July 3, 2026

162: Street Dogs, Brave Vetting, and the Double Life of Dr Janey Lowes

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Season 1

Twelve years ago, Dr Janey Lowes went to Sri Lanka on a holiday, and never really came home. Today she runs WECare Worldwide, a hospital that treats the island’s three million street dogs to a standard that you’d like your pet treated - from the worst trauma cases you can image do a highly efficient desexing service. And then, a few times a year, she flies back to locum in clinics that look a lot like yours.

This one's about what it's like to live on both sides of that line that separates the reason we became vets, and the job most of us ended up with.

We get into:

  • Do-or-die medicine in a place where you're the only option
  • How being the last line changes your perspectives, and what that does to your goalposts when you go back to first-world practice
  • The bits of ‘normal’ practice that Janey misses the most (no, it’s not the fancy equipment)
  • Charity vetting as a viable career option, not just a gap year - the good and the bad

How Community Neutering Programmes Transform Street Dog Welfare

Community neutering programmes, such as the one led by Dr Janie Lowes and her charity WeCare Worldwide, transform street dog welfare by addressing the root cause of animal suffering: uncontrolled population growth and the resulting poor quality of life for unowned animals.
The following details from the sources explain how these programmes create a massive, long-term impact:

Preventing Exponential Suffering

The primary goal of community neutering is to stop the cycle of puppies being born into a life of hardship. Janie Lowes points out that 75% of the world's dog population is unowned, and these animals rarely receive veterinary care.
  • Preventing Births: Neutering even a small number of dogs has a compounding effect. One unneutered female can theoretically be responsible for the birth of 27,000 puppies in her lifetime when accounting for the offspring of her offspring.
  • Reducing Mortality and Disease: By preventing these births, the programme ensures fewer puppies are born onto the streets only to be "squished" by traffic or succumb to painful diseases like parvo, distemper, or rabies.

Large-Scale Operational Impact

To make a tangible difference, the programme operates at a high volume within the community.
  • Mobile Clinics: WeCare utilizes two lorries that travel into the community every day to perform what is known as a CNVR programme (Catch, Neuter, Vaccinate, Release).
  • Daily Volume: These mobile teams are able to neuter, vaccinate, and microchip approximately 60 dogs every day.
  • Broad Reach: These services are provided for free, covering both street dogs and owned dogs within the community.

Community Engagement and Perception

Beyond surgery, these programmes transform how the local community interacts with street dogs.
  • Supporting Caretakers: While the dogs are "unowned," many have "guardians"—local residents who feed and watch over them. The programme supports these people, such as the "little old lady" who might spend a significant portion of her salary on transport just to bring street dogs in for their free vaccinations and neutering.
  • Raising Standards: By bringing international veterinary standards to the street level, the programme ensures that animals without owners are not relegated to "second-rate care".

A Vision for the Future

Janie Lowes argues that for street dog welfare to be truly transformed, the veterinary profession must shift its focus. Currently, 99% of veterinary resources are channeled into only 25% of the world's dogs (those that are owned). She suggests a "dream world" where the profession is split so that equal attention and resources are paid to unowned street and stray dogs, moving away from a system that she believes is currently "the problem".

Maintaining International Clinical Standards in Charity Veterinary Hospitals

Maintaining international clinical standards in a charity setting, such as at WeCare Worldwide in Sri Lanka, is a core priority for Dr Janie Lowes. She explicitly rejects the notion that unowned animals should receive "second-rate care" or that charity work justifies "cutting corners".
The sources detail several key pillars used to uphold these high clinical standards:

Advanced Diagnostic and Surgical Equipment

Maintaining international standards requires more than just basic supplies; it necessitates modern technology. The WeCare hospital is equipped with:
  • Specialised Technology: The facility utilizes X-ray machines, scanners, and blood gas monitors to provide a level of care similar to private referral centres.
  • Infrastructure Hustle: Dr Lowes describes "hustling, begging, and pleading" and flying across countries to secure the correct equipment to ensure street dogs are treated to an international standard.

High-Level Staff Expertise

The quality of care is driven by the professional qualifications of the team.
  • Qualified Team: The hospital handles complex "frontline trauma" and cases that Dr Lowes believes should be written about in academic journals.
  • Continuing Education: The team stays clinically up-to-date through professional development resources, including clinical podcasts and specialized certificates (Dr Lowes herself holds an ACC certificate).
  • Developing Local Talent: Because Sri Lanka does not have an established veterinary nursing profession, the charity is working to create the island's first veterinary nursing school to ensure the local workforce is trained to international benchmarks.

Clinical Decision-Making and "Brave Medicine"

Operating in a resource-limited environment where "the alternative is death" has led the team to push the boundaries of surgery and medicine.
  • Pushing Boundaries: Because they often act as the only referral option, the staff has become braver in their surgical approaches, often achieving outcomes—such as removing large masses—that other vets might have deemed inoperable.
  • Advocating for the Animal: Without the clouding factor of owner finances or convenience, the clinical team can focus purely on the "best option for the dog" from a professional veterinary standpoint.

Cultural Shift in Veterinary Care

A significant part of maintaining standards involves changing perceptions. Dr Lowes has worked to move away from the stereotype of "spaying dogs on a kitchen table" and instead has focused on creating a sophisticated hospital environment where street dogs are viewed as patients deserving of the highest possible dedication and skill.

Support WECare Worldwide:This work runs on donations, and Janey's currently raising for a new hospital by running six hundred kilometres, the length of Sri Lanka. (She’s not actually a runner…)

The charity takes volunteers and offers longer-term work

Find Janey:

More from The Vet Vault:

Topics and Time Stamps

03:20 Going Viral, and the Unexpected Backlash

08:24 The Love-Hate of Social Media

10:17 The Birth of WeCare

13:24 75% of Dogs Are Unowned

13:53 Courage or Naivety?

16:35 Mid-Roll Break

18:31 Regrets? & Life in Sri Lanka

21:30 Two Lives: Sri Lanka vs UK

36:15 Are We Too Quick to Euthanise?

