The Vet Vault: Recent Episodes
The Vet Vault
Does work life balance really exist in the veterinary industry? Veterinarians Dr Gerardo Poli and Dr Hubert Hiemstra believe that knowledge is for sharing, so with the help of their guests they are unlocking the tips, tools and tactics that you’ll need to build the veterinary career you have always wanted and supercharge your passion for life. We speak to some of the most inspiring and energised veterinary professionals in the world and discuss the attitudes and actions that allows them to thrive. Could these be the mentors you’ve been looking for?
I’m never excited when I diagnose a cat with anaemia: vague signs, confusing diagnostics, and what feels like a not-so-great prognoses. But are they really that hopeless?
In this episode, feline medicine specialist Dr Rachel Korman joins us demystify the anaemic cat and offer a clear, practical diagnostic framework that will give you more confidence and better outcomes the next time you see a cat with a low PCV.
Some highlights from this conversation:
- A step-by-step approach to categorising anaemia.
- Regenerative vs. non-regenerative: what it actually means in cats, and how to interpret the data.
- Why IMHA in cats doesn’t look like IMHA in dogs — and how to recognise it.
- Haemoplasma infections (like Mycoplasma): When to treat, how to treat, PCR testing, and what the results really tell you.
- Age-specific differentials: what to prioritise in young vs. older cats.
- Supportive care: what works, what’s myth.
- Prognosis pitfalls: why PCV alone doesn’t predict survival.
This episode will help you approach feline anaemia with more clarity, structure, and - dare we say - optimism.
💡 Proudly supported by Vetnostics Pathology: Australia's largest network of veterinary pathologists and internal medicine consultants. Learn how Vetnostics can support your work-up of complex anaemia cases with comprehensive PCR panels and diagnostic expertise.
🎧 Want more clinical deep dives? Subscribe at vvn.supercast.com for 600+ episodes covering small animal medicine, surgery and ECC.
Upcoming conferences that I’m excited to attend:
- Vets On Tour snow conferences (https://vetsontour.com) in Wānaka, NZ (August ’250), and Nozawa Onsen, Japan (Feb ’26)
- ANZCVS Science Week, 24-25 July 2025. https://vetscienceweek.com.au
- IVECCS 2025, San Diego, September 4-8
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Episode Topics and Timestamps05:14 – Categorising anaemia06:00 – Regenerative vs. non-regenerative07:42 – Haemolytic anaemias in cats17:17 – Clinical signs and first tests18:43 – PCV/TP interpretation27:48 – Common causes by age31:38 – Mycoplasma diagnosis and treatment35:04 – Recognising haemolysis39:38 – PCR and anaemia panels48:53 – Bone marrow biopsy tips54:52 – Supportive treatments
🎙️ Introducing the Veterinary Business Accelerator, our new podcast for veterinary practice owners who want more than just survival - they want to own the practice they dreamed of when they first decided to start a practice - a place that gives them joy and freedom, and where other vets like to work.
In this brand-new series, vet business coach, author, and former Vet Vault guest Dr. Sam Bowden shares the mindset, strategies, and systems he’s used to help hundreds of practice owners transform their clinics into what he calls “abundant practices” - workplaces that are profitable, sustainable, and deeply rewarding.
In Episode 1: Why Even Start a Vet Practice?, we ask the question: Wouldn’t it be easier to just get a job?
When you’re in the thick of it all, it feels that way, doesn’t it?
Especially when you’re knee-deep in payroll, staff issues, client complaints, and wondering if you’ll ever take a proper holiday again.
In this kickoff episode we start with the question every practice owner should revisit regularly: Why are you in business?
Dr Sam Bowden breaks down why most owners start with good intentions: better medicine, a better team, better money - but end up overworked, underpaid, and out of joy. And why the fix begins with something deceptively simple: clarity on that why.
Sam outlines his framework for what he calls an “abundant practice” - the five pillars that any vet business needs to get right if it’s going to support the life you want. And yes, that includes permission to take a holiday.
What You’ll Learn:
- The real reasons vets start practices (hint: it’s not just the money)
- Why good intentions often lead to overwhelm
- The 5 pillars of Sam’s Abundant Practice Model: time, team, clients, finances, fulfillment
- How a low financial drive hurts the profession—and your personal life
- Common mindset traps (and how to replace guilt with growth)
- The power of shifting from “either/or” to “yes/and” thinking
- Why clarity is the foundation for fun, freedom, and financial success
If this episode was made just for you, and you’d like to hear more, you can find our other episodes here.
What’s your least favourite part of being a vet?
Is it talking about money?
In this episode, we take on one of the most emotionally charged parts of veterinary life: discussing high-cost treatments with clients.
Our guest is Dr. Bing Zhu, a Small Animal Medicine Specialist from SASH, who’s had these conversations more times than she can count, and she shares her hard-earned wisdom on how to approach these conversations with empathy, clarity, and confidence.
Here’s what we unpack:
- The emotional and ethical weight vets carry when finances and medicine collide
- Dr. Zhu’s step-by-step approach to setting expectations and guiding tough decisions
- Why separating your ego from the medical outcome can save your sanity
- The cultural mindset shift the profession needs around money conversations
- How to anchor your boundaries in your core values
Dr. Zhu shares transformative personal stories, communication strategies, and mindset shifts that will help you communicate more clearly, protect your mental health, and better serve your clients and their pets.
Whether you’re still at uni, starting out, or have been in practice for decades, this episode will change the way you handle financial conversations—forever.
Ready to rethink “the money talk”? Hit play now.
Upcoming conferences that I’m excited to attend:
- Vets On Tour snow conferences in Wānaka, NZ (August ’250), and Nozawa Onsen, Japan (Feb ’26)
- ANZCVS Science Week, 24-25 July 2025
- IVECCS 2025, San Diego, September 4-8
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Episode Topics and Timestamps
01:45 Presenting the Large Estimate: How Does it Make You Feel?
06:04 The Turning Point: It's Not Your Fault
10:46 Practical Advice For Handling High Cost Estimates
31:04 Stop Avoiding Referral Because You Think You're Saving Your Client Money
36:25 Why Competence Makes Talking Money Easier
38:16 The Cultural Shift Vets Should Make
44:55 Setting Boundaries and Work-Life Balance
55:39 Dr Bing's Podcast Recommendations
56:19 The Pass Along Question
Telemedicine.
What’s your gut reaction when you hear that term?Maybe you think it was just a clever COVID workaround, or second-rate substitute for a “real” vet visit.
Or maybe you’re a bit curious about what it’s like to work in telemedicine— but you’re worried it’ll be boring. Or worse: that you’ll spend your days diagnosing lizards over Zoom.
Whatever you think— chances are, you’re wrong. But don’t worry. This episode will change that. We go deep on the real-world pros and cons of telemedicine, from two key angles:
For curious vets:
- What’s it really like to work in telemedicine?
- Is it fulfilling?
- How will I cope with all the tricky questions (and species?!)
- Is the pay good?
- Can you get into trouble for giving remote advice?
For clinic owners:
- How do you integrate telemedicine into your practice?
- What are the practical hurdles?
- What’s worked (and what hasn’t) from someone who’s built a global platform from scratch?
Our guest is Dr. Shadi Ireifej, a board-certified surgeon, tech entrepreneur, and co-founder of VetTriage, a global teletriage platform.
This one made me rethink what “good vet work” really means. I think it’ll do the same for you.
Join us on the slopes of New Zealand for our winter CPD adventure with Vets On Tour Wānaka 25.
Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.com for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at cutabove.supercast.com.
Get case support from our team of specialists in our Specialist Support Space.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Topics and Time Stamps
01:43 So you think you want to work in telemedicine?
04:20 Common concerns about telehealth work
06:11 Will I get sued for giving the wrong advice?
10:37 Vets on Tour: Upcoming Events
15:55 Income and Work Hours in Telemedicine
18:35 Will I have to give advice for all sorts of weird animals?21:29 Unexpected Joys of Telehealth
23:44 Future of Telehealth and Technology
29:21 Challenges and Lessons in Telehealth for Practice Owners
36:33 What about the technology?
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact form at thevetvault.com, or catch up with us on Instagram. And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
In this solo episode Hugh tackles a bold idea: if you're not currently using AI in your clinical veterinary work, you may be falling behind. And if/when artificial intelligence gets to the point where it reliably has access to all the most up to date information for managing your patients, will you be negligent if you DON’T use it?
Hubert shares how artificial intelligence is quietly but powerfully reshaping veterinary practice. He paints a vivid picture of an AI-powered clinic, shows you practical tools you can start using immediately, and challenges you to rethink the future of your role as a vet.
What you'll discover:
- A demo showing how to use ChatGPT for clinical reasoning, how to build your own custom AI assistants, and how to set up a personal knowledge library with free tools like Google's NotebookLM.
- How to spot and handle AI hallucinations — and why your human skills like empathy and ethical judgment are still your unique superpowers.
- The business opportunities of AI for your practice, and why clinics that embrace AI may thrive while others struggle.
- How AI could reshape veterinary education and open doors to a more sustainable, fulfilling career.
Hubert doesn’t just speculate — he shows you how AI can work in clinics today, and how you can lead instead of lagging behind.
Tune in if you're ready to future-proof your practice, sharpen your skills, and unlock a better way to be a vet.
Try out our AI Blood Gas Assistant
Join us at Vets on Tour Wānaka, NZ, for the most fun CE event you’ll attend this year.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Topics and time stamps
03:08 What could the future of clinical practice look like with AI?
12:48 Can I trust it? What does the data say?
18:22 Where does Ai get its information from?
25:20 How I use it: Using 'general' models for clinical decision making
33:29 Building your own Ai tools
34:06 Google Notebook LM
40:58 MyGPT - your own assistant
54:49 What might the role of the future veterinarian look like?
Join us for the Vet Vault's own conference in the snow: Vets On Tour Wānaka, New Zealand, 10-15 August 2025!
Have you ever felt pressured, as a vet, to do more 'stuff' - diagnostics, procedures, and sell more, even when you can’t quite see the clinical justification for it?
In this episode we welcome Dr. Brennen McKenzie-veterinarian, researcher, creator of the SkeptVet blog, author of Placebos for Pets? The Truth About Alternative Medicine in Animals, and all-round lover of science-based thinking. And who better to help us draw the line between solid science and revenue-driven decision making than someone who is known for their scepticism? Dr. McKenzie brings real-world wisdom and refreshing honesty to the debate. Together we explore the often-unspoken pressures of profit-driven care, commission-based pay, and what happens when business incentives conflict with good science. Brennen shares lessons from two decades in practice on how to use Spectrum of care reasoning to make clinical decisions that respect science, client resources, and the needs of your employer.
A must-listen for any vet who’s ever questioned the system—and their place in it.
Find out more about Brennen's current work in longevity at loyal.com.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Episode Topics and Timestamps
08:11 The Shift to Profit Driven Veterinary Practice
09:46 A Guide to Evidence-Based Decision Making
12:00 Client Communication and Financial Constraints
17:31 Spectrum of Care: A New Approach
32:15 Overdiagnosis and Screening: A Critical Look
39:09 Cognitive Psychology in Veterinary Decision Making
42:45 The Power of Checklists in Medical Practice
43:18 Balancing Autonomy and Systematic Decision Making
45:52 Clinical Audits: Improving Practice Through Data
48:36 Intuitive vs. Algorithmic Thinking in Veterinary Medicine
51:37 The Pitfalls of Anecdotal Evidence in Veterinary Practice
01:07:40 Communicating with Clients About Unproven Therapies
01:18:17 Pass Along Question and The One Bit of Advice
Veterinary practice can be unpredictable, exhausting, and full of interruptions - not that conducive to getting things done, right? But what if you could handle it all with mind-like-water calm?
In this episode I pick the brain of productivity legend David Allen, creator of Getting Things Done (GTD), to show you exactly how. This isn’t about squeezing more into your day — it’s about cutting mental clutter, regaining focus, and feeling in control, even when it all hits the fan.You'll learn simple, actionable GTD strategies that busy vets can use today:
Master the 5 GTD steps for veterinary practice:
- Capture: Never lose track of to-dos in a busy clinic again
- Clarify: Break down complex patient tasks into clear next steps
- Organise: Build bulletproof systems your whole team can trust
- Reflect: Create powerful review routines for team rounds and personal clarity
- Engage: Focus on what matters, when it matters
Beat interruptions without losing your mind
- Why task-switching drains your brain — and what to do instead.
- The simple tools that keep you sane and focused.
- How to ‘park’ distractions and re-engage fast.
Transform team rounds and communication
- The secret to closing open loops (and reducing anxiety for everyone)
- How structured reflection makes complex caseloads manageable
- Balancing roles and flexibility for smooth team dynamics
Join us for Vets On Tour Wānaka, New Zealand, 10-15 August 2025. Limited Early Bird Tickets on sale now.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Topics and Timestamps
03:09 Mind Like Water: The Key to Clarity
05:15 Challenges in Veterinary Productivity
20:33 Practical Tips for Capturing Tasks
28:58 Managing Multiple Projects and Tasks
29:26 The Importance of Knowing the Next Step
30:14 Dealing with Task Shifting and Interruptions
32:25 Organizing Physical and Mental Spaces
35:43 Team Dynamics and Productivity
38:02 Effective Rounds42:20 Balancing Defined Roles and Flexibility
47:35 Book recommendations
48:49 Pass along question
“Did you know the AVMA doesn’t actually require a residency to become a specialist?”
Yeah, neither did we—until Dr. Matt Booth dropped that fact-bomb.
And it’s bigger than just an interesting fact - it’s a mindset shift that cracks the door wide open to alternative routes to specialisation—for veterinarrians who want to grow their careers, but can’t jump through the hoops of the traditional residency pathway.
So, if you are:
- Ambitious, but feeling a bit stuck
-
Limited by the realities of life outside the clinic
-
Or just curious about your options in veterinary medicine
This one’s for you.
Join us for part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Matt Booth—former ER practice owner and ER practice development lead at Ethos Veterinary Health—as we rethink what’s possible in the future of specialisation.
Topics and Time Stamps
02:04 Alternative Specialisation Routes
03:17 Challenges and Benefits of Non-Traditional Paths
09:17 Exploring the Hybrid Credentialing Path
19:31 Podcast Recommendations
21:54 Pass along question
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Most vets believe it’s inevitable—on average, they leave Emergency and Critical Care (ECC) after just 3-5 years. The obvious culprit? Shift work, right?
But what if that’s just scratching the surface?
In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Matt Booth, ER Practice Development Lead at Ethos Veterinary Health, to break down surprising findings from his survey of 3,500 emergency veterinarians. Together, we explore the Five Buckets of Retention—the REAL factors that determine whether your career in emergency medicine thrives or fizzles out. Spoiler: It’s not all about night shifts and burnout.
We dig into leadership challenges, the keys to professional growth, and how these insights apply beyond ECC to every role in veterinary medicine.
You’ll also catch highlights from my previous chat with Dr. Matt at IVECCS 2023, where we shared actionable strategies for improving recruitment and building sustainable veterinary careers.
Whether you’re an ER vet looking for longevity or a practice leader aiming to attract and retain top talent, this episode is your guide to rethinking retention and career sustainability in veterinary medicine.
Topics and Timestamps:
00:40 Meet Dr. Matt Booth and the Five Buckets03:47 Recruitment Insights from 202307:36 Survey Findings and Retention Strategies12:07 The Five Buckets of Retention27:07 The Burden of Being a Giver28:23 Creative Solutions for Employee Retention29:04 Leadership and Gender Representation39:59 The Role of paid time off in Retention43:40 Creating a Positive Work Environment46:37 Professional Educational Growth
Join me at JAVECCS Tokyo on 15 and 16 March, and at IVECCS 2025 in San Diego on 4-8 Septembet.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes, library of show notes and access to our veterinary practice AI Toolbox at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Try our AI Blood Gas Assistant here
Are you wasting hours on outdated study methods like cramming and re-reading—only to forget everything by exam day? You might be studying wrong—and Dr. Matt Hollindale is here to help you fix that so you can learn smarter, not harder.
When preparing for his ECC Membership exams, Dr. Matt became obsessed with the science of study. The result? He achieved the top marks of the 2023 cohort. Now, he’s applying the same methods to his residency training and sharing them with you.
In this episode, we dive into science-backed strategies that transform how you study. Say goodbye to endless highlighting, reading and re-reading, and hello to techniques that actually makes things stick.
Whether you’re a veterinary student building good habits early or preparing for specialist exams, this episode will save you many hours. (And possibly even some tears!)
Here’s what we cover:
- The biggest study mistakes you didn’t know you’re making.
- How active recall and spaced repetition turbocharge your memory.
- The best AI and tech tools to revolutionise your study game.
- Why prioritising your well-being is as critical as your study hours.
Links & Resources
Lift your clinical game with our RACE-approved clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.com for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at cutabove.supercast.com.
Get case support from our team of specialists in our Specialist Support Space.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Topics and Time Stamps
04:33 Common Study Mistakes
08:58 Study Techniques That Actually Work
18:11 Making It Practical
20:56 Using Spaced Repetition for Better Long-Term Memory
29:08 Tech and AI Study Tools
31:39 Google Notebook LMS
34:38 Advanced Strategies
38:54 The Importance of Self-Care in Studying
We’d love to hear from you! Email us at info@thevetvault.com or reach out via our contact form.
If you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who you think could benefit from these game-changing study strategies!
Lift your clinical game with our RACE-approved clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.com for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at cutabove.supercast.com.
Get case support from our team of specialists in our Specialist Support Space.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Do you ever feel just... flat? Not inspired, not excited, and certainly not energised. It might feel like burnout. Or is it compassion fatigue? Maybe it's neither.
You know those moments in veterinary medicine when you know the right thing to do, but external circumstances prevent you from doing it? That dissonance, that discomfort deep in your core: that’s moral injury.
In this episode, we unravel the complexities of moral injury with Dr. Shannon Bass, a leader in veterinary medicine and a passionate advocate for supporting veterinarians through the psychological challenges they face. Moral injury, often confused with burnout or compassion fatigue, is an under-discussed but critical issue in our profession. Together with Dr. Bass, we explore the distinctions between these terms, their impact on veterinary professionals, and how to address them effectively.
Dr. Bass brings over 20 years of experience in general practice, emergency veterinary medicine, and leadership to this conversation, where you’ll learn
- How moral injury manifests in daily practice
- The importance of differentiating it from burnout and compassion fatigue
- Why 'client bashing' can be a symptom of moral distress, and
- Practical steps to create healthier and more supportive veterinary work environments.
Topics and Time Stamps
- Defining Moral Injury - 02:58
- Differentiating Trauma, Moral Injury, and Burnout - 07:04
- Moral Injury in Veterinary Practice: Subtle and Irresolvable Cases - 10:03
- What’s New for the Vet Vault in 2025 - 16:33
- Moral Injury vs Moral Distress - 21:18
- Moral Injury vs Compassion Fatigue - 24:01
- How Does Moral Injury Manifest? - 27:01
- How to Address Moral Injury: Recognising and Implementing Solutions - 29:44
- The Role of Vulnerability and Shared Experiences - 33:25
- Communication, Community, and Support - 38:59
- Shannon’s Podcast Choices - 46:29
- Pass-Along Question - 49:30
Get in Touch
Email us at info@thevetvault.com if you want to find out more about Vet Vault/Vets on Tour 2025 in Wanaka, NZ, or about the Essential Consequence Management series for practice leaders with Rhonda Andrews.
We love to hear from you! If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback, please get in touch via our contact form, or catch up with us on Instagram.
If you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
Hands up if you feel truly valued and respected at work.
In this episode, we dig deep into what truly makes employees feel valued and how leaders can create workplaces that people never want to leave. Spoiler: It’s not just about pay, pizza parties, or avoiding toxic behaviour. We’re aiming much higher!
Why You Should Listen
Workplaces that crack the code of real team respect and value don’t just retain their talent — they thrive. Whether you’re a team leader or an employed vet, this episode is packed with actionable insights on creating meaningful change, improving communication, and unlocking your unique “zone of genius.”
What Team Leaders Will Learn
• How to spot and fix the subtle cues that make employees feel unheard and replaceable.
•.The counter-intuitive financial upside of investing in team development.
“I think that organisations are sometimes coming in backwards, where it’s like: ‘Let’s just focus on the numbers and the metrics.’ If you develop amazing talent and build a strong team, you will make so much money. It is not the other way around.”
•.Practical tips to tackle team disengagement and avoid the high cost of turnover.
• Strategies for better communication and feedback without burning out as a leader.
“Because our brains are pre-programmed to attune to the negative, it’s going to be a negative story. So when people don’t understand what’s happening, they’re going to jump to the worst-case scenario, spread rumours, and act accordingly.”
What Employed Vets Will Learn
• How to advocate for yourself without feeling ‘pushy’ or ‘needy’.
• Why you might be feeling stuck in your role, and what to do about it.
• How to discover and step into your ‘zone of genius.’
“If I can maximise my time and attention there, I will be of most use to my company, my team, myself, my patients — everybody.”
Our guests are:
• Dr. Natalie Fayman: A veterinarian with 30+ years of clinical experience turned certified Positive Intelligence coach, and champion for less workplace dread and more veterinary dream teams
• Crystal Stokes: A former ER vet tech turned licensed psychotherapist and leadership coach. As the founder of Full Circle Lab, she’s on a mission to bridge the gap between veterinary leadership and teams.
Say not to settling for a ‘meh’ workplace by hitting play on this episode in to learn how to create (or find!) a role where you’re truly respected, valued, and thriving. Your veterinary dream team starts here!
Topics and Time Stamps:
06:23: Recognising the subtle things that make people feel undervalued
08:50: The counter-intuitive truth about investing time and money in team development
12:36: The repercussions of getting this wrong
18:13: Leveraging the team to get this right
21:25: Why it’s important to know the limits of your skills
25:23: Upcoming events and conferences
28:41: Pushing for change as someone who is not in a leadership role
35:05: Better systems for better feedback
37:32: Discovering your ‘zone of genius’
45:59: Addressing team disengagement
52:21: Effective communication and feedback
58:12: Podcast recommendations
58:52: The pass-along question
Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.com for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at cutabove.supercast.com.
Get case support from our team of specialists in our Specialist Support Space.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Join me at the JAVECCS ECC conference in Tokyo on 15 and 16 March.
Get the show notes for this episode, plus a very neat treatment guide for hyperkalaemia, here.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
You may have heard about a condition where greyhounds can become dangerously hyperkalaemic under anaesthesia, but did you know that this isn’t something that happens exclusively in greyhounds? And do you know what the risk factors are for this happening, what you can do to try and prevent it, or how to preempt it? If the answer to any of these is no, and you ever anaesthetise non-human species, then this is one of those “will probably save a patient’s life one day” episodes.
Our guest is Dr Stacey Jones, who was involved in publishing the first paper on anaesthesia-associated hyperkalaemia in greyhounds that brought this condition to the veterinary world’s attention. She joins the podcast to share what she learnt while conducting the research for this paper, as well as to provide an update on the work that has been done since that first publication. This update fleshes out our understanding of the condition, focusing on what you need to know about it in practice.
Episode Topics and Timestamps
04:06 Symptoms and Detection
07:27 The Greyhound Project: A Case Study
19:15 Hyperkalemia Beyond Greyhounds
22:05 Practical Takeaways
27:53 Conclusion and Additional Resources
Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.com for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at cutabove.supercast.com.
Get case support from our team of specialists in our Specialist Support Space.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
“This is not a women's issue: this is a societal issue. We all have women in our lives that we love, that we work with, that we care for, and we MUST be putting these conversations on the table.”
If you’re listening to THIS podcast, chances are you’re a veterinarian. That means that statistically, there’s about a 70% chance you’re a woman. That makes an honest, in-depth conversation about menopause not just relevant, but essential. This is that conversation.
And even if you’re not a woman, or menopause is still decades away for you, you almost certainly work with or live with someone for whom this topic is, or will be, very significant. You should absolutely care about it- and know about it.
In this question-and-answer conversation, recorded live at the Greencross Symposium 2024, we unpack the science, symptoms, and solutions with Dr. Nicole Avard, menopause specialist, and Georgie Drury, founder of Metluma, a digital health initiative that supports women through menopause.
From understanding the biology of menopause to tackling its impact on mental health, career, and workplace culture, this is the conversation you didn’t know you needed—but one that will make a difference in your life and practice.
Topics and Timestamps
[00:04:00] Menopause 101
[00:06:00] Biological Changes During Menopause
[00:08:00] Symptoms of Menopause
[00:12:00] Mental Health and Menopause
[00:15:00] Challenges in Diagnosis and Treatment
[00:17:00] HRT Safety and Benefits
[00:22:00] Myths and Misinformation
[00:32:00] Organisational Responses to Menopause
[00:40:00] Menopause Q&A
- Gradual discontinuation of HRT.
- Role of diet in managing symptoms:
[00:45:00] Advanced Questions on Treatment
- Using IUDs vs. transdermal progesterone.
- Blood tests for diagnosing postmenopause.
- Role of testosterone in symptom management.
Speaker bios:
Nicole Avard
Dr Nicole Avard is a dedicated Menopause Specialist GP with 18 years of experience as an Integrative GP. As the Medical Director and Co-founder of Metluma, she is passionate about guiding women through the complexities of menopause. Dr Nic has supported thousands of women on their menopausal journey, offering compassionate and individualized care.
Georgia Drury
Georgie is an experienced entrepreneur and CEO, with a passion for health and technology. As founder and CEO of Springday, she built the business into a multi-million-dollar global organisation, operating across 13 countries in ASPAC before exiting and moving onto her next venture. With Hummingbird Innovations, Georgie advises, invests, and collaborates with boards and organisations. She is currently Co-founder and CEO of Metluma, an exciting and innovative digital health initiative aiming to support women by taking a proactive approach to menopause.
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What if you asked the head of a famous business school for some veterinary business advice, but instead of telling you about a new system to increase productivity or some new marketing hack, he tells you to ‘focus less on the business side of veterinary practice’?
"You have to stop imposing a managerial mindset on these types of businesses - a 'business mindset.' Managerialism has seeped into everything - into industries where it shouldn't be. "
An interview that started with the goal of helping vets get better at having difficult finance conversations quickly detoured into a discussion about:
-
The philosophy of veterinary business,
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Why the managerialism that works in some industries doesn’t always translate well into ours, and
-
What true success could look like.
(Don’t worry - we do also get insights on how to make those money conversations less stressful!)
Dr Paul Harrison is the Director of the MBA program and Co-Director of the Better Consumption Lab at Deakin University's School of Business, and Adjunct Professor at Sacred Heart University in Milan.The MBA program that Paul designed for Deakin ranks 1st in the world for class experience. Paul is a renowned international speaker on issues related to consumer behaviour, public health and well-being, governance, and marketing.
Topics and Timestamps
Money Conversations: Challenges and Strategies 04:50
Balancing Business and Values in Veterinary Practice 07:29
Rethinking Success: Beyond Financial Growth 12:17
Exciting News: Clinical Podcast Updates 17:24
Embracing Uncertainty and Value 19:32
Controlling the Customer Experience 24:08
Philosophical Approaches in Business 24:29
Understanding Customer Needs 25:45
Money Conversations in Veterinary Practice 27:15
Human Decision-Making in Emergencies 34:05
Emotional Management in Emergencies 40:30
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact form at thevetvault.com, or catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts. Get your first two weeks free at vvn.supercast.com for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at cutabove.supercast.com.
Get case support from our team of specialists in our Specialist Support Space.
If you scroll through any veterinary chat group you won’t have to scroll for long before you see a conversation along the lines of: “My career as it is now isn’t really working for me, but I don’t know what my other options are. I feel… stuck.”
So how do you become unstuck?
Dr Jess Moore Jones is a bit obsessed with what keeps vets engaged and fulfilled, and she helps individuals and teams figure out how to create resilient and thriving cultures and careers through her business, Unleashed Coaching and Consulting, and in this episode we unpack a few of the talks she presented at WVAC 2024:
- The choices we make: taking back the power as veterinary professionals to be in control of our own resilience and our own wellbeing.
- YOU ARE NOT STUCK: helping veterinarians discover that a meaningful, fulfilling career (and life) is possible.
Jess shares her thoughts on where the line is between being a good team member and having healthy boundaries, why being selfish in the short term can be generous in the long run, and we talk about the ‘four doors’ available to you with every challenging situation. We discuss Jess' first steps to becoming ‘unstuck’ from your career rut, and we ask the big question: are the new generations of vets ‘soft’, or just wise?!
Join Dr Jess on 28 November 2024 for her online Women in Veterinary Leadership Summit.
Topics and Time Stamps
02:21 The Generational Debate: Are Younger Vets Soft?
03:43 Resilience in Veterinary Medicine: Good vs. Toxic
10:30 Balancing Boundaries: Soft vs. Hard
15:15 Long-term Resilience vs Short-Term People-Pleasing
20:02 Career Coaching: Moving from Stuck to Fulfilled
22:55 Challenging Traditional Work Structures
23:34 Discovering Your True Self
25:06 Overcoming Fear and Taking Action
26:22 Exploring New Opportunities
29:05 The Power of Choice in Your Career
34:27 Mindfulness and Self-Awareness
36:01 Choosing Your Perspective
40:31 Embracing Negative Emotions
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact form at thevetvault.com, or catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
If you work in emergency practice, or you're considering it, then this episode is for you. Dr Brooke Schampers and Dr Taleta Hompas are ECC veterinarians with more than two decades experience between them who create resources and coach others on how to thrive as an ECC shift worker through there EMV4Life program. In this episode they will tell you:
- How to better structure your shifts to optimise for sleep and health.
- How to navigate the swing between night and day shift.
- How Taleta manages shift work as a parent of young children.
- How to increase productivity on shift to reduce cognitive load and stress and get you out the door sooner.
- How to bring more joy into your emergency shifts.
We discuss what there is to love about emergency vetting, what to consider if you are thinking of a career as an ECC vet, and what other challenges there are beyond sleep and shift work.
Contact us to find out about our Vet Vault/EMV4Life resource bundles to help you up skill and navigate life as an emergency vet.
Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts. Get your first two weeks free at vvn.supercast.com for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at cutabove.supercast.com.
Get case support from our team at specialists in our Specialist Support Space.
Topics, Time Stamps and Chapters
00:00 Intro
03:22 Why ECC? What’s to love about it?
06:38 Are Certain Personalities Better Suited for ECC
15:39 The Impact of Shift Work on Health
22:21 Brooke’s Routine for Sustainable Night Shifts
32:51 Balancing ECC Work with Family Life
46:18 Setting Yourself Up for Long-Term ECC Careers
50:32 Rostering
54:17 Increased Productivity On Shift
01:06:17 Finding Your Joy in Veterinary Work
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact from at thevetvault.com, or catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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Get case support from our team at specialists in our Specialist Support Space.
Topics and Time Stamps
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact from at thevetvault.com, or catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
07:35 The Role of Compassion and Innovation12:08 Leadership and Management in Veterinary Practices17:55 Addressing Risks and Governance24:51 The Importance of Communication and Training43:23 Implementing Change in Veterinary Practices44:04 The Role of Coaching and Mentoring44:56 Different Models of External Support46:27 Cross-Industry Learning and Its Benefits56:06 Delegation and Managing Multiple Roles01:00:31 The Importance of Trusted Networks01:09:15 Balancing Client Relationships and Clinical Work01:17:13 Innovative Solutions for Veterinary Practices01:23:55 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
et access to our clinical podcast series with our 30% off IVECCS Special.
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Hands up if you still remember much of the statistics you learned back in vet school… Some of us have looked at way more P nappies than p-values since our student days!
But this is veterinary SCIENCE after all, and part of science is reading the occasional paper. Reading papers—beyond just the abstract and the conclusions—and with at least a little bit of discernment, does involve some degree of understanding statistics, just to make sure you’re not being misled.
So, in this episode, we’re talking about statistics, and we have the best person for the job. (Don’t skip it because of that word—I promise it’s actually quite fun!)
Dr. Steven Epstein is a Professor of Clinical Small Animal Emergency and Critical Care at the University of California, Davis. His research interests include CPR, diagnostic testing in the emergency room, and antimicrobial resistance patterns, and he loves a bit of statistics.
Join us for an easy-to-understand, practical, and entertaining update on statistics, recorded live at IVECCS 2024. You’ll even learn a nifty tip to help you (finally!) remember the difference between sensitivity and specificity!
Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to hear about my favourite 3 lessons I learnt in that week from making the podcasts.
