From Atlantis Vet to Animal Rescuer: Dr. Amanda Pinder’s Inspiring Career Journey

Episode Transcript
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Larry Samuels (00:02):
Hello and welcome to the Season 6 premiere of no
Wrong Choices, the CareerJourney Podcast.
I'm Larry Samuels, soon to bejoined by my collaborators
Tushar Saxena and Larry Shea.
But before we jump into today'sepisode, we do want to take a
moment to say thank you to you,our listeners, for being part of
this journey.
What started as a passionproject for us has grown into

(00:25):
something truly meaningful, andthat's because of your support.
So, from all of us, thank you.
Now let's get started.
This episode features theveterinarian, dr Amanda Pinder.
Until very recently, dr Pinderwas the attending vet for the
renowned Atlantis Resort in theBahamas.
She has since pivoted to starther own practice.

(00:45):
That we will definitely diginto.
Tushar, please lead us in toseason six.

Tushar Saxena (00:51):
What a way to start this new season with a
profession that we have nottouched upon in any of the
previous seasons, that is, beingthe head veterinarian at a
major resort in the world.
I mean, I got to be honest.
I want to know what it means tobe the head vet at a place like

(01:11):
Atlantis Resorts in the Bahamas.

Larry Shea (01:13):
Yeah, you know we try to bring you guys a lot of
special professions, right, wehave lists of them that we put
together at these powwowmeetings that we have, and
veterinarian is of course onthat list.
But we didn't get just yournormal neighborhood vet, we got
the rock star vet.
You know like this is going tobe pretty exciting.
She's not treating just dogsand cats.

(01:34):
There are dolphins involved, sonow this is going to be a lot
of fun.
Dr Amanda Pinder, we know thisis going to be an exciting
interview.

Absolutely.
I had a chance to meet Amandawhen I was in Atlantis and she
is kind, thoughtful, animated, agreat storyteller, and I have
no doubt that this is going tobe a great conversation.
So, with no further ado, hereis Dr Amanda Pinder.
Now joining no Wrong Choices isthe veterinarian, dr Amanda

(02:02):
Pinder.
Dr Pinder is someone I recentlymet when visiting Atlantis in
the Bahamas.
At that time she was theattending veterinarian who gave
my group an amazing look behindthe scenes.
But since then and literally bysince then, I mean within the
past few days she chose toembark upon a new adventure
which I'm sure we will explore.
Dr Pinder, thank you so muchfor joining us.

Amanda Pinder (02:25):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
I'm very excited to be here.

And, by the way, just real quick, when Larry Sam
says Atlantis he doesn't meanthe lost continent of he means
the resort in the Bahamas.

Good clarification.
Just want to make sure peopleknow.
So before we start, I guess weshould ask the question are we
going to be calling you DrPinder, dr Amanda, amanda?
What is the appropriate thingwe should call you throughout
this conversation?

Amanda is fine.

Fair enough.
So, amanda, the way we like tolead into all of our
conversations is to ask theperson that we are talking to to
describe who they are in theirown words.
Who are you and what do you do?

Yeah, it's a great question and it's an
interesting question right nowbecause I'm transitioning roles,
but obviously I'm Amanda, I ama veterinarian.
I've been a veterinarian forover 10 years.
I've had a wide variety ofexperiences.
Most recently, I was theattending veterinarian for
Atlantis for just over fiveyears and that's the Atlantis

(03:34):
Resort in Paradise Island,bahamas.
So my role there was takingcare of a variety of species
bottlenose, dolphins, californiasea lions, macaws, green sea
turtles you know anything thatswims.
Basically, I was responsible,you know, for their care and I

(03:54):
love that.
Yeah, so I just recentlyaccepted a position at a equine
facility or a horse, a horsebarn, basically, in layman's
terms and me and my husband areactually both veterinarians.
So we're going to be workingtogether and building, you know,
our own clinic and, you know,providing, hopefully, a new

(04:15):
level of care for the horsesthat live on the island here, as
well as for other.
You know, all different typesof species dogs, cats, chickens,
goats, whatever we get calledfor, we're always, you know,
willing to try and assist.

Larry Shea (04:30):
I love that.
I get the fun part to take youback to the beginning.
So I guess my first question iswhat was it like growing up in
paradise?
Because you grew up in theBahamas.
I mean, that's amazing.

Yes, I know it's one of those things where you
don't realize how lucky you areuntil you leave, right, because
it's all you know.
It's all I knew growing up.
I'm very proud of you know thatI'm Bahamian.
I'm ninth generation on mydad's side and about fifth
generation on my mother's side,so all of my family basically is
, you know, from here.

(05:02):
Luckily, my parents reallyappreciate you know the Bahamas
as well, and so most of mychildhood was spent enjoying
this beautiful country and beingable to go on the boat and, you
know we used to camp out on thebeach, you know, on the
weekends or you know variousdifferent you know, trips or
whatever.
So, yeah, basically, you knowtrips or whatever.

(05:28):
So, yeah, basically, it was thedream growing up here.
Uh, it was an amazing, amazingupbringing.
I got to, you know, be on theocean all the time and just so
happens that I also grew up nextto one of the only horse
stables on the island, so Ispent a lot of time, you know,
with horses as well so at whatpoint in your, in your childhood
, in your, in your formativeyears, did you finally say to
yourself you know what I'm?

I'm growing up in paradise here and this is what
I want to kind of do with mylife.
I want to take care of, I wantto take care of the biodiversity
around me.

I think I've always.
I'm that stereotypical story.
I've always wanted to be aveterinarian.
I have pictures, I meanprobably since I was you know
three, four or five years old,where it's like you dress up
what you want to be when yougrow up and I'm wearing like a
white coat and you know a youknow pretend stethoscope.

(06:17):
So I've just I mean as soon asI could walk and talk.
I've just always been obsessedwith animals and it's always
been my passion, so it's notreally something that I can say.
One day I decided it's like Ialways wanted to do this and
I've always been so involvedwith animals my entire life.

Did you have animals in your house growing up
?
I assume the answer to that isyes.

Yes, yes, we always had animals.
I would say on average threedogs, three cats.

Oh geez.

Yeah, like I said , I lived close to the horse
stable, so, pretty much you know, my parents had to drag me home
every single night in the darkbecause I would never want to
leave.
And so there were horses, thereare goats, there are, you know,
chickens, you name it.
But yes, always had a lot ofanimals in the house growing up.

Larry Shea (07:05):
Do you have a favorite Horses?
Maybe?

I, you know, I don't know it's hard to pick
favorites, right.
I mean I've had so many amazinganimals over the years.
I'm definitely.
I mean I love dogs.
I'm definitely a dog personbecause I, you know, you can do
activities with the dog, youknow you can take your dog, you
know different places and so I.
When I was growing up, you know, like I said, we always had a
variety of dogs and I used toenjoy training the dogs and so I

(07:33):
do agility.
You know we set up thesecourses in the backyard with
jumps out of sticks and you knowyou name it you know, I
probably, you know, theyprobably were like running when
they saw me coming right.
They're like, oh, she's back,she's back and she's setting up
obstacles, let's get out of here.
So, yeah, I spent a lot of my,all of my free time basically

(07:55):
dealing with, you know, andplaying with our animals.

