How inventor Stephanie Young is keeping our pets safe
Sometimes, veterinary school just isn’t in the cards for aspiring students. When Stephanie Young entered Texas A & M, it was with every intention of pursuing a career in medicine. At first, she wasn’t sure if that would be with people or animals—but as time went on she realized she definitely wasn’t the right person for treating human patients.
She switched her focus to animals, but also realized early on that while she loved problem solving and figuring out what was wrong with pets, treating them also wasn’t quite the right fit for her.
An incident that occurred before she even started at Texas A&M guided her on the path that was right for her. In the veterinary world, it’s standard practice to leave a healthy pet with no red flags alone without any monitoring to recover after surgery.
The animal is checked on regularly to make sure they are fine, but vitals aren’t monitored because pets tend to destroy the equipment as soon as they wake up. On this occasion Stephanie was cleaning near a kennel when she realized it wasn’t moving at all. She called a vet over, and they discovered it wasn’t breathing.
Despite every effort, the pet passed away. It was devastating, but it also made Stephanie realize what she truly wanted to do—solve the big problems the veterinary world is suffering from.
A life-changing internship helped cement her life mission. She switched from focusing on problem solving pets, to inventing products meant to make things better and safer for everyone involved.
The first result was SkyPaws, an invention designed to help veterinary staff monitor animals all the time, not just when a vet tech can pop in. The device is designed so that it fits easily on a harness, but not so easily chewed into pieces. It allows pets to be monitored fully and completely, so that the pet can be treated if it’s vitals start to dip.
Although SkyPaws is still in development, it has already saved one life. When Stephanie’s dog was out chasing squirrels, it suddenly and unexplicably collapsed. Stephanie put a prototype SkyPaw on to try and sleuth out what was wrong, and discovered a temperature of 109. Realizing it was heat stroke, she quickly cooled her pet off before rushing Atasa to the emergency room.
If she was not able to immediately cool her dog, Atasa likely would have died. As it was, Atasa escaped with 2 days in the ICU recovering.
Stephanie’s invention could save thousands of lives, and also help problem solve situations in whole new ways. It was a long road to get there, and it wasn’t always high points. In the beginning of her journey, Stephanie worked long hours and pushed herself to the breaking point.
Eventually, it got so bad that she would burn-out and sleep whole days away. She has learned that managing mental health is one of the most important aspects of entrepreneurship, and is now careful to take breaks when ever she needs them.
Stephanie is a brilliant inventor, and there is no doubt she will continue to bring great new products that improve animal lives to the world.
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