Lift your clinical game with our RACE approved clinical podcasts. Get your first two weeks free at vvn.supercast.com for more clinical confidence and better patient outcomes, or check out our Advanced Surgery Podcast at cutabove.supercast.com.
Get case support from our team at specialists in our Specialist Support Space.
Contact Credabl for questions and help around personal and professional finance for medical professionals, and apply for their $10000 Helping Hands Business grant here.
If you’ve ever wondered about starting your own veterinary practice, then this episode is for you. We speak to Dr Amber Christie and Brooke Goodwin, a vet and vet nurse team who are the owners of a brand new clinic, about the highs, the challenges the lessons learnt from building their new practice.
Dr Amber is on new practice number four, and she tells us what they're doing differently this time around - from the practicalities of setting up the practice, like practice design, business structure, and finance, to how they’re thinking about things like boundaries, values, and growth. Brooke shares her perspective from a first time business owner’s point of view, and tells us how they are making the vet nurse/business owner structure work for them and for their clients. Finance specialist Caroline Willemse from Credabl took care of the money side of practice ownership for Amber and Brooke, and she joins us to answer common questions and bust some myths about business finance.
Topics and Time Stamps
05:21 Balancing Personal and Professional Life as a Practice Owner
10:49 The Importance of Flexibility
16:15 Designing the Perfect Vet Clinic
19:51 Financial Planning and Support for New Practices
30:22 Misconceptions and Realities Starting a Vet Practice:
31:17 Choosing Your Path: Independent vs. Group Practice
31:38 The Joy of Building from Scratch
32:58 Financial Considerations for New Practices
34:48 Renting vs. Buying: Pros and Cons
36:18 Fixed vs. Variable Borrowing
38:51 The Unique Partnership: Vet and Nurse Co-Ownership
46:00 Picking Your Values and Goals
54:33 The One Question
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via our contact from at thevetvault.com, or catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear, please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
You’ll hear a lot of complaining and blaming of leaders for everything that’s wrong with veterinary science. But the reality is that leading people is a very hard job, especially in a profession as complicated and nuanced as veterinary science. So this episode is for our leaders. We hope that it helps make your job of making our profession better just a little bit easier.
David Liss is the Director of West Coast Operations for Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG), and in this episode he’ll tell you about the three essential ingredients of great veterinary teams, and what this has to do with The Avengers and how they defeated Thanos! David also shares his strategies for giving hard-to-hear feedback, and tells us why goal setting is so important for building a great team and how to get the team excited for these goals. But we start with what might be the most important question: how do you, as a leader, stay motivated to keep motivating others?!
This episode was recorded live at IVECCS 2023, the conference of the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society. Join me at IVECCS 2024 for MUCH more content like this, and more ECC clinical content than you could ever wish for.
Get access to our highlights and key takeaways sessions, plus the show notes, from all of the conferences we’ve attended this year by joining our Vet Vault Nerds at vvn.supercast.com for more than 500 short sharp and practical podcasts in Small Animal Medicine, Surgery and Emergency and Critical Care.
If you need expert help with those tricky cases that you can’t refer - we have a team of specialists on standby to provide you with some extra brains. Contact them here.
Topics and time stamps
02:54 Motivation and Inspiration in Leadership
11:14 Back to the Avengers: Team Dynamics
15:43 Setting Goals and Achieving Buy-In
19:19 Profit: It's not a dirty word!
21:26 Handling Difficult Conversations
29:30 Carrot or Stick? Motivators
In a world of Amazon and Uber-level convenience, where digital disruptors are changing the way the world interacts and how we do business, why do we think that the vet profession won't be impacted?
"We're facing a lot of disruption. There is this class of digital disruptive dis-intermediators that are emerging and trying to displace the position of the veterinary clinic. Many of them explicitly have the mission to become the most trusted, most convenient touch point in the pet care journey."
Dr Thom Jenkins is the co-founder & CEO of PetsApp, a client engagement platform the streamlines client interactions, and in this episode he'll show you why the veterinary profession is, and should remain, at the heart of animal care, why disruptors think they can compete for the role of ‘most trusted’, and how they’ll do it. You’ll hear how practices are integrating telemedicine and online services with the physical touch points of traditional bricks and mortar clinics, how we’re our own worst enemies when we overpromise and underdeliver, and how a tech-savvy vet sees the role of AI in the future of veterinary science. Thom also tells us about his experiences of working as a vet in China.
Please give us your feedback on how to make the podcast better by answering 12 questions here.
Join me at the combined ASAV/VBG Conference on 12-16 August on the Sushine Coast, or, for our US listeners, at IVECCS in St Louis on 7-11 September for more emergency and critical care content than you ever imagined possible!
Join our nerds for better patient outcomes and more clinical confidence by signing up for our RACE approved clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at info@thevetvault.com, or catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
Topics and timestamps
05:30 Bad Decisions, Good Stories: Dr. Jenkins' Adventures
11:21 Veterinary Career in China: Challenges and Opportunities
21:51 The Future of Veterinary Medicine: Challenges and Solutions
35:48 Managing Expectations in Veterinary Practice
36:01 The Culture of Martyrdom in Veterinary Medicine
36:46 Setting Realistic Expectations for Customer Delight
38:52 The Role of Disruptors in Veterinary Medicine
40:47 Balancing Quality, Convenience, and Cost
42:29 The Importance of Physical Touchpoints
45:35 Leveraging Technology for Better Client Communication
50:47 The Role of AI in Veterinary Practice
56:37 Addressing Bottlenecks in Veterinary Business
01:09:55 Final Thoughts and Advice for New Graduates
Ah, those liver enzymes... sometimes they are up when you don't expect them to be. Sometimes they're up a bit... but not that much, so you don't know if it's actually significant. Or sometimes they're way out of whack, but you're not sure what that means exactly, or what to do next.
In this episode, Small Animal Medicine Specialist, RCVS Course Director and clinical reasoning guru Prof Jill Maddison helps us take a fresh look at liver enzymes. We review what each enzyme tells us in dogs and in cats, how to interpret changes in both the 'well' patient with the surprise finding on bloods, and in the sick patient, and Prof Jill clears up common misconceptions and pitfalls around ALP, ALT, GGT, and bile acids.
This clinical episode has been unlocked for you by Vetnostics Pathology, one of the largest veterinary pathology groups in Australia with the most veterinary pathologists and veterinary medicine consultants. Vetnostics is the new nationally aligned name of what used to the SVS Pathology Network ( (Vetnostics NSW/ACT, Vetpath Laboratory Services WA/NT, ASAP Laboratory Vic , QMLVetnostics Qld/NNSW and TML Vetnostics Tas), with a new consolidated website (www.vetnostics.com), but the same exceptional quality diagnostics, same extensive courier network and same veterinary pathologists and veterinary medicine consultants on other the end of the phone or email to talk you through any tricky results and cases.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Episode Topics and Timestamps
05:01 ALT and ALP: Detailed Analysis
05:40 Challenges in Diagnosing Liver Disease
06:40 Liver Enzymes in Cats vs. Dogs
20:44 Bile Acids and Liver Function
26:51 Pre-Anaesthetic Liver Checks
36:35 Understanding Cholangitis in Cats
36:53 The Complexity of Diagnosing Liver Disease
37:45 The Role of Blood Tests in Wellness Checks
38:11 Interpreting Reference Ranges
40:53 Case Studies: Real-World Examples
42:05 The Challenges of Wellness Screening
44:21 The Importance of Biopsies
55:14 Biases in Diagnosis
Be part of the conversation to help shape the Vet Vault with your feedback.
Many of us dream of building a practice, and then one day selling it and walking off into the sunset, minus responsibilities, and with our money problems solved. But what actually happens after what’s supposed to be ‘the big goal’? Who are you when you’re no longer the boss, and what’s next?
In this episode, Dr Wolfgang Dohne tells us how he re-invented and reinvigorated his career post the sale of his practice. He also give shares what he’s learnt about being a professional locum vet: the pro tips, the pros, and the cons, and what working in telemedicine has taught him about telemedicine as a career option, and also its potential role in our everyday lives in clinical practice.
Join us at Science Week for the most cutting edge conference topics out there.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Topics and Time stamps
04:41 Balancing Work and Personal Life
13:47 The Decision to Sell and Its Impact
23:30 Embracing Locum Work and Telemedicine
28:16 Tips for Successful Locuming
35:22 Overcoming Locum Anxiety
35:45 Essential Tools for Locum Success
36:31 Navigating Different Practice Management Systems
40:51 Building Strong Relationships with Nursing Teams
44:25 Introduction to Telemedicine
48:50 Practical Applications of Telemedicine
53:01 Integrating Telemedicine into Practice
Veterinary Ramblings
Furthest North
This little bonus episode is for a very select audience of brave souls who have already completed the written part of their Australia New Zealand College Of Veterinary Scientists membership exams, and are due to sit oral exams in a few week’s time. It's made from snippets of conversation about how to get into the right head space for the oral exams, with tips on last minute preparation, and what to expect in the actual exam.
Our guests are specialist surgeons and former examiners Dr Chris Tan and Dr Mark Newman, and former membership candidates Dr Justin Ward and Dr Stephen Mansour, and they deliver on the nuggets of wisdom that might help get you over the line. (Or at least stop you from wetting your pants on exam day!)
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If you clicked on this episode, then I’m guessing that you already know WHAT the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists membership exams are. Maybe you’re considering sitting them, or perhaps you’ve already put your hand up for 2025, but you still have so many questions. Like, how much time would I need to commit, how much study is required each week, HOW hard is it actually, WHAT do I need to study, and how do I set myself up for success? Should I do a course, how do I utilise me mentors, or my study group, and perhaps the most important question… WHY would I even put myself through it?!
This episode is made up of multiple conversations about surgery membership, and it will answer all of those questions and more. We talk to specialist surgeons Dr Chris Tan and Dr Mark Newman, as well as membership candidate (at the time of recording) Dr Stephen Mansour and recent successful membership candidate Dr Justin Ward. While the conversation focuses on surgery memberships, most of the information will be applicable to any of the specialties.
If you need an on-the-go study aid for your surgery membership prep, or if you just want to take your surgery theoretical knowledge to the next level, check out our advanced surgery podcast at cutabove.supercast.com
Oh, and if you were just curious about what membership exams are: the ANZCS (Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists) membership exams are rigorous assessments designed to evaluate the clinical knowledge and expertise of veterinarians who want to level up in their field of interest. Anyone with a degree that is eligible for registration in Australia or New Zealand and with more than 3.5 years in practice can register to sit memberships. The exams serve as a benchmark for professional excellence, enabling successful candidates to attain membership in the College, thereby recognising their advanced competency in a specific area of veterinary science.
Still interested? Then keep listening!
Topics and time stamps
04:29 Exam Structure and Requirements
08:28 The Importance of Pathophysiology
12:52 Personal Experiences and Motivations
16:54 Balancing Study and Life
17:36 The Value of Membership Certification
26:59 Marketability and Practical Skills
29:36 Preparing for Membership Exams
31:21 Time Management and Study Schedules
35:56 Mentorship and Study Groups
48:17 Essential Study Resources
55:44 Balancing Study and Personal Life
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Have you ever considered doing something other than clinical veterinary practice, only to get stuck at 'but what else could I do? The only skill I have is fixing sick animals!' Dr Steph Morley will show how how wrong you are.
You'll learn how the skills and attributes that make you a good vet are highly valued outside of the vet clinic, and how to re-write your CV to make it applicable to any industry.
And if you're not considering leaving practice - great! This conversation will help you better value your skills and knowledge and change the negative self talk that devalues your skills and makes you feel like an imposter.
Dr Stephanie Morley's career has included a degree in hospitality and business and working in clinical practice and practice management, and in lab animal medicine. This led her first major pivot into a role as the Associate Director of Business Development at the University of Michigan, and then to the entrepreneurial life as the Co-Founder and President of Zomedica. Dr Steph is currently the President of Vetlen Advanced Veterinary Devices, the team behind an innovative new antibiotic delivery device for veterinarians.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
04:57 Your Unique Veterinary Superpowers
15:55 Overcoming Self-Doubt and Limiting Beliefs
25:00 Translating Veterinary Skills to Other Careers
36:42 Networking Tips for Introverts
38:27 Transitioning from Clinical Practice
47:19 Innovative Antibiotic Delivery Device
01:07:28 Advice for New Veterinary Graduates
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You know that conversation that you have with your client when you first diagnose congestive heart failure in their mitral valve disease dog? The one where you say: 'This will be the thing that kills your pet.' Well, that conversation is changing.
Veterinary cardiologists Dr Brad Gavaghan and Dr Fiona Meyers introduce us to TEER (Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair), a minimally invasive procedure that can completely change the outcome for your mitral valve patients.
In this episode they explain how it works, what the procedure involves, and what the risks are. They also guide us through selecting the right patients for this procedure so you don't miss the window of opportunity, and outline a new approach for screening and monitoring your newly diagnosed heart murmur patients now that the paradigm of care has shifted. We get into the practicalities of referring your patients, including setting expectations and cost of the procedure.
This episode is from our RACE approve clinical podcast series. Join our Vet Vault Nerds at vvn.supercast.com for more updates, refreshers, pro tips, and show note with over 450 episodes in Small Animal Medicine, Surgery and Emergency and Critical Care.
Serious surgeons, interns, residents and membership candidates should check out our new Advanced Surgery Podcast for a deep level of foundational surgery content.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
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It’s the topic in veterinary science that we wish we didn’t have to talk about. Every time we hear about another veterinary suicide, we feel sad, angry, and frustratingly powerless. But in this conversation with Dr. Kat Williams and Dr. Alena Gadoury, you’ll be inspired to take back the power to act against this curse of our profession.
Drs. Kat and Alena are the founders of VetHerd, an industry-based suicide prevention program for the veterinary profession. VetHerd utilizes the collective power of our community to create a robust safety net to combat the alarming rates of veterinary suicide through collaboration, awareness, and education.
You’ll learn about 'Mates in Construction,' the inspiration for the program, the parallels between ‘herd immunity’ and mental health, why it’s essential for all of us to learn how to talk openly and bravely about suicide, and how to get better at it.
Register for VetHerd’s upcoming two-day ASIST suicide prevention workshop, sponsored by Flynn’s Walk, here, or contact Kat and Alena at kat@vetherd.com.au or alena@vetherd.com.au to find out how you can get involved.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.
Episode Topics and Timestamps
00:00 Introducing VetHerd: A Vision for Community and Protection
06:19 Drawing Inspiration from Mates in Construction
08:32 Addressing the Mental Health Crisis in the Veterinary Industry
11:51 Exploring the Complex Causes of High Suicide Rates Among Veterinarians
20:44 The ASIST Model: A Framework for Suicide Prevention
28:41 Exploring the Model for Safety Planning
29:22 Community Involvement and Support
29:40 Addressing Responsibility and Training Needs
30:32 Practical Training and Its Importance
32:08 Overcoming the Fear of Discussing Suicide
33:46 The Power of Asking, and Community Support
34:48 Training Opportunities and Industry Support
42:37 Personal Insights and Podcast Recommendations
45:14 Funding Challenges and Industry Contributions
50:36 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
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What if I told you that your clients never have to worry about when they inject their diabetic cats with insulin, and still maintain beautiful glucose control? And timing insulin with meal times: forget about it!
Those are just some of the things you’ll learn about in this episode about using basal insulin in veterinary diabetic patients. We also discuss:
- Why you don't need fancy diets for good glucose control.
- How traditional glucose curves not necessary for monitoring diabetic cats on basal insulin.
- Great tips for using continuous glucose monitoring devices.
Dr Linda Fleeman is an internationally renowned veterinary expert on the treatment of diabetes, and is regularly invited to write textbook chapters and speak on this topic at international forums. Linda has worked in both university referral practice and general small animal practice, with her primary focus for more than 20 years being all aspects of diabetes in dogs and cats. She completed a Residency in Small Animal Medicine, followed by a PhD on the clinical management of diabetes mellitus in dogs. She’s held positions as Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine at the University of Queensland and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine at the University of Sydney before deciding to return to private clinical practice back in 2010. She currently does her work through Animal Diabetes Australia, the only diabetes-specific veterinary clinical service in the world, where she and her team pioneer ground-breaking diabetes treatments and management strategies and help practitioners better manage their patients through her consulting service.
Join our Specialist Support Space for case support for your tricky from our team of specialists, including diabetes case help from Dr Linda.
Subscribe to our RACE approved clinical continuing education podcasts for the show notes for this episode, a follow up session on managing diabetic dogs with basal insulin, plus hours of diabetes content with veterinary endocrinology guru Prof David Church, and over 450 other episodes in Medicine, Surgery and Emergency and Critical Care.
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You know when you see that case, usually some sort of traumatic injury , where something feels a bit 'off'. Maybe the story doesn't fit the injury, or it's the third time you've seen this patient in the last few months. Whatever it is - there are alarm bells...
In this episode forensic veterinarian Dr Elizabeth Pearlman tells us why it's so important that you listen to those alarm bells, how to get better at hearing them, while sharing a structured plan for what to do about it to help us bring a bit of light to the darker aspects of human-animal interactions, without compromising your own wellbeing.
Dr Elizabeth Pearlman is a forensic veterinarian for the ASPCA’s Veterinary Forensic Science Center in Gainesville FL. A childhood of watching Animal Cops on Animal Planet sent her on her path to veterinary science and eventually a Masters degree in Veterinary Forensic Science. She has practiced as a private practice emergency veterinarian and as a staff veterinarian for the Houston SPCA, and In 2018, she joined The ASPCA full-time as a forensic veterinarian. In her position, she assists law enforcement agencies nationwide with the identification, documentation, and collection of forensic evidence from crime scenes, live animals, and deceased animals. Additionally, she authors reports based on her findings and testifies in court as an expert witness.
In this episode Liz gives us a peek into the career of a forensic vet. She shares practical advice and resources on how to deal with cruelty and neglect cases, including evidence gathering, documentation, reporting, working with law enforcement and even how to get over your fear of being an expert witness in court. If you feel like this might be the job for you - Liz also lays out a few possible career pathways for us.
Topic List:
01:56 - The Reality of Forensic Veterinary Work
02:26 - Case of Suspected Chicken Abuse
03:42 - Abby's Case: A Deep Dive
07:43 - Impact of Forensic Work on Animal Welfare
08:14 - Veterinary Forensics Education and Reporting
11:07 - Another Case Study: Khaleesi
14:07 - Discussion on Non-Accidental Injuries
16:12 - Overview of a Forensic Vet's Role
18:53 - Forensic Veterinary Opportunities in the U.S. and Abroad
22:31 - Educational Resources and Career Paths in Forensic Veterinary Medicine
25:54 - Handling Suspicions of Animal Abuse in Practice
28:33 - Emotional Challenges in Forensic Veterinary Work
36:01 - Importance of Detailed Documentation in Suspected Abuse Cases
38:21 - Court Appearances and Testifying as a Forensic Vet
40:08 - Maintaining Emotional Health in Forensic Veterinary Roles
43:56 - Closing Thoughts and Stoic Philosophy in Veterinary Practice
Resources from Dr Pearlman:
- Aspcapro.org
- ASPCA One Pagers (PDFs are downloadable on this site)
- Minimum Standards and Best Practices for the Clinical Veterinary Forensic Examination of the Suspected Abused Animal
Continuing Education Opportunities:
- International Veterinary Forensic Sciences Association
- Florida International University – Professional Science Master’s in Veterinary Forensics
- VMX
- VIN
- Vets are welcome to visit Dr Pearlman and her team in their facility for case review/mock necropsy practice. If interested, email Dr Pearlman directly at Elizabeth.pearlman@aspca.org or submit a request.
Trial our clinical subscription for free at vvn.supercast.com to access the show notes for this episode and to listen to all 500+ of our clinical episodes. Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.Connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network for episode highlights, clinical resources, discussions, questions and support.Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week. Join us for a snow conference in Japan or in Wanaka with Vets On Tour: email vetsontour@gmail.com for details. (And tell Dave I sent you for your 10% discount!)
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You know that feeling when the ‘not breathing well’ patient gets rushed to your crash bench, and you stand there with your stethoscope trying to look like your planning, but actually, you’re just panicking... You have to do something, but what? Where do you begin?! This is exactly why I loved this conversation with ECC specialist and Director of Animal Emergency Australia, Dr Rob Webster, about the 6 steps that will help you localise the problem in the respiratory distress patient. Because once you localise it, you have a DD list, and you have a plan.Dr Rob guides us through the first minutes of assessing the respiratory distress veterinary patient and shows us how to quickly assess breathing patterns and sounds to help you pin-point and fix the problem. Trail our clinical subscription for free at vvn.supercast.com to access the show notes for this episode and to listen to all 500+ of our clinical episodes. Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.Connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network for episode highlights, clinical resources, discussions, questions and support.Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week. Join us for a snow conference in Japan or in Wanaka with Vets On Tour: email vetsontour@gmail.com for details. (And tell Dave I sent you for your 10% discount!) Topic list:5:49 Step 1: Evaluate respiratory effort. 11:31 Step 2: Is the breathing noisy? 20:22 Step 3: Is the chest wall intact?28:16 Step 4: Is the breathing fast and shallow?36:27 Step 5: Fast and shallow, but withnothing abnormal on lung imaging.38:01 Step 6: Non-respiratory causes.
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We're experimenting with something...I found a software that magically translates your voice into any language of your choosing, and I'm dying to see if I can use it to get some Vet Vault vibes into the non-English speaking veterinary world. So, as a trial run, we had this conversation about renal physiology and the many ways in which we, as vets, misunderstand and misinterpret the link between urine specific gravity and azotaemia translated into Spanish. Then we had a Spanish speaking vet cross-checked it and fix any mistakes, and here is the final product. So, for our Spanish-speaking colleagues: I'd love to know - how did we do? How did the AI do? Is this useful/sensible? And mostly, would you like to get more of them? Let us know what you think at info@thevetvault.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vet-vault/message
'Resilience' can be a very loaded word: where is the line between 'toxic resilience' that relies mostly on stubborn grit and self-sacrifice, and a deep sustainable resilience that stems from a much deeper place?
Dr Geoff Wilson is intimately familiar with resilience: veterinarian down to the core, Dr Geoff lives a vast and varied life split between being a family man, veterinarian, practice owner, entrepreneur, and expeditionist. Highlights from Geoff’s adventurer career include completing the longest solo, unsupported polar journey in human history, the fastest solo, unsupported crossing of Antarctica, the first to cross the Torres Strait by kiteboard, the first and only wind-assisted crossing of the Sahara Desert (2009), and the first wind-powered crossing of the Simpson Desert in Australia. Geoff’s newest adventure, Project Zero, is a net-zero docu-series documenting a voyage that explores some of the world’s most isolated and vulnerable environments and the visible impact of global warming on these landscapes, and engaging with the world’s leading climate scientists, advocates and initiatives.
You'd think that for someone like this, the challenges of working in veterinary science would be insignificant, but that's not the case. In this conversation Geoff takes us on a journey through the peaks and troughs of his own experiences in vet life, and beyond, shedding light on the dangers of pushing ourselves too far and the pitfalls of 'toxic resilience', vs utilising passion, purpose, and persistence to help shape true resilience. Geoff helps us explore how vulnerability, optimism and a service mindset support resilience, and he opens up about a unique program at his group of practices, VetLove, that is designed to cultivate 'unicorns' – exceptional vets who thrive under the weight of demanding expectations, and how they are trying to find that delicate balance of nurturing growth without breaking spirits.
Topic list:
03:29 From Polar Expeditions to Veterinary Practice: Jeff's Unique Journey
04:27 Cultivating True Resilience in the Veterinary Field
13:21 The Vet Love Resilience Program: Shaping Exceptional Veterinarians
35:49 Addressing the Challenges of Modern Veterinary Practice
35:49 The Importance of Support and Community in Veterinary Medicine
43:58 Navigating Difficult Clients: Zero Tolerance
45:38 Transforming Customer Service
46:55 Building a Positive Work Environment Amidst Challenges
51:44 Redefining Veterinary Education and Practice for Future Generations
54:20 The Power of Positivity
01:05:23 Balancing Passion with Personal Well-being
01:24:17 Final Thoughts: Embracing the Veterinary Profession with Optimism and Resilience
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Join us in Japan or in Wanaka with Vets On Tour: email vetsontour@gmail.com for details. (And tell Dave we sent you for your 10% discount!)
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If you find surgery even remotely appealing, then chances are a good old intestinal foreign body removal ranks high on your list of favourites. But GI surgery can be a lot less fun when faced with a linear foreign body, and patient outcomes can be potentially be much worse.
This episode with specialist surgeon Dr. Bronwyn Fullagar is packed with invaluable insights to make your linear foreign body surgeries smoother, less scary, and increase your chances of success.
Dr. Bronwyn Fullagar is an Australian specialist surgeon based in the US. Her passion lies in sharing knowledge to elevate our skills as surgeons and promote our overall well-being. She does her teaching through speaking engagements, publications, through her role as Director of Surgical Education for the Veterinary Emergency Group, and with frequent appearances on the Vet Vault Clinical podcasts.
For more surgery with Dr Bron, plus access to 450+ more episodes in Small Animal Medicine, Surgery, and Emergency and Critical Care and our library of show notes, including this episode, go to vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your tricky cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Join us in Japan or in Wanaka with Vets On Tour: email vetsontour@gmail.com for details. (And tell Dave I sent you for your 10% discount!)
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
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You know you want to do it, but you don't know where to start. It's a daunting task for sure - veterinary practice is not known for being soft on the environment, so the thought of acting to reduce the impact of your veterinary workplace can seem paralysingly complex. So where DO we begin? Well, you can begin with this podcast.
Dr Jeremy Watson is a veterinarian and practice owner. His desire to take action on climate change was put into motion in 2011 when a practice rebuild commenced, marking the beginning of his journey towards establishing a vet business with environmental sustainability as one of its core values.
In 2020, Jeremy joined Vets for Climate Action, driven by a passion to highlight the vital role of veterinary teams in inspiring urgent action on climate change. Following on from his sustainability-focussed clinic rebuild over ten years ago, Jeremy's clinic has recently snagged accreditation as Australia's very first certified carbon-neutral veterinary practice, and Jeremy now works tirelessly to get other vets on board with the same eco-friendly approach.
In this conversation, Jeremy talks us through what his experience looked like, what he learned from it, and what the 'levers' are that can be pulled to have the greatest impact in the right direction.
Jeremy also introduces us to Vets for Climate Action's Climate Care Program, a program that aims to overcome that paralysis of knowing it's a problem, but not knowing where to start. He discusses what that process looks like, what the most common stumbling blocks are, and what the short-term wins are, beyond it simply being the right thing to do.
Topic list:
04:02 - Bad Decisions and Good Stories
05:11 - The Human Nature of Climate Inaction
07:09 - Resistance to Change and Climate Paralysis
09:10 - The Climate Care Program for Vet Practices
11:40 - Surprising Environmental Impacts in Vet Practices
13:01 - Business Case for Environmental Sustainability
17:31 - The Process of Becoming Carbon Neutral
19:04 - The Importance of Reducing Anaesthetic Gas Usage
20:10 - Financial Benefits of Sustainable Practices
24:22 - The Climate Care Program's Support and Structure
28:03 - The Unexpected Impact of Bedding on the Environment
29:05 - Alternatives to Traditional Pet Cremation
32:10 - The Benefits of Going Paperless
33:01 - Joining the Climate Care Program
35:07 - UN Definition of Sustainability
36:09 - The Role of Vets for Climate Action
37:37 - The No-Brainer of Solar Panels for Vet Practices
38:41 - Importance of Collaboration in Climate Action
40:08 - Impacts of Some of Our Practices on the Environment
47:15 - The Climate Care Program's Role in Vets for Climate Action
48:03 - Global Collaboration for Veterinary Sustainability
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
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Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
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The puppy that ate the box of NSAIDs, the lab who found the bag of sultanas, cats and lilies - you know what to do: whack them on twice maintenance fluids for a few days to flush out the toxin and protect the kidneys, right? But wait. Have you ever stopped to think about HOW IV fluids increase toxin excretion? What if we told you that it DOESN'T?!
In this episode critical care specialists Dr Leonel Londoño and Dr Corrin Boyd explain why the standard approach of fluid therapy for nephrotoxin ingestion in veterinary patients not only doesn't make any sense, but can actually be harmful. We recap renal physiology and discuss a better plan than having a healthy bouncy patient on fluids in your hospital for 2 days.
Dr Corrin Boyd is a registered veterinary specialist in emergency medicine and critical care who works and teaches at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, and Dr Leonel Londoño is clinical assistant professor of emergency and critical care and director of the hemodialysis unit at University of Florida. His research interests include renal and non-renal applications of extracorporeal purification techniques, endothelial and glycocalyx pathophysiology in the critically ill, and hospital-acquired acute kidney injury.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
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"The what and the why of leadership is not up for debate anymore. We know what leadership is supposed to be, and we know what workplaces are supposed to be so that the human beings in it can actually get the work done. It's the how that we're catching up on."
- Josh Vaisman
"I'm excited. I feel like we're at, or past, a tipping point in the profession. People really, really want to shift towards better places. It's just about finding the ways to get us there."
- Dr Marie Holowaychuck
Two quotes, one message: veterinary leadership teams around the world know what needs to be done. We just need a little help to get us there.
In this episode my guests Dr Marie Holowaychuck and Josh Vaisman provide some of that help with this conversation about the four pillars that the better workplace you want to create needs to be built on.
Dr Marie Holowaychuck is a specialist in small animal emergency and critical care. She’s also a certified coach, yoga and meditation teacher, facilitator, and keynote speaker who dedicates her time and energy to sharing evidence-based information regarding mental health and wellbeing. She has more than 20 years of veterinary practice experience in academic, private, and corporate settings. She’s led workshops and lectures and delivered keynotes to a range of audiences in Canada, the USA, and worldwide.
Josh Vaisman is a Workplace Culture Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Positive Leadership Advocate and the author of "Lead to Thrive: The Science of Crafting a Positive Veterinary Culture". He holds certificates in areas such as Positive Psychology, Workplace Culture, and Building Effective Teams, and has a Masters level education in Applied Positive Psychology & Coaching Psychology. He co-founded Flourish Veterinary Consulting LLC to bring the knowledge he's obtained to life.
This episode was recorded live at IVECCS 2023. Use discount code VetVault2023 for a 35% discount when you become a VECCS member before May 2024, and join us at IVECCS 2024!
Topic list:
05:06 - The Impact of Culture on Well-being
05:31 - The Four Pillars of Energetic Leadership
06:10 - The Challenges of Veterinary Leadership
07:05 - The Types of Clients Seeking Help
08:04 - The Most Challenging Aspects Post-COVID
10:34 - The Importance of Personal Well-being for Leaders
13:35 - Empowering Teams for Personal Well-being
18:16 - Practical Ways to Empower Team Members
20:22 - The Challenges of Rapid Growth and Team Expansion
24:37 - Addressing Psychological Health and Safety
27:08 - The Resistance to New Workplace Norms
29:12 - The Importance of Psychological Safety
32:19 - Cultural Architecture and Unintended Consequences
35:28 - The Importance of Clarity in Leadership
38:45 - Key Takeaways from the IVECCS Session
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
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Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
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Whether you're still calling it HGE, or you're getting used to saying AHDS, it's likely that haemorrhagic diarrhoea is one of the more serious and most common GI conditions that you treat in companion animal veterinary practice. But are you treating it the right way? And how can you even be sure that your severe GI case 'just' has the HGE/AHD syndrome, and not some other serious disease?
If you've ever asked yourself these, or any other questions about this condition, then this conversation with Prof Caroline Mansfield will answer your questions and get you up to speed with everything you need to know in 2024 about haemorrhagic diarrhoea. (Spoiler alert - they DON'T need antibiotics!)
Prof Caroline Mansfield is a board Certified Specialist in Companion Animal Internal Medicine whose research is focussed on enteropathies in dogs, the endocrine and exocrine pancreas, and the interaction between the gut microbiome and metabolic health and disease in dogs and cats. She’s had an illustrious career that includes her previous role as the Head of Small Animal Medicine at the University of Melbourne and Director of Clinical Research. She’s the current editor of the Australian Veterinary Practitioner Journal, and has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers plus multiple textbook chapters and conference presentations.
This episode is a condensed version or our full episode on the topic from our clinical podcast series, where we've tried to capture some of the key takeaways that we feel every practitioner should be aware of. For the full episode, the show notes, access to a library of more than 450 other clinical continuing education podcasts, two fresh episodes per week, and access to our members-only community spaces, join our Vet Vault Nerds at vvn.supercast.com.
