Veterinary Voices UK (2025)

10/04/2025

➡️ Studies in neonates and infants show that when anaesthesia or analgesia was withheld, altered pain sensitivity and increased anxiety occurred with subsequent painful experiences, when compared to children receiving analgesia

Pain should always be treated to inhibit its deleterious effects, however, analgesia is not benign and does carry some risk and potential complications. A full understanding of the physiological responses to pain and the positive and negative responses to analgesia is required by veterinary nurses treating neonates in pain. In neonates these responses can differ greatly to adults, and nursing techniques should be adapted to encompass these requirements. In addition, unmanaged painful experience, especially when the nervous system is developing, may have a permanent negative impact on the animal.

There are many individual differences in reactions to pain; these can depend on species, temperament, gender and age. Generally younger animals, particularly neonates, are more reactive to pain than adults, due to a lower threshold for pain.

Due to important physiological maturation changes that occur during the first 6 months of life (the paediatric period) further demarcation is used: neonatal (0–2 weeks); infant (2–6 weeks); weanling (6–12 weeks); and juvenile (3–6 months). Vast metabolic changes occur during these periods of maturation. Animals between 3 and 6 months of age require adult dosing regimens to achieve sufficient analgesia.

Nicola Ackerman(2012)

https://www.theveterinarynurse.com/content/clinical/managing-pain-in-neonates/

WSAVA - World Small Animal Veterinary Association

https://wsava.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Neonatal-and-pediatric-patients.pdf

09/04/2025

Sphynx cats, wonderfully charismatic little characters. Yet, there does seem to be some health concerns that potential owners and owners should know about.

➡️ A study has found that Sphynx cats had a particularly short life expectancy at age 0 at 6.68 years among the reported breeds in the study.

But why?

Currently, there is scarce peer-reviewed information about the mortality of Sphynx cats.

The Sphynx has been reported with several breed-predisposed diseases.

➡️One prospective study from France that screened for heart conditions in Sphynx cats without a previous record of heart disease reported that 16/114 (14.0%) and 23/114 (20.2%) cats had congenital heart diseases and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, respectively.

➡️In the same paper, approximately 65% of Sphynx cats aged over 4 years were diagnosed with at least one heart condition.

➡️Besides cardiomyopathy, the Sphynx is also predisposed to variably progressive hereditary myopathy (skeletal myopathy), corneal sequestrum and entropion.

With Sphynx cats becoming one of the top 10 most popular cat breeds globally, the current lifespan results suggest that more research on the mortality, health and welfare of Sphynx cats is needed.

Life tables show the average remaining life expectancy from a range of specified ages in a given population.

Life tables can promote improved understanding of general health. This VetCompass study explored mortality data from cats under veterinary care in the UK during 2019.

Read more about the cat life table here:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1098612X241234556

09/04/2025

Mr Chambers said he is deeply alarmed by the UK Government’s willingness to compromise hard-won standards in pursuit of a trade deal with President Donald Trump

08/04/2025

💛 Gold standard is a method, procedure or measurement that is widely accepted as being the best available to test for or treat a disease.

➡️ However, is 'gold standard' always the best?

➡️ Not if the treatment plan can't be implemented by our wonderful owners 💕

➡️ What about contextualised care?

Considering the patient and the owner in a holistic way, to take into account numerous factors (so many we can't list them) such as patient temperament, financial situation, owner abilities and emotional capability, external factors, owners and patient routine, patient preference on oral medication and much more....

💬 In this podcast we discuss the importance of contextualised care: a holistic consideration of both patient and client needs and capability.

A contextualised care approach can help us provide individuals with the right treatment for their situation, maximising client compliance and ultimately getting the best patient outcomes possible.

Old friends, Dr Hannah Capon, founder of Canine Arthritis Management and Veterinary Voices very own Robyn Lowe RVN, use their experiences of multimodal management of osteoarthritis (OA) cases in practice to explore this fascinating topic.

They share their thoughts with an infectious mutual passion to improve client communications to enable the best patient care.

