In Her Words: Michele Saletros, 59, VMD, Following Her Heart & Making Her Dreams Reality
In Her Words: Michele Saletros, 59, VMD, Following Her Heart & Making Her Dreams Reality
Although she knew she wanted to work with animals, Michele first worked for an investing firm. She didn’t heed her true calling until age 30. Now she’s following her heart down a new path.
What made you decide to change careers?
Since I was a little girl, I have loved animals. After my parents divorced, my father would pick us up for weekend visits and we’d go to his house in Patchogue. We had a dog named Fluffy at the time. My parents didn’t know any better and didn’t spay her, so Fluffy had puppies. I remember sitting at the back picnic table, picking up each puppy, putting it on the table, and giving it a pretend exam. I was about nine years old and looking at the ears, mouth, tail—making sure each puppy was okay.
I always wanted to work with animals, although not necessarily as a vet. I thought maybe I would go into wildlife management because I love all types of wildlife and animals. After doing research, I thought “Yeah, I can’t see myself living out in a trailer in the middle of nowhere being a wildlife management person.” So, I started to look into veterinary medicine, but I was afraid to so much as verbalize that I wanted to be a veterinarian, because the chances of getting into a program were so slim.
What was your educational path?
I went to Pace University for a business degree because I thought that was the safe thing to do. After graduation, I got a job at J. & W. Seligman & Co., which was across the street from the World Trade Center and I realized it wasn’t for me. I thought “You know what? If I want to be a vet, I have to do it.”
I went back to Pace and did what I had to do to get on the right track to get into veterinary school. I took all my biology and chemistry credits. I also got a job at Haskins Laboratories helping Dr. Cyrus Bacchi who was doing research on African sleeping sickness.
I was waitlisted at University of Pennsylvania, applied again, and was waitlisted again. “You've gotta be kidding me,” I thought. But I got in the second time and graduated in 1999. I wasn’t going to give up, and if I didn’t get in there, I would have gone to another country for veterinary school. After graduation, I started working in Hoboken and Jersey City, NJ and then Pennsylvania.
Sometimes I wish I would have taken more of a direct route. But I did learn a lot. While I was applying to schools, I got a job as a pharmaceutical representative and volunteered at a vet hospital. Even when I was working in that research lab, I didn't want to say out loud that I wanted to be a veterinarian because it still felt like such a lofty goal. At the time, there were only 26 veterinary schools in the United States.* Also at the time, more women were becoming veterinarians.** That might’ve been because women found veterinary medicine to be more flexible, although it wasn’t very lucrative.
What advice would you give people considering becoming veterinarians or just starting out in their careers?
If you’re going to go into veterinary medicine, it has to be a calling. I was 30 years old when I finally got into veterinary school. I graduated when I was 34. If I didn’t do it, I would have been living the rest of my life wondering, “What if?” and I would have regretted it.
You really have to do your research. Find out how much school costs compared to what you'll be getting paid when you come out. Veterinarians coming out of school now can have over $300,000 to $400,000 in student loans. If you decide to go, determine whether you want to specialize or just start practicing general medicine when you come out of school. Once you graduate, get a good mentor and make sure it’s somebody who practices excellent medicine. Granted, that can be kind of difficult when you’re first coming out of school because you don’t know how good of a doctor someone is until you’re in the situation working with them on a regular basis.
Veterinary medicine is very rewarding on a daily basis but it’s also exhausting. People who are vets need to get out of their daily vet world and do something that gives them energy. I volunteered with World Vets, which is an organization where veterinarians and veterinary assistants (and even some lay people) can volunteer to go to areas of the world that are underserved where veterinary medicine is concerned. I went to Zanzibar, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador to do free spay and neuter clinics. They were amazing experiences, because the people are so thankful. I remember walking into a schoolyard where we were going to be working, and all the people were lined up with their pets. When we entered, they all applauded us. Those trips renew your soul.
Tell us about your career. What path did you choose?
From 2009 to 2016, I had my own emergency practice with three partners. It was open 24/7 and it was in Berks County, PA. I would do overnight shifts 8pm to 8am and sometimes I’d have to stay later than 8am. We had staff veterinarians, but we didn’t want the staff vets to feel like they didn’t have any backup. So my partners and I would rotate on call. It wasn't unusual to be pulling a 60 hour week. That got a little bit crazy and then one of my partners had a tragic event. His father died suddenly on the streets of New York City on the way to a basketball game. After that, he was done. We had all worked and worked and worked all our lives. He decided he had worked enough.
