Kyra Berg, DVM
Profession:
Veterinarian
Alma Mater:
College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Preferred Pronouns:
she/her/hers
Hometown:
Boxborough, MA
Where do you work, do you have a specialization, and do you work with a specific population?
I work at a large specialty hospital in Massachusetts. I practice only on zoological medicine species – anything that is non-domestic I’ve been trained to treat. I focus my current practice in a clinical setting for zoological companion animals (ZCA), which are the non-traditional pets that we choose to have at home – mammals (eg: rabbits, chinchillas, ferrets, hedgehogs, etc), fish, amphibians (eg: frogs and axolotls), birds (eg: parrots, chicken, ducks, falconry birds, canaries, pigeons, etc), and reptiles (eg: lizards like bearded dragons, chameleons, and leopard geckos; turtles and tortoises; snakes like ball pythons, milk snakes, and corn snakes). I have a particular love for reptiles and dental disease in mammals and reptiles. I’m very grateful to be a full-time ZCA-only vet – this is truly my dream job!
I’m also the Zoological Medicine Intern Director for the hospital as well as working part-time overseeing Zoological Medicine Medical Operations for the corporate national component of the company.
I am residency-trained by the American College of Zoological Medicine, and am sitting for specialty boards this fall. BU prepared me extremely well for the rigors of independent studying and work-life balance in veterinary school, which I attended in Illinois. Their program is exceptional – they incorporate teaching about ZCA species throughout all four years of vet school. After veterinary school, I completed an emergency-only internship at a private practice just outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin; then went on to complete a Zoological Medicine internship at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana State University; after that, I completed a 3-year residency of Zoological Companion Animal Medicine and Surgery at the University of California-Davis.
Can you share your journey about how you became a veterinarian? Have you always known you wanted to be a veterinarian? Is there a specific moment/experience that solidified your career choice?
I grew up going to zoos, traveling, walking in nature, and looking up to my aunt, who is also a veterinarian. I always knew I wanted to do something in the scientific field with animals, and initially that was as an ecologist or other biologist. Eventually, I realized how fascinated I was with medicine. The decision to become a veterinarian was sealed when I attended the Tufts summer veterinary program for high school students.
What does a typical day look like for you? Who do you work with most closely or collaborate with frequently? What does your work-life balance look like?
I work at the company’s second largest hospital in the country, so the days can be long and busy, but ultimately are fun and very rewarding. Most of the days are a mixture of emergencies and appointments with clients – I have to say, I am truly blessed to have some of the kindest and most understanding clients!! One day a week I perform surgeries – these are my favorite days.
There are also interns (who ARE fully qualified veterinarians) that I routinely interact with and help further hone their already advanced skills. For the Zoological Medicine Intern in particular, we participate in weekly journal club to prepare them for residency and zoological medicine-focused positions.
The Zoological Medicine Service is a very independent service within our hospital, but we definitely collaborate with Imaging, Surgery, Internal Medicine (they facilitated performing endoscopy on a goose last month!), Dermatology, Ophthalmology, and Oncology.
A work-life balance is something that veterinary medicine does not naturally teach us about; fortunately, there has been recent push for increasing awareness of this need. When not at work, I spend time with my family, pets (2 chinchillas and 2 cats), and long-distance partner (I’m lucky that he often flies up); watching Netflix and HBO; taking walks; and planning my next adventure.
What are some challenges in your profession that you did not expect while you were in undergrad/veterinary school?
I knew I’d be in debt because of vet school, but being a non-resident meant I was in a lot of debt. Most of the non-residents who attend public universities for vet school (spoiler alert – most veterinary schools are public) have to pay an inordinately higher amount for tuition.
I was not prepared for the amount of misinformation about the veterinary field. We do not cuddle with kittens and puppies all the time (but I will, admittedly, snuggle a kitten or puppy when I have time between appointments), and sometimes it can be a rather thankless field. Many do not consider veterinarians to be true doctors even though we’ve gone through the same didactic rigors and expectations of human doctors. Many also view interns as unpaid less-trained employees when in fact they are actually paid (albeit poorly) fully-qualified veterinarians who are pushing themselves to better hone their skills and knowledge.
How has COVID affected you and others in your profession?
COVID affected the field both positively and negatively. Positively in the sense that, since people were staying home with their pets, the human-animal bond really blossomed and many more are willing to openly consider their pet their child. It has been so wonderful to see the love between an animal and their owner. This created a stronger need to help their animal when sick, which has ultimately allowed us to practice better medicine and perform more life-saving treatments.
The pet boon also occurred around this time, which meant we were seeing a lot more animals. Because of the personnel shortage, though, this started to really negatively impact the field – from phone wait times of well over an hour, clinics with regular appointments booked out 1-2 months in advance, to lesser emergencies like ear infections waiting for 5-7 hours or being downright turned away so we could focus on life-threatening emergencies. It’s been really rough on the veterinary field and clients alike in this respect.