Available on Apple Play, Spotify and other platforms

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/veterinary-voices/episodes/Is-Gold-Standard-Always-Best-e2m6j6u

08/04/2025

Do you live in the UK or Ireland and care for a parrot? 🦜✨

We want to hear from you! Whether you're a parrot owner, a rescue centre carer, a veterinarian or a zookeeper, your insights on parrot behaviour are invaluable.

We're conducting an anonymous survey to better understand parrot behaviour and welfare and we’d love to hear from you. Your contribution could help improve the care and well-being of parrots across the UK and Ireland.

✅ Who can participate?
• Anyone 18 years or older
• Based in the UK or Ireland
• Caring for any species of parrot

📋 The survey takes just 15 minutes. Click here to take part: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/svs/parrot-housing-and-behaviour-survey

🗓 Survey closes: April 25th, 2025

If you have any questions or need more information, feel free to contact us at [email protected].

Thank you for helping advance parrot welfare research! 🦜💚

08/04/2025

Let's be honest, it's not exactly scorching yet but as the sun comes out we're reminded that it's time to start heatstroke education! 🌅

Is it true that if we use cold water on heat stroke pets they will go into shock?

One of the most common things we still hear is that we can only use tepid water on a pet with heat stroke, incase they get some complications like hypothermic overshoot, peripheral vasoconstriction hindering a cooling response, and cardiogenic shock...

We have heard not to use cold water in case it causes shock... this rarely happens!

But guess what? In a recent study over 26% of dogs presented with heat stroke died, with flat faced breeds making up nearly half of heat stroke cases seen in the study.

You should:

💧Get someone to call the local veterinary practice and tell them you're going to travel down with a heat stroke patient
💧Pour, hose or if possible immerse the pet in very cold water (this should obviously be done under constant supervision, ensuring the head is fully above water and immersion should not be attempted if the animal is too large, or you are unable to do so without hurting yourself)
💧NB: If using a hose pipe, make sure it has run through until cold, as they can often contain water that is extremely hot in the tubing initially
💧Do not drape in towels and leave them in situ. Keep the cold water flowing.
💧Move to a cool, shaded area
💧Prepare to transport to vets in a cold, air conditioned car

In studies they found that:

🌅International consensus from sports medicine organisations supports treating EHS with early rapid cooling by immersing the casualty in cold water.
🌅Ice-water immersion has been shown to be highly effective in exertional heat stroke, with a zero fatality rate in large case series of younger, fit patients.
🌅Hyperthermic individuals were cooled twice as fast by Cold Water Immersion as by passive recovery.
🌅No complications occurred during the treatment of three older patients with severe heat stroke were treated with cold‐water immersion.
🌅Cold water immersion (CWI) is the preferred cooling modality in EHS guidelines and the optimal method applicable to UK Service Personnel
🌅Studies suggest using either ice-water or cold-water immersion

The best intervention is PREVENTION, but if you find yourself with an animal with heat stroke, using cold water either by pouring, hosing or ideally (if safe) immersion then this may help reduce their temperature to safe levels while you transport to a veterinary practice.

Read more below:

https://www.vetvoices.co.uk/post/cool-icy-cold-or-tepid

07/04/2025

🩵I am human🩵

Poem by one of our

Monday was bad.

It would have been good, but the words of one person can ruin your day, your week, your month, or, as is common in our profession, your career.

Not one of my current colleagues would set out to do a bad job. Not one of us doesn't love animals.
Most of us own animals.
Most of us have lost animals.

I spent my entire day trying to efficiently care for my patients, ensure nothing is missed.
I missed lunch. Again, but made sure the nurse working with me had hers and my younger colleague had a break.

I'm already running behind because I see a geriatric cat that has many things going on. There are options, and I give 5 in total, because whilst the animal is not immediately on deaths door, it will be within a few weeks if we do nothing. I allow them time to decide, I don't want to rush any decision. They opt to put the cat to sleep (a perfectly reasonable decision).