Larry Shea (08:05):
So you're that young and there's no eureka moment,
but you know that this is theway, this is the path that
you're going to travel.
Basically the first thing Ialways ask when it comes to
either a doctor or a vet.
So you weren't squeamish at all, like did you really know what
this entailed, like blood andsurgeries, and you know it's a
hard road.

Yeah, for sure.
I mean, that's definitely likea you know weeding out process
for a lot of people, a lot ofpeople can't deal with that side
of it.
At a pretty young age I about 12, 13 years old I started going
into a veterinary clinic in thesummers and again, I think my
parents were kind of hopingthey're like, oh no, she's not
going to be able to handle itRight.

(08:41):
And I was like in there in thesurgery like totally unfazed.
People were like other studentsthat were my age, like, you
know, 13, 14 years old, they'repassing out and I'm just like,
what do you want me to do next?
You know so it never really wasan issue, you know, for me.
I just totally was like tryingto learn and absorb and just

(09:03):
kind of understand everythingthat was going on.

So how did you focus those dreams and
aspirations?
12, 13, you're working indifferent clinics.
I assume you picked a collegethat was geared towards this.
How did you, how did you pursueit?

Yeah, I mean definitely the hands-on
experience was huge for me whenI was younger because obviously
you know you, you do need toknow if you can handle doing
surgery and and you know, justseeing, like if it is something
that you want to do, so doingthe various veterinary clinics,
as well as, again, always beingat the horse stables, um, you
know, that was a huge part of mylife and whenever we had

(09:42):
veterinarians visiting to theisland to deal with the horses,
like specific surgeries andstuff, I was always there, you
know, helping or watching orwhatever.
You know, whatever it was I cando at that time, whether I was
12 or 18 or whatever age it was.
And then once I, you know, justyou know, obviously, when I was
applying to colleges, I went inknowing that, you know, I

(10:05):
wanted to go to veterinaryschool.
So, yeah, originally I actuallywanted, I always wanted to go
to University of Florida.
But, interesting story, myguidance counselor did not send
my transcripts, so they declinedmy application and it was like
it was a big, you know, it was abig deal for me then, you know,

(10:26):
I was 18 years old and Ithought my life is over.
You know, I'm never going to goto vet school, you know,
whatever.
So I I got um university ofTampa where I originally went,
had a rolling admission, so Iinterviewed with them, they
accepted me and you know,obviously hindsight is
everything and I think that I'mvery lucky that I went there

(10:50):
first because it was a smalleruniversity and then I did end up
transferring, you know, toUniversity of Florida because
they have a stronger, you know,pre-veterinary kind of animal
biology program.
But I think I would have beenreally overwhelmed if I went to
University of Florida firstbecause it's a large university
and, like my graduating classhad like 61 people.

Oh geez, Wow, you know so.

I was coming from , you know, an island where
everything is small, easygoing,you know, you get to speak to
all your professor, you knowyour teachers all the time, and
that's kind of how it was.
When I went to University ofTampa.
It was, you know, you get tospeak to all your professor, you
know your teachers all the time, and that's kind of how it was.
When I went to University ofTampa.
It was, you know, a little bitbigger obviously than my high
school, of course, but you knowit was kind of like a stepping
stone.
So for me, you know, at thetime I was frustrated and I said

(11:38):
, you know, I really didn't wantto, you know, go there.
But it was an amazingexperience and it was a nice
transition, you know, to.
You know, my next kind ofadventure or opportunity at
University of Florida.

Larry Shea (11:51):
So this is normally where I would say were you a
good student?
But I'm going to skip thatquestion because I don't think
you could do this profession ifyou're not a good student.
But I do want to ask you abouthow they approach the anatomy of
all the different animals,because obviously a parrot is
very different than a dog, whichis different than a horse.
A doctor has a human patientand humans are relatively the

(12:15):
same.
You have gazillions of animalsthat you need to know their
anatomy.
How does that work?

Well, what I always tell people in general
and even, like you know, I getveterinary students that shadow
me it's like you never stoplearning, right, you can't get
through all of these things inveterinary school, you just
don't have the time right.
You focus on the primaryspecies that you're going to see
, you know, the most of which istypically dogs and cats, and

(12:41):
then you know a little bit ofhorses and you know cattle and
so on and so forth.
But really and truly, you haveto be motivated to figure and
learn these things out on yourown, because you just won't get
it all in the you know eightyears of education that you're
going to get and you know it's alot.
It's a lot to take in, so a lotof it has to be self-directed.

(13:03):
And that's kind of how my lifehas been, interestingly enough,
is that I have pivoted and I'vekind of been in different roles
and then I've had to say, ok,I've got to put all my energy
into this and make sure I'mlearning about all the different
nuances and intricacies, butthat's what makes it fun and
challenging.

(13:30):
Did you have a mentor who thenkind of took a shine to you and
recognized the fact that youknow you had what it takes to
make that next move.
Yeah, absolutely so.
The veterinary clinic that Ioriginally, you know, started
volunteering at when I was 12,I'm still friendly with the
veterinarian there.
He's amazing veterinarian andwas a huge mentor to me.
He wrote my recommendations fora veterinary school and I think
you know, obviously for me Ididn't realize it, but from a
very young age I think he knewthat I had potential and so he

(13:53):
did, I feel like, really put alot of energy and time into
explaining things with me, whichis you know it's just you can't
.
You can't replicate someonelike that.
You know that's just sovaluable, can't?
You can't replicate someonelike that.
You know that's just sovaluable to be able to have a
mentor and someone who thinkabout it.
I mean it was 12, 13.

Like look, we say it all the time here, we say it
all the time your mentors needmentors, yeah.

Like, who wants to talk to some 12 year old?
You know about all this, youknow.
You know intricate things thatthey're doing in surgery, but he
did and he took.
He always took the time, youknow, to explain things to me
when I had questions and show methings, and you know.
So, yeah, it's, it's.
It was such a valuableexperience for me and I see him

(14:36):
now and he's always so proud ofme and I obviously I'm so lucky
that you know I had him, youknow, as a mentor in my life at
that time.

Um, you know, I had him, you know, as a mentor
in my life at that time.
That's wonderful.
I want to dig into the traininga little bit more.
So you, you go from from theIsland to the university of
Tampa and you know what is thetraining process?
Uh, for a veterinarian, are youdoing undergrad and then you're
doing medical school, like,like, what is the training that

(15:04):
you're going through?

Yeah, it's pretty .
Yeah it's pretty similar to amedical school type situation.
So you do your undergraduate,Most people you can do.
You know a variety of differentoptions depending on which
veterinary school you're tryingto get into, but most of them
you know you can do eithergeneral biology or animal
biology.
My path was animal biology.