39:55 What We Underestimate and Undervalue in ‘normal’ Vet Life

43:22 Volunteering at WeCare

49:03 Charity Vetting as a Career

55:10 Rapid Fire Questions

59:21 Advice for New Grads

Meet Dr. Janey Lowes: A Vet's Double Life
I'd like you to think about your life as a vet.
Nice clinic, good coffee.
Down the road, a client rushes in, genuinely panicked.
It's an emergency.
My dog's eye has been watering for two hours.
True story, as you'll hear.
Now imagine this vet life.
You wake up early to go for a run, Not just a casual run around the block.
You're training to run the length of an entire country, 600 kilometres.
Because that's going to help you raise the money for the hospital that you're building.
Then on the way to work, there's a dog outside your gate.
Its intestines are on the outside.
So you load it into the car, you and the dog and its intestines, and you go and fix it.
Because that's what you do.
A few days later, a train takes another dog's front leg clean off.
You scoop it off the tracks, the dog's still wagging its tail at you and you go fix it because you can.
Both those lives are true for Doctor Janie Lowe's, our guest for this episode. 12 years ago, Janie went on holiday to Sri Lanka, found an injured St. dog and couldn't find anyone to treat it.
So she flew back home to the UK, told her boss she wanted to go back and do something about it.
And her boss said, I wish I'd done this when I was your age.
Here's 10 grand go.
Today we Care Worldwide, the charity that was born out of that one dog, and that £10,000 is the only emergency hospital on the island for 3,000,000 St. dogs.
In between that all, Janie regularly flies home to locum in clinics that look a lot like where you work.
Which makes Janie one of the only people I know who lives on both sides of the line that most of us never cross.
That line between the reason that most of us became vets and the job that you have.
I've been doing this a long time, and I'll be honest with you when I chat to Janie, I'm a little bit jealous.
I'm Ebert Hemstra and you are listening to The Vet Vault, where we explore the paths less taken with the people who take them to inspire you, give you some fresh ideas, and to help you fall back in love with veterinary science.
In this one, I get to ask Janie about those two lives, how she chose, how she still chooses, how she makes it work, what it costs her behind just the money.
What we can learn from her other life and whether a braver version of this job is something that the rest of us could actually reach or whether you have to be a slightly reckless 27 year old to pull it all off.
Please enjoy.
Doctor Jamie Low, I want to ask you a question.
Going Viral: Death Threats and Social Media's Dark Side
This will give us some insight into your life and your work in the charity and We care.
When I went through a website a while ago and I was looking at some of your videos and all the stuff that you do and you have a quote on there that you say I have had marriage proposals and I have had death threats.
Speaker 2
Yeah, I can't tell you which one episode.
Speaker 1
Marriage proposal.
I apologize.
It's just me.
I was very impressed with your stuff.
It was.
I'm sorry.
Rescind Do.
Speaker 2
You.
I was going to say yes.
Speaker 1
What are you doing that's upsetting the Internet to the point of death threats?
Speaker 2
Are you actually?
Speaker 1
Literally got death threats I.
Speaker 2
Did.
Yeah, I did.
I think it was trolls back in the day.
So we were really lucky back in gosh of Cameroon.
It was maybe 2017.
I'd set up weaker, I'd moved to Sri Lanka.
I was a really young vet.
I think I was 2728 at that point and I had 10 grand to my name and that is what we were going to set weaker up with.
And that 10 grand obviously very quickly ran out.
In the meantime, whilst I was spending all that money on these dogs on the street dogs of Sri Lanka, we, I filmed a kind of a, a documentary I would say, but a real local BBC N so just in my region in the UK, just about the charity and, and I thought I was just going to go out, my mum, a couple of her mates.
Anyway, overnight it got picked up by BBC News and it was on the BBC News website and it was the most watched video on BBC News that day.
And actually it was the most watched video on Donald Trump's inauguration day.
The first one we Trump Trump.
Yeah, it got like 32 million views or something like that and essentially saved the charity overnight because we went from having about 12 lbs, 60 in the bank to people donating, which was absolutely incredible.
But off the back of that, we got you know what it's like you get 99% lovely comments, but then you get some horrible ones.
And there was comments underneath like this girl is disgusting.
She should be euthanized.
Like why is she here in Sri Lanka bringing her Western values and and there was a lot of that.
There was also, and little things were moved by the Sri Lankan veterinary profession to Get Me Out.
There was comments that I was defaming their profession by raising awareness of what the street dogs were going through, the fact that they didn't have veterinary care in place.
And of course that's not commenting on the Sri Lankan veterinary profession.
It's commenting on the fact that people need to get paid to be vets.
And if you're a vet treating St. dogs for free, you're not getting paid.
And so it wasn't really a comment on that.
But yeah, there was a lot going on around that time.
There were people trying to get me deported, lots of people very, very thankful that I was here.
But some people just taking it as a bit of a personal insult on me, potentially making other people look bad because they weren't doing it.
That is, that is not, not what we intended at all.
When I was just like, I'm going to go to Sri Lanka and treat some St. dogs.
I don't think I quite thought it through.
Speaker 1
Yeah, wow.
Yeah, I suppose egos, right?
It's also the Internet.
Speaker 2
Also the Internet and honestly now I think 10 years later, I'd kind of laugh it off, but when you are 27 on your own in a new country, none of your support systems in place, you just thought, you naively just thought I'm just here doing a great thing and wouldn't ever consider that someone would think it wasn't it.
It kind of really got me it it really, Yeah, It locks my foot patch for.
Speaker 1
Sure, yeah, it's very brave how you and I, I get that you use the social media and the Internet aspect to raise money, right, Without visibility, there's no charity, but it's very brave to put yourself out there like that.
That or actually it's almost the scariest thing for me is to are you vulnerable about your work and who you are and what you do on the Internet?
How do you get a thick skin?
How do you not let, because I still look at your stuff around again and I do still see some negative comments.
How do you not let it get to you?
Speaker 2
Honestly, I've learnt to not look, so I'm really fortunate now that the charity has grown and I have colleagues who can help me with it.
So I do all my own posts, I do all of that, but I always say to them, can you just look 1st and see you know what people are saying the bad things.
I think it's not about having a thick skin, honestly, because really this cause is so close to my heart.
It's my baby, essentially.
It's the charity organization I set up on my own that I've, you know, absolutely ground out over the course of the last 12 years.
And so it's very, very hard not to take something it's negative personally when it's said about the thing that you pull your heart and soul into every single day and someone has something quite negative to say, It's hard to just go, Oh yeah, whatever, you know.
So find that quite tricky.
I don't think I ever really anticipated what was going to happen with the charity or what was going to happen with social media.
Again, just naively went into it and thought this is how we might get a few donations.
I'll post some stuff online and the next thing you know, overnight with that BBC thing, we had 20 thousand 30,000 followers and all of a sudden you're in this position where you've got to, you've got to feed the beast like you've got to share the work, you've got to show what you're up to it.
It's really, I have a real love hate relationship with social media, honestly, because it is even the work that we do, which is finally highly stressful.
You know, we're treating St. dogs who don't have any other option at veterinary care and most a lot of them are in critical condition.
So the ones that we're seeing anyway, dogs hit by trains, fallen down wells, you know, impaled on stuff.
It's it's frontline trauma war zone type stuff.
Speaker 1
Yeah, it's not.
It's not sexy, that's for sure.
Some of.
Speaker 2