So I'm running later.
I see what should be my last appointment, a first vaccination in an adorable kitten. I have to switch my emotions, body language, everything, in a few seconds. The kitten is healthy and sweet and that could have enabled me to finish my day on a high.

But instead,
I see an emergency has arrived. From the description, I think it may we be something serious. My new graduate vet still has a few more appointments and this one doesn't sound simple. So I take it in so they aren't awaiting.

I perform the examination whilst they give me a history, and rapidly prioritise where the problem is and what it is likely to be, which I then rapidly confirm with some imaging. Sadly they only have 2 options, and neither are great. I too give them time to think, even though I should have left ages ago, even though I was feeling the effects of lack of nutrition and insufficient fluid.

They choose an option and I make it happen, only for them to give me an absolute slew of abuse. And whilst I know people are upset, not expecting such news, the things they say to me, the cruel words. They hurt.

And if they were saying them to a colleague, I would have no problem fighting back on their behalf, but, its me those hurtful words are aimed at so instead, I'm forced to leave my own consult room and have a colleague step in to finish because I only get halfway down the corridor before I break up in tears.

These people don't understand how their words land. They don't understand the effect they have.

I'm tired
I care too much about my patients and when abusive clients basically tell me that I'm still not good enough, then I start to believe it.

It's the first day I've woken up and really questioned if I want to go in to work again and open my battered self esteem to more abuse.

It's the first time I've truly questioned if I even want to be a vet anymore (whilst I can't really imagine doing anything else).

Cruel words leave scars far deeper than the physical scratches I get from my job.

And I fear how my day will go.
I fear the client, who saw my car when I left, may come back and damage my car.
I fear that I will not be enough.
I fear that next time I will not be able to hold my tongue enough to not tell them exactly what I think of them.

Today I am sad. I am exhausted. And I have absolutely no idea if I am enough.

The career I've given everything to, is also the reason I woke up and burst into tears today.

🩵Please.

🩵We are human.

🩵Abuse solves nothing.

🩵Hurt solves nothing.

🩵We are human.

💚If anyone needs support, please talk to Vetlife

💚Call 0303 040 2551

💚If the words of others cause you sadness, distress, anxiety, please reach out to them. They are there, always. 24/7. Bank holidays, night time, day time, early hours.

🩵We are there for you

03/04/2025

➡️ April: Stress Awareness Month

🖤An RCVS survey of veterinary surgeons found that almost 90% reported that veterinary work is stressful (Institute for Employment Studies, 2014).

➡️We experience the negative aspects of stress when the pressures or demands appear to be beyond our ability to cope. Sadly due to a number of factors veterinary professionals can experience challenges in their daily work that lead to stress. Stress can have both physical and mental ramifications.

➡️Whilst almost everyone will feel pressurised and most of us will feel stressed at times, it become problematic when stress is persistent and cannot be avoided or dealt with, or feels out of our control or ability to make a meaningful difference.

➡️It’s when we feel that we have no control, no choices and we judge that the circumstances we face are beyond our capacity to handle, that stress is experienced as negative and ultimately damaging.

✅ For this reason we need to ensure we are attempting to recognise stress early on, make changes at a personal and professional level with engagement from your team and employers to change systems and protocols to reduce stress.

What can cause stress?

Stress is individual and different situations can cause stress to different people. However there are so common factors:

🖤Clients in emotive situations can also transfer stress onto veterinary professionals by 'burden transfer'. Burden transfer is when a client’s caregiver burden (stress and or strain suffered by those who care for their sick pet) is passed on to the veterinary professional.

🖤 Intimidating behaviour can also cause stress, veterinary teams across the UK experienced an alarming increase in levels of intimidation from animal owners in 2019-2020

🖤 Personal and home life factors can also influence stress. is available if you should require support.

