Providing a mobile service that brings animal care to you. Professional, qualified allied pet health
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I've been very quiet on the social media front this year and it's because I have been keeping a little secret - I'm back at uni to further my veterinary studies! I am still working full time, working on the farm and also undertaking a CIV through TAFE so you probably won't hear much from me but I am still taking appointments with limited availability so don't hesitate to get in touch!
These two adventurous puppies have taken themselves on a walk at Booroorban. If anyone happens to see them please call me on 0431 666 659 so I can get them home to their worried owner
🌟NEW for 2024!!🌟
Along with the current memorial pieces I offer, I can now make digital renditions of your pet 🐾
Here are some I did in a "Disney Pixar" style however I can do other styles too 💖
On the first day of this new year, my thoughts are with all my vet med colleagues in England 🇬🇧 who will be waking up to a scary, sad new future with an "XL bully" ban
⚠️WARNING⚠️
GRAPHIC CONTENT
This was my absolute favourite case of the year; technically starting in 2022 it took a full 12 months of treatments to get to this point and to say I am stoked at the outcome is an understatement.
Doing daily bandage changes coupled with hydrotherapy and Low Level Laser Treatments, followed by rehab excersises, we were able to not only save a leg that for a while we really thought would end up being amputated, but get this patient back to working full days in the paddock 🐑🐕
What a win!
I had so much fun last year being a part of ELVES - the Emergency Landing Veterinary Expert System- that I am joining the ranks again this year, looking after Santa's reindeer!
I’m beyond excited to be one of the veterinary nurses working alongside our amazing vets, supporting the reindeer on their Australian leg as they enter our airspace from New Zealand.
There are several ELVES branches across Australia, and is a worldwide organisation! This ensures that the reindeer have professionals on standby at every point along their huge journey!
We are ready to attend any health issues on route, however the reindeer have already undergone extremely stringent health checks including lameness exams prior to takeoff and all passed with "flying colours"!
Check out this reindeer hoof xray from the pre flight checks and me with some of the reindeer!
This festive season support small, support local!
Sometimes being a good practitioner and a good business person means being humble enough to know when to refer.
The last week I have been so excited to get my own personal horses working with two amazing small businesses; Paradise Equine who will be doing some training with my unfit steeds 😅 and Katie's Equine Body Therapy who's intensive training allows her to offer a much more in depth treatment than my remedial therapies can alone.
These gal's are incredibly knowledgeable, passionate and skilled in their crafts, and while I am out there helping your animals; I have so much confidence in them to look after mine.
This Christmas, please support the small businesses, the local businesses, the start up businesses.
You can do so without spending a cent- give them a shout out on your socials, leave a review or invite your friends to like their page!
Spread the love by tagging your local, small and rural businesses in the comments below ❤️
10/10 will never not share this poem 😅
The Vomit Smells Better At Christmas - The Raptured Spleen
The vomit smells better at Christmas
Tis something all vetty types know
As they reach for yet more apomorphine
At 1vial per round 10 kilo
Up comes someone's present of chocolate
Left enticingly under the tree
Splattered puddles and trails of brown slobber
Smell better than poison to me
Christmas cake, mince pies and onion stuffing
Reappear from the beast double quick
The kennels smell lovely and festive
(Watch those labs doesn't re eat their sick!)
Yes the vomit smells better at Christmas
And you might feel content with your lot
But once the big day is over
Look out... in coming... turkey trots!!!
⚠️NOTICE⚠️
🎄 CHRISTMAS / NEW YEAR HOURS
🛻 I will be taking a short break over the festive season to visit my family interstate
📞 I haven't confirmed dates yet but I will still be answering the phone
🚑 If you experience an emergency please contact your closest veterinary clinic who will have an on call rota arranged
It's not very often Hay and surrounds get someone as talented as Puppy Tales Photography on their doorstep! If you have always wanted professional photos of your beloved pets or treasured working dogs then Kerry Martin is the one for you! She will be visiting next weekend (7th Oct) and has sessions available, if you are interested get in touch with her via her Puppy Tales page or contact page on the website https://puppytales.com.au/
Pepper is still missing- her owner thinks someone on the Kidman Way just south of Waddi / Darlington Point has picked her up.
Please if you know her whereabouts or have a sighting, call me on 0431 666 659 her owner is a single guy living alone on a farm and she is his best buddy he is beside himself
Pepper has been missing for a few days now off a farm about 10kms South of Darlington Point. She is not microchipped but she is well loved and sorely missed. Please call me on 0431 666 659 if you find her so I can reunite her with her very worried and heartbroken owner
Unfortunately I've been told of a few cases of packet suffocation recently, please be vigilant about your rubbish!
Pepper has been missing for a few days now off a farm about 10kms South of Darlington Point. She is not microchipped but she is well loved and sorely missed. Please call me on 0431 666 659 if you find her so I can reunite her with her very worried and heartbroken owner
** edit - they are home!!
2x very much love family dogs (Jack Russell x Foxy type and Boston Terrier x French Bulldog type) missing at Booroorban. Please call me if you see them/pick them up so I can reunite them with their worried owners
0431 666 659
After my post earlier in the month about the colicking horse, here are a few tips for prevention!
