5 Questions with Samantha Morici, DVM

One vet's global journey with her dog from Auburn to Amsterdam

Apr 28, 2024

Dear Readers,

Veterinary medicine is a small world, and my previous interviews have included friends and associates, including my PhD advisor Dr. Curt Bird. This week, I am excited to bring you an interview with one of my former Auburn University vet students! Dr. Samantha Morici is the veterinarian behind the pet health newsletter on Substack,

Sami the Vet

, and the Founding Veterinarian at The Good Boys Club,1 a hybrid veterinary telehealth service and pet community. She has worked in a wide variety of professional settings including international veterinary affairs / global veterinary policy, emergency and critical care practice, consulting, veterinary industry, and as a virtual care provider. Her professional experiences have brought her all over the globe, giving her first-hand veterinary experience in two different languages and on six different continents. When she’s not catching flights or examining puppies, you can find her writing, hiking, reading, or at a café sipping cappuccinos. Originally hailing from New York, she currently lives in Amsterdam with her dog, Luca.

I hope you enjoy!

—Eric

1. After vet school at Auburn and an internship at the Animal Medical Center in New York City, you moved to Europe to lead research and policy at the World Veterinary Association (WVA). Why did you make the transition from clinical practice to a policy position? What were some initiatives you spearheaded while there, and what challenges did you face?

I guess you could say that I had always sort of been straddled between these two paths. I had a passion for policy and international veterinary affairs stemming from my work with the International Veterinary Students’ Association (IVSA), Student American Veterinary Medical Association (SAVMA), and other global organizations during veterinary school. And on the medical/research side, my passion has always been oncology. I pursued both of these passions aggressively, but at some point I had to make a choice. I remember having a conversation with Dr. Derrick Hall, my mentor at the AVMA at the time, and he said to me, “You know, Sam, people will tell you that you can’t have everything in life, but that’s not true. You can have everything, just not all at once.” I took his advice and the next week I was on a flight to Australia to train with one of the founding fathers of veterinary surgical oncology, Dr. Rod Straw. After a few months of training in Australia, I went straight into my internship in New York. The onset of my veterinary career as an intern in NYC afforded me the opportunity to see so many more cases than I otherwise would have. I learned a ton and was right on track for a medical oncology residency. But when it finally came down to it, something just didn’t feel right. I couldn’t quite articulate why, and I had no idea what my next steps would be, but at the very last minute, I withdrew from the match.

“People will tell you that you can’t have everything in life, but that’s not true. You CAN have everything, just not all at once.”

In hindsight it’s easy to see that I was already burnt out then. I felt frustrated by the lifestyle of a practicing veterinarian and the general life and working culture in America. I was looking ahead to the next 4 years of residency and what my life would look like, and it just wasn’t the kind of life I wanted to build. On top of that, I felt like I was working myself to the bone but I wasn’t making the kind of difference I wanted to make. In clinical practice your potential impact is limited to 1:1 — the maximum number of animals, number of people that you can help at any given moment is one. In policy, it’s one-to-many. The work you do there serves and empowers veterinarians globally, who will then go on to better serve their respective communities.

So after I moved to Europe, I joined the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) to research global veterinary needs and capacity. This gave me the unique opportunity to form direct connections with the veterinary leaders of each member nation, discuss their goals and needs, and learn from their experiences. Then, when the policy officer position opened up at the WVA, I felt perfectly suited to the role. I got to do some truly unbelievable work while I was there. I worked with the FAO (EJF: Food Animal Organization of the United Nations) on a veterinary paraprofessional development training program in subsaharan Africa; on a list of essential medicines for equids (EJF: horses and donkeys) in collaboration with The Brooke; and on a number of global policies and position statements, including the position statement on telemedicine. These were truly dream projects for me.

But still, there were challenges. Some of the issues were what you might expect from this sector — antiquated systems and painful bureaucracy meant that things progressed at a snails pace. You had departments with conflicting opinions and priorities, and often, a lack of transparency and discrimination. At times, camaraderie wasn’t at its best, which also hindered progress. As a student, when I was on the board of IVSA global and SAVMA, I was insulated from all of that. Even in situations where we didn’t agree or see eye to eye, I genuinely felt like everyone there had good intentions and wanted the best for both the association and the profession. But the higher up you go, you see that some people are really just there for themselves or to advance their own agendas. And sometimes, that made it difficult to get things done.

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2. You are quite the world traveler and have worked as a vet on six different continents! What are some of the differences between how veterinary medicine is practiced in the United States compared to other countries, and how did these experiences shape your approach to veterinary care?

