"Veterinary medicine is evolving fast, and Dr. LoSasso shares what new veterinarians need to know to thrive, grow, and stay grounded in a demanding but deeply rewarding profession."— Julie Schwenzer
Episode summary
Asked what he'd tell someone entering the field today, Dr. LoSasso starts with something most people outside the profession don't realize: veterinary medicine offers far more career flexibility than human medicine. A human medical license locks you into a specific track through medical school and residency; a veterinary license doesn't work that way. He could, in theory, decide tomorrow to work exclusively on fish — he'd owe it to his patients and clients to actually go educate himself in aquaculture medicine first, and specialties like surgery or ophthalmology require formal additional training, but the underlying flexibility is real.
His top piece of advice, though, is less about career paths and more about self-preservation: if you genuinely don't like the job, leave it. Clinic culture matters, and protecting your mental health, sanity, and family time isn't optional. His framing — take all the emotional reward the profession offers, but don't sell any part of yourself to get it.
"Today's graduates know so much more than there was when I graduated 30-some years ago. It's not a lack of knowledge — it's a lack of confidence. What we call imposter syndrome."— Dr. Michael LoSasso, DVM
On mentorship, he's candid that he wouldn't have survived his own first day walking straight into small-animal emergency practice — he tracked equine in school and, as he puts it, wouldn't have known which end of a dog bit. What strikes him about the new graduates he's hired since is the opposite problem: their clinical knowledge is often excellent, but they lack confidence, needing a mentor who acts as a sounding board rather than someone who micromanages — room to make mistakes, reflect, and grow without beating themselves up over it.
Dr. LoSasso is honest that some clinicians simply aren't emotionally suited to the volume of euthanasia and death that comes with emergency practice — and that's a legitimate thing to recognize about yourself rather than push through. For him personally, being part of a peaceful, well-handled end brings genuine reward rather than trauma. His hospital has also changed its own protocols to protect staff: deceased pets are placed in specialized bags (not generic trash bags) and handled in dedicated comfort rooms, shielding the team from repeated exposure, and a staff social worker gives everyone a place to process difficult cases rather than carry them alone.
On communication with owners, he draws a distinction between confidence and honesty — being upfront about uncertainty rather than either overstating or understating what's known. His clearest example: a dog sent to his ER described only as "diabetic" often turns out to be a diabetic ketoacidosis case — five days of hospitalization, $4,000 to $8,000 in treatment, roughly an 80% survival chance, and lifelong insulin injections every 12 hours afterward. He believes owners are owed that full picture upfront, not a partial one, because some families would make a different decision entirely if they had it before things escalated to an ER visit — and giving people the complete picture, including cost and long-term commitment, is what actually respects their ability to decide for themselves.
He closes with a number meant to reframe how people think about veterinarians financially: he's spoken with new graduates carrying $300,000 to $600,000 in student debt, and says anyone at the higher end of that range likely won't pay it off before retirement. The point isn't sympathy — it's context for anyone who assumes a vet's fees reflect profit motive rather than the cost of the education behind them.
Questions answered in this episode
The following questions are answered by Dr. LoSasso in this episode, drawn directly from the conversation.