(15:28):
You know it's a little bit morespecific and you know you can
kind of get into the nittygritty of.
You know obviously, horses,dogs, cats, whatever you know,
whatever it is that your, youknow your school is focusing on.
And then you apply toveterinary schools and that's
obviously the most, I would say,the most nerve wracking process
of the whole thing.

(15:49):
It's extremely competitive, muchmore competitive than human
medical schools, because there'sso few schools that you know,
in the United States and youknow North America in general.
So, yeah, your chances ofgetting anything is like.
At my time it was like six to8% or something of people that
apply get in.

Wow.

So you know, you just kind of go into it thinking
like, well, I'm probably notgoing to get in, but you know
I'm going to give it my bestshot.
So for me there's.
I mean I can't even explain toyou the day that I got called,
you know, it was just like Icouldn't believe it, because it
just you get told so many times,well, you probably you may not
get in and you may not, and youknow, believe it or not.
You asked earlier about being agood student.

(16:33):
I was a good student, but Iwasn't a 4.0 student.
I wasn't that like I'm going tostudy all day and stay up all
night.
It was like I always wanted tofind balance in my life.
So it's like I was studying,like you know what I'm going to
go horseback riding.
You know I want to go take mydog to the dog park.
And so, yeah, maybe if Istudied more and I, you know I

(16:56):
didn't have balance then I wouldhave had that 4.0, but, you
know, I still felt like, youknow, I was able to do it and be
a well-rounded person.
And then, luckily, the schoolthat I applied to saw that they
saw I had all these differentexperiences.
I was the captain of my ridingteam, I volunteered at the
shelter, I started a, you know,a shelter club at University of

(17:17):
Florida where we could all gettogether and help local you know
shelters, you know, withvolunteering or whatever you
know.
So there were so many otherthings that I tried to do to
make an impact with others,versus just focusing on, you
know, studying all the time.

All right.
So you're saying, you'retelling us that, like you know
it, a very small amount ofpeople get into a very small
amount of schools when it comesto, when it comes to veterinary
sciences.
So if that's the case and youwere initially saying to
yourself, well, I may not get in, what was the plan B?

There really wasn't a plan B.
I was determined.
I was like okay, if I don't getin this year, I'll try it again
next year, Maybe I'll get amaster's degree in you know
medicine, you know equinescience or you know equine
nutrition or something like that, and then try again.
There really wasn't.
You know there really wasn't aplan B, because that's all I had

(18:12):
.
You know, focused on you knowfor most of my life.
And yeah, I just wasn't goingto take no for an answer.

Larry Shea (18:18):
I love that, but it just I never really even thought
about the fact that there's soso many fewer schools and it's
so much more difficult than amedical school, because there's
medical schools all over theplace.
Um, that's just reallyinteresting, I.
I guess when you get intoveterinary school, I mean, my
first question would be mypatient can't talk to me.

(18:41):
How do I figure out what'swrong with them?
Like, how do you is that whatthey're teaching you, like
literally like class 101 of vetschool?
Figure out what the problem is,you know.

Who is your Dr Doolittle?

That's funny.
It's a good question.
You know, we I remember firstyear we actually had a lot of
client communication classes,cause a lot of it too, is like a
lot of veterinarians come inand they're like you know, I
just want to work with animalsand I think you know, at the
beginning you kind of forget youneed to be able to speak to
people and you need to be ableto communicate with them and say

(19:16):
and ask the right questions,because also too, yes, you can't
speak to your patients.
So how do you extract theinformation that you need from
the owner, the information thatyou need from the owner?
And in the case of, you know,say, atlantis, where I, you know
, where I worked for the lastcouple of years, we rely heavily
on the trainers or thebehaviorists and those.
Those persons have a very closerelationship with the animals

(19:37):
and they're interacting withthem, you know, all day.
So how do you, what are thequestions that you ask to to get
the information?
You know?
How is the animal been acting?
What is it doing after it eats?
Is it throwing up after it eats?
You know what is, you know whatis kind of going on and
obviously just developing yourclinical skills, obviously, as
well as extremely importantdoing a good you know physical

(20:00):
exam and being able to you know,interpret, you know your
findings, and then you know goon from there.
And being able to you know,interpret, you know your
findings, and then you know goon from there.

Do people specialize going through that
process, or it's really just nota thing?

People do specialize.
Yes, absolutely.
So there's tons.
You know there's more and morespecialties being established.
Obviously, in human medicinemost of those specialties have
long been established, but inveterinary medicine some of them
are still being.
You know, in terms of like, thecolleges that are going to

(20:33):
accredit people to get certainspecialties.
Some of them are still beingdeveloped, but there's like
veterinary radiologists,veterinary ophthalmologists,
veterinary internal medicine,small animal veterinary,
internal medicine, large animals.
So yeah, there's quite a fewspecialties and it was something
that I considered, but you know, that's another, you know, four

(20:54):
years of training.
So you know, for me I justdecided, you know, I want to
kind of get in there and get andkind of figure out where I fit
in and, you know, go from thereand luckily for me it worked out
.
But I have a lot of amazingfriends that specialized and
they get to do what they love aswell.
Just ophthalmology, for example.

(21:16):
I'm actually going to be doingsome ophthalmology exams with
our ophthalmologist tomorrow.
So he's been a great mentor andfriend to me as well.
So yeah, there's lots ofdifferent, different specialties
.

Larry Shea (21:30):
You know Tushar asked about a plan B.
I just if I find it so daunting, you know you talk.
I think you said eight years ofschool, um, at the highest
level.
There was never a doubt ordiscouragement or a.
You know, I maybe need to dosomething else because this
isn't going to work out.
It sounds like you wereobviously pretty determined, but

(21:50):
there must have been a pointwhere you're like up against the
wall, like I don't know aboutall this, because that's how I
would feel Absolutely.

There were times.
There were times where I didnot think that it was going to
work out.
I do like to tell this storybecause I think people think
that again academically, oh ifyou got into vet school and
you're doing so well in yourcareer that you must have just
breezed through, it reallywasn't like that for me.
I had setbacks.

(22:18):
One in particular that I alwaystell is that I failed organic
chemistry and I thought Not thefirst.

Larry Shea (22:26):
I imagine I would too.

I'm going to take that for granted, I passed
organic chemistry one and then Ifailed organic chemistry two
and, to be honest, the professorwas tough and I would go to his
office and I still remember tothis day he told me you will
never get into veterinary school.
I always talk about that.
I'm like I'm going to find himone of these days and I'm like

(22:50):
yeah, definitely Look at you now.
Look at all the things that I'vedone and you know all that.
But yeah, it was.
That was a huge turning pointfor me.
That was my sophomore year ofundergrad and I thought there's
just no way I can't.
I failed this class.
You know, again, my life isover.
You know, I'm never going toget into school, to vet school.
They're going to see that andthey're going to say no, she

(23:13):
can't do it.
If she failed organic chemistry, she, she can't go to
veterinary school.
But you know, I just had toagain pivot and say you know,
I'm going to try this again.
It's OK to be upset and to bedisappointed and whatever, but
then find a solution.
Okay, I went and found I got apersonal one-on-one tutor for
organic chemistry.
When I took it again, I saidunder no circumstances can I

(23:37):
fail this class.
And she was like all right,we're going to have to meet
three hours a week, every week,and this is what we're going to
do.
And we came up with a plan andI passed.

