Veterinary Ramblings

This week, we're kicking off our latest season with the wonderful Dr Amber Lee!🦜🦩

We discuss how she built her career as an avian/exotics specialist and the differences between working with exotics in the USA and Australia. We also discuss the difficulties the veterinary profession has faced during 2020, both with coronavirus and the Australian wildfires. Amber shares some fantastic insight and advice about using mindfulness to improve your emotional wellbeing. 

Amber graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2010 and worked in small animal practice before moving to Indianapolis, in the USA, to undertake a 1-year rotating internship. From here, she completed an ABVP (American Board of Veterinary Practitioners) Avian medicine residency at the Avian and Exotic Animal Clinic of Indianapolis. Shortly after finishing her residency, she moved to Boston to work in private practice. In 2017, she passed her Avian Board exams through ABVP. 

In 2018, she launched her website and social media platforms, teaching and training nurses, veterinarians and clients worldwide! She is also the co-chair for the social media committee for the Association of Avian Veterinarians (AAV), managing their Instagram page and working closely with the other committees to spread awareness of the work of the organisation.

At the end of 2020, she moved back home to Melbourne to be closer to family and friends. She is now working in private practice in Melbourne, seeing a wide range of birds and exotic pets and wildlife. 

 You may be familiar with some of her work on social media - she is passionate about educating clients about exotic animal husbandry through her website, Facebook and Instagram pages. If not, check them out! 

This week Veterinary Ramblings has turned one year old! We'll be back next week with more wonderful, fascinating guests, but in the meantime, sit down with us for 10 minutes as we reflect on the year gone by. 

From the bottom of our gin-filled hearts, thank you to each and every one of you who have tuned in to our show so far. We hope you have as much fun listening to our show as we do creating it! Please share our show with anyone who you think may enjoy it and may your dog go with you!

This week we're talking treats - specifically, the ones that Julian won't eat due to ethical concerns over palm oil and it's effects on the rainforest.  We also talk about how the knock-on effects of COVID have caused national shortages of one of Mike's favourite treats (Marmite) and how drinking british beer could potentially help alleviate it!

We also cover chocolate, vanilla, orchids, and the hypocrisy at the G7 Summit   - there's plenty of interesting facts in this week's episode to tickle your curiosity!

This week, we have a fantastic chat with Iain McGill! We discuss his fascinating career including his work spearheading an investigation into the BSE (Mad Cow Disease) crisis, his short stint filmmaking in India, his efforts in animal conservation and campaigning against the badger cull in the UK.

Iain trained at King’s College London in neuroscience before qualifying at the RVC. Working initially as a clinician for the Blue Cross, he transferred to a government research role for MAFF, investigating bovine neuropathological disease with a focus on BSE and other prion diseases. He continued research on the molecular biology of prions at the Institute of Psychiatry. Iain worked with Dispatches and Channel 4 to blow the whistle on the BSE cover-up. 

He has worked in phytotherapeutics - researching novel candidates for medicinal compounds derived from plants. Whilst at ZSL, he performed disease risk analysis (DRA) for the recovery of UK endangered species including red kites, dormice, cirl buntings, field crickets and for the re-introduction of the pool frog. Since 2012, Iain has focused on publishing scientific evidence on bovine TB in cattle and other species, campaigning against the badger cull and for animal protection. He continues to see clinical cases and is setting up the PVA (Progressive Veterinary Association).

This week we have a blast talking with Cat The Vet! We catch up on how the pandemic has affected her as both a veterinarian and a mother. We also discuss why vets are thought to be expensive and how her family influenced her decision to join the profession. 

Cat is passionate about providing reliable sources of clinical information and veterinary advice for pet owners through her website and popular social media pages so we ask her how she deals with life online and she shares some fantastic knowledge about online resources that are useful for vets (and owners) to know about.  