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The last time we had Sam Bowden on the podcast, all everyone in the veterinary profession could think about was: 'too much work, not enough workers!' But 2023 saw some changes. The deluge of work turned into a more reasonable stream, veterinary companies are looking twice at their bloated wage bills, and clinics are finally filling those vacancies. It’s a different landscape to be sure, and Sam Bowden is just the man to help us unpack and strategise, whether you’re freshly graduated and about to enter the job market, or a clinic owner who has to start working on attracting and keeping good clients.
Grab your limited seat at Sam’s members only AMG Marketing Mastery Event.
Book a call with Sam about joining the Accelerate Mastermind Group.
Dr Sam Bowden, with 15 years of veterinary practice experience and a track record of owning and expanding two practices, has spent the last 12 years assisting practice owners in achieving better work-life balance, profitability, and overall well-being. He's the founder of United Vets Group, The Ultimate Veterinary Practice, Complete Vet Systems, More Vet Clients Websites, Accelerate Practice Academy, Accelerate Mastermind Group, Vet Business Manager Program, The Dental Academy and also the author of The Abundant Practice. Sam’s teaching focusses heavily on mindset combined with practical strategies to allow practice owners and teams to reach their full potential.
In this episode, we explore the changes in the veterinary profession in 2024 compared to a year ago, including what Sam calls the 'profitless boom.' Sam shares data with us on what our clients value, and some practical ways that we can deliver it in way that is financially and emotionally sustainable. We dig into how the veterinary job market is different now compared to a year ago, and how it might change over the next year or two as we discuss the question: have we become entitled?!
Topic list:
06:30 Changes in the vet profession.
07:54 Sam's advice for vet students.
23:50 Do we still have too many clients and not enough vets?
27:11 Clinic retail sales have gone down - what's the impact?
31:38 Do cheap retailers erode trust of veterinary clinics?
36:13 Are wages going to stay up?
37:43 The shift towards service orientation in veterinary practice.
39:09 Better service and changing the model of service increases price elasticity.
41:18 The role of pet insurance and wellness plans.
44:09 Why you should have a business mindset and a positive mindset in vet practice.
55:16 Sam's thoughts on social media as tool for business and as a vet.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
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This episode is available as a video podcast on Spotify.
Dr Gary Turnbull is a Director of The Lincoln Institute, a coach, speaker and facilitator in the fields of veterinary practice management and leadership, veterinary business models and life balance strategies. He’s also a former practice owner with decades of clinical vetting and leadership experience under his belt. Through his work at The Lincoln Institute, Gary helps practice owners and employees with "people problems”, team culture, staff engagement, productivity and profit.
And it’s exactly the intersection between these things that I wanted to talk to Gary about: the seemingly opposing needs for productivity and profit from a practice owner’s perspective with the desire of employed vets to have an engaged workplace with great culture.
I love Gary’s role as a coach for both practice owners AND employed vets, because gives him some unique insights into topics like how team leaders can motivate productivity without the team feeling that it’s just more ways that the boss wants us to make them more money, how to productively give and receive feedback about productivity, why and how team leaders need to be crystal clear about their practice values, and for employed vets - how to approach that annual review and how to show value when you’re not the vet who bills the big surgeries. Gary also helps me with a guide to make those client money conversions a lot less anxiety-inducing, and I put his coaching skills around conflict situations to the test with the big question: how do you deal with that accusation of ‘all you care about is the money.’
Topic list:
11:25 The importance of leadership nuance and messaging.
19:48 How to set clear, supportive expectations for your team.
22:13 Always come back to standards of care over "purse protecting".
27:29 We need more data than an average transaction fee.
32:04 Keeping track of your bookings and reframing how we view our care recommendations.
40:04 Remembering that people prioritise their pet differently within their family unit.
47:33 The 6 steps that you should make a habit in the consult room.
59:13 Shifting the focus away from money.
63:27 Practice makes perfect (or makes us more comfortable).
70:11 How a client viewing what happens behind the scenes can change their perception of fees.
74:01 Gary's favourite podcasts.
74:28 Gary's one piece of advice for new grad vets.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
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Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
Connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network for episode highlights, clinical resources, discussions, questions and support.
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Petition to protect Aussie Vets' access to compounded veterinary medicines for emergency use.
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This episode is available as a video podcast on Spotify.
In this episode, Dr Zoe Lenard shares with us the importance of continuous learning for a fulfilling veterinary career, both in technical and non-technical aspects. She discusses adult learning, the pitfalls of perfectionism, and the impact these have on personal growth.
Dr Zoe Lenard is a dynamic radiologist with a passion for connection and excellence. Her big-picture goal is to promote a culture of high-performing, sustainable veterinary teams. She works as a clinical radiologist, business owner, and teacher, in referral practice at Animalius in Perth, Western Australia. She is an adjunct professor in Radiology at City University Hong Kong, and has a wealth of experience teaching graduate veterinarians, both through GP education and in resident training.
But Zoe's interests go beyond radiology; she's also the inaugural Chair of the Sustainable Practice Committee of the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council, a role that aims to promote high-performing, sustainable veterinary teams.
In this conversation, Zoe explains her work and how the committee supports professional growth within the veterinary ecosystem in Australia, and how the boards are working to change the perception that they are there just to police us. We discuss the current state of continuing education: how we measure it, it's efficacy, and what could be changing in the field of CPD, including the regulation of veterinary nurses in Australia.
Topic list:
5:17 No one actively makes a bad decision.
10:24 If you stop learning, life becomes boring.
21:59 Where does the Sustainable Practice Committee fit into Aus Vet science?
30:48 Zoe's hopes for future CPD.
46:28 Practical tips for being an engaged practitioner.
53:42 Regulation of the veterinarian nurses and why it's important.
64:05 What Zoe would like to say as the representative of the boards.
66:07 Zoe's favourite books.
69:00 Zoe's one piece of advice to new grad vets.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
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Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
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For updates about the work of the SPC and its projects (including CPD), check the AVBC website.
Or follow AVBC on LinkedIn.
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Regina Carey is a coach, public speaker and special educator who works to help drive change within the veterinary and human healthcare professions. But in this interview we focus on another aspect of her life: she’s married to a veterinarian, and therefore, by default, married to the veterinary profession.
In this episode we explore what’s that like to be the significant other in the life of a vet, what it takes to support a vet career, and what our partners want us to know. Regina gives us the solution to making space in a relationship for two careers, especially when one of the careers can be particularly time and commitment hungry!
We also pick Regina’s coach brain with topics like invisible disabilities, the not-so obvious things that get in the way of becoming the best version of ourselves, like excessive competitiveness, the consequences of the language we use with ourselves, and how to draw a hard line with aggressive clients. But first, we start with a veterinary love story…
You can find Regina at her website, Queen Of Action and on LinkedIn.
Topic List:
04:22 Regina's experience being married to a vet.
12:53 You don't need to sacrifice everything to be a vet.
16:31 Making space for two careers in a relationship.
24:09 Regina's career before she delved into vet stuff.
28:15 Coaching people with invisible disabilities.
35:24 The link between competitiveness and a lack of self esteem.
40:08 Why are supportive relationships vital in the vet industry?
46:18 Holding space for a relationship or your partner as a vet.
48:15 How do you find the support systems?
51:48 How to disallow disrespect without being rude.
58:46 Regina's advice for the significant others of a vet.
62:25 Things that makes the vet industry uniquely challenging to a coach.
65:18 "How do you solve the gap between vets wanting more money for less work?"
70:27 Regina's favourite podcasts.
71:38 Regina's advice to new grad vets.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up-to-date, easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Get help with your cases in our Specialist Support Space.
Visit thevetvault.com for show notes and resources related to this episode.
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Regina's podcast recommendations.
We can do hard things with Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach
The Hidden Brain an NPR podcast
Burnout by the Nagoski Sisters
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What would you say are the biggest stumbling blocks to a joyful career in veterinary science?
The unfortunate reality is that there are many people in the veterinary profession who would not readily use 'joy' and 'work' in the same sentence. But Dr Russel Welsh wants to change that.
Dr Russel Welsh is a veterinarian with over 23 years of experience and a passion for the vet profession and the role it plays in the lives of people and animals. He’s worked in multiple sectors of the veterinary industry, including clinically, operationally and in senior executive leadership positions. Some of his previous roles include first an employee and later a co-owner of Village Vet, a 33-site primary and referral care veterinary group in the London and Cambridge area. Russel facilitated the sale of this group first to private equity in 2017 and subsequently to the MARS group, where he stayed on first as Managing Director, then as COO and eventually in the role as Business Development Director at Linnaeus Veterinary Group.
This adventure has given him invaluable high-level insights into how our profession works (or sometimes DOESN'T work), so Russel recently resigned his position and took on a new challenge as Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder of Creature Comforts, a new VC funded veterinary start-up that aims to revolutionise the veterinary experience to make it seamless, joyful, fair and transparent by combining bespoke-built tech and world-class designer clinics.
In this conversation we cover how to step outside of your comfort zone to gain the knowledge and confidence needed to take on BIG challenges, and Russel shares some fascinating insights into the world of Big Veterinary Business. We talk about what’s good about corporate, what’s bad, and how Russel and his team are planning to take the best of it to create a model of veterinary practice that breaks the mould that says you can’t use 'joy' and 'work' in the same sentence.
Topics covered:
07:12 The Journey from Student to CEO
08:38 The Role of Technology in Modern Veterinary Practice
12:18 The Impact of Corporate Structures on Veterinary Practice
15:53 The Launch of Creature Comforts: A New Approach to Veterinary Practice
18:31 The Vision for Creature Comforts: Reinventing the Veterinary Experience
20:53 The Challenges and Opportunities of Corporate Veterinary Practice
24:13 The Future of Creature Comforts: A Vision for Growth and Innovation
38:14 Changing Access to Veterinary Care
39:34 Focus On Client Relationships
40:33 The Role of Technology in Veterinary Practice
44:18 Is The Staffing Crisis Over?
53:40 Joy Killers in Veterinary Practice
01:10:09 Russel’s One Bit of Advice for New Veterinary Graduates
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Have you ever found yourself in a moment in your career where you knew: ‘This is definitely not it. Something has to change!’
Dr Tannetje Crocker’s career is as multifaceted as a diamond, and just as brilliant, and in this episode she’ll show us that if you approach your career with intention and heart that the grass CAN be greener. This episode of the Vet Vault is for every veterinarian who's ever felt the tug of 'what if’. Dr. Crocker's story is a masterclass in crafting a veterinary life you love, and in this conversation we unpack pivotal career decisions, learn about cultivating confidence, resilience, and optimism in the field of veterinary medicine while fiercely advocating for self-care and vulnerability, the intricacies of balancing family life with multiple roles, and we get a peek into Tannetje’s social media career.
Dr Tannetje Crocker is a speaker, social media personality and a practicing ER veterinarian for Veterinary Emergency Group in Dallas, TX, as well as the practice owner of Alta Vista Animal Hospital in Fort Worth, TX who finds her joy in supporting her fellow veterinary professionals, both virtually and in person, through her various endeavours.
Topic List:
10:28 Why Tannetje's content resonates with so many people.
11:37 Doing things that scare you often leads to good opportunities.
17:34 Is the grass sometimes a little greener on the other side?
24:04 Dr Crocker’s different hats.
27:40 Doing things out of love.
30:25 Learning to escape the tall poppy syndrome.
32:55 The fear associated with change.
34:56 Working in an Open Concept Veterinary Hospital.
37:10 Work life integration rather than work life balance.
42:45 What would Dr Crocker do if she wasn’t a vet?
44:53 Dr Crocker’s most popular social posts/podcasts.
50:04 Why does Dr Crocker keep her social presence positive?
52:50 Self care and vulnerability.
58:27 What would be the title of the movie of Tannetje’s life?
Tannetje's resources:
Podcast - Six Minutes
Podcast - Terrible Thanks For Asking
Podcast - The Derm Vet
Podcast - The Cone of Shame
Conference - Unchartered Veterinary Conference
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Dr Jane Heller is the epitome of a mutlti-faceted vet career: she’s a Veterinary Epidemiologist with an interest is in infectious disease epidemiology, with particular reference to antimicrobial resistance and the potential for zoonotic transfer of pathogens between animals and humans. Her career has included a stint in private practice and at the University of Sydney, specialist training in Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health through a PhD and a residency at the University of Glasgow, and a faculty position at Charles Sturt University as an Associate Professor in Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health. In addition to her teaching, writing and research Jane also implemented a wellness program for the undergraduate veterinary students and has a deep interest in supporting student and veterinary mental health. Outside of her role at the university she is also the founder and director of Heller Consulting - her private consulting business where she gets to utilise her wide range of skills for the benefit of animals and humans.
In this conversation we cover what a career as an epidemiologist could look like (not as boring as you might think!), and Jane tells us about the work of the AMR Vet Collective - a non-for profit that informs and educates around responsible antibiotic usage, including sharing resources to help you achieve better antimicrobial stewardship without making your work life harder or compromising outcomes for your patients. We discuss how to affect behaviour change, whether its around how vets use antibiotics, or getting vet students and veterinary teams to care about their wellbeing. Jane also shares openly about how her work in the student wellness space challenged her personally, and what she learned from those challenges. (Oh, and we unpack the deeper lessons from Ted Lasso, which we could do an entire podcast series on!)
Topic List:
10:00 Epidemiology is essential in healthcare.
14:50 Communication is always key.
21:34 Importance of antibiotic stewardship.
32:41 Awareness of responsible antibiotic use.
35:37 Change is difficult but necessary.
39:10 Changing antibiotic prescribing.
44:21 Behaviour change requires tailored messaging.
52:43 Supporting student wellness is crucial.
60:00 Facilitating and empowering employee engagement.
63:00 Prioritise work-life balance and fun.
70:09 Importance of promoting kindness in education.
74:24 Empathy fosters understanding and support.
79:30 Importance of setting boundaries.
84:30 Normalise seeking counselling and support.
Jane's resources:
Nagkoski twins burnout book
Antimicrobial sterwardship CPD
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Join us as we chat with the incredible Dr Dennis Wormald, and discover why he wants us to take another look at the word - difficult - when it comes to our patients.
Dennis is not your run-of-the-mill vet; he's a bona fide canine behaviour enthusiast and his fascination with understanding and addressing the quirks of our four-legged friends began long before he donned his vet hat. Back in the day, he was knee-deep in biomedical science with a major in neuroscience, and he even dabbled in the world of addiction neuroscience. As a general practice vet, Dennis found himself increasingly drawn to the world of behaviour, so fast forward to 2017, he earned himself a PhD in canine anxiety and he's also now proudly a member of the ANZCVS behaviour chapter. Since 2021, he's been focusing solely on behaviour referral practice, and Dennis didn't stop there. He's also the mastermind behind ABADog.com—a platform he originally created to supercharge his own behaviour consultations. Think of it as your one-stop shop for gathering every essential nugget of behaviour history and turning it into a tailor-made action plan for each patient. In 2023, Dennis decided to add the title of "author" to his bio, with the release of "A Dedication to Difficult Dogs: A Heartwarming Tale Shedding Light on Canine Mental Health."In this podcast episode, we'll dive deep into the world of veterinary behaviour with Dennis and chat about what makes the field of behaviour science seem daunting to many, why some of us aren't quite experts (yet), and how boosting our knowledge and empathy can not only make us better vets, but also safer ones. Dennis also shares some game-changing strategies, tips, and tools up his sleeve that'll instantly up your game in your next behaviour consultation and transform your interactions with dogs across the board.
Topic list:
14:51 Anthropomorphizing can be beneficial.15:01 Empathy is essential for animal welfare.24:29 Mental health issues in dogs.25:35 Emotionally driven behaviours are difficult to change.30:23 Dogs chew and bark for relief.35:21 Fear and anxiety drive aggression.40:05 Prioritise patient welfare and comfort.46:06 Understanding animal behaviour is a science.50:20 Read multiple papers for consensus.55:39 Customised behaviour mod and environmental mod.61:30 Streamline behaviour consultations with ABAdog.64:46 Improve by focusing on solutions.68:00 Take care of your mental health.
ABAdog signup with 2 bonus coupons for Vet Vault listeners
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How much time have you committed over the course of your veterinary career to get better at teaching? I'm betting that for most of you, the answer is: not much. Why? Because we're not teachers, right? But maybe we need to think again. Most of us in the veterinary profession spend much of our working lives trying to transfer and translate information. Isn't that, in essence, teaching?
Dr Toby Trimble spends a most of his time coming up with better ways to teach. Toby is the founder of Trimble Group, a film production company reinventing education for animal health, making it less like PowerPoint and more like Netflix. He focuses on making education engaging, visual, and memorable. With his team, Toby has created over 800 CPD videos and live broadcasts in the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. He's also a specialist in veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia and an Assistant Professor of Veterinary Anaesthesia at the University of Nottingham.
In this conversation, Toby delves into why we should — and how we could — all be better teachers and communicators. He reflects on the lessons dyslexia taught him about teaching and about our perceptions regarding our own limitations. He discusses why a lot of online teaching falls short and how it can be so much better, the concept of using marginal gains to secure an edge in exam prep and in life, and so much more.
Topic list:
01:18 Better communication through visual storytelling.09:46 Preparation and practice reduce anxiety.10:41 Verbal fillers can detract from communication.19:17 Overcoming dyslexia through personalised education.24:07 Hard work leads to breakthroughs.27:48 Engaging, visual, experiential learning.35:49 Education online will shift.41:48 AI can provide information, but understanding is the key.48:24 Simulation enhances veterinary skills training.53:58 Marginal gains improve exam preparation.58:47 Small things make a huge difference.65:19 Clarify your message for memorability.
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How do we make 'resilience' more than just another buzzword and resilience training not just a box to tick for the HR department?
Assoc. Prof. Sarah Guess is a specialist in Small Animal Internal Medicine and Associate Professor at Washington State University where she teaches internal medicine. Outside of her clinical work her interests and research are in educational psychology, resilience and wellbeing, and elements of clinical supervision and resident training. Sarah has presented her research on resilience at the national level and is known for her mixed-methods approach to research, and she was the recipient of the 2021 Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award and the 2020 Wescott Award for clinical teaching.
In this episode she shares what she is learning and teaching around fostering resilience in a way that does not just rely on shifting the responsibility onto the individual to 'be more resilient', but rather focuses on the context that our resilience will challenged in. We talk collaborative relationships, workplace culture, model behaviour and we detour into the things that can improve personal resilience.
This one is essential listening in particular for anyone who is in a leadership, support, mentoring or teaching role.
Topic list:
12:08 Importance of non-punitive error culture.
16:25 Mistakes are expected and respected.
23:49 Resilience in education psychology.
26:33 Focus on faculty well-being first.
33:01 Importance of collaborative mentorship.
39:39 Resilience - it's trained, learned and necessary.
49:59 Embrace growth from negative experiences.
53:20 Exercise is an incredible tool.
56:10 Personal resources that foster resilience.
70:48 Keep showing up, even when it's hard.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
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The Drive Podcast with Peter Attia.
Funny Cuz It's True Podcast with Elise Myers.
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For todays IVECCS highlight episode we’re sharing a full interview instead of a highlights reels to give you a better idea of what exactly I’ve been up to with the incredible IVECCS speakers. This one recording is a conversation with Dr Claire Sharp about pro-kinetics, a topic that I thought would be a quick 10 or 15 minute discussion, but Dr Claire’s knowledge goes much too deep for that! She guides us through decision-making around when you should be using them, what you should look at BEFORE you start them, we detour into a great discussion around pain control as it pertains to finding the balance between sufficient pain control and ileus, and a pro’s guide of the different pro-kinetics and how to use them.
If you like this conversation you’ll love our clinical podcasts and the associated show notes in our searchable database. Check out our almost 500 episodes in ECC, Medicine and Surgery at vvn.supercast.com, or use this link to access our exclusive (and very short lived!) 40% off forever discount.
Our supporters at Tarkine shoes are also offering a 30% off the world's most eco-friendly high-performance running shoes/work shoes to our listeners during IVECCS. (Code automatically applied at checkout with this link).
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We've wrapped up day three at IVECCS, and what an incredible day it was! Today featured Dr Amanda Cavanagh who provided invaluable tips on ensuring safe sedation in various situations, including a thorough review of popular sedation and anaesthetic drugs. Dr Shane Bateman discussed innovative business models that offer a comprehensive spectrum of care, while Prof. Michael Schaer engaged us in a fascinating discussion on the use of antivenom in American snakes versus Australian snakes.
Dr Paul Aldridge shared practical advice on managing the challenging scenario of post-trauma abdominal bleeding when it's not bleeding from the spleen. Dr Matt Booth delved into strategies for retaining ER veterinarians within your practice, and Dr Leo Londono explored the topic of whether our patients truly require intravenous fluids following an NSAID overdose. And last but certainly not least, Dr Temple Grandin shared some tips for neurodivergent veterinarians.
On the couch I was joined by Dr Ellie Lester and Dr Lisa Brumby - both from Animal Emergency Australia where I get to do my clinical work.
Check out Dr Booth's Vet Schedule Survey, to be heard on how you’d like to have your shifts structured as an ECC vet. Don’t forget about our 40% off forever discount on Vet Vault Clinical subscriptions which is available for the duration of IVECCS, as well as 30% off the world's most eco-friendly high-performance running shoes/work shoes from Tarkine shoes (code automatically applied at checkout with this link).
Content guide:
Dr Cavanagh: 1:58
Prof Bateman: 7:20
Prof Schaer: 11:20
Dr Booth: 15:37
Dr Aldridge: 20:35
Dr Londono: 27:49
Dr Temple Grandin: 33:34
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It’s the end of the second day of our special IVECCS series where we share a short highlights reel every day from our conversations with the amazing speakers at IVECCS '23 about what is new and what’s important in the land of emergency and critical care.
Today I had the pleasure of interviewing 6 world-class specialists, talking about decontamination for toxins with Dr Virginie Wurlod, creating businesses with a culture that protects mental well-being with Josh Vaisman & Dr Marie Holowaychuk, point of care ultrasound in the blocked cat with Prof Marc Seitz, surgical tips for wounds and for septic peritonitis with prof Karen Tobias, cool stuff for treating pancreatitis with Prof Harry Cridge, and reducing cognitive load in veterinary practice with Dr Rebekah Donaldson. As you can imagine - I’m like a kid in a candy shop, and you'll have some epic content coming over the next few months, but for now, here are our daily highlights of little nuggets that I’ve pulled from each of these conversations.
Here's a link for our 40% off IVECCS discount to our clinical podcasts.
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For the next few days IVECCS is taking over the Vet Vault, or the Vet Vault is taking over IVECSS, I’m not sure which is which! We’ll post a short highlights reel every day from our conversations with the amazing speakers at IVECCS '23 about what is new and what’s important in the land of emergency and critical care.
Today we chatted with Dr Gregory Lisiandro about what’s different when you’re doing a AFAST or TFAST scan on a cat vs a dog, and why we should stop doing something called flashing when we do FAST scans... We have two very cool tricks from Dr Elke Rudloff for diagnosing GI foreign bodies and for treating intussusception, and we wrap up the day with Dr Raegan Wells talking about snake bite diagnostics.
I'm joined by my colleagues from Animal Emergency Australia, Australia's biggest Emergency Veterinary Group, Dr Tom Wright and Dr Will Crosby for the conversation with Dr Lisiandro.
Here's a link for our 40% off IVECCS discount to our clinical podcasts.
The Vet Vault is supported by Tarkine Shoes - the world's most eco friendly high performance running shoe, (and also my favourite high performance work shoe!) They've given us a 30% discount for all Tarkine purchases during IVECCS. Use code Vetvault at checkout when you purchase your Trail Devils, or anything else in the Tarkine store.
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Here's a little nugget of wisdom for you: 'Do what you can with what you have where you are.' I stumbled upon it a while back, and it's like a bite-sized version of stoic philosophy. It's a solid life motto, especially in the world of veterinary work, and it neatly sums up what you're about to hear.
Meet Dr Warwick Vale – a name you've probably heard in the Aussie veterinary scene. He's not just the ex-President of the Australian Veterinary Association; he's also a rockstar in equine medicine, a business-savvy company director, and a go-to consultant in the veterinary world. Oh, and did I mention he's a total jack-of-all-trades when it comes to hobbies? Dr Warwick played a key role in kickstarting the AVA's Thrive program, a fantastic initiative focused on keeping vet pros in tip-top shape with industry guidelines. But let me spill the beans on why we're talking to him today. It all started with a listener who said, 'You gotta talk to Warwick.' I don't take those recommendations lightly. The reason isn't the thousands of animals he's helped or the boards he's served on; it's the deep impact he's had on one incredibly grateful person. Just one.
Join us in this conversation as Warwick tells us how to live and practice veterinary medicine with heart and camaraderie, smashing through the fear barriers around our comfort zones. We chat about everything from overthinking to embracing your quirks for a happier career, and how trust and connection can be the cure for fear-based practice.
Topic list:
03:14 The art of rolling with the punches.
07:34 What's so different about veterinary medicine now?
14:21 A day in the life of Warwick's Vale.
16:48 The importance of customer service in a veterinary clinic.
26:01 Stopping to smell the roses.
31:27 Warwick's impact on mental health in the vet industry.
36:36 Prevent, promote, protect and workplace culture.
46:44 The responsibility as a vet: impacting others on an individual and industry level.
55:57 Walk the journey with others.
60:17 Choosing love over fear.
62:19 Is part-time vetting the new normal?
63:55 Warwick's favourite podcasts.
66:02 Warwick's one piece of advice for new grads.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
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I don’t know about you, but one of my least favourite things to see on my consult list is a cat with a snotty nose. The idea that my patient’s problem can be anything from a self-limiting mild disease to a serious and frustrating impossible-to-treat condition, and the decision-making around this, fills me with uncertainty and dread. This episode aims to replace that uncertainty with confidence, or at least a solid plan based on sound knowledge!
Dr Kath Briscoe is a Specialist in Feline Medicine who has worked in academic and specialist referral centres and as a referral clinician in a GP setting, and her experience gives her a great insight into the frontline work that we deal with in a non-referral setting. Dr Megan Braunstein is a practice owner and practicing clinician with a Masters in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery and many years of experience. Her practice in Perth, Western Australia, submitted the most feline respiratory PCR panels of any practice on Australia last year, and she helps us unpack what they’re learning about these tests.
Between them, they’ll refresh your foundational knowledge about infectious causes of feline upper respiratory disease and help with decision-making around diagnostics and treatment. We delve into what’s new in the world of diagnostics with a review of feline respiratory disease PCR panels, including learning what it’s great for, when to use it, and how to do it.
This episode is supported by our friends at the SVS Pathology Network, which our Australian listeners will know better as Vetnostics, QML Vetnostics, ASAP Laboratory and Vetpath Laboratory Services. The SVS Pathology Network provides a wide range of infectious disease PCR tests, including a comprehensive panel for feline respiratory pathogens. Their PCR panels are designed for detecting Australian pathogens, and they have recently introduced additional pathogens on several of their PCR panels. Our guests provide a detailed guide on how to take samples for PCR in this conversation, but your state-based SVS Pathology Network laboratory customer care team are always happy to answer any questions.
Topic list:
-
Feline upper respiratory diagnostics: who needs what? [00:00:00-00:05:00]
-
Discussion of different types of feline upper respiratory diseases [00:05:00-00:06:00]
-
Importance of husbandry and stress management in preventing feline upper respiratory diseases [00:16:00-00:31:00]
-
Hygiene practices for cat households and catteries [00:31:00-00:33:00]
-
Overview of infectious causes of feline upper respiratory diseases [00:02:00-00:08:00]
-
Discussion of feline herpesvirus and its symptoms [00:08:00-00:12:00]
-
Discussion of feline calicivirus and its symptoms [00:12:00-00:14:00]
-
Discussion of other infectious causes of feline upper respiratory diseases [00:14:00-00:16:00]
-
Vaccines for preventing feline upper respiratory diseases [00:16:00-00:18:00]
-
Overview of diagnostic tests for feline upper respiratory diseases [00:18:00-00:20:00]
-
Discussion of PCR panels and their usefulness in diagnosing feline upper respiratory diseases [00:20:00-00:22:00]
-
Discussion of treatment options for feline upper respiratory diseases [1, 00:24:00-00:28:00]
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
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Confession: sometimes I get tired of wellness discussions, with the constant barrage of advice on resilience and burnout prevention. Not because it's not important, but because it often feels like these conversations boil down to "here are ways how you should be better so that you can better cope with this challenging career." Which is why I loved this conversation with Dr Heidi Hulon, which isn't so much about adapting to challenging circumstances, but rather about revolutionising the whole veterinary experience.
Dr Heidi Hulon has been involved in multiple roles across the profession, from practising clinician, practice owner and industry roles, vet boards leadership roles and even a board member at the Louisville Zoo. She currently serves as a Wellbeing Consulting Veterinarian at Elanco Animal Health. We were introduced to Dr Heidi by our friends at Elanco Australia, who are hosting a series of live, in-person sessions with Dr Heidi called "The Betterinary Series", and in this episode we unpack some of the topics from this series with Heidi, like why culture is key to resilience and how you can use neuroplasticity to reduce negativity bias and experience the positives.
Register here to secure your free spot at the one of the Australian sessions of the Betterinary Series. September 4 in Sydney, 5th in Melbourne, Adelaide on the 6th, Perth on the 7th and Brisbane on the 8th of September.
Topic List:
09:30 Taking care of your wellness before it's obvious that you need to.
14:30 Rekindling your why.
22:17 The stumbling blocks to creating a thrive instead of survive environment.
31:00 The connection between culture and spotting more yellow cars.
35:44 Positivity and it's impact on neuroplasticity.
43:38 Practical ways to put neuroplasticity into practice.
52:27 Details about the Betterinary Series.
53:42 What is right with veterinary medicine?
54:56 What is one change Dr Heidi would make to veterinary medicine?
57:31 Dr Heidi's favourite books.
60:58 Dr Heidi's advice to new grads.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
Come help us create some live clinical content at IVECSS '23 in Denver, Colorado from 7-11 September.
Get up and running (or working!) with a 10% discount for Tarkine shoes, the official shoe of the Vet Vault. (discount automatically applied at checkout using this link).
The Betterinary Series.
Podcast: Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell.
Book: Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
Book: West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge.
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Vets of Australia, meet Spirocerca lupi, a parasite that's been flying under the radar for a while now in Northwest Queensland. But as you'll learn in this episode, is well worth adding to your DD list. To make the introductions we're joined by Professor Peter Irwin, an Emeritus Professor from Murdoch University with a career that spans several continents and almost four-decades. He's a registered specialist in canine medicine with a particular passion and extensive knowledge on anything and everything vector-borne disease.
Our second guest is Dr Gillian Tenni, a passionate GP vet and practice owner from Mount Isa, Australia. Dr Gillian holds an Honours in Parasitology and has a knack for spotting unusual infections in her patients, and with a track record of more than 300 diagnosed cases of Spirocerca lupi, she's our 'boots on the ground'. She's also teamed up with the University of Queensland for a research project on Spirocerca lupi.
Join us for the full Spirocerca story, from what it is (creepy), how it spreads (gross), what it does to our patients (scary!), what to look out for, diagnosis, treatment, and of course, prevention. Prof. Irwin's wisdom and Dr Tenni's hands-on stories provide us with some real insight on the fascinating parasite and the condition in causes.
This episode is supported by Elanco Australia. You can learn more about their range of products at elanco.com.au.
Topic list:
03:22 Spirocerca Lupi... yes, it's a thing in Australia.
06:52 How does Spirocerca Lupi spread?
09:41 What's the life cycle of the disease in a dog?
12:52 The clinical signs of a Spirocerca infected patient.
19:51 Dung beetles and where Spirocerca is most common in Australia.
22:14 More on the presentation of Spirocerca and the challenges of diagnosis.
34:20 Treatment.
38:10 Add-ons to the typical treatment plan.
41:08 Cross-reactivity in heartworm antigen tests of Spirocerca.
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Join us as we explore the concept of compassion fatigue from a fresh perspective. We take a closer look at the underlying mechanisms behind the terms commonly used when we talk about sustainable careers. While empathy and compassion are often used interchangeably, they are actually distinct concepts, and it's not just a matter of semantics - it’s a matter of neurology, which has practical implications for you, your career, and your happiness.
