The Vet Vault
By The Vet Vault
The Vet VaultMay 26, 2023
#93: Reasonable residencies, success through self-knowledge, and filling buckets. With Dr Anna Dengate.
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
#92: Cushing's: Diagnose like a pro, and treat it like you mean it. With Dr Sue Foster.
Who feels like Cushing's is a nice disease to diagnose and manage? Like, how often do you feel like your hyperadrenocorticism patients are really doing REALLY well? My guess is: not that often. This episode will change that.
Dr Sue Foster is a registered specialist in Feline Medicine and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine at Murdoch University in Western Australia. She’s also a medical consultant for Vetnostics and ASAP Laboratory, where a large part of her role is interpreting cortisol test results and supporting veterinarians in their clinical decision-making. In this conversation, Dr Sue challenges the belief that Cushing's is to some degree a 'lifestyle' disease that doesn't always need to be treated, we discuss the subtle ways that it can present, and of course we take a deep dive into those slippery cortisol tests, which should feel a lot less slippery after this episode. Dr Sue also presents a paradigm shift in how we think about treating these cases.
Topics:
0:00 Understanding the cortisol lab tests.
4:40 ACTH stim vs LDDT - which is better?
10:28 The TRUE significance of ALP in diagnosing Cushing’s.
13:30 Fasting triglycerides - your friend in Cushing’s screening?
16:26 Deciding when to test for Cushings .
18:27 More on triglycerides and lipaemia
23:52 Why Cushing’s cases don’t all have to have pu/pd.
26:04 The many different faces of Cushing’s - spotting the sneaky hyperA case .
29:42 Why we should consider treating Cushing’s even if they aren’t textbook cases.
31:41 Cushing’s and anxiety.
35:40 The dog with the high ALP but no clinical signs of Cushing’s.
39:44 Treatment trials for the ‘undiagnosable’ Cushing’s case.
45:13 Monitoring Cushing’s therapy with ACTH stim testing.
52:30 The quick and easy ACTH stim test.
56:20 Treating Cushing’s like a pro.
This episode is supported by the SVS Pathology Network.
QML/TML Vetnostics (QLD & Tas): 1300 838 765 vetnostics@qml.com.au
Vetnostics (NSW & ACT): 02 9006 7468 enquiries@vetnostics.com.au
ASAP Laboratory (VIC): 1300 838 522 admin@asaplab.com.au
Vetpath (WA): 08 9317 0777 admin@vetpath.com.au
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
Join us at Vets on Tour in Wanaka, New Zealand on 13 - 18 August 2023 for great CE, live podcasting and snow... lots of snow!
#91: Human savvy: Navigating relationships with colleagues, work and ourselves. With Dr Olivia Oginska.
Our guest for this episode - Dr Olivia Oginska, has made it her mission to help us have better relationships, both in and outside of work.
Olivia Oginska is a veterinarian, speaker, positive psychology coach, a certified workplace conflict mediator and an emotional intelligence specialist. Liv has been immersed in the global veterinary community since 2010 when she did multiple externships in the UK, North America and Australia. It was through Liv's veterinary career in the UK, including a surgery residency, that she also gained experience and credentials in positive psychology, emotional intelligence and conflict mediation. This cemented her passion for human wellbeing and interpersonal dynamics and for the last 3 years, Liv has devoted her veterinary career to supporting both individuals, teams and especially leaders in becoming more human-savvy through her consulting and coaching service.
This conversation with Liv is all about navigating work relationships and our relationships with ourselves - we explore what a healthy work relationship looks like. We explore the connection between burnout and the reliance on work to provide not only our professional and financial needs, but also our relationship needs, and we discuss a new way of thinking about balance, what self awareness and emotional intelligence looks like in practice, and much much more.
Topic List:
6:54 Relationships and connections at work - taking care of them.
10:11 Private life and professionalism.
11:00 On the floor relationships and friendships - do people want to be friends with colleagues anymore?
14:36 The connection between burnout and the reliance on work to provide money, growth, community etc.
17:43 The truth about work-life-balance.
23:19 Setting expectations with your partner or friends.
27:59 How to navigate conflict with colleagues.
35:31 Open conversations and leaning into 'conflict'.
38:47 Importance of self-awareness during conflict and how to view things from a different perspective.
48:00 Why do we feel the need to be right and prove ourselves?
49:35 Why we should change our minds and listen to other opinions?
54:49 How Olivia started her career and why she ended up in emotional intelligence coaching.
60:03 Hitting rock bottom and triggering a change in life.
60:09 What does a good team dynamic look like in terms of emotional closeness?
60:10 The importance of aligning values and boundaries.
60:19 Working through imposter syndrome.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com, visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode, and connect with us through our online Vet Vault Network. for episode highlights, discussions, questions and support.
Join us in at Vets on Tour in Wanaka, New Zealand on 13 - 18 August 2023 for great CE, live podcasting and snow... lots of snow!
Dr Liv's Consulting Business - Vet Gone Real
#90: The life changing effect of valuing yourself and your services, and how to get better at it. With Dr Olivia James.
Many of us struggle with attaching a dollars-and-cents value to this ‘fixing animals’ thing that we do for a living. We tell ourselves stories about how our work is a labor of love, about ethics and about the noble nature of our profession, and we underestimate the value of our skills and knowledge. But stories can become limiting beliefs that hold us back from realizing our full potential as veterinary professionals and as thriving humans, which all-too-often ends up with this story that Dr Olivia James hears over and over in her coaching work: "I’m overworked, I’m poor, and I’m lonely."