Some of the more obvious practical differences lie in a country’s level of development and available resources, as well as their priorities given issues endemic to (or absent from) their specific region. For example, in the US we recommend every dog to be castrated and vaccinated against Rabies. Many shelters won’t even allow you to adopt a dog until both of these treatments have been performed. But in The Netherlands, there are no stray dogs and no cases of Rabies. So veterinarians actually advise against neutering, and they’ll only vaccinate your pet for Rabies if they’re due to leave the country.

Other differences stem from and reflect differing cultures and values. First, there are major cultural differences worldwide in terms of how people view animals and their role in society. In the US, we treat our (companion) animals like they’re our children. We dress them in designer clothes and throw them birthday parties. But in Europe, companion animals are pets. And in Africa, companion animals are animals. These are generalities of course, but this is sort of the trend. In The Netherlands, the term they use to describe an ‘owner’ or ‘pet parent’ is actually ‘bas,’ which, directly translated, means ‘boss.’ This subtle difference in language translates to major differences in the kind of care that clients expect, and the lengths to which they will go to pursue treatment for their animals.

“In the US, we treat our (companion) animals like they’re our children. We dress them in designer clothes and throw them birthday parties. But in Europe, companion animals are pets. And in Africa, companion animals are animals.”

Another major cultural difference I’ve seen lies in the approach to healthcare at-large, what the general population expects from the system. In the US, healthcare is exceedingly privatized and specialized. It is the home of many of the pharmaceutical companies and production facilities, and the pinnacle of medical development. People demand the absolute best, and they demand it NOW. In some of the less capitalistic nations, things don’t develop as rapidly; medications are more frequently unavailable or on back order, healthcare is less specialized, and general practitioners tend to do a lot more. That’s true of both human medicine and veterinary medicine. As a consequence, there is a limit to how much they’re able to do — the resources available to them, and the level of care that they can provide. For example, I can recall one weekend working in the ICU at a veterinary hospital in Holland where I had a puppy submersion without access to a ventilator as well as a non-responsive first time IMHA patient with the closest possibility for plasmapheresis in the UK or Germany. There simply wasn’t anything more I could offer those patients and that was really hard — to know exactly what a patient needed and not being able to offer it to them.

“[Internationally] things don’t develop as rapidly; medications are more frequently unavailable or on back order, healthcare is less specialized, and general practitioners tend to do a lot more. That’s true of both human medicine and veterinary medicine.”

And even if you had every resource at your fingertips — your client might not wish to pursue treatment. Outside the US, there’s a difference in the value that people place on a life and what a good life quality means to them. When I was working in NYC, I’ll never forget this one case I had: a 22 year old unregulated diabetic cat with recurrent spinal lymphoma (and a few additional comorbidities) that had undergone multiple courses of radiation and was refractory, comatose, on a ventilator in the ICU for >2weeks. The owner just would not put the cat to sleep. It was one of those cases where you think to yourself, what are we doing here? I feel like in the US, some people just want their pets to live forever. Whereas in Holland, most people won’t even opt to treat a first-time heart failure or lymphoma patient. All they hear is “terminal illness” and they let them go before any suffering begins.

Working in different places has given me a more global understanding of the profession at-large, and enabled me to work better in an international space with international clients. I’ve seen some cases first-hand that many vets only see in a foreign animal disease lecture. I’m more aware of and sensitive to different cultures, viewpoints, values, and beliefs. I understand where people are coming from and what they expect, so I’m better equipped to serve them. And above all, better equipped to communicate with them — something that has served me in all areas of my life. Working in different areas of the world has also made me question some of my formerly default recommendations, you know? Like, maybe you don’t have to neuter your dog if you live in The Netherlands.

3. You founded The Good Boys Club to provide telemedicine services and write the Substack newsletter Sami the Vet with advice for pet owners. Tell me about why you moved in this direction and what role you see telemedicine providing in veterinary medicine. What are some of the limitations or areas for caution in this new field?

I kept on hearing the same complaints from my friends and neighbors: they don’t like their vet, they don’t trust their vet, they feel like their vet doesn’t care about them or doesn’t have time for them, the vet never calls them back, they want vet advice but don’t want to haul their pet to the clinic and drop hundreds of bucks every time they have a question, they want a second opinion… etc. The common denominator underlying each of these statements is poor communication. And to be honest, I couldn’t blame them. When I was working in the hospital full-time, I also felt like I couldn’t give my clients/patients the level of care and attention that I wanted to without overexerting myself. A fifteen minute consultation isn’t enough to tell a first time dog owner how to properly care for and raise a healthy dog. It’s not long enough to discuss with a client of a newly diagnosed patient: pathophysiology, how each medication works, potential drug interactions, nutritional needs, activity changes, social needs, supplements, environment and routine changes, and so on. And what happens in these cases? The client goes to Google.

“The common denominator underlying each of these statements is poor communication. And to be honest, I couldn’t blame them. When I was working in the hospital full-time, I also felt like I couldn’t give my clients/patients the level of care and attention that I wanted to without overexerting myself.”