And you got where you wanted to go.
So, as you work your waythrough the program it's eight
years, I think we've clarifiedfrom from college and then
through veteran veterinaryschool.
So, as you're nearing the end,what do you do?
What is the game plan, what isthe approach to landing that
first opportunity and becoming avet, being Dr Pinder?

Yeah, exactly.
So in your final year,sometimes even in your third
year of veterinary school, whichI guess would be year seven or
eight you would start doing whatwe call externships, which is
basically you go and you visitand it's kind of like a working
interview, right.
Someships, which is basicallyyou go and you visit and it's
kind of like a working interview, right, you're some of it.
Sometimes you know you're notgoing to work there in the
longterm, maybe you're justgoing to a specific place to get

(24:34):
experience.
But a lot of times you're going, you know, because you know,
hey, I might apply for aninternship here once I graduate,
and so basically that's what Idid.
I just did quite a fewexternships in my last two years
of veterinary school and then Idecided upon, you know, my top
three or four choices where Iwanted to go for my internship,

(24:57):
and I just made it clear when Iwent to my top choice, I said
this is, you know, this is mytop choice.
This is where I see myselfdoing my internship.
And you know, I hope that youguys would, you know, see the
value in me and see that I'm ahard worker and, yeah, luckily
for me, I was able to get thatinternship that I wanted and
gain that valuable experience.

Larry Shea (25:16):
So where was that?
And you had the good fortune ofactually being in those you
know rooms basically prior tothis.
So how different was it whenyou started getting into that
externship and seeing what theday-to-day was like there
compared to what you knew fromvet school basically?

Yeah, it's very different.
For sure, vet school yourhead's kind of spinning right.
You're just like there's somuch going on, you're trying to
absorb so much information youmay not be appreciating all the
little kind of details.
Again, sometimes it's like theclient communication and
discussing finances and like allthose other things that you
have to then jump into day oneof.

(26:00):
You know, being a licensedveterinarian, so it can.
It's a very nerve wrackingtransition going from student to
doctor.
It's like hi, I'm the doctor,oh, really, I'm the doctor.

Okay, I got to do this.

Larry Shea (26:15):
You have to check yourself a little bit there.

I am the doctor you know, and so that's kind of
how it is the first, I feel,like couple months.
You're just like what'shappening, you know, you're just
trying to wrap your head aroundall of it.
But choosing a place that had,you know, good mentors, was
obviously huge to me and,luckily for me, the hospital
that I chose, which wasHollywood Animal Hospital in
Hollywood, florida, also,strangely enough, had a lot of

(26:44):
connections to some of theveterinarians that I knew back
in the Bahamas.
So it was kind of this againconnection with, oh, I've known
so-and-so who you've worked withfor, you know, 20 years, and it
felt, it just felt right to meand I felt like that was going
to be the best place where Iwould, you know, probably fit in
and get the most valuableexperience.

So you always had an eye on going back home,
going back to the Bahamas.

Yep, my original plan was to stay for a couple of
years in the US and work, butbecause I'm Bahamian and I'm not
American, I basically had toenter into a lottery system, the
H-1B or sorry, the J-1 visalottery system and it's.
It is literally a lottery.

(27:30):
And so you would think you knowsomeone who has advanced
education or whatever.
It wouldn't be that way, butyou know, that's the way it was
at the time.
I'm not sure how it is now.
And yeah, I tried, you know,two years in a row row because I
wanted to get more experiencein the US before moving back
home, and it didn't work out.
But again, I just feel likeit's one of those things where

(27:53):
it wasn't meant to work out andthat's okay, and it led me to
doing my own business and thenworking for Atlantis.
You know which were both youknow amazing experiences for me.
So I, you know, I don't, youknow, I don't regret any of
those things kind of happening.

Larry Shea (28:08):
No wrong choices.

Exactly no wrong choices.

We usually find a way to plug that in every
conversation Thank you formaking that natural.
So you, you go back, you, yougo back home.
And what are you doing?
If I remember correctly from ustalking, did you set up your
own practice when you came back.

Yes, I did.
I did work for a clinic, youknow, for a couple months, just,
you know, trying to get my feeton the ground.
And then you know me and one ofthe veterinary technicians that
I worked with at HollywoodAnimal Hospital, we would always
joke like we're going to, youknow, we're going to start this
business.
It's going to be like we'llcome to you by boat, by plane,

(28:54):
you know, whatever we're goingto make it to you, we're going
to treat your animals.
And so we had this joke for thewhole year of my internship.
And then when I moved back homeand I started seeing that you
know there really is a need forthis, it just again I just
pivoted.
I said you know, this is whatI'm going to do.
And you know, my parents at thetime were, they were a little
concerned because I had notreally made any money.

(29:15):
I'd been in school, you know,for such a long time and you
know, didn't have like a bunchof savings or anything.
They're like you sure you wantto start your own business.
Like it's kind of a big riskand you know.
But I did and I struggled, youknow, at the beginning.
But again, because it's such asmall community.
I would say after maybe two tothree months.
I was busy, I didn't have dayswhere.

(29:38):
I, I sat and did nothing.
You know and I think that thatgoes back to the community that
I live in and where I'm from isthat it's everything's kind of
word of mouth and you know, Ithink people knew me, for
example, from the horse stablesand from various different you
know animal activities that I'vedone over the years on the
island, and so it just kind ofpeople are like oh, amanda's

(30:00):
doing her own thing Great, letme call Amanda and she'll come
out and deal with the animalshere and people love it.

When you say you got busy, what does that mean
that you got busy?
Are you basically kind ofworking like 24 hours a day at
that point, or is it that thereis some downtime?

Well, there's definitely downtime.
I would say I was working fiveto six days a week, maybe nine,
you know nine, 10 hours a day.

Amazing.

So yeah, I mean it was, it was.
You know it was jam packed andalso because I was driving and
doing the mobile kind of houseto house, I mean you can
realistically, you know youcan't see as many patients in a
day as you could if you were ina clinic, right, because
everyone's coming to you.
So you know I'd averageanywhere from five to eight
house calls depending on howmany animals they had at each.

(30:50):
You know location.
So yeah, it was, it was busy, I, I, I came home every night and
I was going to bed at eighto'clock.

Larry Shea (30:59):
Yeah, I can't imagine getting started like
that and you must be growing atthat point exponentially in
terms of knowledge andexperience.
But I want you to talk a littlebit because we touched upon it
but didn't really talk about itabout the self-confidence that
you need to make these calls, tomake these decisions.
I mean, there are lives on theline.
In most of these instances, youare the last line of defense.

