Veterinary Ramblings

In this special episode of Veterinary Ramblings, we delve into a pressing issue currently affecting the veterinary industry. Our guest, Louise Buckley, takes centre stage as she shares her unique perspective on the treatment of dogs and their owners in relation to Brucella Canis. Louise, a former registered veterinary nurse, made the bold decision to remove herself from the Register of Veterinary...

The next guest to join us is Inge Breathnach AKA The Oncology RVN! With quite a sensitive episode ahead of us, we start with the most difficult question we can... what is Inge's favourite bread? Slightly silly questions aside, Inge explains how she got into oncology as a veterinary nurse and shares the aspects of her work that she really enjoys. Alongside being an oncology nurse, Inge has experien...

This week we’re joined by Jessica May MRCVS!  Jessica has worked in mixed and equine practices, both in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. Having worked in a variety of clinics, she has experience in first opinion, referral hospital and charity settings.  We begin this week's episode by discussing Jessica’s time spent in Hong Kong as an intern at a jockey club and her love for seedy loaf bread! We...

This week we're joined by Toby Trimble, an RCVS and ECVAA Specialist in veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia, award-winning speaker and founder of Trimble Group (previously Trimble Productions). We begin this week's episode at the start of Toby's journey, from a child struggling with dyslexia to a teenager with no GCSEs or A-levels, overcoming adversity to enter the veterinary profession.  He expl...

This week we're joined by Darragh O' Hanlon (@thetopicalvet), an Advanced Veterinary Practitioner and Veterinary Dermatologist. He enjoys all things dermatology, from ears to anal glands, with a special interest in allergies. Darragh describes his journey from an arts degree to veterinary medicine and how his grandmother inspired him to pursue this career. We discuss the impacts Brexit has had on...

Join us as we chat with Laura Jones RVN about her life as a veterinary nurse, her hobbies, and her passion for internal medicine. Laura shares her journey to becoming a veterinary nurse and the importance of nurses to the veterinary team and client relations. Outside of work, Laura is an adrenaline junkie who loves to drag race and explains what this courageous hobby involves and how it helps her...

This week we are joined by the fantastic Dr Russell Chandler!  Russell graduated from the University of Bristol Veterinary School and has a self-confessed addiction to learning! He has studied various post-graduate qualifications including the RCVS Certificate in Small Animal Orthopaedics, an MSc in Orthopaedic Engineering and RCVS Advanced Practitioner in Small Animal Orthopaedics. His current cl...

 Dr Mike Davies graduated from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, in 1976. He owned his own veterinary practice for more than 11 years and has worked in academia and in the pet food and pharmaceutical industries. Mike has postgraduate Certificates in Veterinary Radiology and Small Animal Orthopaedics and a Diploma in Small Animal Clinical Nutrition. He published one of the first b...

Join us as we sit down with the wonderful Caroline Murray,  an international veterinary locum and adventure traveller who is also known as The Wilderness Vet! We begin our conversation by discussing Caroline's adventures in Mongolia and the action-packed, yet surprisingly modern lives of the nomadic people she travelled with.  Caroline tells us which careers she considered before she decided to be...

 Laura joins us for the second time after smashing the Guinness World Record for tandem cycling, covering 18,000 miles in 180 days with her husband Stevie! On their way, they raised money for VetLife, Mind and Sustrans. You can still support them by heading over to stelatandem.com . We catch up on her amazing, but sometimes dangerous, world trip and find out about all the wonderful places they vis...

Merry Christmas Ramblers! We're blown away by the year that we've had. If you follow us on social media you might have seen that we've had one of the best years on record, and we're so thrilled that our following is going strong.  We wanted to celebrate the end of 2022 with some of our favourite stories from this year, where we revisit some of our favourite moments with guests - including some awe...

Last week, we released part one of our episode with Helen MacDonald, giving you the chance to get the know the person behind the scandal surrounding Geronimo the alpaca. If you haven’t tuned in already, we highly recommend listening to part one before you listen to this week's episode which will focus on Geronimo's story. Geronimo was born on Waitangi Day (6th of February) in 2013 at New Zealand's...

