Emergency veterinarian Michael Kato discovers that sometimes the best career moves are the ones you never planned

Michael Kato knew he had to work hard to become a veterinarian. 
 
This meant getting up at 3 a.m. during his undergraduate and driving to a supply depot in Northern California, picking up supplies and hay, bringing it to the University of California, Davis large animal barn before classes started. He also worked as an assistant in a genetics and respiratory research lab. 
 
For his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree, it meant studying during the day at school and then a swing shift job that covered the inpatient wards, intermediate care, and intensive care unit, a group called "The Treatment Crew".

The shift ICU job was the only one available when he needed it most. 

His first shift at UC-Davis changed everything — and set him on a path that would eventually lead to his current role as assistant professor of emergency and critical care in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech. 
 
"There were a bunch of ventilator cases that they had in the Davis ICU," he recalled. "And I just thought this is connected to what I'm interested in, what I wanted to do my Ph.D. research on originally — respiratory support."

While other students might have been intimidated by the most complex, critically ill patients the hospital saw, Kato was fascinated. His classmates noticed the shift. By graduation, everyone knew: Michael was going to be the critical care guy. 

When you can't choose just one thing

Some people know exactly what they want to specialize in. Kato wasn't one of them. 

"I couldn't pigeonhole myself into a single organ. I couldn't do cardiology, because I didn't think I could just do the heart," he said. "I actually really like the interplay between all of the vital organs — how they communicate with each other, how they hurt each other sometimes, or help each other sometimes."

Emergency medicine was perfect for someone who wanted to understand how everything worked together. But there was something else that hooked him completely — something he hadn't expected. 

"I find a lot of joy in helping families in their most desperate, dire moments," he said. "Whether guiding them to feel good about their decisions, helping them accept what's happening, or holding their hand through really difficult times."

The fellowship that opened doors 

After finishing his emergency and critical care residency at North Carolina State in 2021, Kato stayed for a fellowship in extracorporeal therapy — essentially learning how to become an external organ when the real ones stop working.

"What I enjoy, medicine-wise, is life support," he explained. "Ventilation, dialysis — I wanted that in my toolbox." 

The technology takes blood out of a patient, runs it through specialized filters, and returns it clean. A dog that overdosed on medication? The machine can filter out the toxins before they cause damage.

Finding his path 

After three years in private practice, Kato realized what he valued most: The intersection of advanced medicine and education. While he appreciated the colleagues and complex cases, he found himself increasingly drawn back to teaching.

"I think for me, I was starting to not find joy in the job that I was doing," he reflected. What he missed most was mentoring students and helping shape the next generation of veterinarians. “I had some of the best mentors support me through my undergraduate and veterinary school years and I wanted to opportunity provide that same support that I received” 

Building fearless veterinarians

Virginia Tech offered what he'd been seeking: The chance to practice advanced veterinary medicine while teaching. The university's commitment to expanding emergency services — recently bolstered by a significant donor gift to support ER growth—  creates the environment where Kato's expertise can flourish. 
 
The timing couldn't have been better. As Bobbi Conner, clinical professor and service chief of Emergency and Critical Care  in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, explains: "The small animal emergency service has been growing steadily since 2020 — we are seeing more cases helping more families every year. Being able to add another criticalist now allows us to continue to see more emergency cases while also providing exceptional care for the sickest patients. It also supports another exciting new venture — the establishment of a brand-new small animal emergency & critical care residency program."

Kato's philosophy comes from his own winding path: Confidence comes from preparation, not perfection. 

"I enjoy taking that student who is terrified on day one of emergency medicine and letting them leave saying, 'That wasn't so bad,'" he said.

Because here's what he learned: the world has changed. "The reality is that general practitioners are seeing less and less preventive care and more emergencies that walk in, so if I can give them tools to at least start those cases and feel good about it, that's important." 

His goal isn't to make every student an emergency specialist. It's to give them confidence to handle whatever walks through their door. 

Breaking the veterinary stereotype 

Along the way, Kato learned something that contradicts a common veterinary school myth.

He tells his students: "If you go throughout your career thinking you're only going to be dealing with animals, then you're not going to be happy. We very much so are amateur psychiatrists more than sometimes veterinarians." 

The human-animal bond drives everything they do. Families matter as much as patients. Communication skills matter as much as medical ones.

Finding where you belong

Now settled in Blacksburg with his fiancé and their newly adopted kitten Yuzu (named after a Japanese fruit, continuing his family's tradition), this Los Angeles native is enjoying the university community. 

Kato's journey — from necessity to discovery, through specialty training and private practice, back to academia — illustrates something important about careers in veterinary medicine.

Sometimes the best career moves are the ones not planned. Sometimes one has to try different paths to discover the right one. And sometimes, the night shift job taken to pay the bills turns out to be exactly what someone was meant to be all along. 

That 3 a.m. wake-up call to drive trucks to a supply depot? It led him exactly where Kato needed to go — to a place where he could practice medicine the way he believed it should be practiced, while preparing the next generation to do the same.