The Exotics Nurse

10/11/2023

22/10/2023

Calling all veterinary professionals, practices, and students! 🎉

🏆 Nominations for the Burgess Excel Vet Awards 2023 are officially OPEN🏆

👉 Visit https://tr.ee/qEyKRc_grQ to nominate yourself or someone else for the Excel Vet Awards 2023! 👈

Let's come together and celebrate the incredible achievements of those who dedicate their lives to improving the well-being of our beloved small pets.

13/10/2023

🐰 Calling all rabbit guardians!

It's time to recognise and honor the unsung heroes of rabbit care - our dedicated rabbit-friendly veterinary professionals. 🏆

Nominations are open for the prestigious Burgess Excel Rabbit Friendly Veterinary Awards. 🌟

Show appreciation for those making a significant impact in enhancing rabbit health and well-being.

Maybe you know someone who’s helped guide, inspire or support you?

Let's shine a light on their exceptional care and dedication.

Nominate your deserving vets, nurses and practices today and let their commitment to their rabbit patients spread awareness across the veterinary profession.

Nominate now at https://www.burgesspetcare.com/burgess-excel-vet-awards/nominations-closed

🏥

13/10/2023

Nominations are open! 🎉🎉
Nominations for Burgess Excel Vet Awards are open for 2023! Burgess Excel

Join us to celebrate the hard work and achievements of veterinary professionals, practices, and students, who work tirelessly to improve rabbit and guinea pig health and welfare.

Nominations will be closing on 20th November 2023. https://www.burgesspetcare.com/burgess-excel-vet-awards/nominations-closed/.
(the link says closed but they are definitely open😆)

Derwent Valley Vets

07/10/2023

Thank you for having me and to Richard Saunders, Vet Specialist Advisor from the

Today I delivered a talk discussing rabbit friendly veterinary practice, gold standard care and daring to question more

It was an honour to impart knowledge to rabbit guardians to start make waves within the veterinary and rabbit communities 🐰

24/09/2023

This we're sharing our in domestic rabbits, how does 1 mg/kg of oral meloxicam compare with 0.2 mg/kg of oral meloxicam for significant changes in pain behaviour, and kidney and liver biochemical analytes?

Read the full here: https://bit.ly/MeloxicamRabbit

12/07/2023

It’s official!! 🐰📢

I hope to see you all at

Here’s what they very kindly had to say revealing myself as a speaker 💬💬

We are pleased to announce our next highly anticipated speaker... Michelle Taylor RVN APVN Small Mammal VNEZS!

Michelle is an incredible exotic specialist veterinary nurse who has set up rabbit welfare clinics, written in various publications, educates other veterinary professionals via social media and in-person and runs .

Michelle is going to discuss rabbit friendly veterinary practice. What it really means, what to look for and how standards are met. As a veterinary nurse driven by ensuring only the highest standard for her patients, Michelle is in a great position to delivery a really interesting talk on this topic!

Follow Michelle at to get excited for her talk on the day.

22/05/2023

Curious about what veterinary nurses really do day to day? 🤔

Well, it’s a lot more than cuddling puppies and kittens!

Our days are filled with a variety of tasks including administering medications, performing lab tests, taking X-rays, assisting with surgeries, and educating pet parents on the best ways to care for their furry, scaley and feathered friends. It’s a fast-paced, challenging job that requires a lot of skill, compassion, and dedication.

Despite the long hours, hard work, and occasional heartbreak, being a veterinary nurse is an incredibly rewarding job. Knowing that we made a difference in the lives of the animals we care for, and helped their owners better understand their pets’ health, makes it all worth it. 🐾❤️👩‍⚕️

26/04/2023

24/04/2023

Zoo module complete! 🦒🤓🎓

By far one of the more challenging modules but it was worth it!

