The Vet Vault: Veterinary Career, Clinical Skills & Wellbeing

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 [email protected], 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. 

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 [email protected], 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. 

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 [email protected], 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. 

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 [email protected], 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. 

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 [email protected], or just catch up with us on Instagram.

And if you like what you hear then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you think should hear this. 

We 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected], 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.

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 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 [email protected], 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.

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 [email protected], 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.

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected].