The Vet Vault: Fall In Love With Veterinary Science (Dr. Hubert Hiemstra)

We revisit our very first guest with a story from Louisa about the early days in her career that demonstrates a vital career lesson.

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.

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 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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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. 

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.

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.

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!)

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.

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!

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, some tips on 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.

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.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

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).

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.

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.

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:

1. I did the hard yards.

2. I did it often on a 24/7 basis.

3. 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.

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.

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/

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.

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.

Get help with your cases in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Specialist Support Space.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week.

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./

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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!

Come help us create some live clinical content at IVECSS '23 in Denver, Colorado from 7-11 September.

Dr Doug's website.

Dr Doug's book: The Vet At Noah's Ark.

Dr Doug's Instagram.

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. 

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.

"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.

Get help with your cases in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Specialist Support Space.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week. ⁠

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.’

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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

1. Defining Moral Injury - 02:58

2. Differentiating Trauma, Moral Injury, and Burnout - 07:04

3. Moral Injury in Veterinary Practice: Subtle and Irresolvable Cases - 10:03

4. What’s New for the Vet Vault in 2025 - 16:33

5. Moral Injury vs Moral Distress - 21:18

6. Moral Injury vs Compassion Fatigue - 24:01

7. How Does Moral Injury Manifest? - 27:01

8. How to Address Moral Injury: Recognising and Implementing Solutions - 29:44

9. The Role of Vulnerability and Shared Experiences - 33:25

10. Communication, Community, and Support - 38:59

11. Shannon’s Podcast Choices - 46:29

12. 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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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

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.

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.

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/

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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

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.

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. 

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.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠.

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 Drive Podcast with Peter Attia.

Funny Cuz It's True Podcast with Elise Myers.

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. 

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.

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

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Subscribe to our ⁠weekly newsletter⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for Hubert's favourite clinical and non-clinical learnings from the week. 

'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

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.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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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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.

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

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. 

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 education 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.

Join our Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game & get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com. 

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.

Join LIVE in Adelaide on 31st May - RSVP here. Can't make it to Adelaide? Come join online here

Artificial intelligence in vet industry LIVE June 1st, join us here

Join us at Vets on Tour in Wanaka on 13 - 18 August 2023

Anna's Business - The Vet's North

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. 

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.

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.

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!

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).

Olga's Research Article - Empathy and Compassion

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. 

et access to our clinical podcast series with our ⁠⁠⁠30% off IVECCS Special.⁠⁠⁠

Get case support from our team at specialists in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Specialist Support Space⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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 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.

We love to hear from you. Leave a review here, or get in touch with questions or feedback at info@thevetvault.com.

And if you like what you hear, please share the love by rating us on your podcast player and hitting that share button and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this. 

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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:

1. Feline upper respiratory diagnostics: who needs what? [00:00:00-00:05:00]

2. Discussion of different types of feline upper respiratory diseases [00:05:00-00:06:00]

3. Importance of husbandry and stress management in preventing feline upper respiratory diseases [00:16:00-00:31:00]

4. Hygiene practices for cat households and catteries [00:31:00-00:33:00]

5. Overview of infectious causes of feline upper respiratory diseases [00:02:00-00:08:00]

6. Discussion of feline herpesvirus and its symptoms [00:08:00-00:12:00]

7. Discussion of feline calicivirus and its symptoms [00:12:00-00:14:00]

8. Discussion of other infectious causes of feline upper respiratory diseases [00:14:00-00:16:00]

9. Vaccines for preventing feline upper respiratory diseases [00:16:00-00:18:00]

10. Overview of diagnostic tests for feline upper respiratory diseases [00:18:00-00:20:00]

11. Discussion of PCR panels and their usefulness in diagnosing feline upper respiratory diseases [00:20:00-00:22:00]

12. 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.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter ⁠here⁠.

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).

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.

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.

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

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 with nothing abnormal on lung imaging. 38:01 Step 6: Non-respiratory causes.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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. 


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.

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/

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/

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.

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!

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!

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.