(31:22):
An animal needs you.
You have to make the call onhow to handle a sick animal, a
herd animal, whatever the casemay be.
How confident are you?
Is it something that you had towork on and grow with, or did
it come naturally?
Talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, absolutely.
I think it definitely issomething that for me it evolved
over time.
I mean I've always been prettyoutspoken and social and you
know I've always, always loved,you know, hanging out with my
friends and you know kind ofbeing out and about.
So for me I do enjoy, you know,having relationships with
people.
So I would say that does comesomewhat naturally to me and

(32:01):
that's obviously a huge part ofbeing a veterinarian is, again,
communication and being able todo that.
And I think coming with thatcomes with.
You have to be comfortable andconfident enough to say like
sometimes I don't know, you knowI don't know.
And that's something that we dohave to say, you know, somewhat
frequently, because again ourpatients can't speak to us.

(32:22):
You know they can't say, oh no,you gave me the wrong thing, I
still.
You know they can't say oh no,you gave me the wrong thing, I
still.
You know I still hurt.
Or you know you can run all thediagnostics and you don't find
anything.
You know find anything wrong.
So sometimes you know you cansay I've done all this and you
know I just don't have a clearanswer at this point and that's
okay.
I think people appreciate, youknow, the honesty versus

(32:43):
scrambling and trying to come upwith something that doesn't
actually make sense, you know.

Yeah.

So that's something that I've always said
to you know, other students thatI've mentored is that don't be
afraid to say I'm not sure.
It's not always a negativething, especially if you've done
your due diligence, you've doneall the tests, you've done
everything.
That does happen sometimes andyou just have to be comfortable
enough to you know communicatethat, whether it be to a client

(33:08):
or an owner or whoever.

Larry Shea (33:09):
To that end.
What sticks with you more?
Great success or great failure?

Oh boy, that's.
That's a good question.
I know that's a tough one.

Larry Shea (33:18):
I had to throw it in somewhere, though, Come on,
that's.
It's a.
It's a big part of what you doright Is how hard is it to turn
the page if something goes wrong, and how much do you want to
take the buoyed experience oflook at what I did over here?
I just saved a life, or I justyou know something like that,
yeah.

I think at the beginning you really take your
failures with you.
I have to be honest, right,it's like you have spent your
whole life, especially like forme.
I spent my whole life beingdevoted to animals and then when
you have you know a lot oftimes it's not things within
your control Something happensto a patient of you know, an
amazing client, and you're justlike it's all you can think

(33:56):
about.
You're just like, how couldthis happen?
You know we did everything wecould and you know this animal
you know passed away and yeah, Imean I can't lie the first time
I had a really good client'spet, I mean I thought about it
for months.
You know it was something thatdefinitely was challenging, you
know, for me to move forwardfrom.
But over the years and throughvarious you know different

(34:18):
techniques and whatever you know, you learn to leave these
things behind because you knowyou don't want to carry only
negative things, because there'sso many positive things that we
get to do in our career and somany animals that we've helped.
But yeah, it can definitelyweigh heavily on you for sure.

Knowing where you're based in the Bahamas and
knowing the type of roles thatyou've had have you been
involved with the rescue of ananimal?
That has been a standoutexperience for you, a really
special experience.

Yeah, absolutely so.
My original kind of entranceinto marine mammal medicine with
the stranding network inconjunction with Atlantis was
the stranding of a Atlanticspotted dolphin whom we named
Eminem and found out later onthat he was already documented

(35:20):
as Lambda.
Basically, this dolphinstranded in the Berry Islands,
which is another set of islandsin the Bahamas north of Nassau,
where I live, and I had justliterally signed up two weeks
prior to say I want to volunteer, I want to help.
You know, let me know what'sgoing on and you know I'll make
myself available.
And so two weeks later theycall me a dolphin stranded.

(35:41):
He's on a beach in the BerryIslands.
Can you come?
I said sure, called all myclients, explained to them.
They're like oh my God, pleasego, go help, I'm going to save
dolphins.
Yeah, exactly.

They're like totally, totally fine with it.

They're like Fluffy can wait for his vaccines
.

Go save the dolphins.

So I went and, anyway, long story short, I was
able to learn how to get a bloodfrom a dolphin and give an
injection to a dolphin all thosethings that I had never had the
experience of.
And again, you don't get thatin veterinary school as one can
imagine.
Dolphins aren't patients thatcome into a hospital routinely.
So I got to learn a lot on thisanimal and assist with

(36:23):
rehabilitating him and gettinghim back out into the ocean.
After about 60 days he wasreleased.
Now, the crazy part about thisstory which is literally I'm
never going to be able to topthis story ever again in my
career is we then, years later Ibelieve it was four years later

(36:44):
me and my husband are in thearea, in that kind of barrier
islands or Bimini area, where weknow those particular dolphins
live, and we go there.
I said, you know, let's what,if we're going to see Eminem,
let's go out on the boat and tryand, you know, do like a
dolphin, you know tour wherethey take you to try and look
for the dolphins.
We go out on this boat.

(37:05):
20 minutes in we see a pod ofdolphins.
We get in the water.
Eminem swims right up to me.

Wow, there you go , there you go.
Wow, that's amazing.

I can't make this up.
I have goosebumps now.
I've told this story a hundredtimes and it still is just the
most incredible experience.
I can't explain to you.
I mean the way I was screaming.
The boat driver thought I wasdrowning because he didn't know
what was going on.
I was just screaming at the topof my lungs.

It's not good to do in the water.
Don't do that.
How many people have seen Jaws?

They thought I was being attacked by a shark.
You know, and luckily you know,my husband was there and he's
an avid underwater photographerand so we got photos.
Um basically has this distincthole in his dorsal fin from
where his satellite tag was um,since, you know, it's since
dropped off, but he has a verydistinct scar on his dorsal fin

(38:05):
and, yeah, he swam right next tome and we have photos of that.
And I can't even explain to youwhat it's like to save an
animal like that, put it back inthe ocean and four years later
see this animal and then it getsbetter.
We get back to Atlantis.
I tell my boss, I say this iswhat happened.

(38:27):
And we look at the date.
It was four years exactly tothe date that he stranded.

Wow, come on.

I can't make it up.
That's what I'm saying.

It's almost like a birthday, for God's sakes.

Yeah, really insane story and just like you
know, that's the story.
What I tell, know I tell peopleit's like that's the type of,
that's the type of experiencethat makes all the stress worth
it, right, like you know youjust you worry about your
patients so much, you want themto do well and you know,
especially when you're dealingwith this magnificent animal,
you're putting it back in theocean, you're like, oh, my

(38:59):
goodness, I hope nothing badhappens to you.
I hope you live an amazing life.
And he did and he's, you know.
We think he's still out there.
We went back a year later andwe did get some video footage
with, you know, a whole videocrew and everything.
We got to see him again,luckily, on the third day.
We were there for three daysthe first two days, no go, and
the third day and the final hourhe showed up.

(39:21):
So we got to get some amazingfootage.

Amazing, did he approach again?

so we got to get some amazing, amazing.
Did he approach again?
Yes, yeah, yeah, he came.
He came right right up to us.
Um, he was with a bigger podthis time, so it was, you know,
a little bit more of it, youknow, excitement going on yeah
um, it was a different what agreat, great moment yeah
different experience from thefirst time, because it was just
me and my husband in the waterand it was no, there was nobody
out.
There was a flat, calm day.
It was just like the water,water, and it was no, there was
nobody out there, it was a flat,calm day.
It was just like the water wasglass and it was just quiet,

(39:52):
just us and the animals.
Yeah, you just can't.
You can't replicate anythinglike that.