Dr Olga Klimecki is a neuroscientist, psychologist, and certified mindfulness and meditation teacher. She holds a PhD from the University of Zurich in Switzerland and is currently a lecturer and senior researcher at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany. Her research focuses on advancing sustainable development goals related to peacebuilding, conflict resolution, socio-emotional education, and overall well-being. With over 70 publications to her name, Dr Klimecki's work on neural plasticity and conflict resolution has earned her prestigious international awards, grants, and fellowships. Additionally, she runs her own consulting, training, and research company to implement evidence-based strategies in various organisations, start-ups, and companies.
During this conversation, we explore the nuances of empathy and compassion, highlighting their differences and learning why empathy can sometimes have negative consequences, and the term "compassion fatigue" might be a misnomer. We also learn how we can practically apply of this knowledge, explaining how you can rewire your brain to experience the hard things we sometimes need to do as positive experiences, rather than something painful and draining.
Topic list:
6:02 Empathy and compassion. Are they the same thing?
13:52 The connection between empathy and prosocial behaviour.
17:39 Can we really change the way we empathise with others?
20:59 fMRI results from training compassionate and empathetic responses.
27:17 If compassion is good, then where does the term compassion fatigue come from?
29:13 Why empathy first, compassion next?
30:36 It’s not the compassion causing your fatigue... you are just fatigued.
32:16 How do we train compassion? Olga’s tips to train your brain.
39:03 The hardest part of meditation training.
41:39 Put out the welcome mat and notice your judgements.
44:34 Between a stimulus and a response, there is always a space.
47:03 Reflex responses and training ourselves out of them.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
Join us at Vets on Tour in Wanaka, New Zealand on 13 - 18 August 2023 for great CE, live podcasting and snow... lots of snow!
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Olga's Research Article - Empathy and Compassion
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Dr Doug Mader is a triple board-certified veterinary specialist and has been a veterinarian for nearly four decades. He is an internationally recognized speaker, has written three best-selling medical textbooks, and numerous scientific publications. He has had long-standing columns in multiple media outlets, and he is the recipient of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Conservation Award, the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Alumni Achievement Award, and the Fred L. Frye Lifetime Achievement Award for Veterinary Medicine. He's a seven-time winner of the North American Veterinary Community Speaker of the Year award and a four-time winner of the Western Veterinary Conference Educator of the Year award. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in the United Kingdom and is Human Animal Bond Certified. He co-founded and ran highly successful practice in California for many years, then did it again in the Florida Keys, and can now add author to his list of achievements with the release of his recent book The Vet At Noah's Ark. Step aside James Herriot - the man has a few stories and more than just a few bits of wisdom to share.
In this episode, we discuss both planned and unplanned career changes, trauma (the big T and the small-t kinds), working as an exotics vet, creating your own luck, and following your own star. Dr Doug discusses the human-animal animal bond, specifically how to effectively deal with the 'human' part of that relationship, lessons he learned from years of building the best practice in the worst neighbourhood, what it was like to treat Michael Jackson's pets, and much more.
Topic list:
04:37 Dr Doug's triple board certifications.
13:04 The day Dr Doug didn't die, and how this lead to a career in exotic animals.
21:55 From exotic residency to buying a smallies clinic.
29:55 The role of the human-animal bond and money's place in it.
35:38 Dealing with the human aspect of the human-animal bond.
42:20 Dr Doug's experience treating celebrity pets.
43:53 More of Dr Doug's story and his book - The Vet At Noah's Ark.
46:47 Big traumas vs small traumas - the preparation for the hurricanes in life (literally and metaphoric!)
52:45 Why Dr Doug doesn't celebrate his birthday anymore.
55:04 Getting back up after you've been knocked down.
56:22 Dr Doug's next chapter - more books to come!
60:17 What advice does 85-year-old Doug give current Doug?
62:37 Dr Doug's favourite podcasts.
63:54 Dr Doug's piece of advice to new grads - a lesson on balance.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
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Dr Doug's website.
Dr Doug's book: The Vet At Noah's Ark.
Dr Doug's Instagram.
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Introducing Dr Mike Bugg. Mike graduated from veterinary school in 2008 and started his career as a mixed animal veterinarian. However, he soon realised the importance of having multiple sources of income and saw other veterinarians struggle with retirement. With a passion for personal finance and investing, Mike started investing in real estate in 2012 with the goal of making veterinary work optional. He and his wife continued to build their real estate portfolio while working, eventually allowing Mike to reduce his veterinary hours, and in 2018, Mike stopped working as a clinical vet altogether. During his final years of practice, Mike felt overwhelmed and unhappy, which led him to explore personal development and seek a more fulfilling life. He discovered that many other veterinarians were experiencing the same struggles, which inspired him to create his podcast, The Veterinary Project. Dr Mike had a vision of a community of veterinarians who would share their experiences and collaborate to overcome the difficulties in the profession.
On this episode of The Vet Vault, Dr Mike joins us to discuss the true value of time for veterinarians and we cover topics such as mindfulness, investing and empathy. Mike shares his personal journey in veterinary medicine and real estate investing, including how he developed The Veterinary Project to support the industry. We delve into the financial challenges facing the veterinary industry and Mike offers practical advice on how to change your money mindset to focus on abundance instead of scarcity. Tune in to gain some insightful and different perspectives on personal development, investing, money and more!
Topic list:
05:35 When and why should you change the "do it yourself" mentality?
13:29 Why Mike openly talks about the "dirty" word, money.
15:47 Mike's career journey - from farm to veterinarian to entrepreneur.
25:56 The all too common money mindset in the vet profession.
34:09 Why being aware of your money mindset and having positive money conversations is so important.
35:43 Valuing yourself, growing your skills and being confident in your abilities.
37:00 Your time: everything is a trade-off.
43:38 More than just a vet - Mike's story.
46:57 How Mike became a real estate investor.
51:41 Mike's take on investing.
56:50 Mike's book - You're Gonna Get Peed On!
64:04 The truth about being a vet.
67:55 The emotional relationship between work and money.
70:50 Mike's view on "empathy exhaustion" rather than compassion fatigue.
78:31 Dr Mike's deep dives on mindfulness and more.
82:54 How would Mike's career look different if he had to restart it knowing what he does now?
89:14 Mike's one piece of advice - get intentional about what you truly want from your life.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
Join us at Vets on Tour in Wanaka, New Zealand on 13 - 18 August 2023 for great CE, live podcasting and snow... lots of snow!
Dr Mike's Podcast - The Veterinary Project
Dr Mike's Book - You're Gonna Get Peed On!: How Veterinarians Can Keep Their Dream Job from Becoming a Nightmare While Working Less and Earning More
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Dr Shea Cox is a global leader and subject matter expert in veterinary hospice and palliative care. She’s certified as a Pain Practitioner, a Hospice & Palliative Care Veterinarian and a Pet Loss Professional. With a focus on technology, innovation and education, her efforts are changing the end-of-life landscape in veterinary medicine. In addition to launching the first hospice and palliative care service integrated within a specialty hospital setting in 2012, she was also the first to launch a nationwide Telehealth platform dedicated to quality of life and end of life support in 2017. In 2020, PetHospice was acquired by BluePearl Specialty + Emergency Pet Hospitals, and Shea and her team are leading the expansion of specialty-level, in-home pain management, hospice and palliative care and end-of-life services across the US. Shea believes palliative care for pets should become more common and less scary for us GP vets, and after listing to this I’m sure that you’ll agree!
In this episode, Dr Shea introduces us to the concept of hospice and palliative care to improve the quality of life for pets with both curative and non-curative conditions. We untangle some common misconceptions regarding these care options and emphasise the importance of advocating for both the pet and the client during the end stages of a pet's life. Dr Shea talks us through her career journey from starving art student to palliative care vet, highlighting the significance and satisfaction of providing quality care during a pet's final stages of life. Tune in and learn about resources and tools for end-of-life care management, such as quality of life scales, the importance of personalised goals, as well as the growing industry of in-home euthanasia and hospice practices and how you can integrate it into your work or clinic.
Topic list:
07:48 From art school to vet school: Dr Shea's journey.
10:29 Palliative care vs hospice care - what's the difference?
14:22 Dr Shea's view on palliative care and how it can be both curative and non-curative.
22:20 Why Dr Shea moved from emergency to palliative care and the difference palliation can make to a patient's quality of life.
29:59 Are most vets too quick to euthanise?
35:26 The different attitudes towards euthanasia and convincing owners that they don't always need to euthanise immediately.
39:50 The importance of goal setting with owners - what do they want for their pet? How can they recognise pain at home?
46:55 Why should more vets look into palliative care and what is it like working predominately in the end-of-life space?
52:01 How do we make palliative care more practical to roll out in clinics? Hint - utilise your amazing nurses!
54:21 The benefits of telehealth palliative care, for clinics, owners and patients.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
Join us with Dr Shea Cox at Vets on Tour in Wanaka, New Zealand on 13 - 18 August 2023 for great CE, live podcasting and snow... lots of snow!
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Have you ever considered, or are considering specialising, but you are put off by the journey of becoming a specialist? Usually the path to specialising means putting almost everything else aside for 3-5 years. But what if there was a different way?
Dr Anna Dengate is a medicine specialist, and she's convinced that there could be an alternative path, and in this conversation she helps us to explore what that could look like. Anna's own career journey hasn't quite followed the the norm. After graduating from Sydney Uni in 2008 her path has meandered its way through several roles: intern, wife, resident, PhD candidate, GP vet, Member of ANZCVS, mum of 1, founding partner in a specialist hospital, Fellow of the ANZCVS, mum of 2, and resident supervisor. Most recently, Anna has been providing specialist medical and ultrasound services to GPs through her business The Vet's North. She also provides ongoing learning opportunities to wider groups of vets with teaching in ultrasound & online medical rounds, and has a new social impact project under development & is working on ways to integrate people with disabilities & traumatic backgrounds into the animal-care industry to increase diversity & inclusion.
Join in for a conversation around what more inclusive residencies could look like, how Anna made it happen for herself, the importance of getting to know yourself for creating a career pathway that fills your bucket, finding the balance between pushing yourself enough for growth without reaching breaking point, and much much more.
Topic list:
03:37 The relative rarity of female veterinary specialists with children.
04:16 Anna's journey through qualification, specialisation & having kids.
08:09 Having a newborn while studying.
11:59 Being prepared to fail.
13:38 Are institutions more supportive for part-time residencies now?
14:30 The barrier to specialising: to be a specialist or have a family?
15:05 Is specialising worth it?
16:31 More on barriers - from vet to specialist, the system is set up wrong.
18:18 Why can't we do it part-time?
20:18 The culture in specialist clinics that does not prioritise balance.
24:42 Givers, Takers & Matchers - who is the most successful?
25:56 The difference between successful vs unsuccessful Givers.
26:44 Can we change the profession & it's lack of boundaries, or is it up to us to know ourselves & our limits?
29:04 Coasting vs striving.
33:10 The benefits of making mistakes & getting to know yourself.
37:17 Negativity bias & how it affects the resilience in the vet industry.
48:37 Focussing on the positives & building resilience.
50:54 How empathy plays a role in resilience.
51:22 Empathy vs compassion - is empathy a bad thing?
53:47 Compassion fatigue vs burnout.
59:50 The connection between teaching & bureaucracy.
62:30 What's Anna excited about in the vet world?
67:49 Anna's educations programs.
71:56 Anna's favourite podcasts.
73:28 How would Anna's career look different if she knew the things she knows now?
74:52 Anna's advice for new grads.
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Visit thevetvault.com for show notes & resources for this episode.
Connect with us and other listeners through our Vet Vault Network community for episode highlights, chats, questions & support.
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Anna's Business - The Vet's North
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Who feels like Cushing's is a nice disease to diagnose and manage? Like, how often do you feel like your hyperadrenocorticism patients are really doing REALLY well? My guess is: not that often. This episode will change that.
Dr Sue Foster is a registered specialist in Feline Medicine and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine at Murdoch University in Western Australia. She’s also a medical consultant for Vetnostics and ASAP Laboratory, where a large part of her role is interpreting cortisol test results and supporting veterinarians in their clinical decision-making. In this conversation, Dr Sue challenges the belief that Cushing's is to some degree a 'lifestyle' disease that doesn't always need to be treated, we discuss the subtle ways that it can present, and of course we take a deep dive into those slippery cortisol tests, which should feel a lot less slippery after this episode. Dr Sue also presents a paradigm shift in how we think about treating these cases.
Topics:
0:00 Understanding the cortisol lab tests.
4:40 ACTH stim vs LDDT - which is better?
10:28 The TRUE significance of ALP in diagnosing Cushing’s.
13:30 Fasting triglycerides - your friend in Cushing’s screening?
16:26 Deciding when to test for Cushings .
18:27 More on triglycerides and lipaemia
23:52 Why Cushing’s cases don’t all have to have pu/pd.
26:04 The many different faces of Cushing’s - spotting the sneaky hyperA case .
29:42 Why we should consider treating Cushing’s even if they aren’t textbook cases.
31:41 Cushing’s and anxiety.
35:40 The dog with the high ALP but no clinical signs of Cushing’s.
39:44 Treatment trials for the ‘undiagnosable’ Cushing’s case.
45:13 Monitoring Cushing’s therapy with ACTH stim testing.
52:30 The quick and easy ACTH stim test.
56:20 Treating Cushing’s like a pro.
This episode is supported by the SVS Pathology Network.
QML/TML Vetnostics (QLD & Tas): 1300 838 765 vetnostics@qml.com.au
Vetnostics (NSW & ACT): 02 9006 7468 enquiries@vetnostics.com.au
ASAP Laboratory (VIC): 1300 838 522 admin@asaplab.com.au
Vetpath (WA): 08 9317 0777 admin@vetpath.com.au
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
Join us at Vets on Tour in Wanaka, New Zealand on 13 - 18 August 2023 for great CE, live podcasting and snow... lots of snow!
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Our guest for this episode - Dr Olivia Oginska, has made it her mission to help us have better relationships, both in and outside of work.
Olivia Oginska is a veterinarian, speaker, positive psychology coach, a certified workplace conflict mediator and an emotional intelligence specialist. Liv has been immersed in the global veterinary community since 2010 when she did multiple externships in the UK, North America and Australia. It was through Liv's veterinary career in the UK, including a sugery residency, that she also gained experience and credentials in positive psychology, emotional intelligence and conflict mediation. This cemented her passion for human wellbeing and interpersonal dynamics and for the last 3 years, Liv has devoted her veterinary career to supporting both individuals, teams and especially leaders in becoming more human-savvy through her consulting and coaching service.
This conversation with Liv is all about Navigating work relationships and our relationships with ourselves - we explore what a healthy work relationship looks like. We explore the connection between burnout and the reliance on work to provide not only our professional and financial needs, but also our relationship needs, and we discuss a new way of thinking about balance, what self awareness and emotional intelligence looks like in practice, and much much more.
Topic List:
6:54 Relationships and connections at work - taking care of them.
10:11 Private life and professionalism.
11:00 On the floor relationships and friendships - do people want to be friends with colleagues anymore?
14:36 The connection between burnout and the reliance on work to provide money, growth, community etc.
17:43 The truth about work-life-balance.
23:19 Setting expectations with your partner or friends.
27:59 How to navigate conflict with colleagues.
35:31 Open conversations and leaning into 'conflict'.
38:47 Importance of self-awareness during conflict and how to view things from a different perspective.
48:00 Why do we feel the need to be right and prove ourselves?
49:35 Why we should change our minds and listen to other opinions?
54:49 How Olivia started her career and why she ended up in emotional intelligence coaching.
60:03 Hitting rock bottom and triggering a change in life.
60:09 What does a good team dynamic look like in terms of emotional closeness?
60:10 The importance of aligning values and boundaries.
60:19 Working through imposter syndrome.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
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Dr Liv's Consulting Business - Vet Gone Real
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Many of us struggle with attaching a dollars-and-cents value to this ‘fixing animals’ thing that we do for a living. We tell ourselves stories about how our work is a labor of love, about ethics and about the noble nature of our profession, and we underestimate the value of our skills and knowledge. But stories can become limiting beliefs that hold us back from realizing our full potential as veterinary professionals and as thriving humans, which all-too-often ends up with this story that Dr Olivia James hears over and over in her coaching work: "I’m overworked, I’m poor, and I’m lonely."
Dr Olivia James is an equine dentistry specialist, former practice owner, founder and director of the educational platforms The Veterinary Dental Company and The Equine Practice Company and mentor and teacher though the business masterminds and coaching groups she hosts for equine practice owners, and in this episode she helps change our stories and beliefs around valuing our services. Olivia also provides practical strategies for reviewing what you charge in your business. Ultimately, this is a conversation about avoiding 'overworked, poor, and lonely.'
Topic list:
2:50 What has Olivia been up to since our last conversation.
7:20 Happy/ Thrive /Flourish: What are we actually aiming for?
9:20 Loneliness in practice.
14:40 How Olivia learnt how to charge.
19:50 Life changes that can happen when your business works better.
26:10 Why it sometimes makes more sense to invest money in the stock market than in buying a practice.
29:10 The mental blocks that make it hard for us to charge appropriately .
30:40 When clients accuse us of 'just being in it for the money.
34:30 Getting the team on board with price changes in your business.
36:50 The three ways of setting your charges.
42:10 The things we commonly fail to account for in working out cost of service.
44:30 The ethics of what we charge.
47:40 How to decide which prices to adjust.
50:30 Tying business to what matter most.
56:00 Olivia's book choices.
59:00 Olivia's answer to the one question.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode.
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This episode from our clinical series is brought to you by Elanco, makers of the broadest range of parasiticides including Advocate, Milbemax, Seresto and Credelio Plus.
"The question about the biochemistry is really interesting, because what your question now is, is 'what is it, and where is it?' And the problem that we have is that the liver enzymes aren't gonna tell us, because it's really hard to separate hepatic from post-hepatic on bloods. ALP is very insensitive in the cat and will go up with both hepatic and post-hepatic. ALT will go up with hepatic and post-hepatic. Bilirubin will be up. So what?!"
We recorded this case-based interactive session about how to work up the jaundiced cat with one of the world's leading Small Animal Medicine specialists and teachers, Prof Jill Maddison at session our live event in 2022.
Prof Jill Jill Maddison, BVSc, DipVetClinStud, PhD, SFHEA, MRCVS, is a professor of general practice, the director of professional development, and the BVetMed and CertAVP course director at Royal Veterinary College. She is also a coordinator for London Vet Show and is a consultant at a local veterinary practice and at Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital in London. Dr Maddison is the senior editor of the second edition of Small Animal Clinical Pharmacology and the senior editor of Clinical Reasoning in Small Animal Practice. She has lectured worldwide on clinical problem-solving, small animal internal medicine, and clinical pharmacology.
In this session she helps us reason through a case of jaundice in a cat to create a deeper understanding, rather than a simple list of facts. She also shifts some long-standing beliefs around diagnostic testing in liver disease in both dogs and cats.
Topic list:
5:07 Where to begin your workup.
6:05 Defining the problem and localising the problem: Pre-hepatic, hepatic or post-hepatic?
9:17 How much does dehydration actually affect PCV?
10:43 Bilirubin - how useful is it?
"It’s the most over-interpreted test I reckon. I have so many vets tell me, “Oh, the bilirubin is 16, it has to have a problem with its liver…” No, it probably just has inflammatory disease."
13:14 Dd’s for hepatic disease in cats.
14:20 Dd’s for post-hepatic causes of jaundice.
16:04 Biochem in jaundice: ALP, ALT, GGT.
"The problem that we have is that the liver enzymes aren't going to tell us."
19:51 Why bile acids are useless in the diagnosis of liver disease.
"The bile acids don't tell you anything more than you already know. There is no relationship between the level of bile acids and the prognosis or reversibility of the lesion."
24:25 Can't I just trial-treat?
26:16 Ultrasound.
28:27 Signalment: how useful is it?
29:36 Cholesterol and liver disease.
30:52 Pancreatic lipase and pancreatitis in cats.
"What we found was that we had 24% false negatives. So we had a quarter of our cats who had what seemed to be pancreatitis that did not have an increased Pli."
36:54 Hepatic lipidosis.
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Dr Andrew Ciccolini is a Medical Director at the National Mill Dog Rescue, a non-profit that rescues and rehomes discarded breeding dogs, and also the Director of Non-Profit Initiatives at Galaxy Vets. His background includes serving in the U.S. Army, where he worked his way up from Associate Veterinarian to VP of Operations. In addition to his veterinary degree, he also has a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership.
In this conversation Andrew takes us on a wild ride through his career with detours into what it’s like to be a military vet, working with high-performance dogs, why choosing not-for-profit work works for him, why it might work for you, and how incorporating some of it in your business might work for your team. We draw on Andrew’s military experience and his leadership Master's to talk about leadership styles, finding the right ways to motivate a vet team beyond money (but also including money!), and Andrew tells us about his current work for the Galaxy Vets Foundation to support pet owners in Ukraine.
Time markers:
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Bad decisions, good stories. 6:00
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Life as an army vet in the US. 9:00
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Working with high-performance dogs 12:15
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What Andrew learnt in his time as a military vet. 14:46
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Leadership lessons from the military. 16:00
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Can you change your leadership style? 23:19
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Motivating veterinary teams: beyond the $$$'s. 26:41
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National Mill Dog Rescue. 31:40
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Dealing with 'divided' teams. 33:30
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Not-for-profit work. 35:54
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Galaxy Vets Foundation and its work in Ukraine. 39:58
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What we've learnt about Telemedicine from their work in Ukraine. 41:07
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Rediscovering your passion through charity work. 43:24
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Being okay with being okay. 49:10
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The pass-along question. (Chihuahuas!) 53:00
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Andrew's podcast choices. 56:20
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The one question. 56:56
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Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at info@thevetvault.com, or catch up with us on Instagram.
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Dr Steve Joslyn is a specialist veterinary radiologist and tech enthusiast with more than two decades of experience consulting for referral, teaching, and general practice hospitals on four continents. Steve is highly regarded for his radiology work on designing imaging workflows and clinical 3D printing services, among other ground-breaking projects. Steve’s passion for technology and informatics led him to co-chair a joint American and European Radiology committee exploring the role AI has to play in veterinary diagnostic imaging. With his latest project, Vedi, Steve and his team have created a universal health record that locks patient data to an animal's existing microchip, revolutionizing the way veterinary data is collected and disseminated in an effort to fix what he sees as one of the biggest, yet insidious, problems in the industry today - the "patient-data disconnect."
In this episode, Dr Steve takes us on a tour of the possibilities, current and coming, that new technologies offer us in the veterinary space. We discuss artificial intelligence in veterinary practice, including the pitfalls to look out for, with a focus on where AI fits into the world of diagnostic imaging. Steve also gives some useful insights for anyone considering a residency, specifically a career in diagnostic imaging, and he shares candidly about his personal experience with a work-related breakdown episode. And of course, we dive deep into why our current ways of managing patient data are broken, and how we're going to fix it.
(Oh, and just for fun - Steve's bio was written by AI, and an AI image generator designed the episode artwork for this one!)
Time markers for our topics of discussion:
00:00 - 09:20: Steve’s bad decision / good story answer.
09:20 - 29:20: Is imaging a dream job? And the residency journey.
29:20 - 34:50: Breakdown to breakthrough, and the birth of Vedi.
34:50 - 39:20: Love the work, hate the job? What Steve learnt from his experience of a work-related mental breakdown episode.
39:30 - 60:00: A better way to manage our patient data.
60:00 - 60:09: Getting better at learning from our mistakes and the benefits of MnM rounds.
60:09 - 78:00: AI in veterinary science.
78:00 - 86:00: AI radiology interpretation software.
86:00 - 93:00: Steve’s podcast and book choices.
93:00 - 98:00: The one question.
Join the team for Vets For Climate Action for their epic hike on the Larapinta Trek from 28 June - 3 July 2023.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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Who loves neurology?! That little blob of skull-jelly and all the wires that come off it can be very confusing and very intimidating, even more so when we start talking about the encephalitis/meningitis complex of diseases that we encounter in our veterinary patients. To help us make sense of the different immune-mediated neurological diseases we’re joined by specialist veterinary neurologist Dr Sam Long. Dr Sam gives us a clear plan for getting to a diagnosis, including how to make sense of serology testing and how to use some new diagnostic tools available to us. He also shares his tips on a practical treatment plan, even if you don’t manage to confirm a diagnosis.
Dr Long underwent his residency and specialist training in Glasgow in the UK. Following his specialist training he undertook a PhD in canine brain cancer before moving to the United States to take up a position as head of the Section of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Veterinary Hospital. In 2008 Dr Long returned to Melbourne to establish the University of Melbourne Veterinary Hospital’s first-ever Neurology clinical service and specialist training programme. In 2017 he established Melbourne’s first private referral neurology service and in 2020 moved his service to the Veterinary Referral Hospital in Dandenong. His research interests are in the field of brain tumours, canine epilepsy, canine spinal cord trauma and canine degenerative myelopathy. He supervises resident and registrar training and has authored more than 30 papers and multiple book chapters on veterinary neurology.
This episode is supported by the SVS Pathology Network. Contact their veterinary pathologists to discuss a diagnostic plan for your neurology cases at:
QML/TML Vetnostics (QLD & Tas): 1300 838 765 vetnostics@qml.com.au
Vetnostics (NSW & ACT): 02 9006 7468 enquiries@vetnostics.com.au
ASAP Laboratory (VIC): 1300 838 522 admin@asaplab.com.au
Vetpath (WA): 08 9317 0777 admin@vetpath.com.au
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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How nice are you to your fellow veterinarians? It's likely that most of us feel that we're professional and supportive with a high degree of collegiality. But if this is true, then why is it that so many vets have experiences that don't fit with this narrative - feelings of being 'thrown under the bus'?
Dr Denis Verwilghen is boarded in both large animal surgery and equine dentistry. He’s a graduate of the University of Ghent in Belgium and he’s currently the clinical director of Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital. The path between those two points has taken him on a journey across many continents, cultures and institutions and afforded him the opportunity to wear multiple hats within the vet space, and has given him a unique set of insights. And Denis feels that when it comes to collegiality, we can do better.
In this conversation, we explore where and how we fall short when it comes to our working relationships with each other, including some less obvious ways in which we sometimes unintentionally undermine each other. We also talk about career goals vs life goals and the personal cost of chasing these, Denis’s thoughts on making major life decisions, and what he’s learnt about happiness.
Join us at the VECCS Spring Symposium in Port Douglas on 23-26 March for some serious deep dives on all things fluid therapy and critical care, live podcasting, and heaps of fun in the jungles of Far North Queensland.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
Get confident in your clinical game with our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.com.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
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We talk about well-being a lot on this podcast, but one thing we don’t really discuss all that often is financial well-being. And while it’s a truism that money can’t buy you happiness, I'm also of the opinion that if the number of shifts you do is purely determined by your level of debt rather than your level of enthusiasm that there is likely to be an increase in sadness! Which is why we invited one of the world’s foremost authorities on personal finance, Noel Whittaker, to set us off on the right path.
This episode is a recording of a Q&A session that we did with Australian finance icon, Noel Whittaker, and several of the team from Animal Emergency Australia to help us with our burning money questions. Noel is a bestselling author, finance and investment expert, radio broadcaster, newspaper columnist and public speaker. He reaches over three million readers each week through his columns in major Australian newspapers and magazines, and also broadcasts on over 50 radio stations. He has over 20 bestselling books, including a brand new one called 10 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom. His first book, Making Money Made Simple, set sales records across the country and was named in The 100 Most Influential Books of the Twentieth Century. For 30 years, Noel was the Director of Whittaker Macnaught, one of Australia’s leading financial advisory companies, with more than two billion dollars under management. In 1988 Noel was named Australian Investment Planner of the Year and, in 2003, he was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in recognition of his services to the financial services industry. In 2011 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the community in raising awareness of personal finance. He is currently an Adjunct Professor and Executive-in-Residence with the Queensland University of Technology, as well as a committee member advising the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.
We're joined by the team from AEA to answer questions about financial topics relevant to most of us, including whether it's best to buy or rent, smash the mortgage or start investing, whether it makes sense for younger people to pay extra into their retirement fund, how to think about student debt, insurance planning, balancing debt with investment, planning advice for rising interest rates and much more. (Quick translation for our non-Australian listeners: Super = Retirement fund. HECS debt = Student loan)
If you'd like your financial and professional journey to be as part of a veterinary team that does more than just talk about team well-being, listen to our job add at the end of episode 83 to find out about working with me in one of the best locations in Australia and AES Tanawha, or contact me at vetvaultpodcast@gmail.com to ask all your questions.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
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This episode is supported by Animal Emergency Services Tanawha, part of the AEA group. If you're interested in the career opportunity discussed in this episode contact us at vetvaultpodcast@gmail.com to find out more.
Dr Kate Toyer graduated as a vet in 1995, got married in 1996 and bought shares in a veterinary practice with her partner in 2000. In 2007 she gained Memberships of the ANZCVS in Veterinary Surgery and also the College Prize for her work on developing one of the first interactive online courses with the then PGF. (Sydney University CVE). She and her partner had 3 children, and what looked like the perfect veterinary life. But Kate felt like a fraud because the person living this dream life was a man called Adam. In 2011 Kate told her wife she wasn’t a “normal” guy, and in 2015 she started HRT and publicly transitioned, becoming the only 'out' trans female veterinarian in the world at the time. In 2016 Kate founded Australian Rainbow Veterinarians and Allies, a support and advocacy organisation for LGBTIQA+ people in the veterinary industry which she currently leads. In 2021 she joined forces with Dr Cam Raw to start The Veterinary Kaleidoscope Podcast where they explore the experiences of people from diverse backgrounds in the veterinary world.
Dr Cam is a Palawa man with family links to the far south of Lutruwita (Tasmania). In the nine years since graduating he’s worked in cattle practice in Victoria, mixed practice in the UK, remote small animal practice in the Northern Territory and now in a teaching and research role in Melbourne. Providing veterinary care and building relationships in remote communities across the Top End have provided pathways to explore his cultural identity in ways he never imagined growing up, and a big focus of his current work relates to Indigenous representation, mental well-being and diversity and inclusion.
Kate and Cam are the perfect guides through this conversation about inclusion and diversity, including what these terms mean, whether they are the same thing, how the vet profession fairs when it comes to being inclusive, and how we can get better at it. Dr Kate shares her story and tells us about how something called 'gender dysphoria' has parallels in the veterinary profession and how can choose euphoria. Cam tells us about the rediscovery of his own indigenous Australian culture, how his career journey deviated out of standard clinical practice and his work in remote Australian communities, and I get to ask all the questions you've probably always wanted to ask!
Attend the Veterinary Kaleidoscope Summit 2023, Australia's first-ever summit dedicated to exploring diversity and inclusionin veterinary science on 27 and 28 February.
Increase your knowledge, skills and confidence with our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.com.
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Dr Micheal Archinal has been a vet for over 35 years and is the senior director of 9 veterinary hospitals. He has post-graduate training in animal behaviour, acupuncture, dermatology and pharmacology. Michael has also had an illustrious media career that includes 13 years as a weekly guest presenter on Channel Nine’s Mornings with Kerri-Anne and 21 years as an ABC radio talk-back host, as well as being a regular contributor on National ABC radio afternoons. He's a long-term columnist for multiple publications and the author of "Animal Wisdom", which has sold over 10,000 copies. Michael also helped to establish a remote indigenous dog health programme in Utopia in the Northern Territory where he still volunteers and which saw him nominated as an Australian of the Year Finalist for the ACT in 2016.
Our conversation covers Michaels's journey from struggling practice owner to building a large group of vet hospitals, the joys and challenges of working in remote communities, how Michael makes hard decisions and how he deals with less-than-ideal outcomes, his media career, his fascination with the human-animal bond, the importance of ongoing learning, gratitude, and much more.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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If you are a clinician working in a paralysis tick area of Australia then you’ll be well aware of the 2022 shortage of tick antiserum, and you very likely have some questions, like how do we ensure that we still do the best for our patients, where do our previous dose rates for TAS even come from, and why is it suddenly ok for us to use less? You might even be wondering how the vet boards will view deviations from the label dose if that’s what we’re required to do in response to the shortage.
We’ve gathered some of the smartest people on the topic to get your questions answered. The smart people in question are Prof Rick Atwell, Dr Terry King, Dr Heather Russel and Dr Rob Webster, who are all members of the Tick Paralysis Advisory Panel, a group of veterinary and scientific experts who convene to review the latest scientific information regarding the prevention and management of tick paralysis to provide guidance and recommendations to vets and pet owners. This discussion covers what we know (and what we think we know!) about paralysis ticks, their toxins and how it relates to antiserum dose, as well as new insights around managing tick cases beyond just TAS.