The stuff sexy, but now the biggest stress for me is not that it's it's honestly social media because it's relentless.
You take a weekend off and you think, Oh my God, I haven't posted the donations are going to drop.
And it's true.
If I go on holiday, we just see donations plummet.
So.
Speaker 1
Really.
So it is.
It is effective despite the evils of it it.
Speaker 2
Does bring the money, yeah, that's the love hate thing.
It's the money, the awareness, the but the love part of it is also the support we get because we have so many incredible people cheering you on from afar.
And not really, I know that sounds like a cliche, but to get those messages every day, especially when you're in, you're in the trenches.
Sometimes you know, it's 11 O clock at night and you're still in the hospital and you, it's, it's carnage around you and you look at the messages that you think, no, come on, we've got this.
So there's a lot.
It's enough how your relationship, like I say, I know it serves a purpose.
I know it's what we've got to do do in this day and age to get people's attention, but I do sometimes feel quite resentful is maybe a strong word.
But how much of myself I have to give to on top of what I already give to make this a feasible, viable operation?
Speaker 1
Wow, never thought of that.
The Birth of WECare: Courage, Naivety, and Unowned Dogs
So I'd love to talk about the birth of this whole beast that you've created and specifically the, because the why is pretty easy, right?
I, I get that, but the, what made you go down that path?
And I specifically focusing this on people who have the same inkling who want to do something different.
So we first sort of crossed paths on the Internet when I was a bit involved in some charity work.
I started getting involved in some in a charity in Lombok.
And I forget how, whether somebody introduced me to you or something, because I had some questions about how do you practically do it?
Like what had you dart these animals?
And that's how we started chatting.
So at that time you already were up and running, but I had plans of not moving to Lombok to do this, but making this, I think.
And then I wussed out.
Real, not wussed out, but real life gone the.
Speaker 2
Way.
Speaker 1
Yeah, COVID happened, but also life happened, right?
The responsibilities, financial responsibilities, kids, family, all that sort of stuff got in the way.
And then I think of when when we met again in Singapore and hearing your story again, it did actually make me think back to that and made me think of young Janie.
Your story was you went on a holiday to Sri Lanka to surf or do whatever and saw a dog that needed help.
And that was the trigger to say, oh, there's work to be done.
Went back home, spoke to your boss, said, hey, I'm I'm going to take some time off to go do a little bit of work at Sri Lake and then here we are.
How many years later?
Is that right?
That's the.
That's the gist.
Speaker 2
Of the story, yeah, it's pretty much the gist of the story and so I found a dog that was sick and injured and I was trying to call around loads of vets to see how I could pay for treatment.
I would take him in, but no, nobody would treat him because he was a street dog.
And so I, yeah, went home to my boss, said I want to do this.
And actually an important part of the story is he said to me, yeah, go.
He said, here's 10 grand to get you started because he said, I wish I'd done that when I was your age.
I wish I'd gone and helped when I was your age.
He was like, go and do this, you know, so I could never have gotten this after grand.
Yeah, absolute legend.
So that was amazing.
But I also think I can't take credit for it really, because it was one of those crazy decisions you just make when you're super young.
You don't really understand the implications a bit or what might happen or even luckier in the future.
And if someone said to me now would you do it, it would be very different.
Exactly as you say.
You've got responsibilities.
You would think everything that could go wrong.
We've obviously learnt through experience that stuff does go wrong.
So when you're 26, you're like, yeah, like I'll just give it a gun and see what happens.
And so I don't think I knew the gravity of what I was letting myself in for.
That's one.
So I don't think it was necessarily bravery.
I think it was probably stupidity, naivety, and just being young and giving something a crack.
I'd like to think I'd still do it now because I do firmly believe in the 'cause I, it's, it breaks my heart, but 75% of the world's dog population is unowned and therefore very few of those are receiving veterinary care.
You know, 99% of our veterinary resource is channelled into 25% of dogs.
And I just think that's for me, that's a horrific statistic.
So I'd like to think that I would throw everything behind that now, but I don't know.
I don't know if I'd be brave enough to.
Speaker 1
So interesting, I love that answer.
So it sounds like the because my question was going to be and you've pre answered it, where did that courage come from to do it?
Because it's a brave decision.
It is.
I heard once the the root word for decision is size as an excise.
And by making one decision, you excise the other possibilities.
And by doing that, you said you turned your back on normal vet life with the most of us listening to this what what we do, which took courage.
But it sounds like it wasn't so much courage as provider stupidity.
Speaker 2
And excuse you.
Speaker 1
And £10,000 of.
Speaker 2
Someone else's money pounds.
Speaker 1
Of support from somebody.
Speaker 2
Kind, yeah.
And amazing.
Yeah, it is very much that, I think.
Speaker 1
But but I like that answer.
It's not meant to be an insult because again, I think we do when we make these big decisions and especially when you're younger for any younger listeners, but any also age is not a excuse or let's say life stage.
But we wanted to, we want to figure everything out.
We want to say, well I'm going to do this thing, but I need to know XYZ and it's going to work like this and this and sometimes fearless bravado and we'll figure it out as we go.
And being oblivious to what's about to come, it's actually not the worst way to approach something.
Speaker 2
No, I mean, I, that's how I live now.
Like I've learnt from that, that good things come from that.
So for me, I live by this thing of like, you know, certainty for me is a terrifying concept.
How boring to be certain that you know what's going to happen tomorrow.
Are you going to be certain that you know for me now I've learnt to live in this chaos?
Speaker 1
Is it a personality trait or is it?
Speaker 2
Learnt both I would say.
I feel like I wasn't quite this comfortable with being uncomfortable when I was younger.
I was very much, you know, I'm going to get all A's, I'm going to go to vet school, I'm going to marry my rugby player boyfriend.
We're going to be like, have kids, find this age and do this and did it.
And then one day, I don't even know what happened.
I just woke up and was like, Oh my God.
Like my, I've basically planned out my whole life and I'm 25 years old.
I'd had the same boyfriend from the age of 14 and it was just going to be, you know, the next step.
And I, I just had this realisation that I'm going to look up in 10 years and be in exactly the same position.
So there was an element of breaking out, I suppose, and just be like, now I'm going to go and do this.
But I think fundamentally that was in me somewhere.
And now it's something that I can very much harness and utilise to out the dogs.
Speaker 1
I'm going to momentarily take you out of Sri Lanka and Janie's World and back into Vet Vault land.
Clinical Podcasts & Vets on Tour: Mid-Episode Break
Although watch the space.
We have started planning a Vets on Tour conference that will literally take you to Janie's world in Sri Lanka, but that'll take a bit of time.
In the meantime, I've not plugged out clinical podcasts for a while.
As you'll hear later on.
I'm very proud to say that one of the ways that Janie and her team stay clinically up to date is with our subscriber only Vet Vault Clinical Podcasts. 2 episodes per week, short, practical with something in each episode that will make you a better, more confident that each time you listen.
Backed of course by our beautiful show notes, which has grown into a bit of a library of content with almost 700 sets of notes.
Which is why our new AI search assistant with full knowledge of every episode is so useful.
Go and check it all out at the Vet vault.com.
Click the button that says Clinical Content Doctor.
Janie and her team get it for free.
You'll pay just over $100 a year for an individual subscription, less as a team sub.
But if you are a charity doing great work like Janie and you could do with a bit of extra CPD, shoot me an e-mail at info@theeventfall.com and we'll make something happen for you Then.