Dr Olivia James is an equine dentistry specialist, former practice owner, founder and director of the educational platforms The Veterinary Dental Company and The Equine Practice Company and mentor and teacher though the business masterminds and coaching groups she hosts for equine practice owners, and in this episode she helps change our stories and beliefs around valuing our services. Olivia also provides practical strategies for reviewing what you charge in your business. Ultimately, this is a conversation about avoiding 'overworked, poor, and lonely.'
Topic list:
2:50 What has Olivia been up to since our last conversation.
7:20 Happy/ Thrive /Flourish: What are we actually aiming for?
9:20 Loneliness in practice.
14:40 How Olivia learnt how to charge.
19:50 Life changes that can happen when your business works better.
26:10 Why it sometimes makes more sense to invest money in the stock market than in buying a practice.
29:10 The mental blocks that make it hard for us to charge appropriately .
30:40 When clients accuse us of 'just being in it for the money.
34:30 Getting the team on board with price changes in your business.
36:50 The three ways of setting your charges.
42:10 The things we commonly fail to account for in working out cost of service.
44:30 The ethics of what we charge.
47:40 How to decide which prices to adjust.
50:30 Tying business to what matter most.
56:00 Olivia's book choices.
59:00 Olivia's answer to the one question.
Join our community of Vet Vault Nerds to lift your clinical game and get your groove back with our up to date easy-to-consume clinical episodes at vvn.supercast.com.
Visit thevetvault.com for the show notes and resources for this episode.
Join us in at Vets on Tour in Wanaka, New Zealand on 13 - 18 August 2023 for great CE, live podcasting and snow... lots of snow!
#89: Live recording: The jaundiced cat, and rethinking liver diagnostics. With Prof Jill Maddison.
This episode from our clinical series is brought to you by Elanco, makers of the broadest range of parasiticides including Advocate, Milbemax, Seresto and Credelio Plus.
"The question about the biochemistry is really interesting, because what your question now is, is 'what is it, and where is it?' And the problem that we have is that the liver enzymes aren't gonna tell us, because it's really hard to separate hepatic from post-hepatic on bloods. ALP is very insensitive in the cat and will go up with both hepatic and post-hepatic. ALT will go up with hepatic and post-hepatic. Bilirubin will be up. So what?!"
We recorded this case-based interactive session about how to work up the jaundiced cat with one of the world's leading Small Animal Medicine specialists and teachers, Prof Jill Maddison at session our live event in 2022.
Prof Jill Jill Maddison, BVSc, DipVetClinStud, PhD, SFHEA, MRCVS, is a professor of general practice, the director of professional development, and the BVetMed and CertAVP course director at Royal Veterinary College. She is also a coordinator for London Vet Show and is a consultant at a local veterinary practice and at Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital in London. Dr Maddison is the senior editor of the second edition of Small Animal Clinical Pharmacology and the senior editor of Clinical Reasoning in Small Animal Practice. She has lectured worldwide on clinical problem-solving, small animal internal medicine, and clinical pharmacology.
In this session she helps us reason through a case of jaundice in a cat to create a deeper understanding, rather than a simple list of facts. She also shifts some long-standing beliefs around diagnostic testing in liver disease in both dogs and cats.
Topic list:
5:07 Where to begin your workup.
6:05 Defining the problem and localising the problem: Pre-hepatic, hepatic or post-hepatic?
9:17 How much does dehydration actually affect PCV?
10:43 Bilirubin - how useful is it?
"It’s the most over-interpreted test I reckon. I have so many vets tell me, “Oh, the bilirubin is 16, it has to have a problem with its liver…” No, it probably just has inflammatory disease."
13:14 Dd’s for hepatic disease in cats.
14:20 Dd’s for post-hepatic causes of jaundice.
16:04 Biochem in jaundice: ALP, ALT, GGT.
"The problem that we have is that the liver enzymes aren't going to tell us."
19:51 Why bile acids are useless in the diagnosis of liver disease.
"The bile acids don't tell you anything more than you already know. There is no relationship between the level of bile acids and the prognosis or reversibility of the lesion."
24:25 Can't I just trial-treat?
26:16 Ultrasound.
28:27 Signalment: how useful is it?
29:36 Cholesterol and liver disease.
30:52 Pancreatic lipase and pancreatitis in cats.
"What we found was that we had 24% false negatives. So we had a quarter of our cats who had what seemed to be pancreatitis that did not have an increased Pli."
36:54 Hepatic lipidosis.
For more world-class specialists in an easy-to-consume format join our community of Vet Vault Nerds at vvn.supercast.com.
Visit thevetvault.com for the show notes for this episode.
Join us in at Vets on Tour in Wanaka, New Zealand on 13 - 18 August 2023 for great CE, more live podcasting and snow... lots of snow!
#88: Okay vet, exceptional outcomes: fresh thoughts on leadership and motivation, with Dr Andrew Ciccolini.
Dr Andrew Ciccolini is a Medical Director at the National Mill Dog Rescue, a non-profit that rescues and rehomes discarded breeding dogs, and also the Director of Non-Profit Initiatives at Galaxy Vets. His background includes serving in the U.S. Army, where he worked his way up from Associate Veterinarian to VP of Operations. In addition to his veterinary degree, he also has a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership.