Larry Shea (39:57):
Yeah, I asked you before about the highest of
highs and the lowest of lows.

There it is right there Um let's.

Larry Shea (40:03):
Nothing can top that .
Um.
So let's talk about thetransition from your own
practice to Atlantis, because Iknow from what I understand you
were what volunteering for theAtlantis stuff and that's how
you got out to help this M&M,the spotted dolphin.
And how does that transition toa position later on?
Is it just because they knewyou and they're like, hey, it's

(40:24):
open, we know you, we trust you?

Come on aboard.
It wasn't quite as quick asthat.
Obviously, it was a moregradual process.
So once they saw my interest inthis particular animal, m&m
they saw that I was coming in, Iwas learning, trying to be as
adaptable as possible.
My boss was like, are youinterested?

(40:47):
Like would you be interested ina position here?
Because we could probably usesomeone part-time, you know, to
fill in when the otherveterinarian, you know, is, you
know, on vacation or whatever.
And I was like I mean,obviously I'm interested, you
know.
So it kind of started with thatand I balanced doing my mobile
veterinary practice and then Istarted with one day a week for

(41:12):
probably the first like six toeight months, and then I went up
to two days a week and thenthree days a week and then, like
I said, did pretty muchincrease my time over two years,
before then was offered thefull time position, which also
coincided with me and my husbandgetting married and luckily my

(41:35):
husband is also a veterinarian,so then he was able to take over
the house.
Oh, it all kind of worked outand I you know, because I think
too, it was like one of thosethings where we're having
discussions where it was like,oh well, my, my husband is
moving here and we're trying tofigure out what he's going to be
doing and then it was like,well, would you want to be full
time?
And I was like, yeah, me to befull time, like that could work.

(42:10):
And then, you know, my husbandcan take over the business.
And it was a gradual transitionfrom kind of this, the mixed
animal mobile practice, and thengetting more experience in the
aquatic kind of worlds, and thentaking it on full time.
All right?

so then I guess that my question will be about
the trend will be transition inthat case, right?
So obviously, the most obviousdifference is that the animals
in Atlantis, or those you'redealing with there, they're in
the water all the time.
That's their life, and soyou're transitioning from those
that are on the land to thosethat are in the water.
What is that transition?
I mean, what does that entailfor your own mindset?

(42:39):
Then, to see, like, okay, I'mstill dealing with mammals, but
they're in an entirely differentenvironment from where I am
normally used to.

Yeah, it's a huge transition.
I would say it was big.
It was a big transition for meand I think that obviously, when
you're dealing with house calls, you come in, you're like, all
right, fluffy, let me examineyou, and you know you do what
you need to do, whereas whenyou're dealing with, especially,
marine mammals, the house isthe Caribbean Ocean, for that

(43:08):
Right exactly.
When you're dealing with anintelligent animal, like you
know marine mammal, like abottlenose dolphin or you know a
sea lion, you have to exercisepatience Because everything that
, especially in a facility likeAtlantis, is done through
positive reinforcement, trainingright, and so the animals are

(43:29):
trained to be able to give youknow the behaviors that you need
to, say, get a blood or to doan ultrasound or whatever it is.
So you know, sometimes it'slike you're you're having to
plan these things weeks inadvance, like, okay, we want to
do this on this particularanimal, now you guys have to
kind of take it and start thetraining.

(43:49):
So it's, it's.
It's so much different from youknow the other, you know the
other types of medicine that Iwas doing prior to coming and
really just having to understandthe whole operation and how,
how everything works.
But I would say it was such anamazing experience to see how

(44:10):
much time and energy goes intotraining these animals and how
intelligent they are and how youdon't you know, even from now
I'm transitioning back, you knowto doing you know more small
animal and you know differentthings with horses, and I think
that the experience that I havehas taught me that exercising

(44:30):
patience with these animals isextremely important because it
makes it a positive experiencefor them as well.
We don't want them to be.
It's it's like that famousthing, like the vet comes in,
all you know, the dogs arecowering and the cats are trying
to run away, right.
And I think that it's reallychanged my whole approach on how

(44:51):
I think about veterinarymedicine and how I think about
my patients, in terms of makingeverything a positive experience
and sometimes taking your timeand say, okay, fluffy's stressed
out, today we can't get theblood right now.
Let's pivot and figure out howwe can, you know, do it better,
maybe in a different scenario,whereas before, without having
this experience with the marinemammals, I don't think I think

(45:12):
about it the same way.
I think it was definitelydifferent.

As a vet, you know you're developing a rapport
and a relationship with,obviously, your customers and
your clients, but also with theanimals.
When you're at Atlantis, itfeels like it's a very different
job.
Where you are the face of thisincredible facility, where you
are interacting with all ofthese different guests, you are

(45:37):
presenting what Atlantis isdoing in the most wonderful
light possible.
How much of an adjustment wasthat for you?

Yeah, I think it was.
I think it was a hugeadjustment.
I think the reality is is thatthere is a lot of negative press
on marine mammals under humancare and I think it mostly comes
from misinformation and alsojust lack of education.
As well, as I always say topeople, not all facilities are

(46:08):
created.
The same Atlantis is accreditedby many different bodies and
you know we hold our standardsto the highest level right.
So most people, I think youknow, don't understand.
Don't understand the level, youknow, of care that goes into
these animals, and so I thinkthat when I transitioned, like

(46:30):
to me, it made sense.
But then you know, when youpresent that information to the
public, you need to make surethat you're presenting it in a
way where it's like you're notjust going to get one, someone's
not going to take one soundbiteand they're going to be like oh
, these animals are living in aprison or whatever.

You know what I mean.
Like they'll take somethingBecause you became an advocate,
in a way.

Correct.
Yeah, and, like I said, there'sa lot of criticism, you know,
kind of, in this field.
So you do have to think beforeyou talk and make sure that you
know you're not going to saysomething that somebody can spin
around and say, well, you saidthis, you know, but really
obviously you know you meantsomething different.

(47:10):
So, yeah, it took practicingand you know, probably, driving
you know my husband insanetalking about things at home,
talking about things at work.
Obviously I leaned a lot on myco workers who have been there
much longer than me and haveused to, you know the PR aspect

(47:31):
of, you know, having to answerquestions about the animals and
stuff.
So for sure, it wasn'tsomething that I took on, you
know, on my own.
I definitely relied a lot onothers to help guide me and you
know, make sure that I wouldn'tput my foot in my mouth.

