Veterinarian
Hi, my name is Dr. Japinder Grewal. I am an associate here at Santa Monica Pet Medical Center.
Walk us through your journey from graduating college to becoming a veterinarian.
I graduated from UC Irvine, and after graduating, I didn't know if I wanted to go to human med school or law school. I was kind of stuck in between both, and through a happy accident, I met a crazy veterinarian who allowed me to work at his clinic. I ended up managing the clinic and working as a vet assistant at the same time. When I did both of those things, it kind of clicked. It combined everything that I loved, including veterinary medicine and being able to work with both people and animals, and I thought, "I don't know why I've never considered this." After that, I worked there for two years and then worked until I got admitted into Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, where I lived in the Caribbean for three years. I did my clinical year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
What's your favorite part of the job?
My favorite part of the job goes back to being able to help both pets and being an advocate for their health, and also helping people. A lot of times, making decisions with your pet can be hard. I love being able to work with the families together and figuring out a plan that works best for them and their pet.
What do you like to do when you're not at the hospital?
Yeah, my favorite thing—some people eat to live, I live to eat. I'm a big foodie. I love working out, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, basketball, and travel. So kind of basic answers, but that's just the spice of life.
Are you on any social media where people can follow your work or pet tips?
Yeah, absolutely. You can follow me on Instagram. My username is @FatboyNation from a long time ago, and no, I'm not giving it up, so you can follow me there.
What's something you like our clients to know about you or your care approach?
One of my biggest focal points is that I love fear-free medicine, especially for an annual wellness examination or preventative medicine. I think it's super important that we try to make this space as comfortable as possible for your pet. I do various things like sitting with your pet on the floor and doing my best to make them feel as comfortable as possible, even if it takes a bit longer to get through our appointment time. I think that quality time with the pet not only helps me understand your pet but also helps them feel a lot more comfortable and at ease when we go through our process.
How do you know when it's time for someone's pet to cross the Rainbow Bridge?
That's a great question. It's probably one of the most difficult questions that we have in general. Typically, what I'll tell people is there's not one set answer for you or your pet. It's different strokes for different folks in the sense that what works for you may not work for somebody else.
What I personally did with my pet,I had a boxer named Bruce, and he ended up having a form of liver cancer. However, Bruce was still eating well and acting like himself. Even though the liver cancer had spread, we still wanted to keep him as long as he was happy and eating. We came up with a series of things called check posts. Check posts were essentially things that made Bruce, Bruce. Bruce loved food and would throw his food bowl around in the morning until he got fed, and sometimes he'd throw it some more after he got fed. He loved messing with my mom and would always bite at her ankles whenever he had zoomies. He loved going on car rides, so anytime he heard a car key jingle, he was at the door panting, ready to go. We came up with six to eight different check posts for him, and whenever he didn't meet the majority of his check posts, we counted that as a bad day. As soon as Bruce had more bad days than good days, that was when we decided to call it.
Now, again, that doesn't have to be your approach, but these are the types of things that I talk about with clients when discussing the next step for their pet, especially when it comes to approaching the Rainbow Bridge. It's not an easy conversation to have, but it's an important one that you should have with your family.
If you have questions, we would love to answer them for you. Please give us a call at the office at (310) 393-8218, or you can email us at [email protected]. Our staff would love to talk with you!