In this conversation Andrew takes us on a wild ride through his career with detours into what it’s like to be a military vet, working with high-performance dogs, why choosing not-for-profit work works for him, why it might work for you, and how incorporating some of it in your business might work for your team. We draw on Andrew’s military experience and his leadership Master's to talk about leadership styles, finding the right ways to motivate a vet team beyond money (but also including money!), and Andrew tells us about his current work for the Galaxy Vets Foundation to support pet owners in Ukraine.
Time markers:
1. Bad decisions, good stories. 6:00
2. Life as an army vet in the US. 9:00
3. Working with high-performance dogs 12:15
4. What Andrew learnt in his time as a military vet. 14:46
5. Leadership lessons from the military. 16:00
6. Can you change your leadership style? 23:19
7. Motivating veterinary teams: beyond the $$$'s. 26:41
8. National Mill Dog Rescue. 31:40
9. Dealing with 'divided' teams. 33:30
10. Not-for-profit work. 35:54
11. Galaxy Vets Foundation and its work in Ukraine. 39:58
12. What we've learnt about Telemedicine from their work in Ukraine. 41:07
13. Rediscovering your passion through charity work. 43:24
14. Being okay with being okay. 49:10
15. The pass-along question. (Chihuahuas!) 53:00
16. Andrew's podcast choices. 56:20
17. The one question. 56:56
Join the mailing list to hear about new opportunities at Galaxy Vets here, or volunteer to provide telehealth services to the pets and pet owners of Ukraine here.
Get your clinical skills nudged way beyond okay with our clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.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.
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, 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.
#87: Breakdown to breakthrough, and how the blockchain and AI and will change veterinary science. With Dr Steve Joslyn
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.
#86: Demystifying inflammatory brain disease. With Dr Sam Long
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.
#85: Reality minus expectations, and a guide on how not to screw over your colleagues. With Dr Denis Verwilghen
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.
#84: Simple, not easy: Personal finance for veterinarians, with Noel Whittaker
We talk about well-being a lot on this podcast, but one thing we don’t really discuss all that often is financial well-being. And while it’s a truism that money can’t buy you happiness, I'm also of the opinion that if the number of shifts you do is purely determined by your level of debt rather than your level of enthusiasm that there is likely to be an increase in sadness! Which is why we invited one of the world’s foremost authorities on personal finance, Noel Whittaker, to set us off on the right path.
This episode is a recording of a Q&A session that we did with Australian finance icon, Noel Whittaker, and several of the team from Animal Emergency Australia to help us with our burning money questions. Noel is a bestselling author, finance and investment expert, radio broadcaster, newspaper columnist and public speaker. He reaches over three million readers each week through his columns in major Australian newspapers and magazines, and also broadcasts on over 50 radio stations. He has over 20 bestselling books, including a brand new one called 10 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom. His first book, Making Money Made Simple, set sales records across the country and was named in The 100 Most Influential Books of the Twentieth Century. For 30 years, Noel was the Director of Whittaker Macnaught, one of Australia’s leading financial advisory companies, with more than two billion dollars under management. In 1988 Noel was named Australian Investment Planner of the Year and, in 2003, he was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in recognition of his services to the financial services industry. In 2011 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the community in raising awareness of personal finance. He is currently an Adjunct Professor and Executive-in-Residence with the Queensland University of Technology, as well as a committee member advising the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.
We're joined by the team from AEA to answer questions about financial topics relevant to most of us, including whether it's best to buy or rent, smash the mortgage or start investing, whether it makes sense for younger people to pay extra into their retirement fund, how to think about student debt, insurance planning, balancing debt with investment, planning advice for rising interest rates and much more. (Quick translation for our non-Australian listeners: Super = Retirement fund. HECS debt = Student loan)
If you'd like your financial and professional journey to be as part of a veterinary team that does more than just talk about team well-being, listen to our job add at the end of episode 83 to find out about working with me in one of the best locations in Australia and AES Tanawha, or contact me at vetvaultpodcast@gmail.com to ask all your questions.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
#83: Diversity, inclusion and veterinary euphoria. With Dr Kate Toyer and Dr Cam Raw
This episode is supported by Animal Emergency Services Tanawha, part of the AEA group. If you're interested in the career opportunity discussed in this episode contact us at vetvaultpodcast@gmail.com to find out more.
Dr Kate Toyer graduated as a vet in 1995, got married in 1996 and bought shares in a veterinary practice with her partner in 2000. In 2007 she gained Memberships of the ANZCVS in Veterinary Surgery and also the College Prize for her work on developing one of the first interactive online courses with the then PGF. (Sydney University CVE). She and her partner had 3 children, and what looked like the perfect veterinary life. But Kate felt like a fraud because the person living this dream life was a man called Adam. In 2011 Kate told her wife she wasn’t a “normal” guy, and in 2015 she started HRT and publicly transitioned, becoming the only 'out' trans female veterinarian in the world at the time. In 2016 Kate founded Australian Rainbow Veterinarians and Allies, a support and advocacy organisation for LGBTIQA+ people in the veterinary industry which she currently leads. In 2021 she joined forces with Dr Cam Raw to start The Veterinary Kaleidoscope Podcast where they explore the experiences of people from diverse backgrounds in the veterinary world.
Dr Cam is a Palawa man with family links to the far south of Lutruwita (Tasmania). In the nine years since graduating he’s worked in cattle practice in Victoria, mixed practice in the UK, remote small animal practice in the Northern Territory and now in a teaching and research role in Melbourne. Providing veterinary care and building relationships in remote communities across the Top End have provided pathways to explore his cultural identity in ways he never imagined growing up, and a big focus of his current work relates to Indigenous representation, mental well-being and diversity and inclusion.