Visit VETAPEDIA.com.au for additional resources on tick paralysis and many other Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care guidelines from the team at Animal Emergency Australia.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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This episode from our clinical podcast series is brought to you by the SVS Pathology Network - Australia's exclusive provider of the advanced testing techniques discussed in this episode.
We sit down with Dr Penny Thomas from Veterinary Oncology Consultants to ask all of the questions you've ever had (and probably a few you didn't know you had!) about canine lymphoma. Dr Penny covers the common sticking points, like how to make sure you get an accurate diagnosis, new advances in diagnostic testing, a very practical way to prognosticate your lymphoma patients, what you can do for the sick lymphoma patient while you wait for the oncology appointment (spoiler alert... yes, pred!), and therapy options - from simple and cheap to going all-in on trying to achieve remission.
Follow these links for additional information on flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry mentioned in this episode, or contact your local SVS pathologist.
We're going LIVE in Noosa on 22-25 November with the gurus of small animal medicine, Prof David Church and Prof Jill Maddison, as well a very special non-clinical day with Philip McKernan. Use VVLISTENER at checkout for our listener discount.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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Shiva Greenalgh is a registered animal nutritionist who specialises in companion animal nutrition in both commercial production as well as clinical and therapeutic nutrition for individual pets. She holds a Master's of Animal Science in Animal Nutrition and has recently completed a PhD in animal nutrition. Shiva's career journey has included roles as a wildlife carer and a vet nurse. She currently works as a nutrition consultant for pet owners, vets and commercial businesses through her consulting service Sydney Animal Nutrition, as well as a product development manager for a commercial pet food company. Basically, Shiva's job involves diving deep into the facts on a topic that many of us vets try to avoid, and she’s sharing those facts to help you make informed decisions for your patients and have better conversations with your clients about nutrition.
Join us on 26 and 27 October 2022 The VET Expo in Sydney where we'll be podcasting live and hanging out with some of the best and most innovative minds in the veterinary profession, like Shiva. Use VETVAULT70 at checkout to get 70% off your ticket price.
We're going LIVE with our own event in Noosa on 22-25 November with the gurus of small animal medicine, Prof David Church and Prof Jill Maddison, as well a very special non-clinical day with Philip McKernan. Use VVLISTENER at checkout for our listener discount.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/vet-vault/message
Challenging situations, negative emotions, hard conversations... pretty standard stuff in the average day of a vet, right? This is a conversation about finding a positive perspective on all these, plus all of the other stuff that gets in the way of an enjoyable veterinary career. Join us with Dr Rebecca Faris as we explore positive psychology, what real mindfulness looks like and why it’s essential in the work that we do, how to discover and live your strengths and how to have those hard conversations.
Rebecca's veterinary career journey has taken her from cattle vet legend, complete with ANZCVS membership in dairy medicine, via a mentoring and teaching role at Melbourne university to currently spending time on the dark side with part-time smallies emergency work. In 2016 Bec’s curiosity and the desire to become a better vet led her on a journey of discovery on how to become a better human. In 2019 she graduated with a Professional Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology, and immediately put her new knowledge to work as an educator, teaching local school communities how to be more resilient. These days, Rebecca is using what she’s learnt to help make the vet profession better through her wellbeing consultancy, FlourishEd, which provides positive, playful, and targeted well-being education for organisations that want to create environments where their people flourish.
Join us with Rebecca at The Vet Expo in Sydney on 26 and 27 October for some live podcast recording.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
Unplug, connect and grow with us at our first-ever Vet Vault Live conference with Prof Jill Maddison and Prof David Church in Noosa on 22-25 November.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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Ours is a pretty cerebral profession, right? But if you think about the reasons we do what we do - our WHY, for most of us, it’s mostly about heart. This creates some challenges though. Like how do you protect your heart? How do you not abandon it in exchange for 'progress' How do you rediscover your heart when most of your life has been run on brain power? How do you GROW your heart, strengthen it, and create the space to find out what lives deep inside your heart that needs to be expressed? Big questions for sure, but our guest for this episode does a fantastic job of providing clues to the answers to these questions.
Dr Jeannet Kessels is a highly respected veterinarian with over 30 years of clinical and business experience. She’s the founder and owner of Greater Springfield Veterinary, home to 50 team members across three locations. She also created Groodles Australia, a community enterprise which has raised more than half a million dollars for charity to date. Jeannet still actively mentors her team, though she has retired from clinical work to focus on the defining issue of our time: climate change, in particular its effects on animal health and welfare, production, and biodiversity. She founded and continues as Chair of Veterinarians for Climate Action, through which Jeannet is working to inspire and inform all of us who care for and work with animals to act urgently on climate change.
Join in the conversation as we discuss what the right kind of growth looks like, finding and living your higher purpose, the fear of success, how to use your voice as a vet in the face of climate change, facing criticism, worrying less, and doing it ALL of this... with heart.
Come say hello to us at The Vet Expo in Sydney on 26 and 27 October for some live podcast recording. Jeannet will also be there to host a session there on climate change.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
Unplug, connect and grow with us at our first ever Vet Vault Live conference with Prof Jill Maddison and Prof David Church in Noosa on 22-25 November.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/vet-vault/message
It used to be that work was work: it had its constraints and limitations, and if you had responsibilities or interests that seriously clashed with those constraints then maybe the working world just wasn’t for you. But the people who make up the heart of vet practices today don’t necessarily want to make that binary choice. Many workplaces are trying to adapt to create space for a workforce with more varied needs, but there are challenges to overcome.
Dr Jocelyn Birch Baker is a veterinarian and a practice owner who is taking on those challenges with inspiring results. She’s built a practice that flexes to meet the needs of her team, and in doing so she’s not only created a flourishing workplace but also solved the twin problems of recruitment and retention. These days Jocelyn also helps other practices achieve the same for their teams through her consultancy venture, Smooth Operating Vets.
In this conversation, Jocelyn shares her story and the lessons she’s learnt along the way that has shaped the way the thinks and leads. We talk about bad decisions, hard lessons, choosing respect over competitiveness, living your values, finding the line between compromise and self-care, motherhood in practice, returning to practice after an extended break, and a better way to practice.
Come say hello to us at The Vet Expo in Sydney on 26 and 27 October for some live podcast recording. Jocelyn will also be hosting a session there on creating mum-friendly practices.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
Unpluggrow, connect and growh with us at our first ever Vet Vault Live conference with Prof Jill Maddison and Prof David Church in Noosa on 22-25 November
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/vet-vault/message
We like to do optimism on the Vet Vault, and because of all the enthusiastic people we speak to on here our positivity bias is constantly reinforced. But the reality is that there still is a lot of room for improvement in the vet world. LOTS of room. Many people in the profession are still stuck in old patterns of excessive hours, excessive workloads, lack of time, insufficient remuneration, frustration and dissatisfaction. But our guest for this episode is a pattern interrupter.
Dr Sam Bowden is a former practice owner and a serial entrepreneur, in and outside of the vet profession. He’s the co-founder and CEO of the Accelerate Practice Academy - a coaching service for veterinary and other health practices, and he has devoted the last 12 years of his career helping practice owners increase their happiness, work-life balance and profitability. But as you’ll hear in this episode - it’s not just about numbers and sales and management - it’s mostly MINDSET, and that’s where we pause and what we explore in this conversation; from what drives us as individuals, seeing opportunities in periods of change, leveraging your skills and interests, solutions to the veterinary staff shortage crisis and about seeking the moment of great personal change.
Arrange a chat with Sam at support@acceleratepracticeacademy.com to find out about his Accelerate Mastermind Group to help get your practice where you want it to be, and learn to love dentistry with his Vet Dental Academy. (And don't forget to name drop: tell him the Vet Vault sent you for your listener freebies.)
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
Join us for our first ever LIVE event in Noosa in November '22 with special guests Prof David Church and Prof Jill Maddison.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
Support the pets of Ukraine here.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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A quick discussion on how we've decided to handle sponsors, affiliate programs and money in general on the Vet Vault and what it means for you.
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Rhonda is back for another thorough probing of the mind, and in this episode, we examine the phenomenon of compassion fatigue from tip to… tail. What is it, how is it different from burnout, how do we recognise it, and what can we do to head it off long before it rears its ugly head? (Spoiler alert: yes, rest and self-care and boundaries and all of those other common sense things all play an important role, but you might be surprised by what the ONE THING is that can provide you with the best protection against becoming a member of the ‘I survived compassion fatigue’ club.)
This episode features a conversation between Rhonda and Dr Taleta Hompas as they unpack Taleta’s story and her experiences around compassion fatigue. Taleta is a vet whose career has covered multiple aspects of the vet journey: from the frontlines of the reception desk to the trenches of vet nursing and intense stints of emergency vetting, all the way to founder and director of an emergency business and being responsible for the wellbeing of the team. She shares openly about the insidious creep of compassion fatigue in her career, a breaking point, and getting back to passion and compassion without the fatigue.
If you haven’t met Rhonda yet - where have you been?! Rhonda is the founder, managing director and senior psychologist at the Barrington Centre, a specialist psychological firm that works with individuals and teams to help them address complex environments. Rhonda also helped create a program specifically modified for the Vet Profession called Systems of Support, or SOS.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
Join us for our first ever LIVE event in Noosa in November '22 with special guests Prof David Church and Prof Jill Maddison.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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It’s very easy to get stuck in a mindset of “I’ve chosen THIS thing, so all other things are off the table, because once you choose THIS thing, then THESE are the things I HAVE to do." But who says we have to?
Dr Tanya Stephens' career is that it’s not just one thing. Her story clearly demonstrates that you don’t HAVE to do anything in a certain way. Clinical practice doesn’t have to take up all your time and exclude other interests. Practice ownership doesn’t have to be a ball and chain. Having young kids doesn’t have to mean you can’t run a business. Research doesn’t have to be done just by 'researchers'.
Dr Tanya Stephens is a small animal practice owner and practitioner who still very much enjoys practice. As a practitioner, she is particularly interested in professional ethics and promoting evidence-based medicine. She is also a wildlife researcher with original research on galactosaemia in kangaroos. Her interests lie in animal welfare, research, evidence-based medicine, professional ethics, wildlife and sustainable agriculture and she is a regular presenter and published author on these topics. She is the editor of One Welfare in Practice: the Role of the Veterinarian and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Tanya is past President of the ANZCVS Animal Welfare Chapter, past President of AVAWE, the welfare and ethics branch of the AVA, an exec member of AVCB, which is the Conservation Biology branch of the AVA, Chair of the AVA’s Animal Welfare Trust, honorary consulting veterinarian for the Children’s Medical Research Institute, veterinary member of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Chair of the NSW Kangaroo Management Advisory Panel and member of the Kangaroo Management Taskforce plus the Chair of the NSW Greyhound Welfare Integrity Commission Animal Welfare Committee.
Jump in with us to hear how Tanya followed her curiosity to create a career around what worked for her. Of course, we also talk about ethics and the line between thorough and too much, trust, and why Tanya thinks we might be losing it, the perils of defensive practice, the concept of "gold standard" and why aiming for it might not always be the best idea, how YOU play a key role in animal welfare in your consult room and beyond, and much much more.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts, or join us live and in person in Noosa from 22-25 November for our first ever Vet Vault Live! with Prof David Church and Prof Jill Maddison.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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It’s been a while since we’ve released one of our clinical episodes on here, so we thought we’d create this lovely little compilation of kidney content for you. These are some of our biggest ‘AHA!’ moments from a series of episodes that we've done over on the clinical podcast over the past few months on those tricky little beans that stop us from being poisoned by our own waste products.
We start with some wisdom from small animal medicine guru Prof Jill Maddison about making sense of azotaemia and USG. Spoiler alert - it's not as straightforward as you might think, and there are DEFINITELY a few traps to avoid that Jill outlines in this conversation. Next is Dr Rosanne Jepson, another medicine specialist and associate professor at the Royal Vet College and a leader in the field of nephrology and especially hypertension to guide us through everything blood pressure. And tying a bow on it all is Dr Clint Yudelman from Insight Mobile Diagnostics to help us make sense of the relationship between calcium and kidneys.
And if you want MUCH more of Prof Maddison then join us live in Noosa in November when she joins forces with Prof David Church for what promises to be the most fun vet event of the year. Details are here - but don't book there - email us at vetvaultpodcast@gmail.com to tell us that you heard about the conference on here and we'll send you a listener-only discount code.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at vetvaultpodcast@gmail.com.
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70+ episodes into the podcast, and not a single episode with a vet nurse. Shame on us! But we're changing that with this episode through a conversation with a vet tech who is leading the charge into the future of vet nursing.
Kenichiro Yagi is Chief Veterinary Nursing Office at the Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG), where his role is to help develop career pathways in veterinary nursing and raising nursing care standards and competency. Ken is a Registered Veterinary Technician and Veterinary Technician Specialist in Emergency and Critical Care and Small Animal Internal Medicine with a Master’s Degree in Veterinary Sciences. He also serves as program director for the Recover Initiative, a global effort to standardise how veterinary CPR is performed around the world. He’s received a whole host of awards, including veterinary technician of the year in 2016, and he’s been pushing the standards of nursing for two decades through his teaching and training, speaking and writing.
"There's a lot more to veterinary medicine than just being a vet, and there's a lot more care that the patients need. And I've certainly created my own career out of it."
So who's this episode for? Well, we've always been a podcast primarily for vets, and that hasn't changed. We’d love for this conversation to help open the eyes of our vets to the possibilities, the talent and the passion that is right under your nose and to give you some ideas of what that talent is capable of and how you can help steer it. But it's definitely also an episode for nurses and techs. I challenge you as a nurse to listen to this and NOT feel the desire to find new ways to extend yourself and to make even more of a difference! Ken’s story is a real eye-opener about what is possible in your nursing career in the right environment.
Also - who's joining us live in Noosa in November with Prof David Church and Prof Jill Maddison for what promises to e the most fun vet event of the year?! Details are here - but don't book there - email us at vetvaultpodcast@gmail.com to tell us that you heard about the conference on here and we'll send you a listener-only discount code.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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This is an episode about courage. About putting yourself in situations that are out of your comfort zone and then finding it within yourself to make it work, because self-care does not equate self-limiting, and you're probably stronger than you think.
Elizabeth Woolsey Herbert is a retired equine veterinarian and practice owner. She moved from the US to Australia as a young vet and practised equine veterinary medicine for over 35 years. She’s also the author of a series of fictional and non-fiction books as well as a string of professional papers. She recently retired and has returned to the US, where she is now focusing on her writing career, and catching more fish. Here are a few lines about herself from our initial ‘get-to-know each other' e-mails:
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I did the hard yards.
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I did it often on a 24/7 basis.
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I went through every imaginable bad thing that could happen and survived.
Elizabeth’s story is filled with stuff we need to hear: It’s about a career driven by purpose and passion and a sense of responsibility. About the importance of relationships, continued growth, curiosity and creativity, using humour as a shield, and about finding joy in your work, but also fulfilment outside of work. Elizabeth also talks about turf-guarding between vets, gives some practical tips on avoiding worry, and shares what she’s learnt on how to build an amazing supportive team. We talk about the joys and challenges of rural practise, and about her creative writing career.
"Never die without chocolate in your mouth!"
But there’s also some darkness in this story, as there is in most good stories, and we're dragging that darkness into the light with the help of psychologist Duanne Smith, with Elizabeth's permission. Duanne helps to unpack aspects of Elizabeth's journey in a post-episode bonus section (at the 1 hour 17 min mark) by answering questions about where to go for help and how to ask for it (and how to accept it!) when you're hitting a rough patch, and also how to identify someone who might be in need of help, and how to respond, including how to talk about suicide.
"Speak to another human voice, because it is about attachment. One of the main protective factors around depression mental health and suicide is that you're not doing it alone."
Some helpful resources if you need help:
Samaritans Emotional Support: 135 247
Black Dog Institue list of urgent support resources.
Or contact us at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com if you feel like a chat with someone you know.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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There are so many important conversations happening at the moment about the challenges facing the vet profession and the possible solutions. We love it when we hear things like: 'We have to get better at setting boundaries. We have to stop feeling so guilty. We have to value ourselves more. We have to be more kind to ourselves.' But the big question remains: HOW?!
How do we do those things when we don't even understand WHY we feel guilty? Why is it that we can’t value ourselves? Why are we so weird about money conversations? Why are we so hard on ourselves?
This is why we've brought you Philip McKernan: to help us do the deep work.
"I feel we have a moral obligation to do this work. If we choose to leave the couch, leave our bedroom and walk out into the world and interact with humans, we have a moral obligation to do the work on ourselves so that we can show up as better humans every single day."
Philip McKernan is a speaker, author, coach, and ‘enlightened hooligan’. From working with the Canadian Olympic Team and at the Pentagon to writing 5 books, despite his dyslexia, the man has a lot to share. And share it he does in this conversation with his zero-bullshit cut-to-the-bone approach. We jump straight into the deep end with what being kind to yourself really looks like, and why we (with a particular focus on the vet profession) are so bad at it. Philip pressure tests some of our core beliefs around who we are, what we do, why we do it and who we do it for, and dismantles some myths around how we do them.
"A lot of what I hear is that 'we're serving people, and the industry demands this,' and I go, 'yeah, I get it, but I don't get it, and I don't buy it, because at the end of the day, you still have a choice."
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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How would you define an entrepreneur? Mirian-Webster says it’s someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves a new opportunity. Here’s another fact: we are at a point in time when our profession is FILLED with new opportunities. I’m sure you’re spotting them all around you. But once you spot that opportunity, how do you translate it from an idea into reality? How do you overcome all the doubters and nay-sayers, especially when the loudest nay-sayer is probably you!?
Dr Aaron Wallace is a veterinarian and a bonafide entrepreneur. He co-founded Lacuna Diagnostics, a digital cytology company, while he was still a vet student and helped to establish and grow lacuna to the point where it was recently sold to Heska. Aaron's brainchild is rolling out across the world under the new name of HeskaView Telecytology.
Happy ending right? But happy endings almost never happen without tough beginnings and good stories. In this episode, Aaron shares that story. We talk about entrepreneurship in veterinary science, where the new opportunities lie in our profession, how to bring YOUR big idea to the vet world, the traits that you’ll learn as a vet that will serve you well outside of vet, and much more.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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What’s your knee-jerk reaction when I say the word ‘corporate practice?’
The past few decades have seen some immense changes in how our profession is structured, leaving us with some big decisions to make: If you’re a new grad: What does a supportive practice look like? Where can I find that practice? Do I go corporate, do I go private, do I do an internship? And if you’re an owner or a manager: Where are all the vets!? How do I attract them? What about the new grads - what do they want from us? How do I support them appropriately? How do we keep them?
These are exactly the questions that we tackle in this episode, and our guest is the perfect person to ask. Dr Daniel Preter was, at the time of recording this episode, the Head of Vet Development and Future Vet Recruitment for Medicare - a large group of practices in the UK, after a 25-year career in the company that started with owning one of the founding practices in the group.
Our conversation ranges from recruitment and retention, new grad support programs, the transition from single site practice to group practice, the pros and cons of corporate practice, ensuring that your personal growth keeps up with the growth of your practice, how the word 'corporate' is shedding some its negative baggage, and much much more.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
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If you’re a regular Vet Vaulter you’ll be well familiar by now with psychologist Rhonda Andrews from our previous episodes with her on trauma and grief. We love Rhonda, and based on your feedback YOU loved Rhonda. So we’re going to make this a regular thing. Here's what we're thinking: Rhonda will have conversations and counselling sessions with real vets facing real challenges about something that the guest is wrestling with. Rhonda will help them explore solutions and strategies to help them get unstuck and prepare them for things yet to come. We’ll then join Rhonda to unpick the conversation with additional questions and comments, and you get to listen in and apply the strategies to your own career. The aim is to do a really thorough examination of the chosen topic - like a full health check, but for the mind - hence our possibly tasteless but highly illustrative name for this series, because you KNOW that you haven’t done a proper exam until you’ve done the rectal... In this episode, Rhonda is joined by Dr Kurt Enzinger, an equine vet and practice owner with two decades in the vet game under his belt, a busy practice and a stretched team, just like vet teams around the world. Rhonda and Kurt explore that very disruptive and counter-productive thing that our minds tend to do to us at the most inconvenient times: rumination. We cover what it is, how to prevent it, spot it, and stop it.
If you don’t know her yet - Rhonda is the founder, managing director and senior psychologist at the Barrington Centre, a specialist psychological firm that works with individuals and teams to help them address complex environments. Rhonda also helped create a program specifically modified for the Vet Profession called Systems of Support, or SOS. Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show. If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts. We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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How much do you dislike doing dentals? If you’re like most vets I’m guessing that the answer to that question is - “I dislike it rather a lot.”
But then there’s that small minority of vets who just love teeth. Our guest for this episode, as you’ll hear, was NOT one of them, and yet these days that is exactly what he does all day, every day. And he loves it.
Dr Aaron Forsayeth has been working in full-time dental referral practice since 2006, after starting his vet career with a decade in mixed and small animal practice. He is highly involved in the dentistry world in Australia, including a stint as the president of the Australian Veterinary Dental Society and a current role as Policy Councillor for the AVDS, the dentistry branch of the Australian Veterinary Association.
Our conversation with Aaron covers, as you'd expect, a career in dentistry: why you’d want to do it, what’s good about it, what’s not so great, and pathways to becoming a veterinary dentist, but we go way beyond that. Aaron talks about his decision not to specialise, despite an obvious passion for what he does. We talk about that very common phenomenon of the 2-5 year ‘dip’ - when many vets find themselves disillusioned with their careers and possibly looking for an exit strategy, and how getting really good at something might be what you're looking for. But first we kick off a detour on fashion...
If you're feeling inspired to lift your dentistry game after listening to this then check out Aaron's dentistry videos.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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It’s happened: In late January 2022, an astute veterinarian in Mount Isa diagnosed the first locally acquired case of the tick-borne disease, ehrlichiosis, in a Queensland dog. As predicted the disease is making its way south, and we want to make sure that you, like our Mt Isa vet, are able to spot and treat ehrlichiosis when it comes knocking on your door. Which, in all likelihood - it will, regardless of where you are in the country.
This episode is a composite of two episodes that we released over the past two years on the Vet Vault Clinical podcast. Part one was released in 2021 soon after the disease first made its appearance in Western Australia in 2020. We speak to Dr Paolo Pazzi - a medicine specialist from South Africa where ehrlichiosis is an endemic disease and is commonly seen in practice. This episode covers the clinical aspects of the disease and aims to ensure that you don’t miss these cases and to give you a guide on how to manage them.
In part two we speak to Dr Katy Davis, who works in Karratha in Western Australia where the outbreak started, and Professor Peter Irwin, THE guru in all things vector-borne disease. They give us an update on the situation in Australia, and the message is clear: it’s here, it’s serious, and it’s not quite the same disease in Australia as it is in countries where the disease is endemic. We talk about what you can expect, what to do and how to test when you see your first case, and we clarify some of the confusion around disease prevention. See it as a ‘how-to’ guide for Australian vets.
Thank you to Elanco Australia for supplying us with the expertise to help us clarify preventatives. Check out their tick preventative products, including the tick repellents Seresto and Advantix, as well as a new monthly chewable isoxazoline, Credelio, that will sort out you patients against tick paralysis, but as you'll hear, NOT ehrlichiosis.
Who to contact if you have a suspected case of ehrlichiosis:
Emergency Animal Disease Hotline: 1800 675 888.
Western Australia
Northern Territory
Queensland
NSW
Victoria
South Australia
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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"High consequence decision making in a complex environment, with imperfect data, on a budget."
The definition of GP vet practice, according to Gareth Steel!
Gareth has been a mixed practice vet for 20 years with experience across the UK and beyond. When he’s not on the front lines of clinical practice you’ll find him on a different kind of front line as a member of the British Army Reserves. He’s also a total outdoors adventure fanatic, but 2022 saw him embarking on a new adventure when he become a published author with the release of his Amazon best-selling book, ‘Never Work With Animals - The unfiltered truth about life as a vet’.
We catch up to talk about some of the challenges and joys he describes in his book, like the phenomenon of “I did it tough, so you also need to suffer”, increased client expectations and how it affects how we do our work and our mindset, and what exactly constitutes an 'acceptable standard of care.' We touch on Gareth’s military career and look at the differences between a life in the military and the life of a vet, what he’s taken away from this time in the army, like learning the difference between ‘difficult and hard’. And of course, we discuss the book - why he chose to write it, who it’s for and how he hopes it will influence how the profession is perceived, both by our clients and by those within the profession.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts, or contact us at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com to ask about a practice subscription pack.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Here are some facts about insulin that you are likely familiar with:
0.25-0.5 IU/kg starting dose.
Do a glucose curve soon after starting insulin to assess the response.
Feed a special diabetic diet.
Give insulin at the time of feeding.
Glargine is the best insulin for cats.
Most owners wouldn’t consider injecting their pets three times a day.
Diabetes 101, right? But our guest for this episode is questioning these, and many other of the foundational truths around diabetes therapy. Jump right in for a fundamental shift in how you manage your diabetic cats and dogs.
Professor David Church is an internationally recognised specialist in disorders of the endocrine system in dogs and cats based at the Royal Veterinary College in London. David’s current research interests include the underlying mechanism for the development and resolution of diabetes mellitus, the use of clinical data collected from general veterinary practices to enhance understanding and consequently improve both the health and welfare of animals, and the use of ‘big data’ from general practice for managing animal health and welfare. David is the author of over 150 scientific articles and numerous book chapters.
This is episode #7 out of 10 of the conversations we’ve had to date with Prof Church about diabetes on our clinical series. From understanding the pathogenesis and pathopysiology of diabetes, to the revised basics of treatment, and all the way to a super-simple treatment protocol for the very sick DKA patient.
Go and check it out, along with another 150+ clinical episodes at vv.supercast.com, the easiest way to reboot your clinical knowledge without spending your precious time staring at screens.
The show notes for this episode with all the important bits from it lives at thevetvault.com
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Dr Rosie Booth is a wildlife veterinarian and has been one since before that was even a job description.
Rosie has 40 years of experience in conservation and wildlife work, which started with a masters degree in koala adrenal glands in 1986 and sparked a lifetime of caring for this iconic species. Since that time she has worked in many of Australia’s most prominent zoos and wildlife hospitals. Rosie spent 7 years working for the Queensland government leading a breeding program for endangered species, during which time they released 170 individuals from several endangered species back into the wild. Most recently she worked as the director of the wildlife hospital at Australia Zoo. She has written more than a hundred wildlife related publications and has trained a small army of others to contribute to this vital work. Recently retired from her full-time role at Australia Zoo she is now focussing her energy on freelance conservation projects and educating and inspiring a new generation of vets.
In this episode, we talk about the challenges, the misconceptions and the implications of a career in wildlife, about staying motivated in a job where your best efforts can sometimes feel fruitless, about big problems, and big solutions. Rosie also gives practical advice for those considering a career in wildlife, shares stories about some amazing patients, and so much more.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Imagine a world where vets and their team members are bubbling with excitement about their job. Where they go on about how great their clients are, they talk about how good their pay is, and about how very fulfilling their careers are...
Can’t do it? Don’t worry - our guest for this episode has been imagining exactly this, and if the buzz out there about VEG is anything to go by, then he and his team of Veggies may well have found a way to make this a reality.
VEG, or Veterinary Emergency Group, is a US-based group of emergency-only vet hospitals and Dr David Bessler is the CEO and co-founder. He’s been a career emergency veterinarian since 2003, worked with reptiles at the Bronx Zoo, teaches “Veterinary Science” to elementary school children at the American Museum of Natural History and was even been featured on the one and only Sesame Street, and, as you’ll hear, he’s a man with a very clear vision.
So who’s this episode for? We’ll, EVERYONE in the profession. Whether you’re are a vet or a Veg or a nurse or even a vegetinary student, basically, anyone attached to a vet business - there are some things in here that you need to hear. If you are a vet business owner then this is DEFINITELY for you. Join us as we veg with Bessler on topics like why mission, vision and core values are so much more than just corporate speak, how a clinic can 'do shit for free', yet pay well AND still be profitable, why you may be on the wrong island, why the spiritual side of your job is critical for career happiness, and so much more.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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There’s something about eyes that makes vets either love treating them, or totally hate them, and in my experience, a lot of vets hate them! They tend to be at maximum grossness and highest levels of intimidating when they present as emergencies, with a popped-out eyeball probably being the most spectacular-looking emergency of all. It may be an easy diagnosis, and the fix is not technically too challenging, but I’ve always found the decision making around them quite hard, like: should we save this eye, or should it just come out?
Which is why we wanted to share this episode about proptosis with you. We released a series on ocular emergencies over on the clinical podcasts with ophthalmologist Dr Izak Venter. Izak was my ophthalmology lecturer back in South Africa, and probably the reason that I actually LIKE treating eyes. These days he is the brains behind Digital Veterinary Ophthalmology Services, or DVOS, which is a digital consulting service to support practising vets with those tricky eye cases, as well as an outstanding ophthalmology education platform. Check out their free content at dvos.co.za or find him on Facebook at DVOS VETS for some really cool tips and insights about those weird little bags of jelly.
In this episode, Izak tells us how to make sensible decisions for the proposed eye, and then he gives us some great tips on how to get them back in (and keeping them in!) successfully.
Check out the other episodes in the series on corneal lacerations, foreign bodies and glaucoma at vvn.supercast.com on the emergency stream.
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You'll bump onto grief several times a day on an average shift at a vet clinic. But do you UNDERSTAND it? Do you face it head-on, or does it make you uncomfortable, so you run and hide when you see it coming? Do you even see it coming? Can you recognise the stages of grief in your clients and your co-workers? What about yourself?
Did you know, for example, that when that client is lashing out at you and your team, it may just be that they are stuck in one of the stages of grief, and that with the right tools, you can help guide them to a more appropriate stage? Don’t worry - neither did we, which is why we invited our friend Rhonda Andrews back to give us some guidance and strategies for dealing with grief in constructive ways.
You’ll remember Rhonda from episode 47 on Trauma and Burnout, and if you listened to that one you’ll know that she is a psychologist with almost 3 decades of experience and that she is the principal psychologist and managing director of the Barrington Centre, which provides organisational and personal psychological services to a large number of sectors both in Australia and abroad.
Rhonda is also part of the team that has adapted a programme called Systems of Support, or SOS, for the vet profession. SOS is an evidence-based positive psychological health program that was designed for high-stress professions that reduces the negative psychological impacts associated with work. Also, look out for the Barrington Centre's vet-specific Employee Assist Programme launching in March of 2022.
In this episode, Rhonda teaches us about the stages of grief: what they look like, and how to respond to someone when they are transitioning through each stage. We also talk about dealing with grief in our items and in ourselves.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
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Dr Riati Scarboroughis is a researcher at the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship and a PhD fellow at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD focuses on improving our understanding of the conscious and subconscious motivations behind suboptimal antimicrobial prescribing in Australian veterinary practices, and designing sustainable strategies to support better antimicrobial prescribing in veterinarians. Ri is particularly interested in the use of social norms and nudges to modify behaviour.
And it's these behaviours that we discuss in this episode. Ri highlights some common areas where many vet practices could rethink their antibiotic prescribing protocols, with a great discussion on WHY it's so important. We cover topics like
- Why the old antibiotic mantra 'finish the course' is giving way to 'shorter is better"
- Antimicrobial dosing: you can't always trust the label
- UTIs - choose Amoxycillin over Amoxyclav or Convenia
- Bacteriuria does not always require antimicrobials
- Catfight abscesses - antimicrobials rarely needed
- Surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis - get the timing right
A word of warning: some of these topics might wake up an annoying little voice in the back of your head that will bother you every time you head into the dispensary for those AB's, but we think it's worth it. See it as a little nudge!
Here are the resources as promised in the episode.
Thanks to the SVS Pathology Network, who our Australian listeners will know as Vetnostics in NSW, QML Vetnostics in Queensland, TML Vetnostics in Tasmania, ASAP in Victoria and Vetpath in WA, for supporting the podcast and introducing us to Ri and her work. Have a look at this video about Maldi TOF spectrometry - the technology that explains why SVS clients will now get super-fast turnaround times for their microbiology testing.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Culture. It can be hard to put your finger on it, yet in the setting of a vet practice, it permeates the work areas, floats into reception and beyond and ricochets off the walls. You can feel it when you walk in the door. Long ago I sat in the reception area waiting for my interview at a practice where I ended up spending many years of life. I distinctly remember sitting there and thinking: "I don’t like the feel of this place." It took me more than a decade to figure out that what I felt that day was a broken culture.