I fear that COVID may have also hurt the veterinary field in just as strongly a way as it has helped our profession grow. Due to safety concerns, initially curb-side care was the only thing offered to clients. There were clients during my residency where I treated their animal for over a year and never actually met them face-to-face; I am appreciative of their willingness to trust a veterinarian they never saw. While there were many clients that were open to this, there were some that were not, and this inherent mistrust made the job more challenging. Much like the airline companies, we’ve had an uptick in both hostile clients as well as clients who are empathic, patient, and understanding.
The pandemic also drastically strained the field with personal protection equipment (PPE) shortages – many veterinary hospitals were discouraged from performing routine procedures like spays and neuters to save the gowns, gloves, and masks for more urgent procedures. We were donating any extra PPE to human hospitals, and some veterinary professionals who had previously worked in the human field were being recruited to help with the pandemic when it first started.
The veterinary field had the highest suicide rate in the country before the pandemic began, which has been recognized as a major influence in poor mental health recently. I do think COVID’s highlight of the mental health crisis this country is facing has helped our field to be more aware of how we can help each other, and I’m hoping that we will continue to see more open discussions of this.
Can you share a memorable story or patient interaction during your time in veterinary school or in your profession?
What a tough and thought-provoking question! It took me some time to think of how to answer this question. Can I really only share one story that can reflect the past 10 years of my life? While many stories came up, all of them had the same thing – the same feeling coursing through them – and that is what I will share. :)
While some of my patients and I have shared solid bonds, most of my favorite memories have the feeling of collaboration when many colleagues are working together to create a success story for an animal. From the snow leopard with the veterinary orthopedic surgeon, veterinary ophthalmologist, and veterinary technicians monitoring anesthesia while zoo veterinarians coordinate this event and simultaneously talk to PR and the public watching through the observation glass; the orangutan with the human cardiologist, human cystic fibrosis specialist, and team of veterinarians and veterinary technicians; the roan antelope with 2 veterinarians and 2 national park rangers in East Africa; the 1 veterinarian guiding 8 veterinary students to spay and neuter cats and dogs on an island; and finally to the 3 veterinarians and their technicians working together on an emergency chinchilla spay to save her life. These memories are highlighted by togetherness and what we can accomplish when we collaborate, and that is the beauty of veterinary medicine.
What are some specific things you remember doing to prepare for applying to veterinary school?
I spent a lot of time during my first two years of BU looking up the prerequisites for each college to better tailor my college classes and applications. It did make things easier to know I was only going to apply for certain colleges and know why I really wanted that school – I think having a more definitive “I want to go to your vet school” rather than “I want to go to a vet school” made me a stronger applicant and interviewee.
I knew far ahead of time the deadlines for veterinary school applications, which served me well when I was writing my essays and applying during my study abroad program. I’d prepared around half of my applications before Kenya, but did mistakenly assume I’d have enough time to finish the rest while there. I was so, so wrong. The program was actually quite rigorous – we were in class 6-7 hours each day or would be in the field, and with homework, there was far less time for applying than anticipated. I soon realized I had to get up at 5:30 am or 6 am every day to go to the main building for the strongest internet. The internet weakened as more and more of us woke up and logged on, sometime to the point of crashing; and other times, storms in other parts of the country would knock out the internet for days. Ultimately, because I’d realized all these things early on, I was able to submit all my applications on time.
Is there a specific organization/establishment you would like to shout out?
A special thanks to BU’s collaboration with the School for Field Studies, which allowed me to travel to East Africa for a semester. That program introduced me to research, wildlife conservation in the field, and helped me find my niche in veterinary medicine.
What are your hobbies/What do you like to do for fun?
I’m obsessed with traveling and learning different languages and cultures, and have often times paired traveling and veterinary medicine together. I’ve worked with wildlife programs and sanctuaries in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Australia, and Bolivia; and performed low-cost cat and dog spays and neuters in the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. These have been some of the most incredible trips and memories I have. I studied abroad while at BU for techniques in wildlife management in Kenya and Tanzania, which was life-changing. I cannot recommend BU’s abroad opportunities enough!
I’d started my interest in calligraphy before the pandemic, which became increasingly important to me during the lock-down.
Are there any tips/advice you would like to share with our pre-health students?
Veterinary medicine does not come without its own set of unique challenges, many of which are not adequately explained before starting out our careers. Significant financial burdens, compassion fatigue, technician shortages, underappreciation, and the highest suicide rate in the country cannot be ignored or understated. In light of these obstacles, if you are devoted to veterinary medicine and have the drive to become the empathic clinician-scientists this field needs, do not give up. Do not let grades or tuition be the reason you don’t apply to vet school or only apply to certain schools – at worst you won’t get accepted, and at best you will; you’ll most likely be in student debt for a long time regardless of the path you take. There is no one “right way” to get into school or into veterinary medicine; be gentle and kind to yourself so that you may be the same to others and animals.