This was most definitely a huge goal of mine and I’m so happy to have done it 🥰

Let me know your goals and career plans down below! 👇🏻 🗣️

🐾🐘🦒

23/04/2023

🐾 Calling all veterinary professionals! 🐾

It's time to take care of the ones who take care of our furry friends! 🙌🏼

Self-care is crucial for those who work in the veterinary industry. Whether it's taking a break to stretch, sipping on a cup of tea, or simply taking a deep breath, it's important to prioritize your mental and physical health. 💆🏻‍♀️

So, what's your go-to self-care routine during a busy day in practice? Share with us in the comments below! 👇🏼

Let's spread the love and support for our hard-working veterinary professionals! ❤️

#🐶🐱🐰

30/03/2023

🔹 EXCITING NEWS! 📢 🐰
www.palsvetlab.co.uk

29/03/2023

A true friend to animals 💔

24/03/2023

20/03/2023

🔑🏡

Last week my partner and I bought our first home ❤️

Things are still all up in the air and we have a long way to go before being settled but we will get there in time 🏡

21/02/2023

I was absolutely thrilled to be able to write another feature for rabbiting on 🐰

This is something very close to my heart both as an exotic nurse and founder of a rabbit rescue… and of course bunny mummy 🥰

The feature details
🐰 importance of a rabbit friendly practice
🐰what exactly to be looking out for when visiting your practice
🐰or even may give you ideas /considerations you may choose to make working in practice, looking to advocate better rabbit care from first walking into reception to discharge

The full article can be found on the RWAFs website under their ‘Rabbiting On’ shop option. Online downloads are available at a small cost which will help the RWAF with the amazing work they do

This is in their Winter 22 edition 🐰

26/01/2023

Not at all exotic related, but I couldn’t help sharing our new pup 🥰

Although he’s been with us for a few weeks, this picture his groomer took today has just got to me 😍😍😍

Meet Brynn 💙

25/01/2023

I would love to see the veterinary industry get to a place where all species of animal are given gold standard care no matter the staff members interests/dislikes.

I don’t think we have the right to say ‘well, I don’t like rabbits so I don’t want to learn about how to provide care for them’.
If we are seeing rabbits in our clinic, even occasionally, then we need to know how to provide the best care for them, not just wing it.

Exotics have completely different needs when it comes to anaesthesia, housing, stress, handling, medicating and first aid compared to cats and dogs.

Their much higher morbidity/mortality rate under anaesthesia alone should be a warning that we need to be more understanding of their unique requirements.

Until the industry gets to that place, the nurses/vets who have an interest in exotics need to be the advocate for them in the clinic. We need to be advocating for staff to be trained, we need to create and help implement procedures and help people understand where they can improve their care.

23/01/2023

So happy to see this arrive today 🦆🐥🦅🦉🦜🦚

19/01/2023

Rabbits have 28 open root teeth that grow throughout their lives

The molars are used for grinding fibrous plant material and incisors are used as a ‘cutting’ mechanism

Malocclusion can be caused by
🦷trauma
🦷poor tooth alignment
🦷 pain
🦷age
🦷breed
🦷diet

And so much more!

Malocclusion sometimes causes rabbits to stop eating, which can cause health problems such as GI stasis and weight loss

Can you spot the unusual confirmation of this rabbits teeth? 👀🤔

12/01/2023

🎤🎤 *cough* Is this thing still on? 🤣

Firstly Hello! How are you? Long time eh!

This past 6 months has been a bit of a whirlwind! Founding North Devon’s only dedicated rabbit rescue, publishing articles, our cat having a urethrostomy, house searches… the list could go on! I’m thrilled and excited to say I’m back 🦜

I can’t wait to hear from all you lovely lot again and really dig into more exotic goodies!

06/07/2022

Sarah Daphne Foo's winning Knowledge Summary is available to read now on the Veterinary Evidence website.
Sarah, from University of Sydney, investigated the available evidence comparing supraglottic airway devices and endotracheal intubation for use in rabbit anaesthesia.
https://bit.ly/VESAKSRabbitAnaesthesia

15/05/2022

The FBH is proud to announce the launch of it's Code of Practice for recommended minimum enclosure sizes for reptiles

The Federation of British Herpetologists (FBH) has produced guidance for the recommended minimum enclosure sizes for reptiles kept privately in the UK.

The guidance has been developed by the FBH in conjunction with specialist keeper groups, experienced hobbyists, the British Veterinary Zoological Society and the British Small Animal Veterinary Association. Covering all of the main groups of reptiles it provides practical guidance for private keepers, enabling them to select the appropriate sized housing for their pets based on the size and habits of the species concerned.