So what do we do about it? That's the question we ask of our guests for this episode. We're joined by Dr Dave Nicol - author, speaker, coach, doctor, practice owner, head vet, podcaster, and founder of VetX International and his teammate Dr Dermot McInerney. Dermot serves as the VetX International Head of Veterinary Partnerships and Research, and is the main author of the VetX research article "Leadership actions and their effects on veterinary practice culture", and it's this article and the concepts around it that we got together to discuss. Dave and Dermot answer important questions, like the current crisis that the vet profession finds itself in, the role bad culture in this crisis, what toxic workplace behaviour looks like, how leaders can help create thriving workplace cultures, and why you don't have to a 'leader' to influence culture.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts. And if you join up for an annual all-in subscription before 18 January 2022 we'll send you a free MiniVet Guide to help you start your year in top form.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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We chose to share this episode on mitral valve disease from our clinical podcast series (vvn.supercast.com) because I went into this interview thinking that, after 20 years in practice, I wasn't really going to learn many new things...I was wrong!
Our guest for this series on canine heart disease is medicine specialist Dr Clint Yudelman, and in this series he talks us through so many critically important concepts, like differentiating the cardiac cough from the non-cardiac cough, when to start treating, which combinations of meds is best for each stage, when to escalate your treatment, HOW to escalate, what to look for on ultrasound, why many of your heart patients should probably be on Viagra, and much more. There are several potentially paradigm-shifting ideas in here, or at least there was for me, and it's too good not to share.
You can contact Clint at clint@insightmvd.com.au if you are in Victoria and in need of some in-house help with your cardiac or other complicated medical cases.
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Why does it sting so much when a client accuses us of ‘just being in it for the money”. I think it hurts because for most of us money is really quite low on the list of what drives us, so much so that we often actively avoid talking about it, especially in terms of our own earnings, like it’s a taboo subject. But the things is - it IS also about the money. For most of us, at some point in our adult life, it’s very likely that you’ll find yourself thinking: "Hey, I could really do with a little bit more money!'
So how do we earn that little bit more money? How do we get over the erroneous belief that ‘there’s just no money in vet’?
Our guest for this episode is Dr Sam Burke. Sam is a practicing vet, former practice owner, investor and entrepreneur. He’s also a former colleague and a good friend, and one of the most-money wise people I know. If I have a money question a conversation with Sam is usually my first stop. So we thought we’d have one of those conversations on the air and share it with you to see if we can help change ‘money’ from a dirty word into just another word that we are comfortable talking about and comfortable generating.
Oh, and if you're curious about Sam's shoes, check it out at Tarkine.com
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on anchor and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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For such a seemingly simple sample there’s a lot you can learn from a urinalysis. Many of us also have a fair amount of uncertainty around much of the 'how' of urine sample handling, analysis and interpretation. It’s also the one bit of lab work where being good at in-house testing can make a big difference to the reliability of your results.
We KNOW you’ll have had some disagreements at some point in your career about at least a few of the questions we answer in this episode, like fridge vs benchtop, how old is too old for a urine sample, how long after starting antibiotics can you still culture, is it even worth culturing a free-flow sample, WHEN should I culture, can you trust your dipstick, can you trust AI, why some urinary bugs just won't die, and what the heck is the deal with casts?! I also suspect that, like us, you’ll learn a few things that you didn’t even KNOW you should know.
Our guest is Dr Kristen Todhunter, a pathologist for the SVS Pathology Network who confesses to having a bit of a soft spot for all things microbiology. She answers all of the questions we've ever had around how to get the most from your urinalysis.
Thanks to the SVS Pathology Network, who our Aussie listeners will know as Vetnostics in NSW, QML Vetnostics in Queensland, TML Vetnostics in Tasmania, ASAP in Victoria and Vetpath in WA, for providing us with the brainpower for our pathology series and for supporting the podcast. If you love new toys and tech (or if you like lasers!) you should definitely check out this video about Maldi TOF spectrometry - the amazing new technology that will explain why SVS clients will now get super-fast turnaround times for their microbiology testing.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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It's the end of the academic year, and around the world, thousands of final year vet students are facing the start of their careers. It's an exciting time with a lot of optimism, but likely also a fair whack of anxiety. There are so many major decisions to make, and you've heard so many scary stories about life as a vet?!
This is why we're having this conversation with Dr Moriah McCauley. Moriah is on the other side of this breakwater between student life and vet life. Just more than a year out of vet school, still keeping her head above water, still at her first job as a small animal GP practitioner, and mostly enjoying it, despite the massive curveball that a global pandemic has thrown at her and her friends.
But Moriah is not your average recent grad. Well, she is, but she has an unfair advantage: when she was a student she started That Vet Life Podcast (https://bit.ly/ThatVetLife), and in later 2021 her and the podcast joined VetX International as part of a global team of mentors. On the podcast, she's had dozens of in-depth conversations with experienced vets about how to survive and thrive as a veterinarian. This means that she has been accumulating the skills needed to navigate this profession for a long time, unlike most of us who learn the hard way!
So this one is for you new grads of the world, bravely facing the adventure that awaits: we talk about picking the right first job, the things that still surprised Moriah about real life as a vet, tips for survival, making sure you keep growing, and Moriah gives us a guide to setting up the RIGHT kind of mentoring relationships.
But it's also for you senior vets, managers and bosses, who will be in charge of taking care of our new colleagues. You need to hear what Moriah has to say about her first year out - about how she planned her growth with the help of mentors, about what her and her classmates value, what they need, why they leave jobs, and what they can bring to your business.
Thank you to the team at Heska Australia for helping us to support you by supporting the podcast. Visit heska.com.au to find out how to streamline your in-house lab work and digital radiology for faster simpler and reliable diagnostics.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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In part two of our bonus FIP series Dr Sally Coggins - feline vet and FIP researcher - tells us about other potentially useful treatments, like mefloquine for FIP. This could be particularly useful if you are not in Australia or the UK with access to BOVA's legally compounded Remdesivir and oral GS44152. We also cover off on side effects of Remdisivir, as well as the practicalities of the treatment period, like how to help clients with painful injections, and speak to a vet nurse who treated her own cat for FIP to get an owner's perspective.
Joining us as co-host is Dr Dave Collins - medicine specialist and organiser of spectacular snow-based vet conferences with Vets On Tour. Start planning at https://www.vetsontour.com.au/
If you enjoy our clinical content then head to vvn.supercast.com for a free two-week trial of our large collection of podcasts in small animal medicine, surgery and emergency. Short enough to consume on your drive to work, but with enough content to make you just a little bit better (and more enthusiastic!) at your job, and backed up by beautiful show notes to refer back to later.
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This two-part bonus series is an update on everything FIP from our clinical podcast series. There have been some major changes in this space over the last few months, most notably around the legal access to Remdesivir for animal use and the availability of an oral formulation of GS442524 in Australia and the UK through BOVA compounding. In this episode, we go to the front lines of therapy to create the most up to date FIP guide out there.
We speak to Dr Sally Coggins, a feline vet and FIP researcher at Sydney University, about what they are learning about feline infectious peritonitis treatment. In part one we learn how to confirm your diagnosis, and we dig deep into Remdesivir - the drug that changed it all.
Our co-host for these episodes is Dr Dave Collins - a medicine specialist from Sydney and the genius behind Vets On Tour, which is a series of veterinary conferences held in some of the world's most spectacular places. If you fancy a bit of snow and apres-ski with your CPD you should check out https://www.vetsontour.com.au/.
Go to vvn.supercast.com for a free two-week trial of our Medicine, ECC and Surgery podcasts. We know how hard it is to commit the time to sit down for ongoing CPD, and we know how quickly you start feeling rusty and that you're falling behind, which is why we think you’ll love these. Three episodes per week that will take you from 'unsure' to being a total boss, all in the space of your drive to work. Once you’re joined up you’ll be able to listen to all of our podcasts in exactly the same place that you normally listen to podcasts, including the Apple podcast player and Spotify. We’ll also send you beautifully made show notes with all of the good bits so you can refer back to it later.
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Robert Pope is a British veterinarian, athlete and charity fundraiser. He is an elite distance runner, with a number of successes at the marathon and ultramarathon distances, including being the Australian marathon champion in 2015. In 2016 he completed a 422-day, 15,700-mile run (that’s about 600 marathons!) comprising more than 4 complete crossings of the United States, and became the first person to trace the route run by Tom Hanks' fictional character in the film Forrest Gump.
Rob’s vet career includes a PhD, a long stint as an emergency vet, and journeys into Opthalmology and Imaging. Rob currently works at the Animal Trust - a not-for-profit veterinary company in the UK.
He's the author of a new book about his Forrest Gump adventure - Becoming Forrest (https://bit.ly/BeMoreForrest), a TED speaker, and the host of the Red Bull Being Superhuman podcast. As you can imagine - we had a LOT to chat about, like making career decisions, keeping your head above water in the current craziness that is vet work just about everywhere in the world, about courage and grit, great life advice, and of course - about running. Lots and lots of running!
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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In this episode, we speak to Specialist Veterinary Clinical Pathologist Dr Brett Stone. Brett has extensive experience in both clinical pathology and histopathology. He has worked as a pathologist in Australia and the UK for over 15 years and has a special interest in cytology and immunocytochemistry.
In our previous path episode with Dr Rebekkah Liffman, we talked about how to GET the perfect cytology sample. This time we’re going to look at it. And no - you shouldn’t just chuck it in one of those little blue boxes and send it on its merry way - you should have a look at it yourself. Tune in and you’ll hear why, and HOW.
Brett starts with some great tips on how to get the most out of your microscope, and then gets onto the higher grade stuff, like what to look for, how to differentiate nasty from not so nasty, and how to plan your next steps, including deciding what samples you actually want to end up sending to the lab.
Thank you to the SVS Pathology Network (https://www.vetqml.com.au/) for loaning Brett to us and for supporting this series of pathology episodes. Check out their other educational resources at the Clinical Excellence Support programme, which is a collection of pathology related continuing education talks, webinars and web content. (http://www.vetqml.com.au/NewsEvents/NewsEvents/EducationalVideos.aspx)
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, most of which never happened.” Mark Twain
In episode 49 we dissected one of the biggest fears that many vets have: the fear of an official board complaint, from the perspective of a practitioner facing a complaint against them. In this episode, we look at the same issue from the side of the official body that deals with complaints. I’m a firm believer that the more we know about the things that we fear, the less scary they become, so let’s face this one together
Drs. Kate Clarke and Magdoline Awad are vets with experience serving on vet boards. They join us to answer all of our questions about board complaints - like how likely is it happen in the average career, what the most common complaints are, what the process looks like if you do have one lodged against you, as well as practical tips for avoiding them in the first place. Kate and Mags also walk us through all the possible outcomes, in other words - what's the worst that can happen, but then - what is the much more LIKELY to happen.
Kate has over 20 years experience as a GP vet in regional Australia and the UK, with membership of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in Small Animal Medicine and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. In addition to her role on Victoria’s Vet Board, she’s also the founding director of Engaged Solutions, a veterinary HR consultancy, and serves on the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council’s Sustainable Practice Committee. She's an AVA graduate mentor and a Policy Council Advisor for the AVA’s Veterinary Business Group, tasked with developing the AVA Great Workplaces Policy, and is also leading the development of a new not-for-profit called Sustainable Veterinary Careers. Somewhere in between all of that Kate also has a veterinarian husband and two teenage kids.
Have your say at https://sustainableveterinarycareers.org by completing the survey.
Mags is Chief Veterinary Officer at Greencross. (https://www.greencrossvets.com.au/) She did her memberships in animal welfare and has a degree in Veterinary Professional Practice Management. She was appointed to the Veterinary Practitioners Board of NSW in 2019, and is a member of the UNSW Animal Care and Ethics Committee and is the NSW representative for the AVA Welfare and Ethics special interest group. Between 2008-2015 Mags was Chief Veterinarian at RSPCA NSW, after starting with the organisation in 1996. She’s also been involved in the development and management of community programs in remote regional areas of NSW, working with local veterinarians and government to improve the welfare of pets in those communities.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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There are many things you do almost every day in your job as a clinical veterinarian, usually multiple times a day. Sometimes these things become so routine that you don’t even stop to think about what you do and how you do it, and whether there could potentially be better ways that will deliver better results. And you DEFINITELY never get around to asking the questions you’ve always wondered about.
Routine pathology sampling is high on this list. How do we ensure that we get good quality FNA smears that have the best chances of being diagnostic? Should you pull back on the plunger when you sample or just wiggle the needle around in there? What can and can’t you FNA? (Did you know that you can get great results from FNA’ing bone pathology?!) What about blood sampling? Surely we can’t mess that up, can we?! And CSF? That’s just for the specialist centres, right? Maybe not.
Our guest for this episode is Dr Rebekah Liffman. Rebekah is a clinical pathologist at ASAP laboratories in Victoria (http://www.asaplab.com.au/Home.aspx), which is one of the labs that make up the SVS Pathology Network. If you listened to our previous pathology episode with Dr Flaminia Coiacetto you’d know that YOUR favourite local lab is probably also part of the SVS pathology network: Vetpath in western Australia and the NT, QML if you’re a Queenslander, Vetnostics in New South Wales and the ACT, TML in Tasmania, and ASAP laboratory in Victoria and South Australia. A big thank you to SVS for supplying us with the brains for this episode and for supporting this series of episodes.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Courage. Grit. Persistence. Some might call it stubbornness. Whatever you call it - our guest for this episode has it in spades. Dr Mariana Pardo is an emergency and critical care specialist at the Veterinary Emergency Group, in Whiteplains, New York. She qualified as a vet in Santiago, Chile, in 2009, and then moved to the United States where she walked a long long road to the first female emergency and critical care specialist from Latin America - but I won’t ruin the story for you here - it’s a good one.
Join in on our conversation with Mariana as she tells us about her journey and making brave moves, failure, dealing with, and overcoming bias, using imposter syndrome to your advantage, and much much more.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
We're also very privileged that Mariana has been helping us over on the clinical podcast with some incredible ECC content. We launched her first episode this week on sensible IV fluid choices. After 2 decades as a vet, I thought that THAT would be one thing that I’d mastered. I hadn't - sooo much to learn! And Mariana is a fabulous teacher. Go to vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial and search for Mariana’s episode on the emergency stream.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Yes. it's totally fine. In fact, it's the preferred way to send your spleens to the lab.
Here's another thing that I learnt from this episode: pathologists don't necessarily look like Uncle Fester from the Adams Family!
Join us with the very un-Uncle Fester-like anatomical pathologist Dr Flaminya Coiacetto for more things that you didn't know about how to ensure better histopath results. (And happier pathologists!) From sample handling, preparation and storage, to what the ideal history looks like. Minia also tells us about the common special stains: how they work and when to use them.
If you enjoy listening to Flaminya you should check out her video on how to do a necropsy at https://www.vetnostics.com.au/our-services/educational-resources/.
Thank you the SVS Pathology Network (Vetnostics, QML, TML, Vetpath and ASAP labs for lending us their pathologist, and for supporting our new pathology series of podcasts.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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For this episode, rather than casting our conversational net wide and seeing which topics come up, we have a very specific topic. We wanted to get insights into complaints made against us as vets. Our goal with the episode was to help you find better ways to think about and live with the threat of the official board complaint, with the end goal being, as always, a happier vet career. We think we found the perfect guest for it. Dr David Tabrett is an emergency vet and founder and director of the Animal Referral Emergency Centre in Newcastle, New South Wales. David has been a vet for more than 30 years - from mixed animal to general smallies work, and eventually emergency. He has his memberships in Medicine as well as Emergency and Critical Care and has served a 6-year term as Treasurer of the Chapter of Emergency and Critical Care of the Australia / New Zealand College of Veterinary Surgeons. He’s also a longstanding member of the local branch of the Australian Veterinary Association and has served in the roles of Treasurer and President. In addition to hosting a weekly radio show for pet talkback over the past 12 years, and teaching veterinary nurses in critical care for TAFE, David was recognised as the 2017 Australian Small Animal Practitioner of the Year by the Australian Small Animal Veterinarians chapter of the AVA. David started his own emergency hospital in 2004, and at present, the clinic has a team of around 75 people working 24/7 and also offers referral services in surgery, critical care, dermatology and rehabilitation. As you can imagine: in a career like that you’ll face a few obstacles, and you learn a few things. We’re privileged that David joined us to share a few of those lessons. What was meant to be a conversation around how to deal with client complaints turned into a masterclass on communication, on how to avoid complaints, how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, how to talk about money, how to view complaints in a better light, and of course, how to think feel and deal with it when you are actually faced with a genuine official compliant. Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show. If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts. We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the Anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Thanks to Heska Australia for supporting this very important series of episodes on mental health, resilience, and burnout prevention. Go to https://www.heska.com.au to find out about ways to re-imagine the way you run your in house labs and digital radiography.
Professor Gordon Parker AO is Scientia Professor of Psychiatry at the University of NSW. He is, amongst other things, founder of the Black Dog Institute, and Director of the Division of Psychiatry at Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospitals. In 2004 he received a Citation Laureate as the Australian Scientist most highly cited in Psychiatry/Psychology, and in 2018 he was a finalist for NSW Senior Australian of the Year. Oh, and that little AO that I read after his name is short for 'Order of Australia', which is awarded for distinguished service of a high degree to Australia or humanity at large. He has published 20 books and over 1000 scientific papers, with his most recent book publication 'Burnout - A Guide to Identifying Burnout and Pathways to Recovery'. This book encapsulates groundbreaking new research and clarifies what exactly burnout is, what it isn’t, what the risk factors are, how to spot it, prevent it, and fix it.
And these are exactly the topics that we cover in this conversation with Prof Parker. We’re well aware that our profession is one of the highest risk professions for burnout, so arming ourselves with a better understanding of this nemesis is critical.
Burnout: A guide to identifying burnout and pathways to recovery: https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/health-fitness/Burnout-Gordon-Parker-Gabriela-Tavella-and-Kerrie-Eyers-9781760878061
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/vet-vault/message
Vicarious trauma, burnout, and living with the critic inside your head is supported by Heska Australia. It's time to re-imagine how you run your in-house pathology and radiography. Visit https://www.heska.com.au/products/lab-diagnostics/ to discover how.
In this conversation, we explore some ideas that we’re all familiar with, like how to live with those annoying self-critical voices that we all carry around inside our heads. Our guests, Rhonda Andrews and Dr Louisa Johnson also introduce us to some concepts that are brand new to us: cumulative trauma and vicarious trauma. Odds are that you'll recognise these culprits - those insidious, unexpected, sometimes small things that add up and add up and add up until they suddenly become overwhelming. But this is not a doom and gloom or fear-mongering episode. This conversation is ultimately about identifying risk factors and putting preventative actions in place to protect ourselves and our friends and colleagues.
Rhonda Andrews is a psychologist with almost 3 decades of experience. She’s also the Principal Psychologist and Managing Director of the Barrington Centre, which provides organisational and personal psychological services to a large number of sectors both in Australia and abroad, including government, education, legal, entertainment and emergency services.
Recently Rhonda has partnered with one of our own: Dr Louisa Johnson. Dr Louisa is a veterinarian who has a special interest in staff welfare and new grad care and is also the founder of Safervets. Rhonda and Louisa have been working together to adapt The Systems of Support Program for the Veterinary Industry. System of support, or SoS - is a positive psychological health program that was designed for high-stress professions, and therefore a perfect fit for the vet world. It’s an evidence-based program that helps to reduce the negative psychological impacts associated with work that can lead to anxiety, burnout, depression... or worse.
Barrington Centre: (http://www.barrington-e2e.com/about_us/about_us.htm)
SoS Vet: https://www.barringtoncentre.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Systems-of-Support-for-Veterinary-Industry_Barrington-Centre.pdf
Safer Vets: (https://safervets.com/)
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Dr Justin Ward is a veterinarian and practice owner from the Gold Coast in Australia. He grew up in South Africa where he studied veterinary science before heading to the UK for a 5 years stint of locuming and travelling, eventually putting down roots in Australia.
After 4 more years of working as an employed vet, he had his first crack at practice ownership. In this episode, Justin shares his experience and the lessons learnt from when this first venture didn't go according to plan. But it was with his second attempt at ownership that fate took him to all the right places. Fast forward 9 years, and he is now the co-owner of a thriving practice that has gone from 1 vet and 1 and a half nurses to 9 vets and 22 staff, plus a stint as the AVA's brach committee president. We dig into Justin's views on what makes a good practice, what a good partnership looks like, and how to find the balance of financial sustainability without sacrificing your values.
Beyond his own practice, Justin is also actively involved in trying to bring about sensible positive changes to make our profession better. In our conversation, we pick at the loose threads of the multiple issues that vets around the world are facing to see if we can unravel some solutions, and Justin gives some very solid insights on the stories we tell ourselves and the many GOOD things about being a vet.
Visit https://thrivingvet.com.au/ to learn more about Thrive 2021 - AEA's 3-day team conference that has been opened up to the rest of the vet world.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Other than conundrums around the legalities of labelling and wondering if you're allowed to stock any compounded meds for 'emergency use', drug compounding is probably not something that most of us give a lot of thought to. You pick a dose, write a script, and your patient gets what they need, right? Right?
But what about quality? Does someone regulate what goes into the meds you prescribe? And can we be sure that the active ingredients are 'active' - are they doing what they're supposed to? Surely someone checks that?! One version of drug X is the same as another, right?
Fear not - we have you covered. Gerardo and Hubert recently facilitated a group discussion and QnA session about exaclty these questions. This episode is the result of that session and answers all the questions you've (n)ever asked about veterinary compounding. (Including how to label them!)
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Dr Hannetjie Van Zyl-Edeling is a counselling psychologist, mediator, author and artist, amongst other things. You’ll know that our goal at the Vet Vault is to help you create a sustainable and thriving life around your veterinary career. This is exactly why we HAD to speak to Hannetjie, because she believes that we can use our minds to help create our best life and find meaning, even in challenging circumstances. (And let’s face it - even the dream veterinary career will throw plenty of challenges your way!) Hannetjie is in private practice and holds workshops and talks for the public and professionals about preventive nutrition, stress, eating disorders, positive living and ageing, ethics and spiritual living. She's featured regularly on television and radio and advises journalists on preventive nutrition, stress, ethics, spiritual living and positive ageing. Her mission is to assist people in managing their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual selves in such a way as to grow and reach their fullest potential. Her formal training started with qualifications in dietetics, after which she expanded her education to psychology, including a masters degree and a doctorate in psychology. She is registered as a counselling psychologist and is also accredited as a mediator, and is the author of a book called ‘Distilled Wisdom – A Guide to Positive Living and Ageing’. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BN6VDTV) As you can imagine - we had a lot to discuss. We cover stress: what it is, why we need it and why it’s not always bad. We get some highly practical tips to help us deal with periods of high stress and burnout prevention, including 6-second hugs, and a whole lot more. https://www.drhannetjie.co.za/ Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show. If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts. We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Does it drive you crazy how you'll sometimes look at an X-ray image and you don't see anything significant, but then you send it to a radiologist and they come up with a long list of important things!? How do they do it?! Well, a lot of it is practice, but here's a secret - a lot of it is also just good technique. And these are techniques you can easily apply in your practice to take great images and interpret them like the pros.
We did a series on tips for rads of the acute abdomen over on the Vet Vault Clinical, but rather than tell us which abnormalities to look for, our guest radiologist, Dr Steve Joslyn, started off by telling us HOW to look, and how to make sure you great images. Enjoy!
If you found this episode valuable and you want to listen to the rest of the series, or any of our emergency, surgery or medicine episodes then head over to https://vvn.supercast.tech/ for a free two-week trial.
This episode is supported by our friends at Heska Australia. You'll know Heska as the new(ish) kid on the block who's taking the block by storm in the Australian in-house lab market, but now they're also shaking up Xray-land with their exceptional radiology offering. Learn more at https://www.heska.com.au/
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Dr Penny Thomas’ career has taken her from working as a nurse in a specialist clinic while she was doing her vet degree, to a stint in mixed practise after graduating from the University of Sydney in 2011, and all the way to gaining registration as a Specialist in Veterinary Oncology in 2019. Penny is a member of the Veterinary Cancer Society and has also obtained her Memberships of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists in small animal medicine. She has a keen interest in haematological cancers and has published papers on multiple myeloma, anal sac cancer in cats and chemotherapy for T cell lymphoma in dogs, and is a regular participant in continuing education talks to general practitioners.
On her journey to becoming a specialist Penny did a 2-year internship programme followed by a residency at SASH in Sydney. During her training, she spent time at Colorado State University, the University of Madison Wisconsin, The Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and the Animal Health Trust in the UK.
And it’s this part of her career - the internship years - where we start our conversation with Penny. She talks us through the decision-making process around whether doing an internship is for you, and gives us advice on what to look for in a good internship programme, and how to choose the RIGHT internship programme.
As usual, the conversation strays into all sorts of interesting places, like masochistic work cultures where working crazy hours is worn like a badge of honour, helping your clients make end-of-life decisions for their animals, and we talk about the risk of having pre-conceived ideas around what is best for our patients without giving our clients ALL of the options and making decisions for them. And of course, we have to dig into what it’s like being a veterinary oncologist - all the good and all the bad and all the stuff that you probably didn’t know.
Enjoy!
If you like listening to Penny then you should definitely check out the oncology series that we're doing with her over on the medicine stream on The Vet Vault Clinical. We started with a 3 part series on mast ell tumours that has answered all of the questions I’ve had for decades about these often tricky cancers, including a run-down of all the newest therapies that are becoming available to us.
Our clinical podcasts live at https://vvn.supercast.tech/ with a free 2-week trial when you subscribe.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
Andf you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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Welcome back to another one of our clinical episodes. I decided to share this one today because of a case I dealt with just this morning. We had a cat in hospital with what was thought to be acute renal failure, but what turned out to be a ureteral obstruction. That's ureTEral, not urethral. Seeing this case reminded me how dangerous this disease is, and how easily it can be missed. So I thought I'd share this episode that we recently did on the topic with our resident medicine specialist, Dr Dave Collins. The thing is - until we did this interview with Dave, ureteral obstructions just wasn’t on my radar, but we're learning that it's apparently more common than we think it is. Probably because we’ve been missing them.
If this comes as a surprise to you then I recommend you plug in and let Dave tell you everything you need to know about ureteral obstructions: from spotting them, to diagnosing them, and all the way to how to fix them.
Enjoy!
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes about everything we talk about in the show.
If you found this episode useful then you'll love our clinical podcast series. We have a bunch of other free clinical content at https://thevetvault.com/clinical-content/t, or subscribe at https://vvn.supercast.tech for weekly short and sharp high-value clinical updates that you can consume on the go.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
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What do you think when you hear the words ‘holistic’, or ‘alternative’. What about "complimentary"? These are terms that can evoke quite strong opinions and responses in many vets one way or another, right?
100% honest - I was a bit apprehensive about doing this interview. I’m a natural skeptic, and I was worried that our guest was going to be a bit ‘out there" in his ideas, but I’m very glad that we took the time for this conversation. Turns out that, like me, and like you, Dr Gary Richter is a vet who cares about his patients and wants to find as many ways as he can to help them. He just happened to have found his niche in offering treatments that are a bit outside of the norm. And I must admit, it’s made me very curious.
Dr Gary Richter has been practicing veterinary medicine in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1998, after starting out his career in emergency. These days he runs a practice that focuses on the benefits of conventional and holistic treatment methods for the preventative and therapeutic care of pets as well as educating professionals and pet owners on the benefits of integrative care. Dr Richter was named Holistic Veterinarian of the Year for 2019 by the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, is currently the President of the American College of Veterinary Botanical Medicine, and is a founding member of the Veterinary Cannabis Society. He’s also the author of a book called The Ultimate Pet Health Guide.
In our conversation, we dig up and chew on a few of the old bones on contention in our profession, like the role of alternative or complementary medicine in veterinary science, and the processed foods vs whole foods debate. Gary talks about integrative medicine as a practice model and as a business model, and he tells us about a few of his favourite and most useful therapeutic discoveries that he's made on his explorations. And of course we can’t talk about alternatives to a Californian vet without talking about cannibis!
Please enjoy this enlightening view of our profession from a slightly different angle.
Aussies and Kiwis - if you're itching for some face-to-face CPD and for some fun on the ski slopes - go book your spot for Vets On Tour's upcoming August conferences at https://www.vetsontour.com.au/events/vets-on-tour-lake-wanaka-august-2021/
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts, and everything else we talk about in the show.
Subscribe to our clinical podcast series at https://vvn.supercast.tech for weekly short and sharp high-value clinical updates from world-class specialists that you can consume on the go.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us feedback, please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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A bonus episode from the Vet Vault Clinical ECC podcast. We deal with fat lips from bee and wasp stings on a daily basis in practice, but what about the more severe full-blown anaphylaxis reaction? It's a whole different kettle of fish!
In this recent episode from the Vet Vault Clinical podcast, critical care specialist Dr Rob Webster talks us through treating the collapsed anaphylactic dog, including the role of steroids, anti-histamines, and adrenaline.
If you enjoy this format of continuing education then go to https://thevetvault.com/clinical-content/ to access more episodes on small animal medicine, emergency/critical care, and surgery, and to access the show notes with doses and treatment reminders.
Enjoy.
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Our guest for today Is Dr Ivan Zakharenkov, or Ivan Zak as he’s better known. Ivan is a veterinarian and an entrepreneur committed to creating products that empower healthcare teams to live their passion.
If you haven’t heard of Ivan then there’s a fair chance that you have heard of, or possibly use his brainchild on a daily basis in your hospital: Ivan was the founder of the now-ubiquitous veterinary software Smartflow. It was Ivan’s personal journey as a practicing veterinarian for 12 years that led to the development of Smartflow, and eventually to his current mission.
Early in his career, Ivan experienced severe burnout, and it was that experience that has led him to explore the psychological triggers of burnout and business methodologies that veterinary organizations can apply to work against them. Researching this topic, Ivan obtained an MBA degree in International Healthcare Management and wrote a dissertation “Implementation of lean thinking to improve employee experience.” Today Ivan is leading Veterinary Integration Solutions, a technology company helping veterinary groups implement an operating framework for sustainable integration of practices with a special focus on burnout prevention.
Our conversation covers some of the highlights of the findings of the burnout study and his thinking about solutions to burnout. What I love about Ivan’s thinking that has flowed from the study is that the focus is not on how we as individuals can get better at preventing burnout - instead it focuses on the causes of burnout at a management and leadership level, and on practical solutions.
Ivan talks openly about his experience with burnout and how to identify it, we discuss the 6 triggers of burnout and strategies to mitigate it, Ivan gives us an inside perspective on how corporate veterinary practice works that might surprise you, and we talk about money and it’s role in job satisfaction and burnout, and much more.
https://vetintegrations.com/
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes, to get your hands on the answers to ‘the one question’ from our first 20 guests, and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts, and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, subscribe to our clinical podcast series at https://vvn.supercast.tech for weekly short and sharp high-value clinical updates that you can consume on the go.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And iff you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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We’re back today with another full-length vet interview, and it’s a corker! We’re exploring the ins and outs, the ups and downs and the and the joys and struggles of a career in emergency practice, with Dr Lorna O’Dowd.
You’ll pick where Lorna cut her teeth in mixed practice from her lovely Irish accent. Since her early career in Ireland, Lorna did stints of smallies locum work interspersed with volunteering in all sorts of exotic locations around the world. She finally put down her roots here in Australia, where she followed a path that saw her working and teaching in the emergency department at the University of Melbourne for the past decade.
At the time of recording this episode, she’d just started a new ECC job in a private specialist clinic, which leads us straight into a great conversation about change, dealing with new jobs and teams and the associated stresses, how to pick a team that fits with your values, and how to add value to your team. We talk about imposter syndrome, burnout, being a good mentee, and... death - when our patients die, with or without our help - a very important topic that we haven’t really touched on before on the podcast. And of course, we couldn’t talk to a fellow ECC geek without asking her for her best tips on how to survive a career in emergency practice with shift work and high-stress situations.
Enjoy!
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This episdoe is a bit of a hybrid between our standard performance episodes and a clinical one. We speak to Dr Randolph Baral, who owns and works in a feline-only practice in Sydney, Australia. But Randolph doesn’t just like staying up to date with what’s new for his patients - he prefers to stay at the forefront by doing his own research. This has led to him gaining his memberships feline medicine, a pHD in clinical pathology, being a regular contributor on VIN, and authoring a string of publications and articles on all things clin path.