Kate and Cam are the perfect guides through this conversation about inclusion and diversity, including what these terms mean, whether they are the same thing, how the vet profession fairs when it comes to being inclusive, and how we can get better at it. Dr Kate shares her story and tells us about how something called 'gender dysphoria' has parallels in the veterinary profession and how can choose euphoria. Cam tells us about the rediscovery of his own indigenous Australian culture, how his career journey deviated out of standard clinical practice and his work in remote Australian communities, and I get to ask all the questions you've probably always wanted to ask!
Attend the Veterinary Kaleidoscope Summit 2023, Australia's first-ever summit dedicated to exploring diversity and inclusion in veterinary science on 27 and 28 February.
Increase your knowledge, skills and confidence with our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts at vvn.supercast.com.
#82: If it is to be: Dr Michael Archinal on choosing your own adventure, a side-career in media, remote indigenous dog health, and using gratitude as a shield.
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.
#81: Tick paralysis update 2022: How to manage the antiserum shortage, and what’s new in case management. With the Tick Paralysis Advisory Panel.
If you are a clinician working in a paralysis tick area of Australia then you’ll be well aware of the 2022 shortage of tick antiserum, and you very likely have some questions, like how do we ensure that we still do the best for our patients, where do our previous dose rates for TAS even come from, and why is it suddenly ok for us to use less? You might even be wondering how the vet boards will view deviations from the label dose if that’s what we’re required to do in response to the shortage.
We’ve gathered some of the smartest people on the topic to get your questions answered. The smart people in question are Prof Rick Atwell, Dr Terry King, Dr Heather Russel and Dr Rob Webster, who are all members of the Tick Paralysis Advisory Panel, a group of veterinary and scientific experts who convene to review the latest scientific information regarding the prevention and management of tick paralysis to provide guidance and recommendations to vets and pet owners. This discussion covers what we know (and what we think we know!) about paralysis ticks, their toxins and how it relates to antiserum dose, as well as new insights around managing tick cases beyond just TAS.
Visit VETAPEDIA.com.au for additional resources on tick paralysis and many other Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care guidelines from the team at Animal Emergency Australia.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
#80: Everything you need to know about canine lymphoma. With Dr Penny Thomas
This episode from our clinical podcast series is brought to you by the SVS Pathology Network - Australia's exclusive provider of the advanced testing techniques discussed in this episode.
We sit down with Dr Penny Thomas from Veterinary Oncology Consultants to ask all of the questions you've ever had (and probably a few you didn't know you had!) about canine lymphoma. Dr Penny covers the common sticking points, like how to make sure you get an accurate diagnosis, new advances in diagnostic testing, a very practical way to prognosticate your lymphoma patients, what you can do for the sick lymphoma patient while you wait for the oncology appointment (spoiler alert... yes, pred!), and therapy options - from simple and cheap to going all-in on trying to achieve remission.
Follow these links for additional information on flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry mentioned in this episode, or contact your local SVS pathologist.
We're going LIVE in Noosa on 22-25 November with the gurus of small animal medicine, Prof David Church and Prof Jill Maddison, as well a very special non-clinical day with Philip McKernan. Use VVLISTENER at checkout for our listener discount.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
#79: Exploring the trends, the myths and the facts around pet nutrition. With Shiva Greenalgh
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.
#78: Superhero conversations, sh&* sandwiches, and what we can learn from Ted Lasso. With Dr Rebecca Faris
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.
#77: Excellence with heart. With Dr Jeannet Kessels.
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.
#76: She said she would, and then she did. With Dr Jocelyn Birch Baker
It used to be that work was work: it had its constraints and limitations, and if you had responsibilities or interests that seriously clashed with those constraints then maybe the working world just wasn’t for you. But the people who make up the heart of vet practices today don’t necessarily want to make that binary choice. Many workplaces are trying to adapt to create space for a workforce with more varied needs, but there are challenges to overcome.
Dr Jocelyn Birch Baker is a veterinarian and a practice owner who is taking on those challenges with inspiring results. She’s built a practice that flexes to meet the needs of her team, and in doing so she’s not only created a flourishing workplace but also solved the twin problems of recruitment and retention. These days Jocelyn also helps other practices achieve the same for their teams through her consultancy venture, Smooth Operating Vets.
In this conversation, Jocelyn shares her story and the lessons she’s learnt along the way that has shaped the way the thinks and leads. We talk about bad decisions, hard lessons, choosing respect over competitiveness, living your values, finding the line between compromise and self-care, motherhood in practice, returning to practice after an extended break, and a better way to practice.
Come say hello to us at The Vet Expo in Sydney on 26 and 27 October for some live podcast recording. Jocelyn will also be hosting a session there on creating mum-friendly practices.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
Unpluggrow, connect and growh with us at our first ever Vet Vault Live conference with Prof Jill Maddison and Prof David Church in Noosa on 22-25 November
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this.
#75: Solutions for the staff crisis, core drivers, and the up side of rock bottom. With Dr Sam Bowden
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.
Housekeeping episode: Money and attention
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.
