Read

Essays and reflections from the road, the clinic, and the life in between.

Thoughts on animals, science, culture, leadership, travel, and the human side of veterinary medicine — written by Dr. Soheyl Simaei and a small circle of contributors.

Essays

Long-form, considered, slow.

View all →
Essay~12 min read

What Twenty Years in Practice Taught Me About People

Notes on patience, miscommunication, and the slow education that no veterinary degree provides.

Essay~9 min read

Starting Again After Building a Clinic

On reinvention, identity, and the second chapter of a veterinary life.

Essay~14 min read

The Quiet Authority of a Good Clinical Decision

Why the most important moments in veterinary medicine rarely look dramatic from outside the room.

Essay~10 min read

A Profession Carried Across Borders

What changes — and what doesn't — when you practice the same medicine in a new country.

Veterinary Life

The work, behind the work.

View all →
Note~5 min read

The First Hour Sets the Day

A short observation on the rituals that make a clinic feel ready before the first appointment.

Note~6 min read

When the Building Goes Quiet

What's left on the desk for tomorrow, and what stays in the head until tomorrow.

Note~7 min read

The Cases You Do Not Forget

Why some consultations stay with you for years after the patient is gone.

Note~6 min read

The Real Job is Listening

Most diagnoses live in what the client says before you ever touch the animal.

Science & Animal Health

Where the evidence meets the everyday.

View all →
Science~8 min read

What Healthspan Means in a Real Consult

Translating animal-longevity research into language a Tuesday-morning client can act on.

Science~11 min read

The Quiet Revolution in Pain Management

Why the way we measure animal pain is finally catching up with what clinicians have always seen.

Science~10 min read

Behavior Is Medicine

Notes on the slow integration of behavioral science into routine clinical work.

Travel & Culture

How the world lives with animals.

View all →
Field Note~5 min read

Dogs in Lisbon Cafés

A morning observation on what a city's animal culture reveals about its people.

Travel~9 min read

Souk Cats and Marble Floors

Notes from a previous life in the Gulf — and the animals that lived alongside us.

Travel~7 min read

A Tiled Wall in Alfama

Found light, a stray cat, and the textures of a city that keeps surprising me.

Business & Leadership

The clinic as a place of decisions.

View all →
Leadership~8 min read

Building a Team That Stays

What two decades of running clinics taught me about retention, culture, and leadership.

Business~11 min read

When the Founder Has to Step Off the Floor

Notes on the hardest transition a clinical entrepreneur ever makes.

Leadership~9 min read

A Quieter Kind of Authority

Why the leaders who shape veterinary practice rarely raise their voice.

Life & Reinvention

The chapters between chapters.

View all →
Reflection~6 min read

The Strange Beauty of Starting Again

A reflection from a quiet morning in Lisbon, written between a coffee and the first consultation of the day.

Reflection~8 min read

Burnout, Identity, and the Long Road Back

The version of veterinary life that doesn't fit on a CV.

Reflection~7 min read

What I Carry Across Borders

On the parts of a profession that travel with you, and the parts you have to leave at the gate.

Read the journal.

New essays and reflections from Vet On Board — sent only when there is something worth sharing.