You may know Helen MacDonald as the owner of Geronimo the alpaca - however, there is so much more to her story! As such we have decided to release Helen's episode in two parts.  In Part One, we get to know the fascinating person behind the scandal. We begin this week's episode discussing Helen's time spent in Australia as a child and the difference in culture and education that she experienced whe...

This week we're joined by the wonderful Carly Kilby! Carly is a veterinary nurse, scout leader and mother. She grew up in South London, but discovered her love for veterinary work and the outdoors after moving to countryside in her teenage years. We discuss the difficulties of finding people who understand the intricacies of a job in the veterinary profession, and the embarrassment of accidentally...

Join us as we chat with the awesome Ruth Greenhill, an ECC veterinary night nurse at a busy 24hr hospital in central London.  Maintaining a good work-life balance is important to her and she has many fascinating hobbies and passions outside the veterinary world.  Ruth talks to us about how she uses night-shift work to achieve a better work-life balance and helps her find time for all of her eclect...

This week we're chatting with Lacey Pitcher, an RVN who has travelled the world and enjoyed a varied career across GP, OOH, Referral and charity medicine.  We begin this week's show with the most important question, what is her favourite type of bread? Lacey then explains how cheese influenced her to buy her house! She shares her love of travelling and how her veterinary passport helped her to tra...

*Please note, this episode was recorded last year during coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions, however, we had such a fantastic time recording this wonderful conversation with Lou that we still really want to share it with you all!* *Lou's views are her own and do not represent or reflect the views of the BVNA* This week we're thrilled to present our episode with the fantastic Lou Northway whom...

This week we are joined by the fantastic Craig Tessyman RVN! Craig started working in practice as a student in 1999 and has worked in small animal practice, referral, emergency out of hours and charity medicine.  He explains how his appearance breaks the mould of what you would expect a veterinary nurse to look like and how he hopes it will make the industry more inclusive! For the last 6 years, h...

This week, we speak to the wonderful Dr Hannah Perrin - a leading figure in veterinary education.  She's worked with Street Vet, Veterinary Management Group, and lectures at the Royal Veterinary College.  We talk leadership, education, and identity in the veterinary profession, with Hannah delivering an excellent 60-second CPD on how to build a support network as a leader. Hannah originally qualif...

This week we are joined by the fantastic Karen Hiestand! Karen shares her experiences training as a vet in New Zealand and practicing veterinary medicine in both NZ and the UK while also volunteering in many more countries.  We discuss how problems with clients affect your self-worth and how the industry can improve working environments to deal with traumatic situations through ethics and reflecti...

In this episode, we're chatting to Dr Sean McCormack: Conservationist, Vet, and Presenter! Graduating from Dublin vet school in 2010, Sean spent the first six years of his veterinary career in domestic, exotic pet, and zoo animal practice. In 2016, Sean left clinics to work in pet nutrition and have more time for media and wildlife conservation work. Sean tells us about his role at tails.com and h...

Our guest this week is Nathalie Dowgray, the Head of ISFM at International Cat Care!    Nathalie graduated from Massey University, New Zealand in 2002, is a Member of the Australian New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in Feline Medicine and holds a post-graduate diploma in international animal welfare ethics and law and a PhD in feline ageing.  We discuss the difficulties of differentiati...

This week our guest is Jamil Dowling! Joining us from Armenia, Jamil talks us through his unique childhood growing up in the jungles of South America, fighting crocodiles and befriending baby animals,  before living on a nature reserve with his mother in Spain.  A student of life, we discuss his unusual education, from taking his GCSEs and A-levels in an extraordinarily short space of time, to bal...

Laura is a Companion Animal Veterinary Surgeon who is taking a sabbatical for 6 months to ride around the world with her husband on a tandem bicycle in an attempt to break the Guinness World record, covering 18,000miles in 180days. On their way, they are raising money for VetLife, Mind and Sustrans! You can follow them online from their website at stelatandem.com. We ask why she wants to attempt s...

This week Veterinary Ramblings is joined by Dr Sean Wensley, author of Through A Vet's Eyes: How we can all choose a better life for animals! Sean Wensley is a Senior Vet at the UK veterinary charity, the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA). He chairs the Animal Welfare Working Group of the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe and was President of the British Veterinary Association from 2...