If your not already familiar with Cat's fantastic work, your children might be as she has appeared on CBBC's The Pets Factor, a great show that follows a team of veterinary surgeons and nurses going about their day-to-day work, consulting and operating on a variety of cases whilst promoting animal welfare.  We chat about her time on television including the time she met Mr Tumble!

Cat qualified as a veterinary surgeon from Bristol Vet School in 2003 and currently works in a small, independent small animal clinic in Sheffield. 

Ey up! This week we welcome Julian Norton to Veterinary Ramblings - best known for his role on the popular Channel 5 television series 'The Yorkshire Vet'. The show is regarded as one of the most successful shows on the channel as it has reached the heart (and screens) of over 2 million viewers. 

We discuss the intricacies of balancing the job of being a vet alongside being a TV personality, how the logistics of filming work around veterinary emergencies and what he's learnt as a result of working in TV. Aside from 'The Yorkshire Vet', Julian has also appeared on The Wright Stuff as a frequent guest as well as Springtime on the Farm and Big Week at the Zoo. 

Julian grew up in Castleford, West Yorkshire before studying his degree to become a Veterinary Surgeon at Cambridge University. He was inspired to become a vet by famous Yorkshire Veterinary Surgeon and Author James Herriot- he's even authored a few books himself! Julian's grandad was also a big influence on his choice in career, and we talk a little about their shared love for animals, the TV adaptation of "All Creatures Great and Small" and flat caps. Julian has almost 25 years under his belt as a mixed-practice veterinary surgeon living in North Yorkshire and was a partner in a practice that was once the surgery from which Alf Wight (James Herriot) worked - talk about full circle!

Join us as we speak to Jill Moss & Chris Laurence (MBE) from The Bella Moss Foundation.

We discuss Jill's fascinating career as a child actress & find out how Chris got the charming nickname 'Spider'! We also learn about the tragic circumstances as to how The Bella Moss Foundation came to be & more about the wonderful work they do to promote responsible antimicrobial use and good hygiene in human & veterinary medicine. 

The Foundation aims to save lives through education & is committed to making the world a safer place for people & their pets. They have recently launched a new website so please check it out and do what you can to make the world a safer place for everyone: https://www.thebellamossfoundation.com/home

Join us as we sit down with Pete Wedderburn AKA Pete The Vet. We ask him about his career path and if he would change anything about the choices he made. We also discuss how he got into the media as well as his love of facing his fears to do hobbies that scare him!

Pete is well known as a media veterinarian with regular national tv, radio and newspaper slots in Ireland and a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph since 2007. Pete is known as "Pete the Vet" on his busy Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, regularly posting information on topical subjects and real-life cases from his clinic. He also writes a regular blog at www.petethevet.com and has written several books. Most recently, he has launched Petfix Club, a new website that provides a veterinary guide to help give pet owners online assistance as an extension of his work as a public educator.

This week we're chatting to Sam Morgan, former president of the BVNA counsel and current member of the BVNA advisory committee & British Veterinary LGBTQ+ committee as one of two RVN representatives. 

We discuss the difficulties of teaching over zoom and learn a little bit of welsh! Sam also shares her experience within the  LGBTQ+ veterinary community and things she would say to her younger self. 

Sam qualified as a veterinary nurse in 1999, working in both general and referral practice. Since qualifying, she’s achieved an advanced diploma in both medical and surgical nursing and a Certificate in Education. Sam began her teaching career in 2007 and is one of the directors at Abbeydale Vet Nurse Training, a specialist teaching centre who train and support Veterinary Nurses and Practices.

We're chatting to John Chitty, the director of a small animal/exotics practice in Hampshire. We discuss John and Julians shared love of old books, giving the snip to tortoises and sugar gliders, ferret husbandry and the difficulties, but also benefits of working through the pandemic as a veterinarian.

Also, we want to give a quick shout out to a charity which John is the Trustee and Honorary Secretary of called Vetlife. They provide emotional, financial and mental health support to the veterinary community, check them out at www.vetlife.org.uk.