🖤We work long hours – without practical or emotional backup

🖤We deal on a frequent basis with the physical and emotional distress of both patients and clients, often without emotional support for ourselves

➡️https://www.vetlife.org.uk/mental-health/depression/stress/

➡️https://www.vetlife.org.uk/mental-health/depression/a-challenging-career/

Quote from The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Charlie Mackesy

02/04/2025

Caution with Cat Sales

In 2021 Cats Protection published their CATS report which highlighted some interesting points in cat health and welfare.

One of these issues was the accessibility of cats and kittens being sold over the internet, with an increase in bogus or poor welfare cats and kittens being sold.

➡️Deborah Meaden in Cats Protection Report – ‘CATS 2021 has found that 68% of cats and kittens purchased in the last year were found online. Online shopping has undoubtedly become a huge part of our lives- particularly during the pandemic.

But when it comes to cats and kittens, buying online isn’t without risks. It is shocking how easy it is for unscrupulous seller to operate online and put profit before kitten welfare’

Shockingly an estimated 450 000 bought cats and kittens were found on Facebook, despite the fact that Facebook, between the years of 2016-17 took the decision to ban the sale of pets through its platform!

When the community was polled over 99% of veterinary professionals had experienced issues with cats or kittens sold over the internet.

Top issues raised were:

➡️ Kittens being sold as pedigree at high price that are in fact just a domestic short/ long hair cat.
These cats make beautiful pets, but are being sold under false advertisement as pedigree at high prices when they are not pedigree

➡️ Cats being bred in poor welfare conditions and sold too young

➡️ Cats being sold extremely sick and in a very poor condition

➡️ Cats being sold in such poor condition and with such extensive disease they are unable to be saved by veterinary professionals despite best attempts

This website may help you with making decisions on pet purchases and help highlight 'red flags': https://paag.org.uk/how-to-buy-a-pet/cats/

31/03/2025

🐾Please share your words of kindness, tag your veterinary team, tag a colleague who has shown you kindness

“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” - Scott Adams

The Veterinary Profession is one of immeasurable kindness and compassion. Yet despite this the British Veterinary Association - BVA reported that 1 in 2 vets working in clinical practice experienced online abuse and 57% of vets in clinical practice reported that they had felt intimidated by clients' language or behaviour.

So let's ... whether that be the kindness of a veterinary professional to a patient or client, or the kindness of a client towards a veterinary team.

Know that your small acts of kindness that may seem so insignificant to you, to others leave a profound impact.

💙Raise a smile
💙Life a heart
💙Lessen a burden
💙Reach out a hand
💙And always

30/03/2025

Sensitive Discussion Warning: Farm animal welfare and slaughter mentioned in text and podcast.

'There are worse fates than death' - what are the implications of keeping farm animals alive beyond their natural lifespan? What are the barriers to a good quality of life?

Join us for this week’s podcast in which Ami Sawran and Danny Chambers chat to Paul Wood, a farm vet and academic working at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) about his experiences of treating farm animals in commercial, rescue, sanctuary and pet scenarios.

We ask, how possible is it to keep a farm animal alive to old age and with an adequate quality of life?

This podcast brings a wealth of experience, from individuals passionate about animal welfare. We delve into the realities of giving commercial animals a non-commercial life. As farm animals can NEVER be signed out of the food chain, it makes the treatment options for old age diseases, such as arthritis, very limited. Faced with this reality, how possible is it to keep a large animal alive to old age and with an adequate quality of life? Furthermore, how do we assess that quality of life? Does an animal still eating truly mean it wants to continue living? What are the benchmarks for this? Do we in the farm veterinary community have the tools to manage these animals and these clients in a contextualized way?

The episode also delves into common problems that some owners of these animals are not aware of. Did you know, you can’t make a Victoria sponge for your pet pig in your kitchen! This could seem ridiculous and trivial to an adoring owner, wanting the best for their pig. But the global health concerns of contaminated pork products being ingested by a pet pig could be huge, with cases of African Swine Fever originating in situations like these (the same rule applies to other species of farm animal too, such as your pet chickens)!

