Fear-Free Practice: An Interview with Dr. Chung Yeen Mac

Above: The reception area at Mac Animal Clinic, Dr. Chung Yeen Mac's fear-free certified practice in Oakville, Ontario

Tell us about any experience with animals that inspired you to become a vet.
I can’t remember ever wanting to be anything other than a vet. Once I started volunteering in general practice, it just confirmed that it was what I wanted to do. People might find that going into consults is quite hard, particularly with confidentiality, but I just remember being in practice and thinking: yes, this is what I want to do. I just couldn’t wait to have the experience and knowledge to be able to do that! That was what drove me; I would see people helping animals, or I would see animals that needed help, and not knowing how to help them motivated me to become a veterinarian, so I could be able to help those animals in the correct manner. I remember speaking with one of the vets I volunteered with, and they told me that during the interview there is going to be one question they always ask, and that is, “why do you want to be a vet?” They don’t want to hear, “I like animals and I want to help them,” they want to know if you’re passionate about the ways you’re going to do that! As a veterinarian, you are going to diagnose, give treatment, and understand the hows and whys. That's what I wanted to do; I didn’t want to just be a part of it, I wanted to be the one understanding everything and setting the treatment plans. Once you become a vet you realize it’s not possible to understand everything, though!

Above: 'Kitty parking!' This area allows cats to wait for their appointments at Mac Animal Clinic off the ground and away from dogs, reducing the pre-appointment stress.

What was your path to vet school like?
When I graduated from high school at 17, I went directly to vet school in the UK. I went to Bristol University, you go straight into their veterinary science program there from high school.
For applications to the UK you write a personal statement, and then there is an interview as well. They do look for plenty of work experience, and I started volunteering in clinics once I was 16. In fact, I graduated high school with 400 volunteer hours. I didn’t get a lot of large animal experience, or any equine experience at all, it was mainly volunteering in small animal clinics. I was the first person from my high school to go directly into a veterinary program, and we had a very good guidance program at my high school, so I had two guidance counsellors who helped me prepare for the interview process, and three or four teachers who looked over my personal statement. In fact, when I opened my practice, those teachers were attending the official opening day.​

What is fear-free handling and what are some examples of how to apply it?
Fear-free principles apply to almost everything you do in practice. When I first went into it, I thought it was more about handling, but it’s more how your practice runs overall. It can involve looking at the schedule and making sure reactive dogs have the practice to themselves, or wait outside until they can be called in so they can go straight into the exam rooms. There is a very big focus on pain management that influences the way we practice, and assessing pain in animals has been a difficult topic for so long because there was no way to measure it, and our patients can’t talk. When I graduated 10 years ago, there were still people that were practicing without pain management being routine. Now, it is routine, but fear-free takes it to the next level and emphasizes that if you’re going to do a painful procedure, you should stop and do pain management before rushing into the procedure. There is a lot of pain scoring that we do, and we also always just take care of our patient’s emotional well-being. Unless we absolutely have to, we prioritize pain management over get-her-done behaviour.

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Above: Mac Animal Clinic has different exam rooms for cats and dogs! To the right is the feline exam room, and to the left is the canine exam room.

What was the driving force for you that made you want to implement fear-free practices at your clinic?
In the UK, there was something called cat-friendly practice, a certification that you got to handle cats in a certain way; typically cats had their own waiting area, for example. I wanted to find something like that in North America, and I ended up stumbling across the fear-free certification. I was fortunate, I found it right when we were opening the practice, so when I was designing the practice space I aimed to build fear-free handling into the creation of the clinic. ​

Above: the canine and feline exam rooms at Mac Animal Clinic.
Were there any challenges you encountered while doing that, pursuing the certification?
I think we had it easier being a new practice, just because some established practices would need to be completely renovated or shut down to be able to incorporate every facet of fear-free handling. Something I have found is that some owners may not be receptive to it, or they may not want to wait the extra time fear and pain management takes. I think educating the public as to why we do it was one of our bigger struggles, but people were very receptive once we explained it, and I do believe it’s becoming more common now as it’s the standard of practice. Scheduling was difficult as well, it’s a different way of running the practice and needs to be considered. 

Do you have any advice for someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
The fear-free certification is available online, and you don’t have to be an owner or even a vet to achieve it. You could be a vet student, or even a prospective vet student, and just go online and take the course. Even our practice managers and receptionists do the online course, so anyone that is interested can go ahead and start learning that way, and that can give you a foundation on how you want to practice. 

Above: The dog waiting room at Mac Animal Clinic!

What does a day at your workplace look like?
I work 4 days per week, and at my practice we do separate consultation days and separate surgery days, which is not common. I consult on Mondays, which can include vaccine appointments and weekend emergencies. In a day as a general practitioner, we can see everything from puppy vaccines, to annual health vaccines, to ear infections, to vomiting and diarrhea, to things that need imaging or bloodwork; you can do anything in one day. Surgery days include soft tissue surgery and dental surgery, but we kind of stick within whatever is comfortable. My practice does three days of consultations and two days of surgery every week. ​

How do you balance your work and personal life?
I certainly don’t have it down, I don’t think anyone has it down! As a practice owner, I’m in a slightly different position; I do my own hours so I have a pretty good work-life balance, and I’ve been very mindful to pace myself as a young practice owner too. We see a lot of the older vets that have worked 6-7 days a week their entire career and are somehow not burnt out, but I am a part of a younger generation that focuses on work-life balance, so I guard my personal time quite closely. I try not to take my work home with me, but it may happen as it shows that you care. Make sure to keep up with your hobbies outside of work, you are still your own person and should have ways to switch off when you leave work. Do you like to go for a run, take your dogs out? I prioritize my fitness, taking my dogs out, and seeing my friends. When you’re off the clock, just be off the clock; you can’t be a vet all the time, and I do try to hold that quite strictly when it comes to veterinary advice outside the practice as well. When I was a younger vet, if anyone wanted to talk to me about anything to do with animals I would talk all day long, but as I got older I realized I’m not just a vet, and suddenly your plumber is calling you on a Saturday night for veterinary advice. You need to set those boundaries; you do love animals, but you can’t be a vet 24 hours a day. If you have a question, call me at work. My identity has always been very tied to being a veterinarian, it’s always been what I wanted to do, so I try to remind myself there's more to me. Vet school can take over your entire life! I try to remember that I am my own person, and I hope you can all remember that you are not your career. 

Do you have anything you would like to add?
If you’re looking for work experience and finding it hard to get into clinics, think outside the box! Try volunteering at a local horse stable, try checking out the farms. You have to learn everything in vet school and large animal experience is not something everybody has, and it will set you apart. It’s also a very fun area of practice, I personally prefer my area of practice, but we always need farm vets, and all of my farm vet friends love their field!

Interview and transcript by Emily Camarda, Junior Editor