animal or with you. And sometimes that can, that can put a damper on my outlook, so maybe
you have a whole day full of great clients or enjoyable interactions and you have one client that
is just really unpleasant. What I've learned about myself, I tend to fixate on those guys.
So then you let one bad circumstance ruin a whole day. When you line those up, day after day,
week, after week and it can be unmotivated or demotivating.

So to stay motivated and to continue to wake up every day and go and think I still want to do
this. You have to make an intentional effort, to keep in mind, not only the negative things but to
remember the positive things too.

The problem is we just tend to fixate on the negatives a lot. So I would say one of the things that
help to stay motivated is to, remember the positive things, try and minimize the negatives and
then also to look back on the progress you've made and try and remember, And now after years
of practice, I still run into uncomfortable scenarios, but I'm a little more comfortable in them now
after a few years of practice.

I'm I am becoming better, which is good to remember, you never get to be perfect at it. But the
knowledge and the acknowledgment that you're making progress is also motivating and helps
to, helps to remind you to keep going every day.

Matthew:
I'll just ask you two more questions. What's the best part of your work day?

Dr. Harlan:
The best part of my work day. So my workday varies a lot. I would say no, one day is exactly
similar to any other. So there's not a specific instance in any like-day routine. That is the best
but, I would say the best parts of the day when they happen are usually the people. For
example, when I'm interacting with clients that I enjoy working with and are also happy that
we're there and helping them or doing whatever. Getting to hear their experiences or hearing
people talk about their life stories.

you get a lot of time with people and you get to develop some of these relationships over years
of seeing these people several times a year sometimes and watching, watching their animals
progress, you become a little bit a part of their life and you, you get a little bit of insider
knowledge of them.
So I think that is, that's one of the best parts of my days is when I get to see some of those
clients and we get to catch up a little bit and share enjoyable, interesting stories and you learn
interesting things about people. You know, similarly, the other enjoyable part is I like the people
that I work with. So some of the best parts of my day, even when it's a boring day, work-wise, or
having those really fun clients on that day. The people I
 work with them is the best part of the day and they're enjoyable to be around. You know, we
both have a good sense of humor we all get along together pretty well. So being able to work
with them and joke around with them a little bit is probably the best part of the day on a lot of
days, even the rough ones.

Matthew:
All right.

Matthew:
What is a highlight from your career highlight from my career?

Dr. Harlan:
Now, I'll ask you what, when, when you want to highlight, what are you thinking? Like you want
a cool story about a crazy case or do you feeling of accomplishment? What, what are you
hoping to get? What highlight are you looking for? Because there are lots of various things that
could be highlighted.

Matthew:
How about what's your favorite, moment that you've come across while you're working?

Dr. Harlan:
So I would say in general, some of my favorite things are doing, getting the opportunity to try a
procedure or a treatment or something that I wouldn't normally get to do, and then, especially
when that treatment works and, and you, you get to help something. So, there's been a few of
those, one that comes to mind more recently is there was a goat at a sanctuary
the one we're going to today that had a really bad infection in its hoof. And it turned out later that
it was an infection that went all the way down to the bone, to the joint, the bottom joint to the foot
called the coffin joint. And after treating this thing for what we thought was an abscess in its hoof
for weeks, we took an X-ray and realized, oh, that's in the joint, that's infecting the bone, we're in
trouble.

So we kind of weighed our options and there weren't that many. And instead of saying we can't
fix it, there's not much we can do, we're going to put the goat down. We decided that we were
going to try and amputate that toe. And granted I had never amputated a goat toe before. You
know, it's relatively simple, you cut the toe off and stitch it back up.
But, it was not something that we do a lot of, and something I hadn't done before the client is
one that I trusted and they trusted me. So we were in a scenario where we were able to say,
well, let's try it. The worst-case scenario is we have to put the goat down, which we were going
to do anyway. So we went ahead and did that. We read up on amputation and
watched some youtube channels or videos about amputating goat feet. And the procedure went
pretty well. It was simpler than I was anticipating. And even though at every point I was, being
as pessimistic as possible. So I'd go, OK, we're going to do this. It may not go well, it may be
spread and maybe we can't amputate enough.
Turns out, no, it was fine. Everything looked ok. We've got it amputated. Then the next I thought
Well, it's probably going to bleed a lot and it's going to ooze a lot and then the suture is going to
fall apart. He sealed and healed great. And then, and then I was going, ok, well, now that it's
healed, what's going to happen? Goats have two toes they usually stand on and
took away the toe that usually bears the most weight. So what's going to happen is it's going to
get horrible crippling arthritis and its other toe and we're going to have to put it down because of
this, that also didn't happen. That thing ran around like it had all of its toes and you wouldn't
even notice it So despite my being pessimistic the whole time, the goat just decided it was going
to get better.

So, it's those types of scenarios that I would say are highlights. Those are the stories that I keep
in my pocket. So that for instances like this or when I'm hanging out with friends and we're
sharing, sharing anecdotes or various things. Those are the highlights, that are going to be a
story that I'm going to tell to entertain and have a good time later.
Those are probably the highlights I joke around usually saying that as a small animal
practitioner, you usually make more money. But if you're a large animal veterinarian, you usually
have better stories. So the stories are the highlight of a lot of things.

Matthew:
Well, thank you for your time, Doctor Harlan, and of course, I appreciate it.