Episodes

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...

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 i...

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.

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 pr...

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. Havi...

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 ...

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 Te...

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-fict...

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 we...

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 Aar...

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...

If you’re a regular Vet Vaulter you’ll be well familiar by now with psychologist Rhonda Andrews from our previous episodes with her on trauma and grief. We love Rhonda, and based on your feedback YOU loved Rhonda. So we’re going to make this a regular thing. Here's what we're thinking: Rhonda will have conversations and counselling sessions with real vets facing real challenges about something that the guest is wrestling with. Rhonda will help them explore solutions and strategies to help them g...

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 a...

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...

"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 becom...

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...

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 spe...

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 ...

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 t...

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 t...

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...

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...

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...

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 b...