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Stephen  Harvey DVM MS DACLAM's avatar

Hi Eric, I understand your perspective. I was one of the vets (lab animal vets) sacked by DOGE. Indeed, my entire division at NIOSH in Morgantown, WV was summarily dismissed without warning on April Fool's Day. I've had two Zoom interviews since then for university lab animal jobs, but nothing has come of it. Have you thought about positions in the pharmaceutical industry? In the meantime, I'm licensed in NC and am working to get my GA license back (it's a pain).

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Eric Fish, DVM's avatar

Wow, that is horrible! I'm so sorry to hear 😔 It's been horrifying to watch the new admin burn the American medical and research infrastructure, formerly the envy of the world, to the ground. I fear there are numerous brewing risks w'eve lost visibility to, like the situation with air traffic controllers in the northeast, but avian influenza and even more obscure threats to safe food, drugs, etc. If there is anything you or your colleagues want to share anonymously, you can contact me on Signal or Proton mail, contact details are in my Substack bio and you can also send me a DM for info

I have considered pharma and applied for a few roles, nothing panned out but I wouldn't rule it out. I will say I have a lot of friends in biotech/pharma/medical device path and they all describe a rough labor market ranging from hiring freezes at *best* to mass layoffs at worst. One called it a "blood bath", so there's no a lot of places of guaranteed job safety anymore :/

Keep the faith, I'll share any lab animal employment leads I come across!

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Stacy Wentworth, M.D.'s avatar

Glad you are back, Eric! I upgraded to paid today!

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Eric Fish, DVM's avatar

Thank you so much, Stacy! I greatly appreciate it 🙏 Let’s revisit that guest post on translational animal model cancer research (we can take that to email)

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Lorraine Tilbury's avatar

bon courage Eric as we say here in French! a vet friend did what you did several years ago after a failed stint in financial schemes & MLM (multilevel marketing) with the now infamous Amway. She went back into another friend's vet practice and then back to her own vet clinic work. all the best!

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Eric Fish, DVM's avatar

Merci beaucoup! 🙏

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Bryna Block's avatar

I missed you! I went through something similar in the late '90s and ended up at the job I held until retiring last year. You never know what the universe has in store. Magical thinking may not work, but sometimes the magic works after all.

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Eric Fish, DVM's avatar

Thank you! "Magical thinking may not work, but sometimes the magic works after all" I may have to borrow that line to use in the future!

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Liz Haswell's avatar

Looking forward to it, Eric/Jackson!

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Eric Fish, DVM's avatar

Thanks, Liz!

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Monica's avatar

Welcome back!

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Louise Haynes's avatar

So glad you’re back, Eric!🐾💕

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RJ's avatar

I know a DVM in Missouri who has had difficulty finding locums help when he wanted to travel or go to a CME event. Not sure if such a thing would interest you, or how many such practices need this kind of help, or what would be the logistics of license in X number of states.

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Eric Fish, DVM's avatar

Thanks for the suggestion! I currently have active licenses in Florida and Georgia, and between those there is an enormous amount of relief work needs for GP and ER vets (the locum needs that are sparse are pathology specialists). I would potentially consider looking at states outside FL/GA dries up, although there is a lot of cost and time involvement in getting licensed in each new state

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Robin Brogdon's avatar

I love your writing Eric and make a point to read your posts. PS, I have a pathology client that may be looking for someone like you. Reach out if interested.

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Eric Fish, DVM's avatar

Thanks Robin! I’d love to follow up, can you DM me the best contact email?

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KB's  FROM THE PETRI DISH's avatar

Good luck buddy..By any chance you looked at other countries? I've seen hint that we got a reverse brain drain situation these days.

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Eric Fish, DVM's avatar

Thanks! Yes, we’ve considered it, but have some family ties that constrain us. I suspect on a long enough timeline we may indeed go the expat route, but it probably won’t be in the next couple years (unless things get real bad, real fast 😅)

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