Kind of on the opposite end of the scale to St.
Dogs in Sri Lanka.
If you love your continuing education in amazing places and you like a bit of snow and a lot of culture, then you should join us in January 2027 in Italy for our Dolomites Vets on Tour conference.
It's in this tiny little Alpine village in a hotel that looks like it comes out of a fairy tale.
Like all of our events, you will be hard pressed to find this quality of CPD while having as much fun.
Go and check it out at Vets on tour.com.
OK, back to Jenny.
I like that.
So, so you had certainty, you had your plan and all the stuff that you listed, the marriage, the kids, Yeah.
No Regrets: The Challenges of Living in Sri Lanka
And the normal stuff, you excise that with your decision regrets.
Speaker 2
Sometimes on a lonely Friday.
Not a joke.
Sometimes, yeah.
Though because I'm highly stressed, I'm living on nervous energy constantly.
Most of the time I enjoy that.
But there are times when, of course, it's too much and all you crave is a little bit of normality, anonymity.
It sounds crazy, but to live in Sri Lanka can be quite hard.
It's not like living in Singapore or Bali.
You know, I can't go to the supermarket and get, I don't even know, coriander rocket.
You know, there's none of this stuff.
I can't get a block of cheese and can't even buy tampons.
You have to literally import tampons.
So it's not an easy.
Speaker 1
Actually, actually.
Speaker 2
So it's not an easy life.
It's not like ocean of some tropical island and it's a breeze.
It's pretty tough going sometimes.
So they're the bits where I sometimes think, Oh my God, I wish I could go to Carl's and just like, you know, get an easy, quick meal, not have to drive an hour away to get an iceberg lettuce for $24.00 because it's the only one on the, you know, it's, there are times when I do crave normality, but I also know that if I were to have it, I'd be bored within, you know, a week.
Really.
I've tested the theory.
I go back to the UK a little bit and locum, I used to go to Dubai and, and locum there as well in an emergency hospital.
And to, to start with, it's awesome.
You've got your friends, you're going on regular nights out, you're eating good food, you've got all the convenience and there's no dramas like you drive out of your gate and there's and you know, a dog with AI can't even think, Oh, the other day it's it's diviscerated at my gate and.
I just got the car out for work and I'm like, oh Jesus, let's get you and your intestines in the car.
But there's there's always something here.
So yeah, those moments, they're great.
They keep my toes.
But it is you do sometimes crave that, that normality, but I wouldn't say I crave the the marriage and the kids and all of that.
For me, I, I don't know if that's in my future, but right now I'm just very much about sounds cheesy, but helping others because I just think it's so important.
I think we're put on the planet to help others.
And I think if more people did, not in a bad way, but you know, if everyone just took a little bit of their skill set and gave it to charity, we would, the world would be completely different.
And I just think it's really important that all of us are focusing on the collective community and not on our own individual needs, because I think that might be how we've gotten to this position in a sense.
Balancing Two Worlds: Sri Lanka vs. First-World Practice
I'm curious about that slight double life that you lead.
So you have this high intensity adventure life with dogs with the intestines hanging out on your doorstep and and then you tutter off and you go and locum elsewhere.
So very different.
I'm assuming these are the the 1% of pets, right?
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1
Gets all the resources.
Speaker 2
They are very much the 1% of pets.
Speaker 1
How?
How do you, I don't know.
Do you feel resentful?
Do you sometimes treat one of those animals and you go, how many dogs can I save with this 16 year old dog with a heart murmur that's sitting here with a $5000 bill?
Speaker 2
I think I never does it get to you sometimes less the animals.
You know, for me, an animal's an animal.
I love them to bits.
And I know that's like the lamest stunts and we're never supposed to say that when you say why'd you become a bit.
But I love animals to bits, so it's never them.
The thing that gets me sometimes, I'll be honest, is the owners because they're just oblivious to sometimes what other people in the world are going through.
So not that, you know, it's all relative, of course it is.
But they just don't have, it's not, oh, God.
I don't want to say it sounds awful, but I remember I was in a practice back in the UK and I'd actually just gone in to visit one of my friends who was a nurse.
And it was lunchtime.
And this lady comes running in.
She said, I've got an emergency, can you help me?
And Sam, the nurse kind of looked at me like, can you?
And I was like, yeah, no worries, bring it in.
And I'm like, what's going on?
She said his eyes been watering for two hours.
And I remember just thinking, Oh my God, I had a dog last week with two legs.
I do and I like that.
There are the moments where I go, Oh my gosh, yes, it is a double life.
But I just wish people who are animal lovers, all of our clients are animal lovers, but I just wish they knew what other animals go through and kind of sometimes would make me put a bit more weight behind that.
I don't think anyone in the, I think very few people in the world know that the, that 75% of the world's dogs are unowned.
I think that's a big number.
Speaker 1
Do you find it?
It helps to keep perspective on what we do when you're out, Let's call it first world hospitals.
And people freak out because I I ask this and it's a loaded question because I find for me, because I'm from in a country where there is a lot of poverty and a lot of homeless dogs, and because I've done my charity work as well.
Sometimes when other vets freak out about, oh, these people are so negligent, they didn't bring this dog in.
And like, yeah, get some perspective.
The dogs bed twice a day, you know, I mean they.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 1
It's not it's not the end of the world.
It's.
Speaker 2
I definitely think it gives you that and it gives you a level head because you've seen stuff in way worse situations in emergency setting usually.
And I also think it kind of you become a bit braver in your medicine and your surgery because you're the only option.
So you know, you, you learn to give stuff a crack because the alternative is death.
So let's try, you know, it's not like you have a referral centre to send this animal to that we essentially are the referral centre.
So you end up becoming trusting your skill set a lot more.
And so when I go back to the UK, sometimes I do think, Oh my gosh, I haven't seen, I won't know how to deal with a cushionoid dog.
I haven't seen cushions in, you know, I'm not saying that in my street dog.
And then I get home and you realise, actually, no, I'm quite confident in a lot of areas.
So I know that I can work things out.
And I remember having a patient come in in the UK and she had a huge mass on her neck and the dog was coming in for euthanasia.
And I kind of said like, oh, sorry, I didn't like, I don't want to mess with the plan or anything, but why are we not removing this?
And they're like, oh, well, you know, the other vet said we can't operate.
And I was like, I think we can.
But if we can't, you know, the the outcome is going to be the same.
So should we try?
And they were really up for it.
And obviously I talked through, you know, euthanasia is an option.
Of course it is.
But we've also got the option where I think I can do this and we might end up at the same outcome.
And yeah, we did it and we, we achieved it.
And I got an e-mail from them three years later saying they got three more years of their dog and, and now, so it was so amazing.
And it did.
That's not a reflection on that other vet at all, because we, I would have said the same if I was working in the UK all the time.
But it's just when you're in these settings, you do get to push the boundaries a little bit because you kind of have a do or die, a do or die.
Speaker 1
Do you think it plays a role that in your Sri Lankan life your decision making is purely is it, is it purely are you?
I don't know.
Maybe it's, it's different to what I imagined, but purely there's this animal, there's this problem.
Do I think I can solve it?
I'm going to have a crack.
If it's not cruel to the animal law, there's no, you know, there's.
Speaker 2
No, Yeah, we can manage to pay and.
Speaker 1