Starting my newsletter, Sami the Vet, as well as my digital vet care practice, The Good Boys Club, gave me the power to bridge those gaps, so clients have access to the information they need, wherever and whenever they need it. It also gave me the opportunity to build community, which I think is so important for pet owners to have these days. And in return, I feel like I’m able to go into the level of detail that I want and to contribute to an overall higher level of care. It also helps to break down the hierarchy that often exists between doctor and client. There’s no “I’m up here and you’re there.” If you have a question, you just shoot me a text message. I’m just one member of your pet’s care team and community.

Veterinary virtual care is still in its infancy, though. We have a long way to go. It’s a good addition to in-person veterinary services, but it’s not a replacement. The major difference between telemedicine for people and telemedicine for pets is that our pets can’t directly relay their symptoms. They can’t say how they’re feeling and answer questions about their current state or experience. So veterinarians rely on the owner to relay what they perceive to be the situation on the other end. And if you’re not a professional in the veterinary field, that can be difficult to do. It’s sort of like a game of telephone, and things can very easily be missed, misinterpreted, or inaccurately communicated. The most valuable tool we have as a veterinarians is the physical exam, and unfortunately, (though pet parents can assist us to the best of their abilities) the accuracy and thoroughness of this tool is lost over telecommunication.

4. What advice would you give to veterinarians who are considering a career change and don’t know much about the world of non-clinical roles for DVMs?

I don’t think people stick to the clinic because they don’t know what else to do; I think they hesitate to enter non-clinical roles because they don’t know what THEY can do. They’ve narrowed in on clinical veterinary practice for so long and identify with it so strongly that they don’t really know who they are outside of it. They’re hesitant to make a change because:

They don’t know what else they’re good at
They think they’re too old
They’re worried about what other people might think
They’re afraid that they’ll fail

First, you should avoid inertia at all costs. The worst thing you can do is sit around and ponder. The best thing you can do is to just start doing. Start exploring your other interests. Seek out people who are doing something unusual and ask them how they got there. You have so many hidden talents that are undeveloped and underutilized. Explore those and play them up, find a way to work them into your career. Learn something new. Don’t be afraid to be the dumbest person in the room again. Maybe you’ll find yourself down a path to a non-clinical role that sticks — awesome! But if there’s no W2 job out there that fits what you’re looking for — create it for yourself. If it doesn’t work out, try something else. It’s never too late to do that. We all have this fear that people are watching and judging our every move, but to be honest: nobody gives a shit what you’re doing. There are only a handful of people out there who are paying any attention to you at all. And for those people, as much as for yourself, I think you have to be bold with your life (so others can be bold with theirs too).

“You should avoid inertia at all costs. The worst thing you can do is sit around and ponder. The best thing you can do is to just start doing. Start exploring your other interests. Seek out people who are doing something unusual and ask them how they got there.”

5. Finally, how does your Labrador Retriever, Luca, contribute to your work and life, given his globe-hopping journey from Alabama to Amsterdam?

When Warren Buffet was asked what the most important factor was in determining success, he said, “by far… your partner.” He was referring to his wife, of course, but I think this can be applied to dogs, too. From the moment I adopted him, Luca has been my sounding board and my support, my practice patient and my teacher, my ‘why’ and my muse. He hopped from apartment to apartment with me in my 20’s and sat beside me on every transcontinental flight. He donated blood to save my patients and stayed up with me as I worked through the night. He’s helped me to see animals better and has brought so many wonderful people into my life. Over the years I’ve had to rebuild so many times — new jobs, new cities, new continents, new communities. It’s not easy to go off in the world on your own, to do things differently than everyone else and leave behind the comfort of what you know. It can get lonely out there.

“Luca has been my sounding board and my support, my practice patient and my teacher, my ‘why’ and my muse. He hopped from apartment to apartment with me in my 20’s and sat beside me on every transcontinental flight. He donated blood to save my patients and stayed up with me as I worked through the night.”

But with Luca, I’ve never been alone. He’s been my copilot and constant through it all. I’m confident that I wouldn’t be the doctor or person that I am today without him.

BONUS: What are three things you would recommend to the audience? These can be books, newsletters, podcasts, TV/movies, etc.

For the readers:
1. Clifton Strengthsfinder 2.0 from Gallup: I picked this up at a free outdoor library in my neighborhood. If you’re self-aware, the results may come as no surprise to you. But I actually found it quite helpful to have it all laid out in front of me, see the different paths that were best suited to me, and how to play on those strengths rather than to focus on developing my weaknesses. A great start for anyone considering a change.
For the writers:
1. Ship30for30 (their courses and all their resources)
For the listeners:
1. Podcast: Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett

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