Dr. Michelle Moyal on learning to be fearless

Dr. Michelle Moyal has been helping pets since she became a veterinarian in 2007, but now she is helping pets and their owners in a new way—through guiding the hands of the next generation. Dr. Moyal is now an assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences, as well as the Chief of the Primary Care Surgery Service at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

She joined the faculty in 2020, and is proud to rejoin the halls of the University that she originally graduated from. Her goals are to help coach and guide veterinary students, with an aim to helping veterinary medicine improve its diversity.

As a first generation American herself, she knows the unique hardships of entering the veterinary medicine as a person of color faces. Her mother learned how to speak English through watching children’s cartoons and shared with her daughter what real determination looked like.

Today, Dr. Moyal is passing that on in a variety of different ways. She shows new students how to stay calm and evaluate situations during surgery, helping them to avoid mistakes through giving themselves time to review a situation.

Although Dr. Moyal is a huge part of the veterinary community, that’s not her only side. She’s also a fun loving person outside of work, and takes work/life balance seriously. Dr. Moyal enjoys Olympic weightlifting and functional fitness. She also moonlighted as Dr. Turmoyal, a roller derby player with San Diego Derby United. These are just a few of her many sides, and proves that you can be a vet and still have some time to have fun.

If she had to switch careers, she would become a wedding planner! The same critical thinking skills that veterinary medicine requires, as well as responding well to pressure, could be just as useful helping brides with their perfect day.

Dr. Moyal cares deeply about the veterinary community, and like most who work in the field believe that mental health is one of the most pressing problems veterinary medicine faces. This is especially the case after the pandemic. 

There is now a huge demand for pet care, and vets are feeling the pressure to skip out on family time, and even things like lunch and dinner, to try and fill that demand. While this is well meant in order to help as many pets as possible, it can have detrimental side effects on the person giving up on life to help others.

Burnout is a serious issue, and one that can stop veterinarians and their team from helping pets entirely. A work life balance is critical to maintain not only for mental health, but to be in the best frame of mind to help others.

Dr. Moyal, like so many other vets, is working to help tame this unfriendly dynamic by coaching new vet students on all the important things in medicine—including how to take a break. Her goal is to help shape a new and better veterinary community. One filled with diversity, openness to change, and inclusivity.

Source: Vetcandy

Student Submission- Photography

"Sunset on the Palouse" by Janelle Thomas, Washington State University

Resilience Webinar: Tuesday Nov 16th at 8pm EST (1hr)

Rockstar Resilience Skills for the Veterinary Professional

with Josh Vaisman

Register: https://boehringer.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LbIsAeWMRYqaVD8_uqCZvw 

This webinar will introduce the science of positive psychology and related fields.  Evidence-based tools for cultivating psychological resilience, functional optimism, and general personal and professional well-being are explored. Attendees will gain an understanding of personal and professional well-being and what science shows support both.  Participants will leave engaged by and empowered with a clear, evidence-based plan for fostering their own sustainable well-being.

VIN Rounds: Predictive Values

Are you missing out on clinical rotations because of COVID-19? The VIN Student Team has you covered

with Tuesday Topic Rounds.  During the month of November, join the VIN Student Team for 30 minute,

case-based sessions on different epidemiology concepts. Everyone and all levels of experience are

welcome. There will be time for Q&A and discussion following. The next session is on What Does it All

Mean: Predictive Values and Repeat Testing November 16, 2021 at 12 ET.

In this rounds:

• Learn how to assess the impact of testing on predictive values and repeat testing.
• Learn how to summarize major differences in multiple testing strategies.
• Learn how to calculate predictive value given prevalence of disease, sensitivity, and specificity of a diagnostic test.

TO JOIN THE SESSION, LOG INTO THE VIN STUDENT CENTER AND CLICK THE GREEN BUTTON IN THE

TOP RIGHT

The Veterinary Information Network (VIN) is here to help you as a vet student – especially

VETCANDY: Noise Anxiety in Dogs

Can noises cause anxiety in dogs? The answer may surprise you

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found that people may not recognize that their dog is stressed when exposed to common household noises.  While it’s well-established that sudden loud noises, such as fireworks or thunderstorms, commonly trigger a dog’s anxiety, a new study finds even common noises, such as a vacuum or microwave can be a trigger. The study was published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

The research found that high-frequency, intermittent noises such as the battery warning of a smoke detector are more likely to cause a dog anxiety, rather than low-frequency, continuous noise.

“We know that there are a lot of dogs that have noise sensitivities, but we underestimate their fearfulness to noise we consider normal because many dog owners can’t read body language,” said lead author Emma Grigg, a research associate and lecturer at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Signs of anxiety

Some common signs of a dog’s anxiety include cringing, trembling, or retreating, but owners may be less able to identify signs of fear or anxiety when behaviors are more subtle. For example, stressed dogs could pant, lick their lips, turn their head away or even stiffen their body. Sometimes their ears will turn back, and their head will lower below their shoulders. Grigg suggests owners better educate themselves on anxiety-related behavior.

Researchers conducted a survey of 386 dog owners about their dogs’ responses to household sounds and examined recorded dog behaviors and human reactions from 62 videos available online. The study found that owners not only underestimated their dogs’ fearfulness, but the majority of people in videos responded with amusement rather than concern over their dog’s welfare.

“There is a mismatch between owners’ perceptions of the fearfulness and the amount of fearful behavior actually present. Some react with amusement rather than concern,” Grigg said. “We hope this study gets people to think about the sources of sound that might be causing their dog stress, so they can take steps to minimize their dog’s exposure to it.”

Some sounds painful for dogs

Grigg said because dogs have a wider range of hearing, some noises could also be potentially painful to a dog’s ears, such as very loud or high-frequency sounds. She said minimizing exposure may be as simple as changing batteries more frequently in smoke detectors or removing a dog from a room where loud noises might occur.

“Dogs use body language much more than vocalizing and we need to be aware of that,” said Grigg. “We feed them, house them, love them and we have a caretaker obligation to respond better to their anxiety.”