This episode contains reference to livestock slaughter, and may be upsetting to some listeners, but the discussion is respectful and an incredibly important ethical dilemma many people are facing, talking about these concerns from first hand experience working as a farm or mixed vet.

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/veterinary-voices/episodes/There-are-fates-worse-than-death---should-it-always-be-quantity-of-quality-in-farm-animals-e30rl4p

28/03/2025

Sensitive Topic: Veterinary Su***de

A death by su***de is always difficult, and certainly within our veterinary community where the statistics imply the profession experiences death by su***de around four times the average, the impact is devastating and impacts so many.

Everyone experiences grief differently, it's important that you always reach out if you're feeling overwhelmed and upset following hearing about a death by su***de.

That is why we wanted to raise awareness for a service Vetlife offer, and one that we need to ensure people know about so that they can get the support they need after a death.

When people search for veterinary su***de support, they may be overwhelmed with options online, and not know who to turn to. They might even use organisations who do not follow the most current evidence base for veterinary su***de support and discussion, which may lead to inadvertently doing things that are not in the best interests of others.

After a veterinary su***de, families and close friends, workplaces and communities need support.

Su***de postvention is the response and provision of support after a su***de

It aims to support recovery, and to prevent further adverse outcomes in the aftermath including prevention of further deaths by su***de.

Vetlife has been providing postvention support to the veterinary community since 2009, combining public health and crisis management approaches with lived and peer experience.

This guidance is intended for people who have been affected by the su***de of a veterinary professional, people who support those who have been affected, and for managers and leaders in veterinary workplaces who are working to prevent su***de.

The guidance has information about su***de bereavement, and su***de postvention. It focuses on support including responses to su***de loss and who can help. It particularly examines veterinary workplace considerations after a su***de including immediate aftermath and longer term. It also covers communication, including talking both with colleagues and clients, and publicly on social media and elsewhere. It finishes with a checklist of actions for veterinary workplaces affected by su***de considering immediate, short term, and ongoing actions for support and postvention.

As well as providing this guidance, Vetlife can provide individualised support to practices and individuals who have experienced a su***de through our Postvention Service. If you are a UK veterinary professional who has been affected by su***de or wants support for a veterinary workplace, please contact 0303 040 2551.

https://www.vetlife.org.uk/mental-health/postvention/

28/03/2025

➡️Perfectionism and the Veterinary Profession

✅Perfectionism is a fairly common trait within the Veterinary Profession, with members putting immense pressure on themselves to achieve sometimes unobtainable levels of achievement in their daily work.

Rosie Allister, veterinary surgeon and mental health researcher states:

➡️While there can, on occasion, be some benefits to perfectionism, it is generally detrimental to wellbeing in situations where doing all the tasks you have to do ‘perfectly’ is not possible.

➡️Perfectionism has been associated with a vulnerability to developing psychological disorders, including depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders and indeed thoughts of su***de. Perfectionists are often very self-critical, which can also cause mental health difficulties.

➡️People struggling with perfectionism can get caught up in the belief that the only route to love and respect is through high achievement, through faultless, extraordinary work. This is almost always a trap and doesn’t lead to the sort of lasting happiness people are looking for. It leads to years on a work-treadmill and never really feeling fulfilled.

✅ Be aware of your boundaries:
Firstly, be aware we all have perfectionist traits. This trait can help us to achieve success academically, but can also make us not only self-critical but also critical of others. Try to practice some self-compassion, and where you see others being overly self-critical try to help them to be more compassionate towards themselves.

https://www.vetlife.org.uk/self-care/perfectionism/

27/03/2025

Domestication of Dog: "This could be the oldest dog in the Americas,"

➡️Excavations began in the 1990s and produced the remains of a giant horse, Equus sp, a glyptodon (a large armadillo), a mastodon (an ancestor of the modern elephant) and a piece of jaw from what was originally thought to be a coyote skull.

➡️"We thought it was very strange to have a coyote in the Pleistocene, that is to say 12,000 years ago,"

➡️"When we started looking at the bone fragments, we started to see characteristics that could have been from a dog.