#74: The mental rectal part 2: Compassion fatigue. With Rhonda Andrews and Dr Taleta Hompas
Rhonda is back for another thorough probing of the mind, and in this episode, we examine the phenomenon of compassion fatigue from tip to… tail. What is it, how is it different from burnout, how do we recognise it, and what can we do to head it off long before it rears its ugly head? (Spoiler alert: yes, rest and self-care and boundaries and all of those other common sense things all play an important role, but you might be surprised by what the ONE THING is that can provide you with the best protection against becoming a member of the ‘I survived compassion fatigue’ club.)
This episode features a conversation between Rhonda and Dr Taleta Hompas as they unpack Taleta’s story and her experiences around compassion fatigue. Taleta is a vet whose career has covered multiple aspects of the vet journey: from the frontlines of the reception desk to the trenches of vet nursing and intense stints of emergency vetting, all the way to founder and director of an emergency business and being responsible for the wellbeing of the team. She shares openly about the insidious creep of compassion fatigue in her career, a breaking point, and getting back to passion and compassion without the fatigue.
If you haven’t met Rhonda yet - where have you been?! Rhonda is the founder, managing director and senior psychologist at the Barrington Centre, a specialist psychological firm that works with individuals and teams to help them address complex environments. Rhonda also helped create a program specifically modified for the Vet Profession called Systems of Support, or SOS.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
Join us for our first ever LIVE event in Noosa in November '22 with special guests Prof David Church and Prof Jill Maddison.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
#73: Ethics, trust and the mythical 'gold standard'. With Dr Tanya Stephens
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.
Kidney compilation, with Prof Jill Maddison, Dr Rosanne Jepson and Dr Clint Yudelman
It’s been a while since we’ve released one of our clinical episodes on here, so we thought we’d create this lovely little compilation of kidney content for you. These are some of our biggest ‘AHA!’ moments from a series of episodes that we've done over on the clinical podcast over the past few months on those tricky little beans that stop us from being poisoned by our own waste products.
We start with some wisdom from small animal medicine guru Prof Jill Maddison about making sense of azotaemia and USG. Spoiler alert - it's not as straightforward as you might think, and there are DEFINITELY a few traps to avoid that Jill outlines in this conversation. Next is Dr Rosanne Jepson, another medicine specialist and associate professor at the Royal Vet College and a leader in the field of nephrology and especially hypertension to guide us through everything blood pressure. And tying a bow on it all is Dr Clint Yudelman from Insight Mobile Diagnostics to help us make sense of the relationship between calcium and kidneys.
And if you want MUCH more of Prof Maddison then join us live in Noosa in November when she joins forces with Prof David Church for what promises to be the most fun vet event of the year. Details are here - but don't book there - email us at vetvaultpodcast@gmail.com to tell us that you heard about the conference on here and we'll send you a listener-only discount code.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp highly practical clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at vetvaultpodcast@gmail.com.
#72: Re-defining veterinary nursing, with Ken Yagi.
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.
#71: Stronger than you think. With Elizabeth Woolsey Herbert.
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.
#70: Self-kindness, the illusion of "I HAVE to", and why vulnerability might save us. With Philip McKernan
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.
#69: Vetrepreneurism. With Dr Aaron Wallace
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.
#68: Corporate practice: A view from the inside. With Dr Daniel Preter.
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.
#67: The Mental Rectal Part 1: Rumination. With Rhonda Andrews:
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.
#66: Beyond the dip: a career waiting on the horizon. With Dr Aaron Forsayeth
How much do you dislike doing dentals? If you’re like most vets I’m guessing that the answer to that question is - “I dislike it rather a lot.”
But then there’s that small minority of vets who just love teeth. Our guest for this episode, as you’ll hear, was NOT one of them, and yet these days that is exactly what he does all day, every day. And he loves it.
Dr Aaron Forsayeth has been working in full-time dental referral practice since 2006, after starting his vet career with a decade in mixed and small animal practice. He is highly involved in the dentistry world in Australia, including a stint as the president of the Australian Veterinary Dental Society and a current role as Policy Councillor for the AVDS, the dentistry branch of the Australian Veterinary Association.
Our conversation with Aaron covers, as you'd expect, a career in dentistry: why you’d want to do it, what’s good about it, what’s not so great, and pathways to becoming a veterinary dentist, but we go way beyond that. Aaron talks about his decision not to specialise, despite an obvious passion for what he does. We talk about that very common phenomenon of the 2-5 year ‘dip’ - when many vets find themselves disillusioned with their careers and possibly looking for an exit strategy, and how getting really good at something might be what you're looking for. But first we kick off a detour on fashion...
If you're feeling inspired to lift your dentistry game after listening to this then check out Aaron's dentistry videos.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
#65: Ehrlichia canis update
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.
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.
#64: Never work with animals. With Dr Gareth Steel.
"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.
Diabetes 101: Everything insulin
Here are some facts about insulin that you are likely familiar with:
0.25-0.5 IU/kg starting dose.
Do a glucose curve soon after starting insulin to assess the response.
Feed a special diabetic diet.
Give insulin at the time of feeding.
Glargine is the best insulin for cats.
Most owners wouldn’t consider injecting their pets three times a day.
Diabetes 101, right? But our guest for this episode is questioning these, and many other of the foundational truths around diabetes therapy. Jump right in for a fundamental shift in how you manage your diabetic cats and dogs.
Professor David Church is an internationally recognised specialist in disorders of the endocrine system in dogs and cats based at the Royal Veterinary College in London. David’s current research interests include the underlying mechanism for the development and resolution of diabetes mellitus, the use of clinical data collected from general veterinary practices to enhance understanding and consequently improve both the health and welfare of animals, and the use of ‘big data’ from general practice for managing animal health and welfare. David is the author of over 150 scientific articles and numerous book chapters.