What are your feelings then on?
What are your feelings then on?
Let's say, as you said beforeand I agree with you, I think
that the notion of having, likethe average, the average person,
like the three of us, interactwith these animals, interact
with these, interact with these,interact with these fish, it's
paramount to kind of understand,get a better idea on the world
we live in.
Obviously, there's been atremendous there was, has been

(48:08):
and was a tremendous amount ofcontroversy, let's say around a
place like sea world.
You obviously were the head ofa large facility, not as big,
maybe not as big as that, but,as you said, you kind of had to
advocate for that.
So what are your feelings onplaces let's say like sea world?
I mean our aquariums at ourlarge scale, water, aquatic
facilities, aquariums, etc.
Are they as important as zoosfor the ever, for the average

(48:32):
public to kind of wrap theirhead around and kind of see the
world they live in?

absolutely the.
I think the thing that, um,unfortunately never, you know,
it's just like with any news andmedia, certain things are
always shared more because it,you know, it evokes more of
facilities that I mean they doso much they can't even put all
of it out there, you know, ininto the universe.
I mean they are rescue andrehabilitating manatees,

(49:10):
sometimes whales, sometimes, youknow, I can't even begin to
list the amount of things youknow that they're involved in,
as well as they are advancingmedicine in this field, which we
still don't, we don't knoweverything right and we're
learning stuff every day.
So they're doing studies on howa dolphin processes certain

(49:34):
medications, and so that way,when there is a mass stranding
event and we, you know, peopleneed to assist, we have a
baseline of what we need to bedoing, because, again, there's
so much that we don't know.
So I think there's just there's.
I mean, I could talk about thisfor hours, because there's so
many things that so manydifferent areas that you can

(49:54):
touch on.
But the role of thesefacilities is, you can't even
measure it, and I think thatit's unfortunate that so many
people think of them in anegative light.
But without them, who is goingto rescue and rehabilitate these
animals that need assistanceand advocate, and advocate for

(50:14):
them there.
There will not be.
It just, it's just not.
It's not going to be a goodsituation if we don't have these
facilities to educate peopleand continue their conservation
efforts.

Larry Shea (50:30):
I read, one of the most common misconceptions about
veterinarians is that you guysare all wealthy.
Everybody makes a milliondollars, because as far as I'm
concerned, whatever you get paidis not enough because we need
you.
But I guess would you find thatto be true.
I mean, we think about.
I think about taking my pets tothe vet and it's a lot of money

(50:51):
.
But I think it's amisconception.
I think most veterinarians arejust happy to help.
It's a job and they do well,but you're all not millionaires
and you should be.
In my opinion, it goes to gasmoney.

They're always on the move.

Yeah, it is a career of passion.
I will definitely say that.
I remember, depending on whereyou would work, like so, for
example, when I worked in SouthFlorida, you get these really
emotional, heated kind ofclients.
They come in and you're like,okay, here's the estimate for
so-and-so and it's going to be$1,000 to do this emergency

(51:30):
procedure or whatever.
And they're like, how do yousleep at night charging all this
money?
And you're like, I'm sorry, Ibarely have a bed to sleep on.
Okay, at this point, you know.
So you have to pay all the staff, you have to pay the
electricity, you have to pay forall the supplies.
I mean, there's so many thingsto running a business.

(51:51):
People just never think aboutit in human medicine because
it's subsidized either byprivate insurance or, you know,
government assistance, right.
And so when people get animals,I think they commonly forget
that it is a privilege in manyplaces in the world to have an
animal because it is expensiveto provide care.

(52:12):
Just if you were to have to paycash for your hospital bills
for yourself, you would bepaying.

You'd be saying the same thing that your doctor.
Right, you would be paying.

I mean, I got a bill once, I remember, for an
endoscopy and for some reasonyou know there was a mix up with
insurance they sent me a billfor like $16,000.
I'm like we should startcharging more for our endoscopy.
We only charge like $1,000.

Did you call the hospital and say how can you
people sleep?
Yeah, exactly, so yeah it is.

It is definitely something that, within the
veterinary community, we doexperience a lot, that people
say how you know, how can youcharge this much?
This is my child and it's.
You know, this is my baby, thisis my dog and it's like we have
.
Unfortunately, we all have topay bills and it's not even like
, again, we're not millionaires,we're not making what the

(53:01):
plastic surgeon makes, you know,at the, you know Mount Sinai or
whatever, you know whateverfancy hospital.
We're just trying, you know, tohave a decent life and do
something that we're passionateabout.
So, yeah, it's definitely it'sa hot topic in veterinary
medicine.

Well, speaking of possibilities, you are pursuing
a new one as you aretransitioning away from Atlantis
to establish your own practice,or I believe.
What are you going to do next?
Talk to us a little bit aboutyour next adventure.

Yeah.
So basically I'm kind of havinga full circle moment moment,
and me and my husband wereapproached to manage a equine
facility, a horse, basically astable just for private owners,
with also the goal of openingthe first equine hospital in the

(53:55):
Bahamas.

Wow, really Wow, that's awesome.

Yeah.
So if I go back to kind of againcircling back to when I was
applying to veterinary school,when I wrote my essays, you know
, saying what my goals were, mygoal was to be the first
Bahamian equine veterinarian,and then when I moved home I
thought, oh, I don't know if Ican, if I can make enough and

(54:19):
make a living doing just thehorses.
So I'm going to mix it up and doeverything and obviously, like
we already discussed, it wentwell.
Now we have a group ofindividuals that are bringing in
very high-level horses thatthey want to be able to provide
the very best care, and in orderto do that, you can't take a

(54:40):
horse into a small animalhospital.
You have to build a hospitalthat can fit horses, similar to
what you know we have, like atAtlantis.
We had to build a hospital thatcan fit dolphins and sea lions.
So, yeah, this is going to beobviously an exciting journey
where, hopefully, we will beable to provide very high level

(55:05):
care for horses on the island aswell, as you know, other
animals as well.
But in the case of an emergency, being able to do a surgery on
a horse is a huge deal, andright now in the Bahamas, and
there's never been any facilityin the Bahamas that has ever
been able to do that.
So that's what we're planningon creating.

Wow, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
So, amanda, I mentioned amoment ago, you are the closest
thing that we will ever speak.
You are the closest personwe'll ever speak to as a real
life, dr Doolittle.
So my question to you is thiswhich animal uh, first land and
then aquatic most expressive?

that's.
That's a good question.
Um, I I feel like land.
I would say dogs are prettyexpressive.
That that would be my, my firstinstinct.
There are other animals too,but if I had to choose one, it
seems like you're backing meinto a corner and I have to
choose one.

I'm backing you into a corner.

Dogs on land and in the ocean, I would say
dolphins, bottlenose dolphins.

Really, I actually thought you'd say sea
lions, to be honest with you.

I thought you'd say sea lions.
Yeah, they're pretty expressive, they have a lot of personality
.
Sea lions do as well, but in adifferent way.
So yeah, I would say if I hadto choose one, I would choose
dolphins.

Larry Shea (56:25):
Okay, I'll follow up with that.
I don't know if you know theauthor.
Douglas Adams, a British authorwrote a bunch of fiction, it
doesn't matter.
Hitchhiker's Guide to theGalaxy a bunch of other books.
Thanks for all the fit he talksin his book about how humans
are third smartest species onthe planet, with dolphins being
second and white mice beingfirst, because they lead us to

(56:47):
all experiments and control ourbehavior and things like that.
In your opinion, smartestanimal in the world is.