The agreement was that if one partner wanted to sell, we would all sell. So, we sold to a corporation called Pet Partners, and they turned around a couple years later and sold it to Blue Pearl. The privately owned vet practices are being bought up by corporations. Mars Corporation is a big umbrella. There are still some individually owned practices, but a lot of practices have been sold to the corporations.
Doing emergency medicine was very rewarding, but it was exhausting, and it took up a lot of my life and my partners’ lives. We were overworked and we were living to work, which isn’t good. Now, I work to live. I’m a relief veterinarian, which means I fill in for people. It also means I’m my own boss. There’s a bit of a veterinarian shortage right now. Recently, I've been filling in at one practice, usually on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
How did working those kinds of hours impact your personal life?
It’s hard. I don’t want to say I made a mistake by working so much, because I wouldn’t be where I am right now. I had wanted kids, but that didn’t happen because I didn't meet the right person at the right time, and I didn’t want to adopt and be a single mom. In 2013, I found my husband, Gene, on match.com and we got married in 2022. It’s my first and his second marriage. Now I have a wonderful 28 year old stepson. His name is Shane, and he’s getting married next year. He was 14 when I met him, and I remember being so impressed with him and by what a great father Gene is.
How did you end up living where you are now?
I ended up moving out here because my husband is from this area. Plus, another dream of mine was to have a property where I could have a couple of horses, and I can do that here. I have three horses now.
What are your plans for the future?
Right now, my husband and I are in the midst of starting a new business. We’re both taking a whole new direction. He had been in ophthalmology sales and now we’re opening up a barbecue business. I’m in the background and he’s in the foreground.
It’s going to be called Merrill’s Barbeque. We have this huge smoker, and we have the trailer, and we bought a little piece of commercial property on Route 100 where 20,000 cars come and go every day. Today my husband brought the trailer to get the graphics put on.
It’s fun doing it together. The big goal is to get other food trucks there. We’re going to call it Foodie Field. Merrill’s Barbecue will be the first trailer on the property. We’re just getting started. But we want to get other options. Maybe we can find somebody with really good Asian food or Greek food. We don’t need Italian because there’s lots of Italian places around here.
If you could go back in time and give some advice to your 25 year old self, what would you tell her?
Sometimes when you tell somebody a new idea you have, you may be shot down. Believe in yourself. That’s number one. I used to think things came easier to other people. Now, I think things are difficult and you have to work for what you want. You have to believe in yourself. You have to persevere. You have to be strong. You have to choose your friends wisely. You have to really go for what you want. And if somebody tells you no, try again and do it. It doesn’t matter how old you are, you could be changing your course in your 50s or your 60s. I had people in my vet school class who were in their mid-40s, probably closer to 50. This was their second or third career. Don’t be a pushover. Do have boundaries with people.
Belle Curve Stories is about women navigating life with grit, grace and growth. What do those three words mean to you?
Grit means perseverance, just really going for what you want. I got my first horse in 2000, so I got into riding later in life. I still take riding lessons. I have somebody come to my home once a week to teach me. I also drive with a carriage. You can participate in carriage driving competitions and that’s one of our goals.
Grace is tough. I still tend to beat myself up for mistakes, but I’m learning. You’re going to make mistakes. It doesn’t matter if it’s in your personal life, in your work life, or whatever. I tend to give more grace to other people than I give myself. I have to learn how to be better at forgiving myself for little things that may not have gone perfectly.
Growth is continuing to learn throughout your life. Even if you have an inkling of an interest, try to pursue that at least somewhat. I know life is busy, but just try. Once you stop learning you’re not growing. You don’t want to be spinning your wheels, doing the same old thing. Try to learn something different and branch out.
As told to and edited by Teresa Bellock and Sandra Ditore.
*Today there are 32 schools or colleges of veterinary medicine (CVMs) in the U.S. that are accredited or have accreditation pending and all of them are AAVMC members, according to the American Academy of Veterinary Medical Colleges.
**From 1976 to 1995, the number of males applying to US veterinary colleges decreased by more than half while the number of female applicants nearly doubled. More than 80% of the class of 2025 is female, but the leadership of veterinary schools—including 75% of vet school deans—largely identify as male, according to the American Animal Hospital Association.
Michele Saletros, VMD, is 59 years old and works as a relief veterinarian. She lives in the Pennsylvania countryside with her husband, Gene, and enjoys riding her horses. She is also learning to drive a carriage. Soon Michele and Gene will be opening Merrill’s Barbecue together.