This is episode #7 out of 10 of the conversations we’ve had to date with Prof Church about diabetes on our clinical series. From understanding the pathogenesis and pathopysiology of diabetes, to the revised basics of treatment, and all the way to a super-simple treatment protocol for the very sick DKA patient.
Go and check it out, along with another 150+ clinical episodes at vv.supercast.com, the easiest way to reboot your clinical knowledge without spending your precious time staring at screens.
The show notes for this episode with all the important bits from it lives at thevetvault.com
# 63: A walk on the wild side, with Dr Rosie Booth.
Dr Rosie Booth is a wildlife veterinarian and has been one since before that was even a job description.
Rosie has 40 years of experience in conservation and wildlife work, which started with a masters degree in koala adrenal glands in 1986 and sparked a lifetime of caring for this iconic species. Since that time she has worked in many of Australia’s most prominent zoos and wildlife hospitals. Rosie spent 7 years working for the Queensland government leading a breeding program for endangered species, during which time they released 170 individuals from several endangered species back into the wild. Most recently she worked as the director of the wildlife hospital at Australia Zoo. She has written more than a hundred wildlife related publications and has trained a small army of others to contribute to this vital work. Recently retired from her full-time role at Australia Zoo she is now focussing her energy on freelance conservation projects and educating and inspiring a new generation of vets.
In this episode, we talk about the challenges, the misconceptions and the implications of a career in wildlife, about staying motivated in a job where your best efforts can sometimes feel fruitless, about big problems, and big solutions. Rosie also gives practical advice for those considering a career in wildlife, shares stories about some amazing patients, and so much more.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
# 62: Openness, togetherness and heroic service: new solutions to old problems. With Dr David Bessler
Imagine a world where vets and their team members are bubbling with excitement about their job. Where they go on about how great their clients are, they talk about how good their pay is, and about how very fulfilling their careers are...
Can’t do it? Don’t worry - our guest for this episode has been imagining exactly this, and if the buzz out there about VEG is anything to go by, then he and his team of Veggies may well have found a way to make this a reality.
VEG, or Veterinary Emergency Group, is a US-based group of emergency-only vet hospitals and Dr David Bessler is the CEO and co-founder. He’s been a career emergency veterinarian since 2003, worked with reptiles at the Bronx Zoo, teaches “Veterinary Science” to elementary school children at the American Museum of Natural History and was even been featured on the one and only Sesame Street, and, as you’ll hear, he’s a man with a very clear vision.
So who’s this episode for? We’ll, EVERYONE in the profession. Whether you’re are a vet or a Veg or a nurse or even a vegetinary student, basically, anyone attached to a vet business - there are some things in here that you need to hear. If you are a vet business owner then this is DEFINITELY for you. Join us as we veg with Bessler on topics like why mission, vision and core values are so much more than just corporate speak, how a clinic can 'do shit for free', yet pay well AND still be profitable, why you may be on the wrong island, why the spiritual side of your job is critical for career happiness, and so much more.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please get in touch via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
Ocular emergencies: Proptosis. Wit Dr Izak Venter
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.
# 61: Good grief: How to navigate the grieving journey for veterinary teams. With Rhonda Andrews
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.
#60: Antibiotic mythbusting. With Dr Ri Scarborough
Dr Riati Scarboroughis is a researcher at the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship and a PhD fellow at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD focuses on improving our understanding of the conscious and subconscious motivations behind suboptimal antimicrobial prescribing in Australian veterinary practices, and designing sustainable strategies to support better antimicrobial prescribing in veterinarians. Ri is particularly interested in the use of social norms and nudges to modify behaviour.
And it's these behaviours that we discuss in this episode. Ri highlights some common areas where many vet practices could rethink their antibiotic prescribing protocols, with a great discussion on WHY it's so important. We cover topics like
Why the old antibiotic mantra 'finish the course' is giving way to 'shorter is better" Antimicrobial dosing: you can't always trust the label UTIs - choose Amoxycillin over Amoxyclav or Convenia Bacteriuria does not always require antimicrobials Catfight abscesses - antimicrobials rarely needed Surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis - get the timing rightA word of warning: some of these topics might wake up an annoying little voice in the back of your head that will bother you every time you head into the dispensary for those AB's, but we think it's worth it. See it as a little nudge!
Here are the resources as promised in the episode.
Thanks to the SVS Pathology Network, who our Australian listeners will know as Vetnostics in NSW, QML Vetnostics in Queensland, TML Vetnostics in Tasmania, ASAP in Victoria and Vetpath in WA, for supporting the podcast and introducing us to Ri and her work. Have a look at this video about Maldi TOF spectrometry - the technology that explains why SVS clients will now get super-fast turnaround times for their microbiology testing.
Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to vvn.supercast.com for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram.
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
#59: Culture. With Drs Dave Nicol and Dermot McInerney
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.
Mitral valve disease update, with Dr Clint Yudelman
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.
#58: Money, and other dirty words. With Dr Sam Burke
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.
#57: Pee is the key: how to unlock your cases with perfect-practice urinalysis. With Dr Kristen Todhunter
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.
#56: Ready, set... with Dr Moriah McCauley
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.
FIP update part 2: What if Remdisivir isn't an option? With Dr Sally Coggins.
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.