🩺 Late night vitals checks on a patient who is suspected of colic, but currently unable to give his vet enough symptoms to prompt treatment.
🕚 He will get checked by me regularly throughout the night until his vitals return to normal levels or his condition changes in a way that allows the vet to make a formal diagnosis and treatment plan.
🩹 These cases I refer to as ADR- Ain't Doin Right- until they can give us some more clues as to what's wrong... if only they could talk!
🧑⚕️If you and your vet ever experience something similar with one of your own animals, don't hesitate to call me as I do offer vitals monitoring and liaising with your vet throughout the process
Any vet could write this, and about any, each and every week of their career I'll bet.; but most often it does not get mentioned, and can't be shared or understood. And if I might shed a tear whilst I type this, remember these words aren't just mine, they belong to everyone in this profession of ours who will all feel the same as they read. And every vet, vet nurse, receptionist, student - any colleague amongst our whole team who share a practice staff room will recognise their place in this tale, many, many times over - be it a different place, different pet, different name, this story remains ever the same. Here goes:
You were sat very quietly in the corner of the waiting room, head tilted down to the greyhound entwined round your legs and chair. A picture of close companionship; both of an older generation, quietly dignified and by nature uncomplaining. I called both your names - pet's name, your surname- you both rose to your feet as one. And as I introduced myself, we shook hands in greeting; your eyes met mine and silently screamed a plea of hope.
In the few stoic steps towards the consult room door, the issue was plain to see; a right hind leg that could bear little load, with thigh muscle already thinning.
Just a few short weeks from first flawed step to this but already you'd noted some weight loss - you shared that part with a catch in your voice, you knew it was no small thing. Then, as I listened, and you released the flow of your concerns, like an unbearable burden sliding from your shoulders, you shared some more.
She was your wife's dog really; and it had been a year and a half since you lost her. It was a short statement that seemed to escape from you; coming at a little rush.
"It's just the two of us now, old girl"
The best I could manage was 'I'm very sorry to hear that, sir'. It really didn't feel like enough. The truth is my mind was already a few steps ahead - moving along a pathway that I wished would have other turnings or exits besides the one I felt loomed ahead.
I bent down and talked to her, explaining for you both what my fingers were finding. In the past you'd had another dog, different breed, similar signs, and a diagnosis treatable with surgery. It felt cruel to say the knee was stable, and to pull that rug of hope away from under your feet.
The silent wince as I felt round her hip echoed around the small room. There was little else wrong, no flaws in her lean and muscled form, a testament to your care.
I stood, and we spoke, and I saw you were ahead of me as I introduced an ugly word as gently as I could. Our possible diagnoses still include some alternatives, a likelihood is not for sure. Radiographs will guide us more but in outline we have some options; it's a personal decision which of these you choose and if any of those choices were wrong we wouldn't offer them; but what's right for one owner may be uncomfortable for another, and that is OK too. It's my job to let you know all your options, and I'm happy to help guide you too. That part of the discussion I've said many, many times before but its never an automatic flow; I know my words, however gently voiced, will feel like a pounding sledgehammer and so there's spaces and pauses, awaiting and detecting your permission to move on to the next.
Some formalities of paper and pen, a carefully written phone number; a guide of when we'll know more and a promise it will be me calling you soon. You knelt to give her a stroke and a pat; unfussy, undemonstrative but a truly sincere farewell.
Nurses and I worked together, a catheter gently placed, cradled once sleepy to take the pictures we needed.
We don't need to dwell on those radiographs, nor to name the condition involved. Its enough to say as the digital image scanned onto the screen, our shoulders all dropped as one.
The phone was just a few feet away but I waded slowly towards it; and flumped on the stool, paper sheet in hand. I checked the names, and actually your patient's gender too, before making the call. It may be irrelevant to this diagnosis but a slip at such a key time would convey a hurtful flippancy, and leave an unpleasant memory to linger. Its a small thing but actually a big thing, to ensure all language is respectfully correct.
There is a flow to any conversation; you'd clearly allowed yourself the return of a little hope at the outset, and it was my horrid task to quash it, as gently but clearly as I could. It's not time for cutesy euphemisms that may be misleading, but nor is it time for alienating 'medicalese'. Once the situation was clearly understood between us, and we moved on to your choices, you shared some more of your wife's passing, sadly a very difficult time.. You wanted no part of that for your pet, your resolve to honour her with a gentle and comfortable passing was resolute, admirable and courageous. Yes, courageous - as you were prepared to lose her precious company from your life sooner, in order that she might not suffer any further discomfort at all. You checked she was still asleep - indeed - and just said whilst it would be nice to have a last farewell, its her who comes first, so please, now. I thanked you for your decision; and yes, I would hope I'd have the same courage to do the same for my own.