Versus in normal vet life, you have to deal with that owner component of if I have a crack and it goes wrong, they're going to be pissed off because I've spent all this money and blah, blah, blah, blah.
So then we we narrow our field of bravery because we so you're scared of the owner, not so much of what we can to the animal.
Speaker 2
Yeah, no, exactly.
Frontline Decisions: Emotional Investment and Questioning Euthanasia
I'm actually doing a a talk next week about decision making on the front line because you've got different stakeholders.
It's a really different experience because for me I do get to look at a patient that doesn't have an owner and say what's the best option for this dog.
The other things I then have to take into account, it's not owners finances, it's not owners opinions, but it is finances.
We are a charity so I do have to think one, can we afford this, but two, am I going to spend heaps of money on this one dog when we could neuter 30 dogs for the same amount of money and save heaps of puppies lives because they're not going to be born onto the streets and squished or get pavo or distemper rabies.
And so there's that consideration there as well.
And then also, you know, we don't have owners in Sri Lanka, but we do have guardians.
So we have people who feed these dogs everyday who do keep an eye on them, who have known this dog since it was a puppy and it's lived on that street corner.
And so sometimes that actually complicates things more because six or seven people come out the woodwork And so no, I feed this dog.
You've got to do this.
You can't do this, you can't do this.
So sometimes it is a little bit more complicated, but fundamentally if we're looking at it, you know, if we don't have those complicated facts, we don't have 6 guidance, we don't have this, you know this.
It is really nice because I get to look at a dog and just be like what is the best thing for this dog?
In my professional veterinary opinion, there isn't clouded so much with emotion at the moment because I've most of the time just met the dog.
What's the best thing to do in this instance?
Speaker 1
So do you struggle then when you work in a normal practice where you then have to deal with owners, do you find it harder or do you think that you are able to bring the same mindset to your first world vetting?
Speaker 2
No, I find it, it's different challenges, honestly.
I, I do have to adapt again to speaking with owners, consulting owners, you know, having an open mind as well, because I think it is easy to be like, they just don't want to pay for it without actually thinking about people's individual circumstances and coming up with plan A, Plan B, plan C depending upon that and not just judging them for the fact that they don't want to do the option that you want to do.
I think it's different challenges.
I think the, the work that I do in Sri Lanka feels for me much more emotionally draining than the work in the UK or Dubai because I'm not and not as emotionally invested in the patient that comes in for a consult or who's with us in hospital for three days.
Of course I'm emotionally invested.
But it's not the same as a dog that you admitted 6 weeks ago who came in, you know, crashed unresponsive for 72 hours.
He sat by its bedside.
It doesn't have an owner.
You're there advocating for it.
You're coming up with, you do get really emotionally invested in at that point.
It's very hard to make clinical decisions without having your emotions involved.
The initial admit stage much easier.
But once you have been involved with them or it's a returning patients, it's a patients like now I've been here for 12 years.
So some of the dogs that are coming in, I've seen 2/3 times before they've been in for this, they've been in for that.
And a lot of them are coming towards the end of their lives now.
And I'm finding that really, really, really hard.
Like, so.
Speaker 1
They're all kind of your dogs, right?
Speaker 2
Because we're all.
Speaker 1
Most vets are actually really terrible when it comes to, I know myself when we lost our first dog that was our dog, I was a complete useless man.
So you have a bit of a problem that a lot of your patients.
Speaker 2
Are they?
Speaker 1
Belong to Saint Janie.
Speaker 2
Sometimes though, I sometimes think like, what is wrong with me?
Like why can't I stop crying?
And it's so it isn't because you're emotionally invested and you're just, it's, you're what I've, what I mean, my take on it is that these dogs fight so, so hard every day to survive on the streets.
It's not like they're starving or emaciated, anything like that.
But you know, they're on roads with heavy, heavy traffic.
They've got, you know, there are sometimes cruelty cases.
We've got a lot of wildlife.
So we've got wild boars, we've got snakes, we've got crocodiles, we've got scorpions.
We've got people who then try and poach those things.
So we've got snares everywhere.
We've got these things called Hackerpatus, which are, it's firecrackers essentially wrapped in meat so that a wild boar goes and eats it and it blows their head off.
But dogs eat them and it doesn't blow it.
You know, it doesn't kill them.
It just causes extreme damage that is often irreparable.
But they are up against it every single day.
And so when you see them coming into, you know, into the hospital, you're scooping them off, up off the side of the road.
And I just did one yesterday, a train accident where we had a traumatic invitation of the fallen and this dog's wagging his tail.
As I'm picking him up with a leg that has been sliced off, he's wagging his toe.
And you just think that fight that is in those St. dogs, like I owe them every bit of me.
I owe them my clinical skills.
I owe them my emotional investment.
I owe them my dedication.
Like if they can fight to that degree, then so can I.
And that's kind of how I approach it.
Speaker 1
Dogs are cool.
Speaker 2
They're so cool.
They're so cool.
Speaker 1
I, I like what you said earlier.
It is really about the animals.
You're not supposed to say that, but there are many days where I go.
I, I just like coming to work because I, I, I really like dogs.
It's.
Speaker 2
So true, isn't it?
It's so true.
Yeah, when I I get a bit when I see people online.
So like, I love dogs, I think.
Don't love them as much.
Yeah, you don't.
Speaker 1
I do think you win.
What's the competition?
Janie would win.
I, I do want to go back again to the, that your mindset that you get to have a, I'm just focused about the dog.
I want to rephrase the question.
When you go into your work where you have to consider owners and owner finances and stuff, do you still manage to keep that same mindset of I am focused on the animal in front of me and what needs to be done?
Or do you get the same clouding of judgement?
Basically, are you, because it's still one of the hardest things for so many of us.
Are you good at talking about money and all that sort of stuff when you are in that other kind of a role?
Because I'd love to foster that mindset a lot more to goers.
Well, let me forget about not upsetting the owner or anything.
What's what do I need to do?
And then we can make a plan based on.
Yeah.
Speaker 2
I think honestly it's there's different versions of me.
So there's Sri Lanka, Janey, there's UK Dubai Janey.
And there's this transitional person in the middle.
That happens when I'm kind of one foot in, one foot out.
And so when I first arrived back into UK practice or practice elsewhere, I'm very much like that.
I'm like, Nope, this is the animal needs da, da, da, da.
And then I start feeling myself kind of moulding to the version of Jamie that is that appeases people and that, you know, tries to think of all the angles and, yeah, doesn't want to upset people, gets a bit worried about getting sued.
All these things that I feel really strongly against when I'm here start to wear off pretty quickly.
You think you're.
I find that I feel those things are quite cemented in me and vice versa.
But when you switch back, it's very easy to slip back into things.
Random example, but you know, when I'm here, I never think about marriage, kids, growing up, settling down.
It's just not a thing because I'm surrounded by people who are in a similar position to me.
We're all on the same journey, we're on the same mission.
It's just not really on our radar.
And so I think when I go back to the UK, it doesn't bother me at all.
And it only takes, you know, three family meals with every entity going, well, have you found someone yet?
Yeah, but you just start going shit.
I need to grow up.
I need to get a real job.
I need to come back to the real world.
So you do kind of mould to the environment that you're in.
And I would love to say that I've come back to the UK and go like, no, it's all about the animals.
But unfortunately, there are other considerations.