FIP Update: Everything you need to know about Remdesivir, with Dr Sally Coggins
This two-part bonus series is an update on everything FIP from our clinical podcast series. There have been some major changes in this space over the last few months, most notably around the legal access to Remdesivir for animal use and the availability of an oral formulation of GS442524 in Australia and the UK through BOVA compounding. In this episode, we go to the front lines of therapy to create the most up to date FIP guide out there.
We speak to Dr Sally Coggins, a feline vet and FIP researcher at Sydney University, about what they are learning about feline infectious peritonitis treatment. In part one we learn how to confirm your diagnosis, and we dig deep into Remdesivir - the drug that changed it all.
Our co-host for these episodes is Dr Dave Collins - a medicine specialist from Sydney and the genius behind Vets On Tour, which is a series of veterinary conferences held in some of the world's most spectacular places. If you fancy a bit of snow and apres-ski with your CPD you should check out https://www.vetsontour.com.au/.
Go to vvn.supercast.com for a free two-week trial of our Medicine, ECC and Surgery podcasts. We know how hard it is to commit the time to sit down for ongoing CPD, and we know how quickly you start feeling rusty and that you're falling behind, which is why we think you’ll love these. Three episodes per week that will take you from 'unsure' to being a total boss, all in the space of your drive to work. Once you’re joined up you’ll be able to listen to all of our podcasts in exactly the same place that you normally listen to podcasts, including the Apple podcast player and Spotify. We’ll also send you beautifully made show notes with all of the good bits so you can refer back to it later.
#55: Be more Forrest. With Dr Rob Pope.
Robert Pope is a British veterinarian, athlete and charity fundraiser. He is an elite distance runner, with a number of successes at the marathon and ultramarathon distances, including being the Australian marathon champion in 2015. In 2016 he completed a 422-day, 15,700-mile run (that’s about 600 marathons!) comprising more than 4 complete crossings of the United States, and became the first person to trace the route run by Tom Hanks' fictional character in the film Forrest Gump.
Rob’s vet career includes a PhD, a long stint as an emergency vet, and journeys into Opthalmology and Imaging. Rob currently works at the Animal Trust - a not-for-profit veterinary company in the UK.
He's the author of a new book about his Forrest Gump adventure - Becoming Forrest (https://bit.ly/BeMoreForrest), a TED speaker, and the host of the Red Bull Being Superhuman podcast. As you can imagine - we had a LOT to chat about, like making career decisions, keeping your head above water in the current craziness that is vet work just about everywhere in the world, about courage and grit, great life advice, and of course - about running. Lots and lots of running!
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
#54: Telling the good from the bad and the ugly: In-house cytology tips. With Dr Brett Stone
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.
#53: What are we so afraid of? With Drs. Kate Clarke and Magdoline Awad.
“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, most of which never happened.” Mark Twain
In episode 49 we dissected one of the biggest fears that many vets have: the fear of an official board complaint, from the perspective of a practitioner facing a complaint against them. In this episode, we look at the same issue from the side of the official body that deals with complaints. I’m a firm believer that the more we know about the things that we fear, the less scary they become, so let’s face this one together
Drs. Kate Clarke and Magdoline Awad are vets with experience serving on vet boards. They join us to answer all of our questions about board complaints - like how likely is it happen in the average career, what the most common complaints are, what the process looks like if you do have one lodged against you, as well as practical tips for avoiding them in the first place. Kate and Mags also walk us through all the possible outcomes, in other words - what's the worst that can happen, but then - what is the much more LIKELY to happen.
Kate has over 20 years experience as a GP vet in regional Australia and the UK, with membership of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in Small Animal Medicine and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. In addition to her role on Victoria’s Vet Board, she’s also the founding director of Engaged Solutions, a veterinary HR consultancy, and serves on the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council’s Sustainable Practice Committee. She's an AVA graduate mentor and a Policy Council Advisor for the AVA’s Veterinary Business Group, tasked with developing the AVA Great Workplaces Policy, and is also leading the development of a new not-for-profit called Sustainable Veterinary Careers. Somewhere in between all of that Kate also has a veterinarian husband and two teenage kids.
Have your say at https://sustainableveterinarycareers.org by completing the survey.
Mags is Chief Veterinary Officer at Greencross. (https://www.greencrossvets.com.au/) She did her memberships in animal welfare and has a degree in Veterinary Professional Practice Management. She was appointed to the Veterinary Practitioners Board of NSW in 2019, and is a member of the UNSW Animal Care and Ethics Committee and is the NSW representative for the AVA Welfare and Ethics special interest group. Between 2008-2015 Mags was Chief Veterinarian at RSPCA NSW, after starting with the organisation in 1996. She’s also been involved in the development and management of community programs in remote regional areas of NSW, working with local veterinarians and government to improve the welfare of pets in those communities.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
#52: Aspirate, or just jiggle? (And other sampling questions answered.) With Dr Rebekah Liffman.
There are many things you do almost every day in your job as a clinical veterinarian, usually multiple times a day. Sometimes these things become so routine that you don’t even stop to think about what you do and how you do it, and whether there could potentially be better ways that will deliver better results. And you DEFINITELY never get around to asking the questions you’ve always wondered about.
Routine pathology sampling is high on this list. How do we ensure that we get good quality FNA smears that have the best chances of being diagnostic? Should you pull back on the plunger when you sample or just wiggle the needle around in there? What can and can’t you FNA? (Did you know that you can get great results from FNA’ing bone pathology?!) What about blood sampling? Surely we can’t mess that up, can we?! And CSF? That’s just for the specialist centres, right? Maybe not.