We said farewell, and I shared the news with the team as I drew up the injection. That part ever so practiced, and we held her for you as the anaesthetic deepened to a final conclusion.
Later, you came to collect her and I met you at your car round the back. Incongruous 'thank yous' and handshake exchanged again; once more I articulated my respect for your courage, hoping that by that repetition and by quiet affirmation and eye contact that would become part of your lasting memories to carry with you once this day was past and gone. We carried her with stretcher and blankets to lay her in your car, just as you wished.
And as you turned away finally to get in the drivers seat I saw your chin slightly wobble then catch back, and honestly sir, I'm just amazed at your strength throughout.
I know these days and weeks ahead will be difficult; I just hope we've done everything we possibly can to make today and those days that await ahead even just a little easier to bear and endure.
Now, that's just one vet's story of one patient, in one day, at one practice. Very little of it involved clinical training or medical expertise. Most vets will have done the same, or very similar, most weeks if not most days.
In fact, each day will bring a collection of cases where humanity, empathy and care will be vital to an outcome that we can all take pride in; and as I said at the beginning, these words might be mine today but this story, albeit with slight differences, twists and turns, belongs to all of us in this profession.
It's not just your pet's care that your vet, and their practice colleagues, takes into their hands.
Happy world vet day! 💟 to every vet no matter your role; smallest, largies, specialists, jack-of-alls, townies, rural, brick and mortar, mobile.... to every vet who nurtured me as a newbie in the field to the ones who now have trust in my skills as an independent nurse, who taught me new things and who utilise me to my fullest! Veterinary medicine is a team sport and although us nurses are damn handy we wouldn't be where we are today without our vets 👨⚕️👩⚕️ it can be a thankless, gruelling profession but vets we love you, we love working with you and we always have your back 🙌
"Only the most dedicated, empathetic and intelligent humans can become doctors, the best of those become veterinarians!"
Tag your vets in the comments below to let them know how much you appreciate them 🙏
It's getting to that time of year! Just a reminder that one of my many allied health services is hand rearing 🍼 vet nursing
Louder for those in the back! Cat The Vet 🙌🙌🙌
So excited to be challenging myself this year as a part of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and National Farmers' Federation supported mentoring program!
As a mentee I'm looking forward to experiencing all this program has to offer and bringing it into my wider community!
"The best horses in heaven, they have no tail.
This is a rule they all know without fail.
For when a new horse arrives with a short cut bob, they all know that this horse did a very good job.
His owner could not bear to part with her friend
so she saved his tail, wrapped in ribbons and in braids, to hold with his memory in a loving way.
To enter Heaven without a tail is an honor, a message that without fail announces to everyone far and wide, that this horse was more than a wonderful ride.
This horse was loved and cherished by one, and when his time serving on this Earth was done, he left behind a broken heart, and a soul from which he never will part.
Around the world tonight there are many veterinarians and their support staff on call, looking after Santas reindeer!
This year I’m very excited to be one of the veterinary nurses working alongside our amazing vets, supporting the reindeer on their Australian leg as they enter our airspace from New Zealand.
There are several of us across this vast continent, this group is known as ELVES - the Emergency Landing Veterinary Expert System and is a worldwide organisation!
We are on standby ready to attend any health issues on route, however the reindeer have already undergone extremely stringent health checks prior to takeoff and all passed with "flying colours"!
The Vomit Smells Better At Christmas - The Raptured Spleen
The vomit smells better at Christmas
Tis something all vetty types know
As they reach for yet more apomorphine
At 1vial per round 10 kilo
Up comes someone's present of chocolate
Left enticingly under the tree
Splattered puddles and trails of brown slobber
Smell better than poison to me
Christmas cake, mince pies and onion stuffing
Reappear from the beast double quick
The kennels smell lovely and festive
(Watch those labs doesn't re eat their sick!)
Yes the vomit smells better at Christmas
And you might feel content with your lot
But once the big day is over
Look out... in coming... turkey trots!!!
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It's getting to that time of year! Just a reminder that one of my many allied health services is hand rearing 🍼 #whatRVNsdo #vetnurseinthecountry #wherecaringmeansmore #mobile vet nursing #twoshakesofalambstail
It runs in their blood!! 6 weeks old in this video and their first look at sheep 😍 A few of these little apprentices are still looking for their new bosses and are now ready to go as they are 8 weeks old! Message the page or text me on 0431 666 659 and I can get you more info 🐾
These little apprentices will be looking for their new jobs from 28th November! They come wormed, vaccinated and socialised, best of homes only to ensure they reach their best potential. Proven lines and keen to learn any trade (sheep, goats, cows etc). Pm the page or @Bella Jaye for more information 🐾
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At Town & Country Vet Nursing, we want to ensure that every animal and owner we serve has a positive experience with us. We provide accessible allied health services that animals of all species need when living in rural communities. With professional, qualified nursing care you can have peace of mind that your animal’s well-being is our number one priority.