And yeah, not quite as strong as I might think.
Speaker 1
In a way it's reassuring to know that it's it is hard the challenges that we face.
Speaker 2
Yeah, definitely.
And I mean over here as well, we, we try everything before we euthanize.
There's many reasons for that, but one of them is culturally it's quite a taboo topic.
So it's not something we ever want to kind of be Willy nilly with, which we wouldn't anyway, of course, but we do have to try.
We have to show that we've tried.
We took within reason.
You know, if an animal is in absolute agony, we cannot control pain, very different story, but we have to kind of show that our hearts in it.
And because we've had to do that and almost push the boundaries a little bit, I've found that so a lot of things are way more survivable than I would have thought when I was a bit in the UK.
And so that's something that I find really challenging when I go home is because I often want to push a bit more, you know, owners will come and say, this is a bit harder, we can't do this anymore, we should euthanize them.
And I'm thinking like, oh, I think we can do something here, but I don't know if I'm supposed to say that because actually my goal posts have changed quite significantly.
I feel like that's for the better, honestly.
I don't ever want to imply that we have a, a culture of easy euthanasia.
It's not that.
But I do think that we have maybe owners here are kind of like actually, you know, I've euthanized a cap previously that looked like this.
So this is how we do it.
But things have advanced and I do think that we do have many more options now.
And I think sometimes I find that quite quite challenging that it's, I feel like sometimes it's a bit of an easy out for owners sometimes.
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
Do do do you think it's it's financial?
I, I, it is the reality is many times in normal vet practice, we don't get to do this stuff.
We don't get to push that a little bit further because we'll.
Speaker 2
Hunt yeah, some of it is for sure.
And but I think I used to think it was the vast majority that was financial.
But more and more now I'm thinking sometimes it's, it's convenience or it's our level of what we think is, is acceptable or is, you know, in line with welfare standards.
And it's, it's something I'm constantly reassessing.
I don't ever want to go one way.
And then, you know, it, I really don't want to be like, oh, well, we saved the street, Doug and Sri Lanka, so we can save your Pomeranian that's 16 years old with no teeth.
And no, but I just sometimes question if that's something that we've just gotten used to being the end.
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
No, I, I agree.
I think it's good to question.
It's good.
Always good to question the common narrative and the way we do things.
Speaker 2
Yeah, but I think, I mean, even for me, my mum will kill me for saying this, but she was just like our cat's old.
I think he needs to be put to sleep.
And I was like, right, we'll have you taken him to the vet.
She's like, oh, no, you know, he's just old.
And I'm like, no, mum, like he's, he's drinking more.
He's do you want to get, do you want to do some blood tests?
Shall we see what his kidneys are doing?
No, I think he's just old.
She's not enjoying life now.
So I think we should just, you know, my mum's an animal lover, but it's just this kind of, I don't know, for me, I just think sometimes maybe that was expense.
But I also think that's because potentially, yeah, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1
Know it is a cultural norm.
You're right.
That is the way we do it.
That's how I grow up when it becomes too much or inconvenient or yeah.
Speaker 2
Or we don't kind of maybe consider that there's been a lot of progression in the field since my mum, for example, since she was 20 and had her last cat to when she was 60 and had this cat, there's stuff we can do.
So she actually said to me something like I said, do you do she get a blood test?
She goes, she's stressed, what do you know?
And I was like a little, a little bit, little bit some.
Speaker 1
Stuff.
Remember those six years that I was so stressed all the time?
Do you remember back to the two lives of JD I?
What We Underestimate: The Unsung Value of Colleagues
I'm interested.
Let's put a positive spin on it.
What do you think we have in normal vet practice that we don't appreciate?
Speaker 2
Oh, for me, well, I, I like to think I appreciated them when I was there.
But it's your colleagues, honestly, it's this, it's this collective of people in one place who are hustling together, working towards the same things, having a laugh, having a laugh at work.
And not that I don't have a laugh now, but it's just very different when you're also the boss.
You're not in it, you know, I really miss.
The crack and miss my team and miss not having to make decisions alone and miss being able to bounce things off people.
I'm so proud of how everyone in veterinary medicine has each other's back.
And I mean, that's something we really underestimate.
Even going back to what we talked about before, it's the negativity on social media, the vets and nurses are straight on there, you know, like it's very, very rare that you'll get stick from a vet or a nurse because it's just like, oh, hang on, she's one of us, excuse you, you know, and I just love that we we're in it together and, and miss that a lot, to be honest.
Speaker 1
That's a unexpected answer, and a really lovely answer.
I assumed it was going to be bells and whistles and.
Speaker 2
Machines.
Speaker 1
And scope and all those sort of things.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Well, that is clear if anyone wants to give us one.
But no, it is.
It's been right.
I feel very lucky on this side of things that I'm with people who have put themselves out there and done something different because it is, we are kind of all geared towards going into private practice.
So the people who look up from that and go, oh, there might be another option here.
They're cool people.
They're cool people to be around.
You learn a lot.
They have a lot of life experience.
Sometimes there's a lot to talk about, but it's very transient.
So people will come to Sri Lanka, work at We care.
It's a gap year for them, you know, for the international people, it's a one year experience.
Whereas I find when you're at home, you're living, breathing, this is your life.
It's not some holiday within a life, it's your life.
And yeah, I just think we really underestimate how much we, or maybe we don't.
But I think I did really underestimated how much I value being able to lean on my colleagues, whether I know I'm doing it or not.
You just know that if you're having an awful day, you can ring someone, you can go into the staff room, you can talk to someone about.
It's just you're not alone.
And I think it's very easy to feel quite alone when you're doing the work that I'm doing, both geographically and emotionally and all of that.
Speaker 1
I think we do probably under under appreciated.
I think it's so normal that we take it for granted.
So thank you for pointing it out.
Something to be grateful for.
In fact, Alfred, we complained about our colleagues, so like.
Speaker 2
That's it.
Like they might not be your people, for example, like am I going out on a Saturday night with them?
Probably not.
But will I like die die on the source?
Yes.
You know, like they're my team mates and I just think that there aren't many professions out there that has that, you know, we have bonded, whether it's through trauma, who knows, But we've, we've bonded for life with many of our colleagues.
And I just think we're, we're really fortunate to, to feel that we are one as a profession.
And I'm, I'm really, I'm proud to be a part of it.
Speaker 1
Speaking of people coming and going and helping out, so do you get people to come and help at weeki for anybody listening, it goes because I loved what you said earlier.
Volunteering & Career: Making Charity Vetting Viable
If everybody just gave a little bit of their skills and gifts and and what they can do to make the world a little bit better, is that an option to come and do that with?
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
So we, we have volunteer positions, but we also do have fade roles.
I really need people to come and help me in this journey and for it maybe not to be so transient.
So we have longer term roles.
We have two year contracts for vets and nurses.
Sri Lanka doesn't has a veterinary nursing profession so we're trying to create Sri Lanka's first veterinary nursing school.
And so we need good vet nurses on board to help me develop that and need that.
And then we also have volunteering positions.
