The Vet Vault: Veterinary Career, Clinical Skills & Wellbeing

By Dr. Hubert HiemstraScience

The Vet Vault: Veterinary Career, Clinical Skills & Wellbeing episodes

March 16, 2021 #41: The yin and yang of emergency practice. With Dr Lorna O'Dowd
We’re back today with another full-length vet interview, and it’s a corker! We’re exploring the ins and outs, the ups and downs and the and the joys and struggles of a career in emergency practice, with Dr Lorna O’Dowd.
You’ll pick where Lorna cut her teeth in mixed practice from her lovely Irish accent. Since her early career in Ireland, Lorna did stints of smallies locum work interspersed with volunteering in all sorts of exotic locations around the world. She finally put down her roots here in Australia, where she followed a path that saw her working and teaching in the emergency department at the University of Melbourne for the past decade.
At the time of recording this episode, she’d just started a new ECC job in a private specialist clinic, which leads us straight into a great conversation about change, dealing with new jobs and teams and the associated stresses, how to pick a team that fits with your values, and how to add value to your team. We talk about imposter syndrome, burnout, being a good mentee, and... death - when our patients die, with or without our help - a very important topic that we haven’t really touched on before on the podcast. And of course, we couldn’t talk to a fellow ECC geek without asking her for her best tips on how to survive a career in emergency practice with shift work and high-stress situations.
Enjoy!
1 hr 14 min
February 23, 2021 #40: Niche practice and rubbery numbers. With Dr Randolph Baral.
This episdoe is a bit of a hybrid between our standard performance episodes and a clinical one. We speak to Dr Randolph Baral, who owns and works in a feline-only practice in Sydney, Australia. But Randolph doesn’t just like staying up to date with what’s new for his patients - he prefers to stay at the forefront by doing his own research. This has led to him gaining his memberships feline medicine, a pHD in clinical pathology, being a regular contributor on VIN, and authoring a string of publications and articles on all things clin path.
We talk to Randolph about the benefits of niche practice and about being a researcher while also being a clinician and practice owner, but the bulk of our conversation is around Randolph’s insights around his pet topic: variation in blood results, how we interpret our blood results, and more specifically BETTER ways of thinking about our results.
Now, a quick word of warning - some of the things Randolph talks about might hurt your brain a bit when you first hear them, but I guarantee that once they click into place you’ll wonder how it is that you never thought about things in this way.
This episode is supported by Heska Australia.
https://www.heska.com.au
Heska is the most exciting new player in the in-house lab equipment market in Australia. They offer top of the line machines and proven reliable results, but with significantly reduced spend on consumables, with savings of 30% or more compared to other dry-slide analysers. Pay less, get more, no tricks.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes, to get your hands on the answers to ‘the one question’ from our first 20 guests, 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, subscribe to our clinical podcast series at https://vvn.supercast.tech for weekly short and sharp high value clinical updates that you can consume on the go.
We love to hear from you. If you have a question for us or you’d like to give us some feedback please leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at [email protected], or just catch up with us on instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
If you like what you heard then please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening and sending a link to someone who you know will enjoy listening.
57 min
February 08, 2021 #39: Get to know your hosts, part 1. With Dr Hubert Hiemstra.
I recently had the privilege to be interviewed by my podcast/business coach, James Whittaker. James is an author, film producer, entrepreneur, all-round great guy and host of the Win The Day podcast. We thought we'd share it with you here on the Vet Vault, because
A - If you're a podcaster and you get handed a well-executed pre-edited bit of audio then you'd be a fool not to use it.
B - We discuss a few things in the conversation that we think could be of value to some of you.
C - Maybe it's time you got to know us a bit better!
Enjoy. Hugh
Check out James' podcast at https://jameswhitt.com/podcast/
If you have a podcast or a digital business, or you're considering starting one...this is where I learnt a lot of what I know:
https://wearepodcast.com/events
Highly recommended. As a member of the tribe, I get a 20% discount code to share with friends: use the code VET for your discount.
37 min
January 25, 2021 A cure for FIP. With Dr Dave Collins.
You know that virus that the entire world hates at the moment? Yes - the C-word. Well, us vets have hated it for a long time, because it’s been killing our feline patients relentlessly in it’s mutated form of Feline Infectious Peritonitis long before the rest of the world ever heard the name 'corona'. Well, that might be about to change...
In this episode, we share some highlights of a recording we recently released on the Vet Vault Clinical small animal medicine podcast with our resident medicine specialist, Dr Dave Collins. Join in to find out all the details about some new treatments that are showing very high cure rates for FIP. It's simply too important not to share. We hope you find it as enlightening as we did, and please remember to share it with your colleagues so we can get the word out there.
Dr Dave also gave us access to some detailed notes on everything we know about Remdesivir, one of the drugs we talk about, including a comprehensive treatment protocol. If you want to get your hands on these go to www.thevetvault.com and subscribe to our mailing list, and we'll send them to you.
In the full episode, we also cover the ins and outs of diagnosing FIP, which you'll know can be a challenge in itself. Go and check it out at vvn.supercast.tech.
20 min
January 15, 2021 #38: Behaviour: pets, vets, and clients. With Dr Sarah Heath.
Dr Sarah Heath is an RCVS and European Veterinary Specialist in Behavioural Medicine and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2018. She is an External Lecturer in small animal behavioural medicine on the veterinary undergraduate course at Liverpool University. In 2019 she gained her Postgraduate Certificate in Veterinary Education and became a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. She is a Certified Clinical Animal Behaviourist under the ASAB accreditation scheme and registered as a Veterinary Behaviourist with the Animal Behaviour and Training Council.
She sees clinical cases across North West England and has a special interest in the interplay between emotional and physical illness in dogs and cats and particularly in the role of pain. She promotes the recognition of emotional health issues in companion animals and the role of the veterinary profession in safeguarding the welfare of animals in this context. Sarah lectures extensively, at home and abroad, on behavioural medicine and is an author, co-author and editor of several books.
Basically - when it comes to anything behaviour related - she REALLY knows her stuff. And you don’t get this good at assessing behaviour without learning a few other things - about people, clients, our profession, and yourself. Join us in this far-reaching conversation with a Sarah about career longevity, connecting with clients and with the greater animal care community, Sarah’s self-care challenges, behaviour medicine as a career and much, much more.

Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes, to get your hands on the answers to ‘the one question’ from our first 20 guests, 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 leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at [email protected], or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
f you like what you heard please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening to this and sending it to someone who you know will enjoy listening to this.
1 hr 14 min
January 04, 2021 Peri-operative management of brachycephalic dogs, with Dr Bronwyn Fullagar and Dr Mark Tenenbaum.
We wanted to share one of the episodes from our clinical series of podcasts to give you an idea what they are about. This one is from a series we did on brachycephalic obstructed airway syndrome (BOAS) with specialist surgeon Dr Bronwyn Fullagar and Dr Mark Tenenbaum, a GP vet who works in a practice that has a strong focus on brachycephalics. Regardless how you feel about bulldogs and all their flat faced friends - the reality is that you WILL have to deal with them.
This episode is from our surgery series, but don’t be put off if you’re not the surgeon who’ll be doing upper airway surgery. There’s a lot of value here for any vet around a general approach to dealing with the brachys in hospital: from safe handling and sedating, all the way to waking them up and managing them post-op for any surgical procedure, not just airway surgery.
If you want to hear part 1, 3 and 4 of the BOAS series to learn more about the pathophys of BOAS, how to decide which ones need surgery, how to assess them for surgery, what can go wrong, how to actually DO the surgery, and much much more, and if you want access to summarised show notes that you can refer back to later, then we’d love you to check out the vet vault clinical at https://vvn.supercast.tech. Enjoy!
35 min
December 24, 2020 #37: Big goals, small steps. With Dr Mark Kelman.
Here’s the link to our brand new clinical continuing education podcasts: https://vvn.supercast.tech. Subscribe before the end of January 2021 to lock in your subscription at a 30% discounted early bird rate. Now - our guest:
Dr Mark Kelman is a man on a mission. He’s a veterinarian, independent scientific researcher, social philanthropist and investor who has had a wildly varying career. From charity work to private practice to working in pharmaceuticals, a quick PhD, and now as a researcher and co-founder, director and CEO of his own charity. Paws for a Purpose is a social enterprise charity for people in need and their pets. The charity raises funds and awareness for various issues including Canine Parvovirus. Currently, he is leading a research-and-intervention project with the goal of eradicating Parvo. Yes, we said eradicate! Mark is also a board director of Pets In The Park – a charity helping the homeless to care for their pets.
Our conversation with Mark meanders all over the veterinary profession. He tackles some of the biggest issues that we face as vets, like trying to find a balance between our duty of care with our need to earn a decent income, and career diversification as a key for career longevity. Mark shares his journey with us and tells us why he still loves working as a vet, and much much more. Ultimately it’s a hopeful conversation about taking action, big dreams, and the small steps that get you to those dreams.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ for the show notes, to get your hands on the answers to ‘the one question’ from our first 20 guests, 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 leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at [email protected], or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/)
And if you like what you heard please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening to this and sending it to someone who you know will enjoy listening to this.
1 hr 19 min
December 07, 2020 We’re back!
Just a quick chat to say hi and let you know what we’ve been up to, plus Hubert shares an important letter that we’d received at the Vet Vault from a listener who is NOT a vet, but a client. You may need to hear this - I know that there are many days that I do.
23 min
October 04, 2020 Announcement
If you’re thinking we’ve been slow to release new episodes then you’d be right! Hubert is travelling around Australia with his family for 6 weeks, so the Vet Vault will be taking a 6 week break. We’ll be back towards the end of the year with a tonne of new content and the official launch of our clinical podcast series. We miss you already!
2 min
September 21, 2020 Hashtag Vetschool
This episode is a special bonus episode for our student contingency. We chat to Nada Blagojevic (@dogtornada on Instagram). Nada is a final year vet student at Adelaide University and co-creator of Hashtag Vetschool. #Vetschool is a compilation of study tips and a survival guide of sorts made by an international group of vet students, for vet students. In this conversation Nada gives us a few of her favourite tips from the guide and some of her own wisdom. Enjoy!
Get your copy of this fantastic study guide here: https://hashtagvetschool.com.
Go to https://thevetvault.com/podcasts/ to get your hands on the answers to ‘the one question’ from our first 20 guests, 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 leave us a voice message by going to our episode page on the anchor app (https://anchor.fm) and hitting the record button, via email at [email protected], or just catch up with us on Instagram. (https://www.instagram.com/thevetvault/) If you like what you heard please share the love by clicking on the share button wherever you’re listening to this and sending it to someone who you know will enjoy listening to this.
25 min

About The Vet Vault: Veterinary Career, Clinical Skills & Wellbeing

From the publisher's feed

The Vet Vault is a veterinary podcast for vets and vet students covering career growth, clinical medicine, leadership, and mental health and wellbeing across the veterinary profession. Vet life can…