We talk to Randolph about the benefits of niche practice and about being a researcher while also being a clinician and practice owner, but the bulk of our conversation is around Randolph’s insights around his pet topic: variation in blood results, how we interpret our blood results, and more specifically BETTER ways of thinking about our results. Now, a quick word of warning - some of the things Randolph talks about might hurt your brain a bit when you first hear them, but I guarantee that once they click into place you’ll wonder how it is that you never thought about things in this way.
This episode is supported by Heska Australia. https://www.heska.com.au Heska is the most exciting new player in the in-house lab equipment market in Australia. They offer top of the line machines and proven reliable results, but with significantly reduced spend on consumables, with savings of 30% or more compared to other dry-slide analysers. Pay less, get more, no tricks.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes, to get your hands on the answers to ‘the one question’ from our first 20 guests, and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, subscribe to our clinical podcast series at https://vvn.supercast.tech for weekly short and sharp high value clinical updates that you can consume on the go.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
If you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
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I recently had the privilege to be interviewed by my podcast/business coach, James Whittaker. James is an author, film producer, entrepreneur, all-round great guy and host of the Win The Day podcast. We thought we'd share it with you here on the Vet Vault, because
A - If you're a podcaster and you get handed a well-executed pre-edited bit of audio then you'd be a fool not to use it.
B - We discuss a few things in the conversation that we think could be of value to some of you.
C - Maybe it's time you got to know us a bit better!
Enjoy. Hugh
Check out James' podcast at https://jameswhitt.com/podcast/
If you have a podcast or a digital business, or you're considering starting one...this is where I learnt a lot of what I know:
https://wearepodcast.com/events
Highly recommended. As a member of the tribe, I get a 20% discount code to share with friends: use the code VET for your discount.
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You know that virus that the entire world hates at the moment? Yes - the C-word. Well, us vets have hated it for a long time, because it’s been killing our feline patients relentlessly in it’s mutated form of Feline Infectious Peritonitis long before the rest of the world ever heard the name 'corona'. Well, that might be about to change...
In this episode, we share some highlights of a recording we recently released on the Vet Vault Clinical small animal medicine podcast with our resident medicine specialist, Dr Dave Collins. Join in to find out all the details about some new treatments that are showing very high cure rates for FIP. It's simply too important not to share. We hope you find it as enlightening as we did, and please remember to share it with your colleagues so we can get the word out there.
Dr Dave also gave us access to some detailed notes on everything we know about Remdesivir, one of the drugs we talk about, including a comprehensive treatment protocol. If you want to get your hands on these go to www.thevetvault.com and subscribe to our mailing list, and we'll send them to you.
In the full episode, we also cover the ins and outs of diagnosing FIP, which you'll know can be a challenge in itself. Go and check it out at vvn.supercast.tech.
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Dr Sarah Heath is an RCVS and European Veterinary Specialist in Behavioural Medicine and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2018. She is an External Lecturer in small animal behavioural medicine on the veterinary undergraduate course at Liverpool University. In 2019 she gained her Postgraduate Certificate in Veterinary Education and became a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. She is a Certified Clinical Animal Behaviourist under the ASAB accreditation scheme and registered as a Veterinary Behaviourist with the Animal Behaviour and Training Council.
She sees clinical cases across North West England and has a special interest in the interplay between emotional and physical illness in dogs and cats and particularly in the role of pain. She promotes the recognition of emotional health issues in companion animals and the role of the veterinary profession in safeguarding the welfare of animals in this context. Sarah lectures extensively, at home and abroad, on behavioural medicine and is an author, co-author and editor of several books.
Basically - when it comes to anything behaviour related - she REALLY knows her stuff. And you don’t get this good at assessing behaviour without learning a few other things - about people, clients, our profession, and yourself. Join us in this far-reaching conversation with a Sarah about career longevity, connecting with clients and with the greater animal care community, Sarah’s self-care challenges, behaviour medicine as a career and much, much more.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes, to get your hands on the answers to ‘the one question’ from our first 20 guests, and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
f you like what you heard please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening to this and sending it to someone who you know will enjoy listening to this.
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We wanted to share one of the episodes from our clinical series of podcasts to give you an idea what they are about. This one is from a series we did on brachycephalic obstructed airway syndrome (BOAS) with specialist surgeon Dr Bronwyn Fullagar and Dr Mark Tenenbaum, a GP vet who works in a practice that has a strong focus on brachycephalics. Regardless how you feel about bulldogs and all their flat faced friends - the reality is that you WILL have to deal with them. This episode is from our surgery series, but don’t be put off if you’re not the surgeon who’ll be doing upper airway surgery. There’s a lot of value here for any vet around a general approach to dealing with the brachys in hospital: from safe handling and sedating, all the way to waking them up and managing them post-op for any surgical procedure, not just airway surgery.
If you want to hear part 1, 3 and 4 of the BOAS series to learn more about the pathophys of BOAS, how to decide which ones need surgery, how to assess them for surgery, what can go wrong, how to actually DO the surgery, and much much more, and if you want access to summarised show notes that you can refer back to later, then we’d love you to check out the vet vault clinical at https://vvn.supercast.tech. Enjoy!
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Here’s the link to our brand new clinical continuing education podcasts: https://vvn.supercast.tech. Subscribe before the end of January 2021 to lock in your subscription at a 30% discounted early bird rate. Now - our guest: Dr Mark Kelman is a man on a mission. He’s a veterinarian, independent scientific researcher, social philanthropist and investor who has had a wildly varying career. From charity work to private practice to working in pharmaceuticals, a quick PhD, and now as a researcher and co-founder, director and CEO of his own charity. Paws for a Purpose is a social enterprise charity for people in need and their pets. The charity raises funds and awareness for various issues including Canine Parvovirus. Currently, he is leading a research-and-intervention project with the goal of eradicating Parvo. Yes, we said eradicate! Mark is also a board director of Pets In The Park – a charity helping the homeless to care for their pets. Our conversation with Mark meanders all over the veterinary profession. He tackles some of the biggest issues that we face as vets, like trying to find a balance between our duty of care with our need to earn a decent income, and career diversification as a key for career longevity. Mark shares his journey with us and tells us why he still loves working as a vet, and much much more. Ultimately it’s a hopeful conversation about taking action, big dreams, and the small steps that get you to those dreams. Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes, to get your hands on the answers to ‘the one question’ from our first 20 guests, and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show. We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) And if you like what you heard please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening to this and sending it to someone who you know will enjoy listening to this.
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Just a quick chat to say hi and let you know what we’ve been up to, plus Hubert shares an important letter that we’d received at the Vet Vault from a listener who is NOT a vet, but a client. You may need to hear this - I know that there are many days that I do.
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If you’re thinking we’ve been slow to release new episodes then you’d be right! Hubert is travelling around Australia with his family for 6 weeks, so the Vet Vault will be taking a 6 week break. We’ll be back towards the end of the year with a tonne of new content and the official launch of our clinical podcast series. We miss you already!
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This episode is a special bonus episode for our student contingency. We chat to Nada Blagojevic (@dogtornada on Instagram). Nada is a final year vet student at Adelaide University and co-creator of Hashtag Vetschool. #Vetschool is a compilation of study tips and a survival guide of sorts made by an international group of vet students, for vet students. In this conversation Nada gives us a few of her favourite tips from the guide and some of her own wisdom. Enjoy!
Get your copy of this fantastic study guide here: https://hashtagvetschool.com.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ to get your hands on the answers to ‘the one question’ from our first 20 guests, and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show. We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) If you like what you heard please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening to this and sending it to someone who you know will enjoy listening to this.
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Dr Kathy Anderson has been a practice owner for almost 5 years, and under her guidance, the practice has grown from a 2 man business to a bustling 6 vet practice and has seen a remarkable increase in revenue. Which is impressive in itself, but if I told you that she chose to enter ownership when she had two very young kids, one of them a 2-year-old who wasn’t even sleeping through the night, you’d probably think she’s crazy, right? But here’s the thing - she’s loved her journey and still loves practice ownership and veterinary work. You’d have to look long and hard to meet someone with her level of positivity and enthusiasm for work.
Our conversation with Kathy covers all aspects of pursuing balance, like how to ensure time off for yourself, Kathy’s tips for happy teams and profitable business, the practicalities of mixing young kids and owning a business, and guilt... something that most parents/ business owners would be all too familiar with. We chat about self-care and our responsibilities in caring for others, about the role of telemedicine in Kathy’s practice, and much much more.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ to get your hands on the answers to ‘the one question’ from our first 20 guests, and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) If you like what you heard please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening to this and sending it to someone who you know will enjoy listening to this.
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Here’s another sneak preview of our upcoming clinical podcasts with this episode on the diagnosis of immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia. IMHA is one of those diseases where timely recognition and treatment can mean the difference between a patient that lives and one that does not, but it can be a challenge to diagnose. We’ve roped in Dr Dave Collins, a medicine specialist from North Side Vet Specialists in Sydney, to help you to create a solid plan for diagnosing and saving these patients. This episode is the first of a three-part series on IMHA. The other two will be available on the Vet Vault clinical medicine podcast soon.
Head to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ to subscribe to our email list and we’ll send you the summarised notes for this episode and let you know when the clinical podcasts go live.
We’ve also partnered again with our friends at Heska Australia. Heska is the best thing that’s happened to the in-house lab industry in Australia in a very long time. Check out they’re full range of diagnostic toys at heska.com.au, and make sure you look into their Reset Programme to see how you can get all of their top of the range in house lab equipment - for free!
Click on this link: https://www.heska.com.au/vet-vault-podcast-imha/ to get access to the most recent consensus statement on the diagnosis of IMHA. This is a document that includes all the details of pretty much everything anyone knows about how to diagnose these cases.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) If you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening to this and sending it to someone you know who will enjoy listening to this.
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Hazell Mullins is young and energetic and a little bit glamorous, but she’s also a very hardworking hardcore cow vet in her home country of Ireland. She shatters the stereotype of the tweed-hat-wearing bearded farm vet and is one of the fore-runners of what is the next generation of leaders in the large animal veterinary field. We chat to her about how things have changed for female farm vets over the last few years. Hazell tells us about the day to day life of an Irish farm vet, why spring is scary when you’re a cow vet on the British Isles and gives us her tips for preparing for periods of high stress. We discuss surviving on call, the merits of post-grad studying, using social media as a tool, and she tells us about her podcast, Vet Space Ireland, plus much much more.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ to subscribe to our mailing list to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
If you like what you heard please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening to this and sending it to someone who you know will enjoy listening to this.
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It’s not every day you get to interrogate one of your friends, but in this episode, that’s exactly what Hugh gets to do. Dr Ruan Bester has chosen a career journey that is a bit different to that of most of his classmates: instead of opting for a career at home or in one of the ‘normal’ choices like the UK, Aus or the US, Ruan was drawn to working in Asia, where he eventually started his own practice in Macao. (If you’ve never heard of Macao before you’re probably not alone: Macao is a small island off the coast of China about an hour away from Hong Kong by ferry, and is the gambling capital of Asia.) Outside of work, Ruan loves fast things: aeroplanes, race cars and motorbikes. But mostly he LOVES just being a vet.
We catch up with Ruan to talk about changes that he perceives in the profession, about sustaining your passion for the job, what life is like for a vet in Macao, and all sorts of weird animals, including flying turtles! Join us for a highly entertaining, slightly alternative look at our incredible profession, with Dr Ruan Bester.
For the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us or visit the podcast website at https://thevetvault.com/.
We love to hear from you: if you have a question that you’d like us to answer then leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
If you like what you heard please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening to this and sending it to someone who you know would enjoy listening to this.
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In this bonus episode we answer some listener questions. One of our listeners brought it to our attention that, because of Covid, many people who are considering studying veterinary science are not allowed to see practice. How are they supposed to know what life as a vet is like?! They have some questions: What does the day to day life of a vet look like? What do you look for in a veterinary student that makes you think they will become great vets? What do you wish you'd known when you entered the profession?
So we've teamed up with Dr Louisa Graham to answer some of those questions for our pre-vet listeners. We hope it helps!
We love to hear from you. If you have a question that you’d like us to answer with the help of our guests, leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
If you like what you heard please share the love by telling your friends and colleagues to check us out.
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ECC specialist Dr. Rob Webster gives a beautiful explanation of the key principles of fluid therapy for shock patients, with a focus on the ‘dry’ hypovolemic patient.
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Victoria Johnson is a specialist veterinary radiologist and the founder and director of VetCt, a global leader in teleradiology and telemedicine. We dig deep into diagnostic imaging as a career choice: the how’s, the why’s and the why not's, and everything else you wanted to know about it. Victoria tells us her secrets to maintaining a healthy relationship when your significant other is not only a vet, but also your business’s partner - a situation that is not at all rare in our profession. And of course, I can never resist asking a fellow parent, especially a parent who is such an accomplished business owner, about how they balance parenting with caring for what Victoria calls ‘the other child’ - your business. We also get some pro tips from someone who’s been immersed in working remotely with teams over Zoom long before Covid forced the rest of onto video conferencing on how to successfully communicate remotely without losing the human touch.
Find out more about Victoria’s work at https://www.vet-ct.com/au/small-animal/telemedicine-diagnostics/.
For the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us or visit the podcast website at https://thevetvault.com/. We love to hear from you.
If you have a question that you’d like us to answer with the help of our guests, leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) If you like what you heard please share the love by telling your friends and colleagues to check us out.
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Roz Lindsay’s career started as a veterinarian. After several years of working in clinical practice in both the UK and Australia, she transitioned into a career in human pharmaceuticals. This is where her interest in business, management and leadership was peaked, with a particular focus on the inner workings of teams within the healthcare professions. Fast forward to the present: these days Roz is an accomplished trainer and facilitator in her learning and development company for healthcare teams. (https://engagingpotential.com.au) She has a passion for people development with particular interests in leadership, team development and the neuroscience/psychology of human interaction. Her background in veterinary science with the subsequent years of experience in sales, customer service, operations and management in healthcare services outside of vet gives her a unique perspective into the challenges we face in our profession and is why we loved having her as a guest in the show and why we know you’ll love her content.
Roz talks us through her decision to leave clinical veterinary practice and gives some fantastic advice on how to think through the decision for anyone considering leaving the profession. We talk about stress as a neurophysiological response rather than “ just” an emotion, and we explore the concept of 'good stress'. Roz gives us her views on the most common causes of dysfunctional teams in the healthcare sphere, where sayings like ‘all nurses eat their young’ are tragically commonplace, and we talk about the biggest killers of good teams.
For the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us or visit the podcast website at https://thevetvault.com/.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question that you’d like us to answer with the help of our guests, leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
If you like what you heard help us spread the love by telliing your friends and colleagues to check us out.
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In this episode of our business and leadership series with Dr. Shibly we speak to Dr. Zach Lederhose. Zach was about 2 years out of university and just 26 years old when he took the plunge into practice ownership. Ownership is a long term goal for many vets, but most of us feel that we need a certain level of age or expertise before we can even begin to consider it. But is that necessarily true?
In our conversation we cover career progression, plateaus, pivots, and taking the road less travelled. Zac talks us through his decision making process leading to him buying the practice, and talks us through some of the challenges he’s faced. He gives advice on how to prepare yourself for a leadership role and how to prepare your new team for change. We talk about making ‘good’ mistakes, creating your ‘inner circle and how to put processes in place to guard against burnout. And if you’re already a business owner or a more seasoned vet - don’t be fooled by Zac’s age: this episode offers some sound business principles.
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In this episode, Alice talks about imaging of the gi tract when you suspect gastrointestinal bleeding, and specifically the use of capsule endoscopy. This is not an entirely new technology, but for a long time, it’s been very limited in it’s usefulness to veterinarians. However, in recent years advances in tech in this field has significantly increased its utility. Alice talks us through when to use it, how to use it, what it’s not good for, and what it’ great for.
Our guest for this episode is brought to you by ALICAM. ALICAM is the world’s first veterinary capsule endoscopy unit. It’s a revolutionary way to easily image the gastro-intestinal tract with unsurpassed detail and accuracy, and is achievable at any level of practice.
Find out more at https://www.fourlimb.com.au/alicam.
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Professor Alice Defarges is a professor of small animal internal medicine, and in this episode, she tells us how to work up and successfully diagnose cases with non-haemolytic anaemia, and specifically, GI bleeding. Our guest today is brought to you by ALICAM. ALICAM is the world’s first veterinary capsule endoscopy unit. ALICAM is distributed in Australia by Fourlimb Surgical Solutions. To find out more about Alicam and to get a listener discount on your first order, go to www.Fourlimb.com.au/Alicam.
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If you’re anything like us you might have some preconceptions about surgery and surgeons. Our guest for this episode, Dr Bronwyn Fullagar, will flip those ideas of yours on their heads. Bronwyn is a board certified specialist surgeon who has a different take on what it means, and what it takes, to be a surgeon. When there is not a global viral pandemic she travels the world as a locum surgeon, and in between work stints she shares her skills at several charity organisations in some pretty awesome locations.
We dig deep into a career in surgery: what it takes, what it looks like - the good and and the bad, including some practical advice on how to become a surgeon . She gives us her tips on how to stop ‘post-op panic’ about things going wrong with your cases, and she shares with us about finding her passion, loving the journey, picking your mentors, how working in the US compares to a career in Australia, and much much more.
For the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite resources, click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us, or visit the podcast website at thevetvault.com
If you have a question for us we’d like you to leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, or via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) We’d love to hear from you!
If you like what you heard, then please help us to spread the word by subscribing to the podcast (it’s free!), and by telling your friends about us.
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In part 2 we cover secondary coagulopathy, including the coagulation cascade. Bruce gives us the most simple and memorable explanation of that Y-shaped beast that you’ll ever hear, and we learn how and when to use the tests of secondary coagulation: Activated clotting time, APTT and APT. We get deep into the weeds of the most commonly seen causes that will disrupt the coagulation cascade, and Bruce also clarifies some of the ‘unusual suspects’ - the congenital factor abnormalities.
This episode is brought to you by Heska; THE most exciting new player in in-house diagnostics in Australia. Heska aims to change the way you think about and run your in-house diagnostics to save you both time and money while increasing your standards of care. Best of all, you don’t pay a cent for the analysers - you only pay for the test you perform. It’s that simple! Pay less, get more, no tricks.
Go to heska.com.au/vetvault to claim your Vet Vault listener exclusive offer of $5000 with of consumables.
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In our two-part series on coagulation, we talk to Prof. Bruce Parry, a former clinical pathologist from the University of Melbourne. In part 1 we cover primary coagulation. We talk everything platelets: how to accurately pick cases of thrombocytopaenia, pro-tips to make sure you get to the right answers, and common pitfalls. We also look at the buccal mucosal bleeding time test: how to do it, and what information it will provide.
We’re also excited to introduce you to our first-ever sponsor: our guest expert is brought to you by Heska, the most exciting new player in in-house diagnostics in Australia. Heska aims to change the way you think about and run your in-house diagnostics to save you both time and money while increasing your standards of care. Best of all, you don’t pay a cent for the analysers; you only pay for the tests you perform. It’s that simple. Pay less, get more, no tricks.
Go to Heska.com.au/vetvault to get access to a special offer that they’ve created exclusively for Vet Vault listeners, which gives you $5000 worth of free consumables.
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Paul Ainsworth is the founding director of the Lincoln Institute, which is a leadership and development organisation for veterinarians and veterinary teams. He is a highly sought after executive coach, facilitator and key note presenter. Paul is a graduate of the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales, the Royal Military College Duntroon and was awarded the prestigious Sasakawa Leadership Scholarship by the Australian Graduate School of Management’s Executive MBA program. As an infantry officer Paul has seen international service in 5 foreign countries, culminating in leading an international military observer unit in one of the words harshest environments. Paul has safely lead teams out of crossfire, negotiated the release of hostages, reopened international borders that had been closed due to hostile acts and provided humanitarian relief to communities suffering oppression. On resigning his commission, he was appointed Director of Property at ALDI Foods where he oversaw the roll-out of a large number of supermarkets. His appointment as their first Director in Australia ensured his place in establishing the culture of one of the world’s largest food retailers. Paul has over 30 years of leadership experience across all socio-economic and geopolitical boundaries making him highly sought after as an instructor and facilitator to all levels of business.
In this episode Paul tells us epic stories about leadership success and failures. He talks about fear, and the antidote to fear, the art of mindful transitioning as the solution to burnout, having difficult conversations, but more importantly how to prevent the need for difficult conversations. We discuss the biggest challenges a new leader will face in their role and how to avoid those pitfalls, plus how senior leaders can help new leaders fill with roles successfully, and much much more.
For the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us, or visit the podcast website at thevetvault.com.
Connect with us by leaving us a voice message on our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on instagram. We’d love to hear from you!
If you like what you heard, then please help us to spread the word by subscribing to the podcast (it’s free!), and by telling your friends about us.
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What do you do when you are facing something overwhelming? That surgical procedure, that difficult conversation, that business idea... are you spurred into action, or do you feel paralysed? In this quickie Dr Rob shares his thoughts on facing up to the scary and sometimes seemingly insurmountable obstacles on the road to success.
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Our guest for this episode is a true veterinary virtuoso, so much so that’s it’s hard to pick just one single job title for him. Dr. Adam Christman is a practicing small animal veterinarian in the same practice where he started his veterinary career as a 14 year old kennel hand, as well as at a local animal shelter, but his veterinary journey has taken him on many interesting paths. These include completing an MBA, regular public speaking, a career in media, social media influencer, published author, Disney aficionado, and most recently to his new role as the veterinary director for DVM 360 and the Fetch conferences. We start our conversation with Adam with an important topic that is very close to my heart: Daschunds!
However, the episode does not peak here as you might expect - we cover a wide range of other topics, like Adam’s secrets for when you’re feeling stuck in your career and how to make sure you have a smooth relationship with one of the most precious resources in practice: your nurses. We talk personality types, the brand that is YOU, maintaining energy levels and much much more. Did we mention the daschunds?
For the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us, or visit the podcast website at https://thevetvault.com/. If you have a question that you’d like us to answer with the help of our guests, leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) We’d love to hear from you! If you like what you heard, then please help us to spread the word by subscribing to the podcast (it’s free!), and by telling your friends about us.
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If you did a little victory dance - and let’s face it, we all did - when it was announced that vets are an essential service during the early days of the covid outbreak, then perhaps we should talk about how you value yourself and the services you offer? Dr. Shibly joins us again to talk about value: how most vets shoot themselves in the foot on a daily basis when it comes to demonstrating value to our clients, and strategies to fix this. Listen carefully for the two words you should never use in front of your clients!
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Dr. Alex Hynes is a force of nature: whether she’s on the floor in the emergency hospital, leading her team as a company director, showcasing our profession to the world on the Bondi Vet television show, mentoring the thousands of young vets who look up to her, or taking care of her daughter, you can’t help but be inspired by her passion and energy when she crosses your path.
In our long awaited episode with Alex we talk to her about where she finds her motivation and whether she ever has bad days. Alex gives us a master class on connecting with our clients: what they need from us, how to effectively give them what they need and how to demonstrate value in what you do. We talk about how things are different during the time of Covid-19 and how you and your business can stand out as a shining light in these potentially dark times.
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Dr. Brooke gives some fantastic advice on finding confidence, even when you don’t necessarily feel it, and how to deal with ‘looking too young to be a vet.’
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Dr. Dan Phillips earned his veterinary degree from North Carolina State University in 2011 and then completed an internship focused on small animal emergency and internal medicine at Tufts Cummings College of Veterinary Medicine. Since then he’s been working as a small animal practitioner near Chicago, and for the last 4 years has served as the primary extern and preceptor director for his group of practices. I had to look up what a preceptor is, and google summarises it as someone who teaches, supports, counsels, coaches, evaluates, serves as role model and aids in the socialization to a new role, which is a pretty good description of Dan’s passion. In fact, he feels so strongly about the importance of mentoring that he partnered with Drs. Dan Markwalder and Adam Conroy from Markroy consulting and the 7S society to create a new venture called Vet Mentor Solutions. With VMS they aim to mentor confident, effective and productive veterinarians through a comprehensive video library of practical small animal techniques and client communication skills. In this episode Dan demonstrates why he’s qualified to help guide the next generation of vets into the profession: we cover topics like how to effectively give feedback, how to avoid worrying about being judged when you put your opinions out there, teaching to learn, and why goal setting is one of the most important skills you need to develop. We put Dan’s mentoring skills to the test when we ask him how to ask for a pay increase, and Dan gives one of the best summaries we’ve ever heard of how to select the practice you want to work in, and how to interview for culture. His explanation, like all of the content in this episode, won’t just resonate with young vets, but also serves as a useful reminder for practice owners and managers about what to keep in mind when creating positions for less experienced vets.
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We talk COVID government bail-outs, financial strategies and HR do’s and don’ts in another business and leadership episode, with Paolo Lencioni - vet turned accountant and veterinary financial management guru. Paolo’s company - APL accountants, helps veterinarians manage every aspect of their business through through careful financial monitoring and tailor-made advice, so he has his finger on the pulse of veterinary business and has a wealth of knowledge to share. He gives us his insights into how to plan and react to save your practice during these tricky times.
Some of the information relating to government financial support is specific to Australia, but a lot of the thinking and strategies discussed in this episode are universal, so there’s definitely still value here for our non-Australian listeners. If you need some guidance for you business get in touch with APL accountants at https://aplaccountants.com.au.
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Welcome to the Vet Vault business and leadership series with veterinary practice owner and business coach Dr Shibly Mustapha. In this series we’ll explore ways to make veterinary practice sustainable and profitable.
Shibly is an owner of a multi-practice group in Australia. He is actively growing his business, and shares with us the same up-to-date lessons and a no-excuses approach that inspires his own coaching clients.
In our first episode of this new series we start with the elephant in the room: Covid-19 is disrupting businesses everywhere, including veterinary practices. But is it as bad as it seems? Will it affect your business? How do we respond to it, and are there potentially things to be gained from all of this? To check out the show notes click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us, or visit the podcast website at https://thevetvault.com/.
If you have a question that you’d like us to answer you can leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) We’d love to hear from you!
If you like what you heard, then please help us to spread the word by subscribing to the podcast (it’s free!), and by telling your friends about us.
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One message that we hear time and time again from our guests here at the VetVault is that success, or happiness, or fulfilment or performance or whatever you want to call it, starts in your head. In this episode we explore what’s happening inside that head of yours, and how we can influence it for the better.
Veterinarian, public speaker and coach Dr Katie Ford graduated from the University of Liverpool in the UK in 2012 and gained her certificate in medicine in 2016.
Externally she was very successful: she had a great career, she was a successful clinician who was loved by clients, she was one of the youngest vets ever to pass the certificate synoptic exam. The future looked bright, but internally things were a bit more complicated. She was at the mercy of her perfectionist imposter brain. That voice inside her head, the one that keeps you at work hours and hours after your shift ended while you double and triple check everything, was telling her that she was a fraud, and that she would never be good enough.
With the power of mindset, consciousness and an understanding of the internal workings of her brain, Katie turned her life around. She has trained in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Broadband Consciousness and also completed programmes under the father of personal development himself, Bob Proctor of the Proctor-Gallagher Institute.
Katie is passionate about positivity in practice, awesome workplace culture and career fulfilment. She currently practices as a locum veterinary surgeon across the North West, finding joy in meeting and influencing her colleagues in practice and though official coaching for vets and nurses on a 1:1 and group basis.
Join us as we talk to Katie about imposter syndrome - what it is and how to identify and deal with it, about ways to train your mind and trick your body through visualisation, why we should be happy to sometimes be a failure, how to celebrate your wins without depending on them for your self-worth, and much more.
For the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us, or visit the podcast website at https://thevetvault.com/.
If you have a question that you’d like us to answer with the help of our guests you can leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) We’d love to hear from you!
If you like what you heard, then please help us to spread the word by subscribing to the podcast (it’s free!), and by telling your friends about us.
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We strive for that elusive 'work-life balance', but are you sure what exactly you're chasing? Nigel Marsh points us in the right direction in this week's quickie.
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The first time you meet Dr. Charles El-Hage, you’ll think to yourself: “who the heck was that guy?! There’s something about him that makes me want to speak to him a some more.” And then, when you ask someone about him you’ll see their face light up with a smile, and they’ll say, “oh that’s Charlie, he’s great. Let me go introduce you.” So, let’s introduce you...
When he’s being Dr. Charles El-Hage he is a Lecturer in Veterinary Clinical Medicine and Surgery at the University of Melbourne. After decades in large animal practice he returned to the Equine Centre where he worked as a clinician for three years, and then later as a lecturer whilst completing his PhD. He has a range of equine interests including virology, immunology, toxicology, endocrinology, parasitology and theriogenology. He is currently researching infectious conditions of horses and immunological responses. In 2016 he completed a PhD, and he has published original research and reviews on multiple equine diseases.
When he’s being Charlie he’s an inspiration to scores of students, a front-line charity worker and champion for animals in developing countries around the globe, more recently in Indonesia, he’s a traveller, adventurer, father, competitive long distance runner and friend to many.
Travel with us through Charlie’s career as we talk about bad bosses, great clients, creating connections, his charity work, his thoughts on finding the best place to give your gifts to the world, mindset, and much much more.
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Today we're digging deep into the Vault to bring you this slightly alternative view from Dr Oliver Liou. We can get very focused on being high achievers and all round awesomeness, but is that always good for us? In this Vet Vault quickie Oliver talks about the flip side of being exceptional, and how to deal with the fallout of becoming 'too good' at your job.
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In this episode we tackle a subject that is not necessarily directly veterinary related, or is at least not limited to our profession, but still a critical topic to discuss because of the impact that it will have on all of us, and more importantly, because of the impact that veterinarians can have on it: climate change. If you’ve ever looked around your workplace and thought to yourself: “ This can’t be good for the environment. I really should do something about it.”, or if you are concerned about climate change, but you’re not sure where to start, then this episode is for you. We speak to Ben Cox, a founder and a driving force behind an exciting new charity called Veterinarians for Climate Action. Ben comes from a sustainability, engineering and business background and is passionate about climate change because of the impact it will have on future generations and the natural environment. He helped to create Veterinarians for Climate Action as his tool for taking action and inspiring others to do so. VfCA’s mission statement is to inspire the veterinary profession to advocate for and achieve climate action within and beyond our industry. This will benefit both our profession and the animals we care for, ensuring a sustainable future for all. In this episode Ben explains to us why we as vets are important in this arena, and how we can be particularly valuable and have a big impact in the push for action on climate change. We talk about what they are doing through the charity; what we can do, including how to have conversations about climate change; what influences the public’s opinion on the matter and how we can change it, and what we can do on a practical level in our own workplaces. Ben is practical, pragmatic and hopeful, and definitely someone who you can put your support behind. Please enjoy, Ben Cox, and get ready to make a change. Check out Ben and his team here (https://www.vfca.org.au/home), and follow them on Facebook. For the episode show notes or to explore our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us, or visit the podcast website at https://thevetvault.com/ If you have a question that you’d like us to answer with the help of our guests you can leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) We love to hearing from you! If you like what you heard, then please help us to spread the word by subscribing to the podcast (it’s free!), and by telling your friends about us.
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We revisit our very first guest with a story from Louisa about the early days in her career that demonstrates a vital career lesson.
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We were introduced to Dr. Dan Markwalder when we interviewed to Dr. Cody Creelman, who kept referring to him as one of the best mentors out there. Seeing as we’re all about mentoring here we knew that we had to have him on the show, and Dr. Dan certainly has the experience to make him an absolute mentoring guru:
He founded his first hospital at age 28, and has grown that business into an eighteen practice success story with the help of good partnerships and through fantastic mentoring relationships. He still practices in the clinics that he owns, and he is still passionate about mentoring veterinarians of all ages in all aspects of their careers. Dan speaks throughout the United States to veterinarians and practice managers on the importance of developing a culture of mentoring at a practice level, and frequently lectures to both SCVMA and VBMA chapters at numerous veterinary colleges throughout the United States.