So we have our hospital, which is the only emergency hospital on the island dedicated to the 3,000,000 St. dogs that we have here.
It is kitted out to international standards.
Luckily.
The only thing we're missing is a scope, in case you didn't get that in a previous conversation.
We would love a scope guys, but we're really lucky.
You know, we've got scanners, X-ray, blood, gas, all the things that we need to treat to the level that we are.
But we also have our neutering program.
So we have two lorries out in the community every single day, neutering, vaccinating, microchipping, about 60 dogs a day, so.
Speaker 1
Between how many?
How many vets?
Speaker 2
And, well, that's probably about four or five vets across the two lorries.
So it's yeah.
Speaker 1
It's if you want to learn how to D sex quickly, go and spend a little bit of time with Janie.
Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly.
It's, it's the one thing I'm very good at is chopping off a quick pair of balls.
But now it's it is, it is great.
And it's great that, you know, you learn your surgical skills, but you also get to see a lot of Sri Lanka and a lot of the community because we provide had these free neuters for street dogs but also for owned dogs.
So while sometimes at the hospital we are seeing maybe the worst of the worst, we are seeing dogs that have had boiling water thrown over them and we're thinking God, people are pieces of shit, you know.
Then at the CNBR program, you see the opposite end where you see a little old lady going back and forth 8 times in a day using a tuk tuk and probably spending half a salary to bring St. dogs or her own dogs to get neutered and vaccinated.
So we do see the most amazing people here as well.
And I think it's really nice to get out into the community and and yeah, know that you're making big impact in the hospital.
It's incredible work that we're doing, but it's very individual based.
Whereas when you get out in the community like that, you're like, Oh my gosh, we've neutered 60 dogs today.
And actually each unneutered female can produce 27,000 puppies in her lifetime.
So six, yeah.
Speaker 1
No, just not 27.
Bull.
You made that number up.
That's insane.
Speaker 2
Yeah, pull down and I didn't.
No, it's true.
So she might have 6 pups, you know, twice your house.
So so you think that you think it's just $60.00, but actually the impact on the community is massive.
And so you come away from every one of those days feeling pretty like, yeah, we're done something good there.
It's great.
So we would very much welcome volunteers, very much welcome staff as well.
And it is a great way to use your skills.
A lot of people say to me without sounding like an idiot, but they'll say, Oh, you're so selfless.
And I'm like, I'm not at all.
I feel selfish because I feel like I've trapped in secret.
That is like, I love my job and I love my knife.
And actually I speak to a lot of my friends at events and they're not necessarily loving their job.
And I get to do this every day.
And because you're helping other people, it makes you feel good.
And it's just this like this cycle of goodness.
And it's, it's really cool.
And I think that there's nothing senseless about it.
I think it's going selfish really, 'cause I'm like, I get to have all the fun.
Speaker 1
It's very simple way.
I did read something once which I really enjoyed it.
It says that we are actually all selfish.
It's just that some people have more refined taste in how they are selfish.
So yeah, it's a good kind of selfishness.
And it is so interesting because I mean, the reason this podcast was born was because I and so many other vets are a little bit dissatisfied with our careers.
And it I think it is.
And I think that's why I'm also drawn to your line of work and why when I look at what you do, I'm a little bit jealous because there is that mismatch between what the 12 year old kid wanted to be a vet.
Speaker 2
Thought you were doing.
Speaker 1
And then the stuff we just talked about.
So I, I, I feel like the giving part and what you do, I certainly when I did my stuff in Lombok, some of the most the fun I've ever had vetting was running through the Bush trying to catch a dog that we just darted and spraying it outside of the kitchen table and, and I loved it.
It was so much fun.
Speaker 2
It does it.
It's very much that feeling of fulfilment and, you know, satisfaction with what you're doing.
You're doing a good thing, but also from what you've just said, it kind of feels a bit like you're a cross between a farm vet and a small animal vet because you're out and you're chasing animals and there's a bit of an adventure about it.
And so I do think that angle brings back some of that excitement that we're maybe missing in our day-to-day where we're quite disillusioned with the profession and we're not quite able to do, oh, it's not quite what we thought it would be.
I definitely had that, you know, I had that three years in, I was singing as is it for the rest of my life, you know, and I would love to get to a point where vet students or younger vets can see charity vetting as a viable option because at the moment, like I say, it's seen as a gap year.
And actually there are many opportunities out there where it can be somewhat of a viable option.
You can hustle and make it your life.
Speaker 1
Do you think the thing that holds us back is, is money, personal income?
We don't want to be put.
Are you?
We're not going to ask you.
Speaker 2
Well maybe there was a monk who actually reported me to the police here and I the police came and took my passport and took me in for questioning because he accused me of amputating dogs legs so I could sell the body parts, the money.
So if you think I'm poor, then you don't know Mango's leg racket.
But no, definitely, I would say, of course it's financial.
You know, we don't think there's viability in that field, but there is yes, you might have to be quite inventive with how you structure your life.
So for example, I do online triage.
So I wake up at 4:30 on the morning.
I do night shift in the UK from 4:30 till 10:30.
And then I go into we care, do that work and then come home local and go to Dubai, make it work.
So you do have to hustle.
That's as things currently stand.
But my dream would be to create roles that are well enough paid.
You know, like I say, 75% of the world's dog population is unowned.
At some point we have to do something about that.
At some point we have to step up and do something about that.
So whether it's government funded or what it is, there has to be roles where we're working with this population of dogs.
And I would love to get to a point where it is an option for people to, to do something good and feel good about it and make a difference.
And sorry to say, but sometimes, you know, we do feel like we're just selling ourselves, don't we, in corporate practice and making money for people.
And it's, it isn't what the vast majority of vets trained to do.
We trained to help animals and that's what you get to do out here.
So.
Speaker 1
Pandering to people whose dogs eyes have been watering for three hours.
Speaker 2
Hey, it was an emergency.
I mean, it's it's a lot of work as things currently stand to hold down charity job.
But I would like to see a world where it isn't.
I would like to see a world where we can do something good and be paid for it.
Speaker 1
Yeah, You know, from our conversations, I and I've, I've stopped pushing, but after speaking to you, I did feel like surely if we can just get a shout out to anybody listening because beyond the scope, I think what we can need is money.
But people like you, I'm not saying Jamie specifically, but surely it's a profession we can pull together and say, hey, between us we can probably pay somebody a salary, a living wage to go and do the important work that we all want to see it done.
Speaker 2
Yeah, Well, I think there's that, but I also think there's a lot of potential value in what we do to people who might want to fund it as well, because the cases we're seeing are wild.
You know, these are cases that should be written about in journals.
They're cases that specialists ask me about.
And we are all, we're well qualified.
You know, we're doing our certificates, we're doing extra qualifications like, you know, I've got my ACC certificates.
So there are, it's not just like we're out here neutering dogs kind of wasting away or doing all the fun stuff.
Like we are pushing the boundaries of medicine and surgery.
And I do think there's a lot that can be gained from that worldwide as well, whether it's exchanges with certain companies or getting it out on social media, sponsorship of the work that we do.