➡️"So we kept looking, we scanned it... and it showed that it was a dog living with humans 12,000 years ago in Costa Rica."

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-fossil-humans-dogs-america-bc.html

27/03/2025

Why should we care about pets being overweight or obese?

The increasing number of overweight and obese pets is an area of concern for veterinary professionals but there is variation in opinion between pet owners and vets on how they see the issue.

✅While vets report that 50 per cent of dogs and 43 per cent of cats they see are overweight

❎Only 4% of owners think their pet needs to lose weight, with 77% believing their pet is the right size and weight.

➡That is a big discrepancy

Fat tissue does far more than simply storing excess energy and being a source of extra mechanical stress (weight for the pet to carry around). Fat is an active endocrine organ, secreting a variety of hormones and signalling molecules that influence the rest of the body – these are collectively known as adipokines. Studies have shown that obesity is associated with higher levels of inflammatory adipokines, a chronic inflammatory state as well as oxidative stress.

❎These changes can predispose pets to illnesses such as osteoarthritis and diabetes. ✅The good news is that many of these adverse effects can be reduced or reversed with weight loss.

In a 14-year study, Purina scientists proved the importance of keeping dogs in lean body condition from puppyhood and throughout life. In this landmark study, the health of 48 Labrador retrievers was monitored throughout their lives. One group was fed 25% less (lean fed group) than their siblings (control group).

⭐Some key findings included that the dogs fed to a lean body condition from puppyhood onward:

➡Lived an average of 1.8 years longer
➡Had delayed onset of signs of chronic disease
➡By 2 years of age the frequency of hip dysplasia was 50% less than the control group and was less severe. The proportion of 12-year-olds with osteoarthritis was almost the same as the control-fed dogs that were half the age
➡At the end of the study, 83% of the control group had radiographic signs of hip osteoarthritis, compared to 50% in the lean-fed group
➡Prevalence and severity of osteoarthritis in the shoulder and elbow joints was also lower in the lean-fed dogs. At 8 years of age, 77% of control dogs had OA in two or more joints, yet only 10% of the lean-fed dogs did.
➡Lean dogs also had better insulin sensitivity, better maintained immune defence responses over time, and delayed age-related declines

So why not Body Condition Score your pet today? Or even better, get someone trained and more objective (your local veterinary team) to give you some honest feedback - healthier life starts now - pick up the phone and get booked in for a weight check ⭐ Most people would do anything for 2 more years with their dog - and having a leaner dog can give you that possibility. Please act now.

Read more here about obesity, the consequences, how pets become obese, and what weight loss diets aim to achieve:

https://www.vetvoices.co.uk/post/weight-management-in-dogs-and-cats

26/03/2025

Social Media is a great way to disseminate good information to lots of people.

It's also a good way for misinformation to be shared and 'cute' images to reach thousands without thought to how it could encourage poor animal health and welfare.

'Bro was shocked' - a dog with extreme facial folds shows 'shock' when their folds are pulled up manually so they can actually see.

Bro was shocked, you know what? We are too.

Shocked, disappointed, disheartened.

Skin fold dermatitis results from skin friction, moisture and lack of ventilation deep in skin folds, and can be very painful and irritating. Skin folds can occur within typical conformation (body shape) in some breeds, or can follow obesity or skin diseases.

A study by Vet Compass at the The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) found:

➡️ Skin fold dermatitis is often a chronic problem requiring life-long skin care. Before purchasing a breed with marked
skin folding, owners should commit to the dog’s need for life-long skin care.

➡️ Breed-typical skin folds promote undesirable antibiotic use in dogs.

➡️By moving away from extreme body shape such as short skulls in highly predisposed breeds such as English Bulldog, French Bulldog and Pug , future generations could be protected from skin fold dermatitis.

✅ This research adds further evidence to the welfare concerns around high popularity of dog breeds with extreme body shapes.

26/03/2025

Avian Influenza has been detected in a sheep for the first time.

Veterinary Voices UK

10/04/2025

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