He also the Mark in Markroy Consulting - a consulting service that offers coaching and workshops on aspects of practice management like leaderships skills, bridging generational gaps the practice, and team culture. Dan’s most recent venture, Vet Mentor Solutions, aims to share the mentoring model that has been so instrumental in assisting many new graduate veterinarians to achieve their individual goals, as well as help them in raising their personal production, with the greater global veterinary community though an on-line mentoring platform (vetmentorsolutions.com)
Dan’s insights in this interview on what mentoring actually means, and how we can, and should, apply it in our own workplaces has given me a lot to think about in my own workplace. And if you’ve ever wondered about whether you should consider practice ownership you really need to hear what Dan has to say on the topic. He discusses topics like choosing your business partner, setting the culture of your practice, what it looks like to be a good practice owner, and much much more.
To see the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us, or visit the podcast website at https://thevetvault.com/.
If you have a question that you’d like us to answer with the help of our guests you can leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) We’d love to hear from you!
And if you like what you hear, then please help us to spread the word by subscribing to the podcast (it’s free!), and by telling your friends about us.
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For people who are feeling overwhelmed: that’s normal. One of the main messages I want to get out to the vets is to normalise the enormity and the depth of emotion that they’re going to experience. Because it’s new. And to not pathologise it.
We live in a world where when we have an emotion we almost want to give it a Broadway musical: “Why am I feeling sad today? Let’s focus on that sadness.” But in actual fact - it’s not a healthy way to deal with day tot day emotions. So when people are going to bed and they are reliving what they’ve experienced and they are fatigued and they’re thinking: “My goodness, I’ve get to get up and face this again tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…” and on top of that they’ve lost their own properties, or they’re still at risk of loosing their properties.
To feel overwhelmed - can I just say: A HUNDRED PERCENT NORMAL!
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Welcome to our third and final episode talking about dealing with trauma, loss and grief in a crisis situation, and specifically as it relates to the bushfire catastrophe that we are currently experiencing in Australia, with our super-star social worker Liz Crowe. In this episode Liz speaks to us about the weeks and months after the firestorm has passed: what happens once the crisis has abated and the world has stopped talking about it, but the victims, and those who went to help them, are left to pick up the pieces and deal with what they had experienced? The advice from this episode goes far beyond this particular situation: Liz gives some invaluable input into burnout and compassion fatigue in everyday life, and how to deal with it.
Here are those resources again if you want to read more about Liz' work:
https://lizcrowe.org/about/
https://www.stemlynsblog.org/wellbeing-for-the-broken-part-1-liz-crowe-for-st-emlyns/
https://www.stemlynsblog.org/wellbeing-for-the-broken-part-2-st-emlyns/
Treatment advice for burn wounds and smoke inhalation: https://www.animalemergencyservice.com.au/news/vetapedia/emergency-burns-info/
The Australian Veterinary Association Benevolent Fund to provide assistance to affected veterinarians: https://www.ava.com.au/donate/
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Welcome to the next installment of our bushfire special series with Liz Crowe.
In part two Liz tells us how we can best support someone who is caught up in a challenging situation, like the fires that our Aussie vets and thousands of other workers are currently dealing with. Watching our friends an colleagues give so much of themselves is inspiring, but sometimes we feel powerless to help if we aren’t right there on the front lines. Liz gives us the best answer I’ve heard so far on how we can be useful from afar.
Here are those resources again for listeners who need help during this challenging time:
Treatment guidelines for burn wounds and smoke inhalation: https://www.animalemergencyservice.com.au/news/vetapedia/emergency-burns-info/
Liz's blog on wellbeing, part one: https://www.stemlynsblog.org/wellbeing-for-the-broken-part-1-liz-crowe-for-st-emlyns/
Part two: https://www.stemlynsblog.org/wellbeing-for-the-broken-part-2-st-emlyns/
And if you want to help your colleagues financially - The Australian Veterinary Association's Benevolent Fund: https://www.ava.com.au/donate/
Liz Crowe is an Advanced Clinician Social Worker who has worked extensively for 20 years with individuals, families and children impacted by grief, loss, trauma, crisis and bereavement. She’s worked in intensive care, emergency departments, cancer wards and all areas associated with children’s health. In her current job in a children’s intensive care unit she is exposed daily to death, violence, trauma and illness and is now recognised as one of the most experienced counsellors in this field in Australia. Liz is passionate about assisting the community to understand the breadth of loss and grief and how to support yourself, your children, partners, family and friends during times of change and sadness.
https://lizcrowe.org/about/
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This is a special episode that we’re rushing out as a resource to our colleagues who are caught in the apocalyptic bushfire crisis that Australia is currently experiencing, but also for anyone who wants to support those in the crisis but feel unequipped to do so. Beyond the current crisis - we also believe that the advice from this episode’s spectacular guest will be a valuable resource to anyone who ever finds themselves in a crisis situation, or regularly deals with traumatic situations that puts them at risk of compassion fatigue, burnout, and dark days in general.
Our guest is Liz Crowe. Liz is an Advanced Clinician Social Worker who has worked extensively for 20 years with individuals, families and children impacted by grief, loss, trauma, crisis and bereavement. She’s worked in intensive care, emergency departments, cancer wards and all areas associated with children’s health. In her current job in a children’s intensive care unit she is exposed daily to death, violence, trauma and illness and is now recognised as one of the most experienced counsellors in this field in Australia. Liz is passionate about assisting the community to understand the breadth of loss and grief and how to support yourself, your children, partners, family and friends during times of change and sadness, which is why we really needed to speak to her at this time.
As expected from someone with such a depth of knowledge in their field we had a lot to talk about. We wanted to make sure that anyone who is currently in the thick of the action with limited leisure time for things like listening to podcasts could snatch a few moments to listen to this, so we’re deviating from our usual long form format and chopping the podcast into shorter episodes, starting with what to do while you are in the midst of a catastrophe such as this one.
A few useful resources:
Treating burn wounds and smoke inhalation: https://www.animalemergencyservice.com.au/news/vetapedia/emergency-burns-info/
Liz' blog on dealing with grief and burnout = part one: https://www.stemlynsblog.org/wellbeing-for-the-broken-part-1-liz-crowe-for-st-emlyns/
Part two: https://www.stemlynsblog.org/wellbeing-for-the-broken-part-2-st-emlyns/
More about Liz: https://lizcrowe.org/about/
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Carolyne Crowe worked for 11 years as an equine vet both in the UK and in New Zealand before deciding to shift her energy from primarily helping animals to helping people by becoming an award winning personal performance coach, mentor, international speaker, researcher and lecturer.She has a Master's degree in Workplace Health and Wellbeing and continues to research this field. She is a master trainer in DISC behavioural profiling, a CPCAB trainer in Stress management and Wellbeing, a certified trainer in Resilience, a Mental Health First Aider, and an Honorary Lecturer of the University of Liverpool. She was awarded “Life Coach of the year 2015” at the International Coaching Awards, became an honorary Fellow of The Coaching Academy in 2016 and a founding member of the Coaching of Excellence accreditation in 2019. So basically - when it comes to building a fulfilled career in veterinary science, or anywhere for that matter - you'll want to hear what Carolyne has to say.Carolyne is passionate about helping others equip themselves with the tools and strategies to get the most out of their personal and professional lives. After successfully running her coaching and training business for several years, Carolyne now works as a training consultant with the Veterinary Defence Society training team in the UK developing, training and coaching individuals, teams and practices to be the best they can be and to thrive both personally and professionally. In 2017 she proved how much she loves a challenge by running 10 marathons in 10 days raising over £100,000 for the Brooke charity. Not bad for someone who only ran her first marathon in September 2016! Outside of work Carolyne is a wife of a vet, mother of 2 small children and what she describes as “a keen runner’. We cover a wide range of topics in our conversation with Carolyne, like some the most common problems that she encounters with her clients and her favourite solutions to these problems, building resilience and self- awareness, why coaching is important and who it’s for, and of course: how to prepare for running 10 marathons in 10 days when you have a business to run and two young kids, and, more importantly, why you’d want to do it in the first place. Carolyne also answers a tricky listener question about a situation that many of our listeners will have to deal with at some point in their careers. To see the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us, or visit the podcast website at https://minivetguide.com/podcast/. If you have a question that you’d like us to answer with the help of our guests you can leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) We’d love to hear from you! And if you like what you heard, then please help us to spread the word by subscribing to the podcast (it’s free!), and by telling your friends about us. More about Carolyne: https://www.carolynecrowe.co.uk https://www.vds-training.co.uk Carolyne’s ten marathons in ten days challenge: http://www.ten2london.co.uk Carolyne’s favourite podcast: Beast of Man https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/kevin-pietersen-beast-of-man/id1462286114 Book recommendations ‘Start With Why’, Simon Sinek: https://simonsinek.com/product/start-with-why/ ‘Mindset’, Carol Dweck https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck/dp/0345472322 ‘Black Box Thinking’, ‘Bounce’, and others, Matthew Syed: https://www.matthewsyed.co.uk ‘Drive’, Daniel Pinkhttps://www.danpink.com/drive./
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Helga Kausel, better known as the Travelling Vet, is best known for her inspirational Instagram account, where she shares her veterinary journey and real life journeys. When Helga is not being the travelling vet she is an equine vet in Germany, and when she is travelling she uses her skills, influence and the money that she generates through her social media accounts to improve animal welfare wherever she can. Check out her incredible adventures and the impact that she’s had at travelling_vet on Instagram, or on her blog, travellingvet.blog. On her blog Helga describes herself as a dreamer, a fighter, and an asshole. In this interview Helga tells us about her journey so far - how she made her career choices, how she built up her confidence as a young vet, about the time she wanted to quit veterinary science, and how she became the travelling vet. We talk about some of her amazing travel experiences, her views on money, narcissism in social media, and how she uses her public profile to do good. Dreamer and fighter for sure, but not a trace of a-hole! Please enjoy, Helga Kausel - the Travelling vet.
To see the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us, or visit the podcast website at https://minivetguide.com/podcast/. If you have a question that you’d like us to answer with the help of our guests you can leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) We’d love to hear from you! If you like what you heard, then please help us to spread the word by subscribing to the podcast (it’s free!), and by telling your friends about us.
More about Helga: https://travellingvet.blog/2018/11/18/who-is-travelling_vet/ Travelling Vet instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelling_vet/?hl=en Helga’s fundraising page: https://www.instagram.com/donate_a_postcard/?hl=en Some of the international charities that Helga has worked for: https://www.meruanimalwelfare.org https://theculturetrip.com/south-america/brazil/articles/the-10-best-books-by-paulo-coelho-you-must-read/ Helga’s book recommendations: The Zahir - Paolo Coelho https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060832810/the-zahir/ John Grisham novels: https://www.jgrisham.com/books/ The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77203.The_Kite_Runner
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Dr Olivia James is one of the leaders in the field of equine dentistry. She is months away from finishing her diplomate examinations, which will make her a specialist, and the highest qualified equine dentist in the Southern Hemisphere. Olivia has worked in veterinary practices in regional Australia both in mixed and equine hospitals since graduating from the University of Sydney with honours in 2003. In 2010, when her second son was just one year old, she started her own equine practice, sold in 2018 to concentrate on her studies and start her current business, Australian Veterinary Equine Dentistry. In this role she travels across Australia to treat both first opinion and referral dentistry cases. She is also about to launch a very exciting new online education resource for veterinary equine dentistry. Our conversation with Olivia covers a lot of ground. She gives us advice on starting your own practice and making it profitable, the importance of focusing on personal development, how to build of group of peers that inspires you, and of course she gives us some practical tips on how to raise children while starting a new practice, studying and even specialising. Please enjoy, Dr. Olivia James.
To see the show notes or to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show, click on the webpage link on the episode page wherever you listen to us, or visit the podcast website at https://minivetguide.com/podcast/. If you have a question that you’d like us to answer with the help of our guests you can leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) We’d love to hear from you! If you like what you heard, then please help us to spread the word by subscribing to the podcast and by telling your friends about us.
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Since starting the podcast we’ve had some amazing feedback from some of our listeners. I love hearing about how other people are inspired by our guests, but one question that pops up time and time again is some variation of: “I don’t feel like I can focus on my career, because I have young kids.” And I totally agree - I often feel torn apart in the tug of war between career and parenting. So here at the Vet Vault we’ve made it one of our missions to speak to vets who are finding ways to create fulfilling careers, while still being engaged parents and husbands or wives, and to ask them how the hell they do it. When we started asking around for some guest ideas of people who seem to have solved this problem, our guest for today was one the first names that popped up: Dr Abbie Elise Tipler BVSc, MANZCVS (Surgery) is a small animal surgeon. She graduated from Massey University in 2005 and soon after graduation discovered her passion for small animal surgery. This took her to London where she worked for several years in a combined general practice/orthopedic referral practice. In 2011 she moved to Sydney and sat her ANZCVS Memberships in Small Animal Surgery and in 2016 was elected as head examiner for Memberships in Small Animal Surgery for the ANZCVS. In 2017 she founded the Small Animal Surgery Discussion Page for world-wide surgery discussion which has over 6500 Veterinary Members. In 2018 she was the recipient of the ANZCVS travel grant for services to the Surgery Chapter. She has been actively involved in charities such as Pets in the Park, Elephants Rhinos People, Greyhound Rescue and Cantoo. Currently, she is a second year surgical resident at Veterinary Specialist Services. She lives in Saint Lucia with her husband and two young children. Join us as we find out from Abbie how she managed to create a rewarding career despite the commitments of raising a young family. She tells us about her journey into residency in what is a very competitive environment, how to not limit yourself based on other’s expectations of you, how to go from a nervous surgeon to a total surgical boss, and much much more.
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For this episode we're trying something new. We've had so many valuable insights from our guests that we thought it would be well worth it to review some of our favourite bits. Join us as we dig deeper into the topics that we think can make a big impact on your career.
In this episode we explore some important themes from Dr Oliver Liyou, our guest from episode 4. Oliver shared some hard-earned wisdom that can be career-, or even life-saving . If you missed Oliver the first time, or if you need a refresher, please join us as we review Oliver's 7 rules for surviving veterinary science.
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When we started organising this episode with our guest he was neck-deep, or shall we say shoulder-deep, into clinical cow practice. However, the last few weeks have seen some major changes in the life of Dr. Cody Creelman, Cow Vet. Up until about 3 weeks before we recorded this episode Cody Creelman was a veterinarian, multiple practice owner, and digital storyteller based in Alberta, Canada. Cody shares his story in real-time on social media by creating entertaining and educational videos of his daily adventures. With over 20 million video views, he has created a very loyal following of ranchers, veterinary professionals, and the general public, and it's easy to see why: his videos are tonnes of fun, and his can-do positive attitude towards work is truly inspiring. So it was a total shock to his fans (and to anyone trying to research him for a podcast!) when he announced that he was quitting clinical work and pursuing new adventures. Join us for an insightful conversation about change, passion, fun, fear, and to hear what the future holds for Dr Cody Creelman. Enjoy!
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Dr. Justine Lee, the one and only VETgirl, is best known for the hugely popular on-line veterinary education resources that she produces through the vet girl on the run website, podcast, and pretty much anywhere where you find your continuing education. Currently, Dr. Lee is one of approximately 450 board certified veterinary specialists world wide in emergency and critical care, and is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care. She is also board-certified in toxicology and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology. She’s been published in numerous veterinary journals and books, and has been aired on radio and television to promote preventative medicine, animal health, and the overall well-being of pets. Justine is the author of two humorous pet reference books, entitled It’s a Dog’s Life… but It’s Your Carpet and It’s a Cat’s World… You Just Live In It, and has co-edited and co-authored Blackwell’s Five-Minute Veterinary Consult Clinical Companion: Small Animal Toxicology (Wiley-Blackwell 2011). She is one of the editors for the Veterinary Clinics of North America Small Animal Emergency Medicine textbook. (Elsevier 2013). She has been a regular recipient of Speaker of the Year Awards for her talks on emergency, critical care, and toxicology, and she was the co-host and veterinary analyst on Nat Geo Wild‘s Animal ER LIVE. Dr. Lee still works as a criticalist at Animal Emergency & Referral Center, a specialty referral hospital in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. And because she wasn’t quite busy enough, 3 years ago she became a mom. So how in the world does she do all of this?! Join us in our conversation with this whirlwind of efficiency and impact as she shares with us her ideas about career, parenting , money, time management and much, much more.
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I’ve been a big fan of guest for today’s episode ever since seeing him deliver a keynote speech at a big-ticket vet conference. I knew immediately that I wanted to hear more about what he had to say. His message resonated strongly with me personally, and with the entire audience of vets there that day. It’s a message that we here at the Vet Vault think will be very valuable to all of you, our listeners, so we were thrilled when he agreed to spend some time with us.
Nigel Marsh is a Management consultant, communications specialist, author and entrepreneur.
He is best known for his creative pursuits. As well as the author of three books – Fat, Forty and Fired, Overworked and Underlaid and Fit, Fifty and Fired-Up – he is also the co-founder of Earth Hour and the founder of the Sydney Skinny. Fat, Forty and Fired is currently being developed into a major TV series. He also has a hit podcast of his own called 'The Five Of My Life.'
The other side to Nigel’s career is his 30+ years experience in the commercial sector. Over that time Nigel has worked with a huge variety of organisations. From the highest profile (McDonalds, Canon, Pepsi, P&G, Virgin, Mars, Fiat, Colgate), to national governments and local enterprises. Whether dealing with big business issues or social engineering, Nigel has provided strategic counsel and impressive results in almost every category imaginable.
Highly in demand as a public speaker Nigel travels the globe regularly giving speeches to major corporations on both his business and personal views. His TED speech on work/life balance remains the most viewed ever given outside of America with well over four million hits.
And this, dear listeners, is why we are talking to Nigel on our veterinary podcast: because us vets are not always that great at finding that elusive work life balance. We’ve had some interesting discussions with other guests on this podcast on this topic: what is work life balance, does it even exist, and is it something that we should be pursuing?
So we’ve called in the big guns: please join us in this highly insightful discussion all about balance and finding meaning in your career with one of today's leading thinkers on the topic.
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Most vets would agree that excellent communication skills are one of the most important tools that we need to develop for a happy veterinary career, and it's a topic that we've always wanted to feature here, so we were thrilled when one of the leading minds in veterinary communication training agreed to join us on the Vet Vault. Cindy Adams is a Professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences at the University of Calgary, where she teaches in the Clinical Communication and Professional Skills programs. She works to improve communication practices in veterinary medicine and education. Professor Adams has developed evidence-based communication curricula and methods for teaching, learning and evaluating communication skills across North America, UK, and Australia. Today her work forms the basis for communications skills training in many leading vet schools. Her co-authored book: 'Skills for Communicating in Veterinary Medicine,' was released in 2016 and has earned widespread recognition in veterinary medical practice and education around the globe. In this episode Cindy tells us why we really need to increase our efforts in improving our communication skills, how to rapidly gain client trust, and how to set yourself up for the perfect consult. I guarantee you that this is not just for new grads: it doesn’t matter where you are in your vet career - you are bound to learn something new here. We talk about agenda setting, listening, perceptual skills and how to have those difficult conversations about money, and Cindy answers a few burning listener questions about tricky communication situations. Make sure to check out the show notes for the resources that Cindy mentions in the episode. There’s some very useful information on talking about money, discussing medical errors and how to run internal training programs for better communication.
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One of our criteria for selecting guests here at the vet vault is to find people from across varied and interesting parts of our profession to showcase all doors that can open to you with your veterinary degree. Well, today’s guest is the poster boy for veterinary career diversity!
Dr Guy Weerasinghe has covered more ground in the veterinary profession than many of us will do in a lifetime. He’s been in diary vet in New Zealand, a small animal shelter vet for the RSPCA - Australia’s largest veterinary charity, he’s worked in government doing field surveillance and policy, and has spent time in general small animal practice.
During this time he gained a masters degree in Veterinary Public Health, and then became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventative Medicine: in other words - he’s a certified Veterinary Public Health specialist.
While he was doing all of this he co-founded an online employment agency, served as the President of Australian Veterinarians in Public Health, was a branch president for the Australian Veterinary Association, co-authored the AVA’s official position statement on climate change, and became a regular speaker at a range of global conferences on the subjects of zoonoses and preventative medicine.
A career like this does not go unnoticed, and Guy was elected as the World Small Animal Veterinary Associations’ young veterinarian of the year for 2018.
He is currently a veterinary officer with the Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy under the Department of Agriculture - in other words: he’s a Veterinary Public heath government vet, and, to top off a big decade, he became a dad 18 months ago.
All of this in less than 10 years! As you can imagine - we had a lot to talk about.
Join us to hear about how to take off your blinkers to be able to see all the opportunities that are out there for vets, about how to recognise your limitations and identify your skills, and about the joy of dealing with clients, even when they don’t like you! Guy also tells us about the pathway into a career in veterinary public health, and of course what life as a government vet is like, and much much more.
Please enjoy - Dr Guy Weerasinghe.
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We’ve always known that as part of our guest list we wanted to talk to vets from outside of clinical practice to provide us with some insights about parts of the profession that neither of us knows anything about. When it came to choosing who we should interview from the world of industry, today's guest was at the top of both of our lists. Dr. Mina Hamilton is a smiling bundle of energy and enthusiasm who took her talents out of clinical practice and into life as an industry vet a few years ago when she decided to work for one of the leading pet food companies. When you watch Dr. Mina doing her thing at work you’re immediately struck by how much she makes it look like a lot of fun, which is exactly why we wanted to talk to her. We wanted to find out if it really is fun, and dig a bit into the whys, the hows, and the pros and cons. Our conversation with Mina covers a wide range of topics. We talk about how you know whether or not a job is for you, about making the decision to stay or go in your job, and how to approach leaving when it is time to move on. Mina tells us what she loves about life as a technical vet, about the skills she’s learned in her role, about how to break bad habits, why holidays are so important, and much much more
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James Greenwood is a practicing veterinary surgeon living and working in Bristol in the UK. Originally from a farming family in Yorkshire, James inherited the family trait and devoted himself to a life spent in the company of animals. Since graduating from Bristol University in 2007, James has worked in mixed, equine and then for the last few years in companion animal practice.
Throughout his life he has shared his passion for science with his passion for art. Although taught originally to paint, James’ creativity has developed into a deep love for ceramics. He was invited to compete on the first series of BBC2’s 'The Great Pottery Throwdown’, which led to further television work, including the hit CBBC children's television series 'The Pets Factor'. He has also developed his own ceramics business, writes for various platforms and delivers talks on how his passion for science and art have influenced his life.
Gerardo spent the day with James and Oliver, the famous one-eyed Labrador, in their home. We had a great time picking his brain about his early work experiences, about finding himself out of his depth and dealing with imposter syndrome, and how he tries to achieve that ever-elusive balanced life. He tells us how he took stock of his career and how he made veterinary science work for him. We also talk about competence, confidence and courage, his life as a TV vet, and the absolute necessity of having things in your life that you love doing.
We had a lot of fun recording this episode, and I think you’ll have the same experience listening to James’ with his infectious enthusiasm.
Please enjoy - Dr James Greenwood.
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Dr. Rob Webster is an emergency and critical care specialist and one of the founding members of Animal Emergency Australia, a group of emergency clinics in southeastern Queensland. Outside of his clinical and leadership roles within the practice he has also trained and mentored large numbers of vets and vet nurses, inspiring them with his boundless energy and infectious enthusiasm. We pinned him down in his garden in far northern Queensland to see if we could extract some of that wisdom for our own good and yours, and he did not disappoint! We cover valuable ground, such as how he approaches challenges in the face of fear and uncertainty, despite feeling completely overwhelmed. He gives us his views on charting a career path, on whether to specialise or not. Rob even gives us a few study tips and tells us what he thinks one of the best things is that you can commit your time to, and on why you should always listen to your mother. Please join us in this fascinating conversation with Dr. Rob, and be inspired!
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Professor Jill Maddison is currently Professor of General Practice, Director of Professional Development and Director of the BVetMed course at the Royal Veterinary College in the United Kingdom. She is actively involved in undergraduate teaching and CPD at the RVC in the areas of small animal medicine, clinical problem solving and clinical pharmacology.
She has lectured extensively around the world on clinical problem solving, small animal internal medicine and clinical pharmacology. If you’ve ever listened to one of her lectures you’ll know that she is the epitome of clear-minded scientific thinking. And if you haven’t had the privilege of hearing her speak - well, luckily she’ has a book just for you: Jill is senior editor of a book called Clinical Reasoning in Small Animal Practice, a must-read for anyone in practice. She’s also published over 60 refereed papers in veterinary and medical journals and is the senior editor of a previous book, Small Animal Clinical Pharmacology.
To keep in touch with the realities of private general practice she consults at a local veterinary practice and at the RVC’s first opinion practice, the Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital.
In this episode we talk about clinical vet work for a change: Jill talks about some common mistakes that many vets make when it comes to clinical decision making, and why curiosity and thinking skills are more important than knowledge and facts. Jill gives us her insights about the value of internships and tells us what her favourite textbooks are for everyday practice.
Please enjoy - the queen of small animal veterinary medicine - Professor Jill Madison.
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Our guest today is a successful businessman who, in his free time, likes to put on a skin-tight black neoprene suit and use his special skills and unique equipment to save lives. No - it’s not Batman, but it may as well be. Dr Craig Challen has become an Australian icon for his role as a rescue diver in the Thailand cave rescue that captivated the world in late 2018. For his efforts in the rescue, Craig was awarded the Star Of Courage award in Australia, nominated as a Companion of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn in Thailand, and, together with his dive partner, as the joint Australian of the year for 2018/19. But long before any of this happened, Craig was an accomplished veterinarian and business owner. He had built and run a successful group of veterinary practices, while also quietly becoming one of the world’s most highly qualified cave divers. It's an incredible story with a very, VERY happy ending, and we are thrilled to have Craig share it with you. In our conversation, we dive deep into the world of veterinary business. Craig shares with us from his wealth of experience tips that vary from how to be a good employee, all the way to building a multi-practice business. Listen out for his 4 step formula to dealing with complaints towards the end of the episode. We talk about career plans, fear, self-confidence, doing hard things, and Craig gives us his take on the challenge of living a balanced life. But first, we kick off deep underground in a cave, somewhere in Thailand.
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For this episode we are fortunate to have with us a young vet who is contributing more to the veterinary profession in her relatively short career than many of us will do in a lifetime. Dr Paula Parker was the president of the Australian Veterinary Association for 2018/19, and is the youngest person ever to be elected to this position. When she is not leading the team that makes major policy decisions and guides the future of our our profession both in Australia and internationally she works as an emergency vet in a practice in the Gold Coast, Australia.
Our chat with Paula unearthed some very practical tips and tools for every day life as a vet.
I personally found the discussions about productivity, mental resetting and transitioning, and how to get past no especially useful. We also cover a wide range of other topics, like the pros and cons of rural practice, how to deal with being the ‘new vet’, especially the new ‘girl’ vet in a farm practice environment, controlling the controllables, the value of serving on committees and other organisations, and about vomiting for fun... Paula addresses a huge issue for many people in our profession: money - how to think about it, how to talk about it, and how to make it.
We trust that you’ll find this conversation as inspiring as we did.
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Dr Nadine Hamilton is a psychologist, but she’s not just your everyday psychologist - she’s OUR psychologist. After nearly 35 years of experience in a variety of industries she is now a leading voice and helping hand for the veterinary profession. Through her practice, Positive Psych Solutions, she works exclusively with vets, helping them to be the best they can be for their patients and themselves.
However, Nadine was not satisfied with small scale solutions: her recently published book “Learning To Cope With Stress And Burnout As A Veterinarian’ is already proving very useful for many in the profession, and will undoubtedly become a vital mental health resource for vets around the world.
Dr Hamilton is also the founder of the “Love Your Pet, Love Your Vet’ charity, which aims to raise community awareness of the shadow side to the veterinary profession, as well as reducing stigma for those working in the industry about seeking help when they need it. Her work with the charity has brought some of the challenges that vets face to the attention of the general public through some very successful media exposure.
As can be expected from someone with Nadine’s background, our discussion with her provides some fantastic insight into the state of mental health in our profession, with some very practical advice on building and maintaining resilience, and on how to speak up and find help when you are going through tough times.
Please enjoy this conversation with one of the leading minds in veterinary mental health today - Dr Nadine Hamilton.
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In this episode we speak to a vet who, in his 26 years in the veterinary profession, has experienced some fantastic highs , but also some of the very darkest lows. His journey has taught him crucial lessons on how to not only survive, but thrive in this sometimes challenging profession of ours, and we are very fortunate that he is happy to share those lessons with us with such honesty and openness. Dr Oliver Liyou graduated from the University of Queensland in 1993 with first class honours. He is the principle veterinarian and owner of Equine Veterinary Dentistry Services, which he started in 2002. He lives and works in South Grafton, northern NSW in Australia on a property with horses, cattle, and his family. Since 2002 Oliver has co-ordinated and hosted equine dentistry training workshops for vets from all over the world. In 2007 he was the first Australian vet to sit and pass membership exams in Equine Dentistry. He has authored several scientific papers and lectured on equine dentistry throughout Australia and internationally, and regularly publishes articles to raise awareness of welfare in horses. Oliver has also co-designed several equine dental instruments, including the porta safe stocks trailer. (EVDS.net.au.) But it’s not all been smooth sailing for Oliver. Since graduating as a vet 25 years ago he has survived all of the following: lasting almost 10 years in his first business that he started the day after graduating; a suicide attempt in 2005; a divorce 5 years later; narrowly avoiding bankruptcy, and a business partnership dissolution soon after that. Despite these setbacks he has emerged happy and balanced, with a good business, and still remains positive about life, his career and the veterinary profession overall. This discussion is essential listening for many of us. We talk about what success as a vet looks like, the paradox of being exceptional, the importance of learning to say no with a smile and why it’s important to sometimes be shit at stuff. Oliver talks candidly about his suicide attempt - how to recognise the warning signs that you are in trouble, his journey beyond that period in his life, and how to protect yourself against things ever going this far. He also shares with us his his eight tips for surviving veterinary science. Please join us, in fact - I urge you to join us, in this ultimately uplifting episode with Dr Oliver Liyou.
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When Gerardo first suggested today’s guest to me I must admit that I was slightly sceptical. If our aim with this podcast is to pick the brains of successful people in the veterinary profession to see if they can share some of their acquired wisdom with us, then surely our guests will need years of experience? Or so I thought. Let me assure you that you do NOT need years of experience to have serious focus and have the right mindset.
Dr Brooke Schampers is an emergency veterinarian in Brisbane, Australia - a career that she chose very deliberately, and pursues with passion and positivity. She shares her challenges and what she is learning on her very popular instagram account - doctor_brooke, inspiring and helping thousands of others in the process.
We talk about getting your attitude right to work undesirable shifts, practicing and projecting confidence when you’re not feeling all that confident, how to deal with being a fresh faced vet - in other words how to ensure that clients take you seriously if you look very young, and how to improve your communication skills.
Brooke gives advice on picking and pursuing your dream job, with tips on how to get that all important foot in the door.
No discussion about emergency work would be complete without stories of triumph and failure, and how to deal with the demands of a job that can be very stressful. We’ll discuss some great ideas on how to keep your mind fit to fight another day.
We also delve a bit into the world of social media - the how, the good and the bad.
No matter where you are in your veterinary career - this conversation is guaranteed to motivate and inspire. Please enjoy, and don’t forget to stay tuned for your homework assignment for the week at the end of the episode.
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In today’s episode we chat to a vet who in her relatively short career has managed to encourage and inspire tens of thousands of vets through her popular veterinary instagram account, louisa_the_vet. After our interview I can count myself as one of the many people who have benefited from her infectious enthusiasm.
Dr Louisa Graham is a UK based small animal veterinarian. Because of a childhood that she describes as “surrounded by animals” she always knew that she could only ever be a vet. Since qualifying she has worked in small animal practices across the UK as both practitioner and in managerial and mentoring rolls. She has continued her education while working, gaining a certificate in advanced veterinary practice in small animal medicine after a few years in practice, and at the time of recording she was just about to make a move to a new practice York where she’ll continue her veterinary journey.
We cover a lot of ground in our conversation with Louisa, discussing topics like how she stays motivated, the struggles she faced during her early career, why a good support network is so important and what that network looks like, especially in your first job. And on the topic of first jobs - we talk about finding that right first job and what your future employers care and don’t care about.
Louisa gives advice about managing your expectations, becoming a ‘mini-specialist’, avoiding what she calls ‘the comparison trap’, maintaining perspective and most importantly about having fun.
Please enjoy this conversation with the effervescent and all round lovely Dr Louisa Graham, and when you get to the end - keep listening for our surprise bonus section.
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In our first episode we take 30 minutes to talk to each other so you can get to know your hosts a bit better and find out what our podcast is all about.
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