I think there's a lot, there's a lot of scope there, but it's, but it's about people realising that I think and not just thinking, oh, she's having a bit of fun over there and neutering dogs.
I remember my boss in Dubai said to me, do you not think you just you're losing all your skills?
And this was after I'd been in Dubai, I'd been working for them for a couple of years and I think I'd done 3 cats today as well.
So you know, and then Sri Lanka, I'm doing 1015 a day and I'm being told I'm wasting my skills in Sri Lanka.
So I think it's an appreciation for the work that a lot of people are putting in and the achievements that they're gaining outside of the typical setting, outside of academia.
And though sometimes it is easy to be like, Oh, well, they're not a specialist or they haven't done their residency, but there's a lot of people doing cool stuff out there as well that just aren't in an academic setting or have many, many letters after their nose.
I'm not bitter.
That sounds a bit bitter.
I just, you know, I think it sometimes people look down on it a little bit like, oh, cute, but it's not cute.
We're doing really cool shit.
Speaker 1
I like that.
It's cool.
I like that you say that because it it can look like that, right?
For especially for people considering the careers to go.
I don't want to go and yeah, go, go and spay dogs on a kitchen table with unsterilized equipment.
No, no, it's not.
It's not that.
Speaker 2
Yeah, no, not at all.
I've worked, and it's not often a blow mirror and trumpet, but a willingness that I've worked really, really hard to create a setting where we're not compromising standards.
For me, it's really important that street dogs don't receive second rate care.
And I think sometimes that's the presumption of like our charity work, though they won't be sterilizing their kit, so they'll be using their.
SO that's absolutely not like I have hustled and begged and pleaded and flown across countries to make sure that we have the correct equipment, to make sure that everything is done to international because we should never be cutting corners just because the dog doesn't have an odor.
Podcast Habits and Redesigning the Vet Profession
Yeah, I think we're running out of time.
So we need to start wrapping up because you've got phone calls to make so you can run an effective charity so you you don't get to get away without my standard questions.
Are you podcast list now?
Speaker 2
Yes, I'm nervous though, I haven't got good answers for these things.
Speaker 1
There's no good or bad answer.
What are your answers?
Speaker 2
Come on then, give it to me.
Speaker 1
What do you listen to?
What?
What podcasts do you like to listen to?
Speaker 2
No, my podcasts are a Trojan, so they won't inspire anyone.
I've actually started listening to a lot more podcasts.
I know that I'm training for a run, so I'm running from the north of Sri Lanka to the South, so it's a 600 kilometre run that I'll be doing over the course of 25 days later in the year.
I'm not a runner, I'm hating every bloody 2nd of this.
But we need to raise money for a new hospital, so I'm decided to do this stupid challenge.
But anyway, it means I'm on long, long runs, bored out of my mind.
So I'm listening to a lot of really bad podcasts.
Speaker 1
What's your favorite out of the bad podcasts?
Speaker 2
Well, it's not my favorite but I think you'll enjoy it if you ever listen to Everybody's Got an Ex.
It's an Aussie 1 and it basically talks about, I'll let you listen to it, but it talks about how we started this dream relationship.
This guy was amazing.
This time this happened.
And then in the next breath it's like he did this and but it's mind blowing stuff.
You know, it'll be like he went missing for three years and had three other families and where did that come from?
So that's very entertaining.
And then I do love a bit of true crime.
So I'm very much into case files, kind of have worked my way through a lot of those into a lot of, to be honest, my guilty pleasure, which I don't feel that guilty about, but it's kind of the celeb gossip field.
It's light relief.
I do enjoy a bit of celeb nonsense.
OK, now.
Speaker 1
I'm going to search the clinical podcast, which I know you have access to because I gave it to your whole team, and see if I see you even subscribed.
Did you know that I could see how many you listen to?
Yeah.
No, you've listened.
You're listening.
You're listening.
OK.
No.
Oh, wow.
No, no, I'm impressed.
No.
So it's not just all trashy podcasts you do.
Speaker 2
No, I do listen to you.
Of course I do.
You're the bit where I listen to people like, yeah, like Claire Sharp and I'm like, oh, I'm not smart enough.
Oh I need to go and do a residency all.
Speaker 1
Right, so the puzzle on question.
Now it is time for the puzzle on question.
The question from my previous guest to you, it's a big one.
If you were to design the vet profession from scratch, what is the one thing that you would change?
Speaker 2
Well, I kind of don't know.
I was thinking that should I be serious on this?
There's a lot of jokey ones that I would say, I think I'd in a consult not let anyone use the phrase of like, oh, while we're here.
Like that would be something that would be, it would be banned at.
Yeah.
On a, on a kind of deeper level, I think it would be really cool if we could split the profession so that somehow we pay equal attention to St. dogs, unowned dogs, stray dogs.
So maybe it's 50% of your time in practice and 50% and we switch or something.
I mean, that's a dream world, isn't it?
But it would be really nice if we could as vets, because I know we all want to.
It's not us that are the problem, it's a system that's the problem.
But pay attention to all animals equally.
Speaker 1
Yeah, your question for my next guest, not knowing who they are.
Speaker 2
So my question to the next person is, what is the most socially acceptable lie that you tell in veterinary medicine or that we tell in veterinary medicine?
Speaker 1
As a profession.
Speaker 2
Yeah, cool question.
Yeah, we're going to expose ourselves, though I hope there's no owners listening.
I.
Speaker 1
Always forget that there might be non vets who listen to this.
I like it.
Good question.
All right, let's wrap it up.
The one bit of advice, you have the opportunity to speak to all of the veteran new grads of 2026 and then he gets to give them one bit of advice for the vet careers and lives beyond.
Janey's Wisdom: Be True to Yourself, New Grads
Oh, so cheesy.
So I kind of found someone shame to say.
I'm retching as I say it, but just be true to yourself.
I kind of knew early on that I wasn't going to fit into that box.
And I think the Zet neutral fashion is a lot more flexible, adaptable while reaching then we might be led to believe when we're in university.
There are so many things that you can do to enjoy your job, stay in the profession.
So if you do get to a point where you think this might not be for me, don't stay in that situation.
There are so many things that you can do that benefit animals and I know that's what all of our aims are.
So just keep your eye on the prize, the prize of the animals welfare.
And you know, that's what we're here to, to hope.
We're here to serve them ultimately.
So do that in the way that feels the most true to you.
Speaker 1
Love that.
Thank you, you lead my example.
Thanks so much for making the time and and genuinely, every time I connect with you and chat to you on off air, I feel slightly guilty, but in a good way, because it's it's the sort of feeling that inspires you to do something to do some of that good.
So thank you for doing what you're doing, for sharing your message.
And I hope that somebody out there, you might not get any marriage proposals from this episode, but hopefully you get lots and lots of money out of scope.
Speaker 2
I know what I prefer.
Speaker 1
Before you disappear, I wanted to tell you about my weekly newsletter.
I speak to so many interesting people and learn so many new things while making the clinical podcast.
So I thought I'd create a little summary each week of the stuff that stood out for me.
We call it the Vet Vault 321 and it consists of three clinical pearls.
These are three things that I've taken away from making the clinical podcast episodes, my light bulb moments.
Two other things.
These could be quotes, links, movies, books, a podcast highlight, maybe even from my own podcast.
Anything that I've come across outside of clinical vetting that I think that you might find interesting.
And then one thing to think about, which is usually something that I'm pondering this week and that I'd like you to ponder with me.
If you'd like to get these in your inbox each week, then follow the newsletter link in the show description wherever you're listening.
It's free and I'd like to think it's useful.
OK, we'll see you next time.
Dr. Janey Lowes