Tips for your first month as a new graduate vet
Your first real day as a vet, stepping through the doors of your practice for the first time, feels like it’s never going to come. But when it does, it’s exciting, its terrifying, it’s surreal and it’s...
View ArticleThe lighter side of the ex lap
Let’s set the scene: It’s Friday afternoon, you’ve had the blocked cat and the chocolate-eating Labrador, your patients are comfortable, on fluids, settled, recovering. It’s been a hectic but...
View ArticleThis long December
With 13 years as a blogger for Vet Times under my belt, you may think that writing comes easily, but this December it has felt very difficult to come up with a festive post. Previous articles have...
View ArticleDirect result of education: help guide the research
You know the conversations with clients that start with them announcing “I did some research”, which is code for “I Googled it and you’re not doing it right”? How can we change this? The truth is, we...
View ArticleBlood transfusions, pt 1: clinical signs
I get asked frequently when is the right time to transfuse an anaemic patient? The difficulty lies in the fact not all anaemic patients require blood transfusions. Just because a patient has pale...
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Blood transfusions, pt 2: what do I give?
To make the most of a precious resource, donated blood is often separated into two components: red blood cells (packed red cells) and plasma (fresh frozen plasma, most commonly). Haematocrit tube from...
View ArticleHenry: hero or villain?
Happy new everything! As a currently dogless person, I had a great start to 2024 while dog sitting the most beautiful boy, Bentley. We hung out and liked the same things (short walks, pubs, naps,...
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Blood transfusions, pt 3: how much?
Now that you know how to spot the signs of when a blood transfusion is needed and what blood product to administer, this article will focus on the volume of blood to give. What PCV should I aim for? To...
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The why of veterinary science
In one of the last decade’s most influential books on motivation, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, author Daniel Pink argues that the traditional motivators of the previous century...
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Ionised hypocalcaemia, pt 1: introduction
Low ionised calcium (iCa) is a widely recognised electrolyte disturbance in critically ill human patients who have undergone surgery, are septic, have pancreatitis, or have sustained severe trauma or...
View ArticleRethinking our council structure
The proposed governance revamp as reported in Vet Times (VT54.04) does suggest much further thought should be applied. In my view, there are at least three weaknesses in the arguments put forward – in...
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Ionised hypocalcaemia, pt 2: eclampsia
As discussed in part one of this blog series, a myriad of disease processes can lead to ionised hypocalcaemia (iHCa). Despite this, only hypocalcaemia caused by eclampsia and hypoparathyroidism...
View ArticleIonised hypocalcaemia, pt 3: acute treatment and management
Treatment of ionised hypocalcaemia (iHCa) is reserved for patients with supportive clinical signs, then divided into acute and chronic management. Since the most common cases of clinical hypocalcaemia...
View ArticleThe world is yours
There’s a constant pressure in the industry to do something else. Whether that pressure comes from us wanting to branch out and experience different practices, different countries, different...
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Rat bait’s sneaky trick: bleeding into the dorsal tracheal membrane
Most of us are familiar with anticoagulant rodenticide toxicosis and the range of clinical signs it can present with, but there is one potentially fatal manifestation of coagulation pathology that is...
View ArticleIonised hypocalcaemia, pt 4: controversies and prognostic indications
Ionised hypocalcaemia (iHCa) is a well-known electrolyte abnormality in critical human patients, which is also beginning to be recognised in our critical feline and canine patients. The exact mechanism...
View ArticlePut your hands where my eyes can see
Theatre practice. It’s a funny world, the world of asepsis and sterility. To an alien, the rituals we go through to prevent infection – our repetitive, obsessive attitude towards touching certain...
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VN Voice: OCD and the vet industry
Image @ chrupka / Adobe Stock Qualifying as a veterinary nurse was a long-awaited moment for myself and was a career that I had wanted for as long as I can remember. It is a job that I imagine...
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Using lactate measurements in general practice
Several easy and affordable ways exist to measure lactate in general practice, which means the clinical applications of monitoring lactate is no longer the reserve of specialist and emergency centres....
View ArticleEuthanasia: lets talk about it
I think your first PTS as a new graduate is a significant moment across the board; there’s nothing that truly prepares you for it, as it’s very unlikely you’ll have seen many during work experience...
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