Our guest for this episode is Dr Rebekah Liffman. Rebekah is a clinical pathologist at ASAP laboratories in Victoria (http://www.asaplab.com.au/Home.aspx), which is one of the labs that make up the SVS Pathology Network. If you listened to our previous pathology episode with Dr Flaminia Coiacetto you’d know that YOUR favourite local lab is probably also part of the SVS pathology network: Vetpath in western Australia and the NT, QML if you’re a Queenslander, Vetnostics in New South Wales and the ACT, TML in Tasmania, and ASAP laboratory in Victoria and South Australia. A big thank you to SVS for supplying us with the brains for this episode and for supporting this series of episodes.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
#51: Some might call it stubborn. We call it courage. With Dr Mariana Pardo
Courage. Grit. Persistence. Some might call it stubbornness. Whatever you call it - our guest for this episode has it in spades. Dr Mariana Pardo is an emergency and critical care specialist at the Veterinary Emergency Group, in Whiteplains, New York. She qualified as a vet in Santiago, Chile, in 2009, and then moved to the United States where she walked a long long road to the first female emergency and critical care specialist from Latin America - but I won’t ruin the story for you here - it’s a good one.
Join in on our conversation with Mariana as she tells us about her journey and making brave moves, failure, dealing with, and overcoming bias, using imposter syndrome to your advantage, and much much more.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
We're also very privileged that Mariana has been helping us over on the clinical podcast with some incredible ECC content. We launched her first episode this week on sensible IV fluid choices. After 2 decades as a vet, I thought that THAT would be one thing that I’d mastered. I hadn't - sooo much to learn! And Mariana is a fabulous teacher. Go to vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial and search for Mariana’s episode on the emergency stream.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
#50: Is it ok to send a spleen in a bucket? With Dr Flaminia Coiacetto.
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.
#49: The dreaded client complaint, with Dr David Tabrett.
Dr David Tabrett is an emergency vet and founder and director of the Animal Referral Emergency Centre in Newcastle, New South Wales. David has been a vet for more than 30 years - from mixed animal to general smallies work, and eventually emergency. He has his memberships in Medicine as well as Emergency and Critical Care and has served a 6-year term as Treasurer of the Chapter of Emergency and Critical Care of the Australia / New Zealand College of Veterinary Surgeons. He’s also a longstanding member of the local branch of the Australian Veterinary Association and has served in the roles of Treasurer and President. In addition to hosting a weekly radio show for pet talkback over the past 12 years, and teaching veterinary nurses in critical care for TAFE, David was recognised as the 2017 Australian Small Animal Practitioner of the Year by the Australian Small Animal Veterinarians chapter of the AVA.
David started his own emergency hospital in 2004, and at present, the clinic has a team of around 75 people working 24/7 and also offers referral services in surgery, critical care, dermatology and rehabilitation.
As you can imagine: in a career like that you’ll face a few obstacles, and you learn a few things. We’re privileged that David joined us to share a few of those lessons.
What was meant to be a conversation around how to deal with client complaints turned into a masterclass on communication, on how to avoid complaints, how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, how to talk about money, how to view complaints in a better light, and of course, how to think feel and deal with it when you are actually faced with a genuine official compliant.
Go to 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 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.
#48: Burnout: Identification, predispositions and solutions. With Professor Gordon Parker
Thanks to Heska Australia for supporting this very important series of episodes on mental health, resilience, and burnout prevention. Go to https://www.heska.com.au to find out about ways to re-imagine the way you run your in house labs and digital radiography.
Professor Gordon Parker AO is Scientia Professor of Psychiatry at the University of NSW. He is, amongst other things, founder of the Black Dog Institute, and Director of the Division of Psychiatry at Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospitals. In 2004 he received a Citation Laureate as the Australian Scientist most highly cited in Psychiatry/Psychology, and in 2018 he was a finalist for NSW Senior Australian of the Year. Oh, and that little AO that I read after his name is short for 'Order of Australia', which is awarded for distinguished service of a high degree to Australia or humanity at large. He has published 20 books and over 1000 scientific papers, with his most recent book publication 'Burnout - A Guide to Identifying Burnout and Pathways to Recovery'. This book encapsulates groundbreaking new research and clarifies what exactly burnout is, what it isn’t, what the risk factors are, how to spot it, prevent it, and fix it.
And these are exactly the topics that we cover in this conversation with Prof Parker. We’re well aware that our profession is one of the highest risk professions for burnout, so arming ourselves with a better understanding of this nemesis is critical.
Burnout: A guide to identifying burnout and pathways to recovery: https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/health-fitness/Burnout-Gordon-Parker-Gabriela-Tavella-and-Kerrie-Eyers-9781760878061
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.
If you want to lift your clinical game, go to https://vvn.supercast.tech for a free 2-week trial of our short and sharp high-value clinical podcasts.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at thevetvaultpodcast@gmail.com, or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
#47: Vicarious trauma, burnout, and living with the critic inside your head. With Rhonda Andrews and Dr Louisa Johnson.
Vicarious trauma, burnout, and living with the critic inside your head is supported by Heska Australia. It's time to re-imagine how you run your in-house pathology and radiography. Visit https://www.heska.com.au/products/lab-diagnostics/ to discover how.
In this conversation, we explore some ideas that we’re all familiar with, like how to live with those annoying self-critical voices t