The enclosure sizes recommended have been selected using current thinking on the provision of good welfare, the opinions of vets and hobbyists, and experience from countries that already have such guidance. The recommendations exceed the smallest housing that could be used to keep reptiles, instead focussing on providing the extra space required to maximise welfare benefits.

Dave Hayden, Chair of the FBH said “We wanted to produce a document that helped keepers select housing that enabled them to provide more than just the bare necessities. Although there is little in the way of concrete evidence to guide our decisions we were able to draw on the collective knowledge of the hobbyists, vets and organisations that have helped us develop the guidelines.”

Sid James, FBH Project coordinator said: “This project demonstrates the commitment of the reptile keeping community to constantly improve. It is the first set of guidelines of its kind in the UK and is underpinned by the latest research and expertise. We plan to continue to update the document as the evidence base evolves”

The Code Of Practice can be downloaded from the FBH website: https://www.thefbh.org/news

For further information or questions please contact the FBH at [email protected]

07/05/2022

Veterinary Nursing A - Z; Exotics 🐍

In the veterinary world rabbits and guinea pigs are still often considered exotics. However, when I think of exotics I think of snakes, lizards, tortoise, parrots and parakeets, amphibians and inverts (tarantulas, African lands snail, mantids etc).

Vets that work with zoos even get to work on animals like lemurs, meerkats, capuchins and big cats 🐯

Exotics is an area that I’m very keen to work in and hope to complete exotic nursing courses once I qualify. I definitely have a love for the weird and wonderful pets 💚

Related accounts you may find useful ☺️

06/05/2022

Being a vet nurse is not always joyful… sometimes it’s soul destroying.

In my last VNAM post I said I was going to give you the good, the bad and the ugly of the life of a vet nurse and here’s the ugly.

Sometimes vet nursing is heartbreaking.

Sometimes vet nursing is depressing.

Sometimes vet nursing is the last place you want to be.

These are many of the thoughts and feelings we all go through in the veterinary industry… not only in the case of veterinary nurses but the whole team.

As a team we pride ourselves of giving the highest standard of care and sometimes we feel our best just isn’t enough.

It’s important in these times to learn to listen and support each other, wether that’s a quick catch up at lunch (if you’re lucky) or a full team debrief.

This week has been difficult to say the least and the loss of the young rabbit I had been hand-rearing had pushed me into a sense that my best, in fact wasn’t enough.

The truth is that I gave everything I could and the odds were against the patient and myself and that I shouldn’t be beating myself up… but in times like this… it’s perfectly okay to feel fed up, frustrated and down.

01/05/2022

VNAM 2022

Why have a month for vet nurses?

VNAM is a chance to help spread awareness and build recognition for the hard work that veterinary nurses, students, assistants do within the field.

Too often nurses do not get the respect and acknowledgement that their role and dedication deserves.

And no, we are not training to be vets! 😅

We are proud veterinary nurses and that’s the way we like it!

From anaesthetist, laboratory technician, radiologist to client support (and so so much more) we do it all…

This is why VNAM is vital to spreading awareness of what veterinary nurses really do.

Throughout May, I will be sharing insights into veterinary nursing… the good, the bad, and the ugly 😂 (if my hand reared rabbit allows me time)

26/04/2022

I’m back 🥳🥳

I’ve had a lovely couple of weeks off and I’m back, I’ve managed to answer a few of your questions just now.

I’m looking to create some free documents for you all, is there anything that would be particularly useful to you in practice? 🐰🐢🦜

08/04/2022

Fri-YAY!

Finishing todays ops list off with a rabbit anaesthetic is the only way to do it for me and to top it off, I’m on holiday for the next 2 weeks 😮

I’m not sure when my next content will be whilst I’m away so here’s some vein/artery dreaminess captured today 🥰

Quick quiz… which is the artery and which is the vein??

24/03/2022

Do you ever feel that this is the case in your practice?

All too often we see what I like to call “fear of the unknown” when it comes to working with exotic species.

I could include myself in this prior to starting my journey working with these species. We aren’t taught about them as we are with more domesticated species so we don’t need it right… WRONG ‼️

Strive to do better by asking more! Be intrigued and the knowledge you will gain will be invaluable to both you and your patients! 🐰🐹🦆🦜🐍🐢🐠🐆🦡🦔

23/03/2022