Yeah, I think I would say bottlenose dolphins.

Larry Shea (56:57):
They're pretty Bottlenose dolphins they're
pretty intelligent.

There you go.

Yeah, they're pretty intelligent.

Are you biased at all?

You've been dealing with it for a while are
you biased at all.

Maybe you guys will catch up with me in five
years and I'll be working withlike bats or something random,
you know, and that's the.
The cool part about this job isthat you can kind of continue
to pivot and and explore newkind avenues.
But yeah, I'm going to stick tomy answer, dolphins.

Larry Shea (57:24):
And we're behind them.

By the way, we're third, I love that I have a pin
that I got that says thanks forall the fish from that.

There you go, there you go.
There you go.

Larry Shea (57:36):
You do know Douglas Adams Very good.

We love to sing that song at work.

Perfect.
So, amanda, if somebody islistening, who is a young woman,
a young man who aspires tobecome a veterinarian and wants
to get to a similar place towhere you wound up or where you
find yourself today, what wouldyou tell them?

I would say the relationships that you make with
people are extremely important.
We get into this field becausewe love animals, but again, I'm
having a full circle momentright now and I do believe that
it's because of the strongrelationships that I have with
people that I've made you knowalong the way, for whatever

(58:23):
reason.
And you know secondly is that Ithink experience is the most
important thing and exposingyourself to as many things as
you can you know along the wayis extremely important.
When I was graduating highschool, I did an externship at a
dolphin facility.

(58:44):
I did an externship at a swineoperation.
I did different equine or horse.
You know activities.
So you know, I always try tokind of do have a broad kind of
spectrum of activities that Iwas doing so that I felt like I
would be more well-rounded and,you know, be able to have

(59:06):
different experiences evenbefore you know I went into
veterinary school.

That's great advice.
Well, amanda, I'm so glad thatI tracked you down and that we
convinced you to join us today.
I've learned a ton.
I'm so excited for what youhave in front of you and you
know, I think the three of usare just we want to.

we want to.
We can't wait for the nextchapter.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much .
This was awesome.

So that was Dr Amanda Pinder, who I had the
good fortune of meeting, and I,of course, was foolish enough
not to get her number at thetime, but eventually chased down
after the fact to convince tojoin us today.
And what a great story, larryShea.
What are your takeaways?

Larry Shea (59:56):
I'd learned so much, I think, is the biggest thing I
take away from it.
Right, I never really thoughtabout the fact that there's
medical schools all over theplace and everybody wants to go
to medical school.
You know, it's a very stressfulprocess, but there's even fewer
veterinarian schools, right?
So I was shocked.
You know that six to 8% chanceof her actually being accepted

(01:00:17):
to these schools, I mean, Ithink that's fascinating.
First and foremost, she alwayswanted to be a vet, right, she's
a 12-year-old child, or evenyounger, dressing up like a vet,
and I don't think we've everreally had something like that.
But the fact that somebody lether in a surgery and took her
under their wing and kind oftaught her at such a young age,

(01:00:39):
I mean, it's very rare that yougo into a profession at that age
especially, and that's thestraight path, right, and you go
, and she said it herself.
It's a career of passion andher advice was great.
You know, and we say it all thetime, relationships matter and
get experience.
You know, we can't say itenough Not everybody is

(01:00:59):
fortunate enough to be able tooffer your time, but if you
could do an internship and offeryour time, you're going to get
a lot out of it, because that'show a lot of these professions
work.

Tushar Saxena (01:01:08):
Absolutely.
I mean, you know, I was alsosurprised by the fact that you
know and you said it too is thathow few veterinary schools
there are out there and that youdidn't have a plan B.
The plan B was I'll justreapply a year later if I have
to right right.
Essentially I'll just sleep onsomebody's couch for a year.
Um, which is amazing and youknow, we always talk about the

(01:01:32):
notion of mentors, need mentors,right?
So we always talk about that aswell.
And that, yes, that being ableto not only prove yourself when
you go to an internship butprove yourself to the point
where the people who are incharge see something in you and
then they go out of their way tonurture that, that's amazing to
me.
And she has been so successful.

(01:01:53):
I am so jealous of that type ofa profession Because I mean,
you know, I don't think I hadthat kind of stamina in me to
say at a young age, this is whatI want to do with my life, and
then to not only do that but topursue it with such a focus that
, down the line, not only do you, not only do we become that
that in her case, a veterinarianbut become the head of one of

(01:02:17):
the biggest resorts in the worldthat she then becomes a teacher
for everyone else who stepsinto this arena.

Larry Samuels (01:02:25):
It's amazing yeah , you know, and, and as you say,
that one of the things thatreally struck me was the smile
that was so clearly comingthrough during the entire
conversation she loves her job.

She loves her job she loves what she does.

She loves her job .
She figured it out very earlyand nothing has changed and it
comes across so clearly.
So one of the things that Iwanted to dig into as part of
the conversation was aboutadvocacy and, in a way, at that
type of a facility, you are aspokesperson, you are a PR
person for facility.

(01:03:01):
You are a spokesperson, you area PR person for that type of
resort facility whatever wordI'm looking for and she is an
advocate.
So, whether she wanted to be ornot, she was thrust into a
position where she needed tokind of figure it out how do I
communicate, how do I engagewith others?
But it was natural, becauseit's who she is the passion, the

(01:03:29):
love, the drive that she's hadher whole life.
There's nothing inauthenticabout any aspect of her.
It really struck me assomething truly remarkable and
admirable.

Larry Shea (01:03:36):
And the story about her saving that spotted dolphin.
I mean just the reward that shemust get from doing something
like that, from helping anotheranimal survive and thrive in the
ocean after it had beacheditself.
I mean she said it herselfYou're never going to get
another story like that.
I mean it's one in a billionright.

Exactly.

Exactly.
Well, maybe now she'll get onethat involves a horse.
So hit that, Dr Amanda Pinder.
Thank you so much for joiningus on this episode.
Our apologies for the slighttech glitch there at the end.
It happens every once in awhile.
With that in mind, thank youfor joining us.
If today's story made you thinkof someone who could be a great

(01:04:16):
guest, we'd love to hear fromyou.
Please visit the contact pageat norWrongChoicescom to let us
know.
While you're there, you cancheck out our blog, where we
explore each episode with bonusinsights and behind the scenes
content, and if you're enjoyingthe show.
The best way to support us isby following or subscribing to
no Wrong Choices on yourfavorite podcast platform or by

(01:04:39):
connecting with us on socialmedia.
You can find us on LinkedIn,instagram, facebook, youtube,
tiktok and X.
On behalf of Larry Shade,tushar Saxena and me, larry
Samuels.
Thank you again for being apart of no Wrong Choices.
We'll be back next week withanother great episode.
Talk to you then.

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From Atlantis Vet to Animal Rescuer: Dr. Amanda Pinder’s Inspiring Career Journey

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