Friday the 31st December 2021. Can you actually believe it? It feels like only yesterday that we were ringing in 2021, and now it is all but finished. And what a year it was!
We started the year off alcohol-free and full of good intentions. We had plans to shift our ambitions from the dream phase to reality; we knew what we wanted to achieve both professionally and personally, and nothing was going to get in our way! Oh boy, we had no idea what we were in for!
6pm on January 31st, Perth goes into lockdown thanks to a positive COVID case, outside of hotel quarantine. Six hours later, at 12:02am on Monday 1st February 2021, a bushfire was reported near Werribee Road, Wooroloo. Within 12 hours, an emergency warning had been issued, and 500 firefighters and 95 vehicles had been sent to fight the fire, along with a number of aircraft water bombers. The bushfire raged for 5 days, travelling 26km from its original source and destroying almost 100 homes and around 27,000 acres of land, and injuring an unthinkable number of wildlife and companion animals. During this time, a coalition of our veterinary colleagues were granted access to the firezone. Led by EVA State Representative Dr Martin Dolinschek and AVA State President Dr Garnett Hall, in association with DPIRD and the fire safety marshalls, this amazing team were able to triage, treat and evacuate a number of affected animals.
Thankfully, for us here in WA, our lockdown was short-lived and for that we were extremely grateful. Although I’m not ashamed to admit, outdoor consults and a hospital without clients present, was a little refreshing!
March was Polite Pets Month and a great opportunity to raise client awareness of the importance of appropriate socialisation, pet training, dog bite prevention and the behavioural issues that can affect our companion animals. To celebrate this important initiative, we ran a 4-week challenge, to see which pet could have the biggest “polite manners” transformation. Notorious Platinum mascot “Chubby Chicko” was our chosen subject, and we did our best to train him to “Go to Bed”. We had pretty high hopes for this rescue chihuahua, and he did not disappoint! To wrap up the month, and blessed with some gorgeous Swan Valley weather, we held our Updates in Oncology CPD event. Presented by Dr Jessica Finlay of Perth Veterinary Specialists, it was a truly fabulous day, and wouldn’t have been complete without a tasting of some of Sandalford's finest!
Unfortunately, the month of May brought with it another tragedy, as a fatal crash involving a horse truck carrying 15 horses occurred just outside of Kalgoorlie. Thankfully, there were some survivors, including one little weanling colt who we affectionately nicknamed “Snack”. I was lucky enough to be involved in the care of this young colt, who, as a result of the accident, had sustained significant burn wounds ranging from first through third degree, affecting 20% of his total body surface area. After 34 days in hospital, he was finally discharged into the care of his very committed owners, and I am pleased to report that 7 months on, he is doing amazingly well!
May was also an unlucky month for me on a very personal note, as we underwent our 4th unsuccessful round of IVF. Little did we know however, something (or rather someone) very special was just around the corner. In early June, I was introduced to a successful airline pilot, Katie B. Katie was a very good friend of a very good friend, and out of the blue, she offered to be our egg donor.
As I was rapidly approaching 40, with way below average egg quality, the chances of us being able to create a viable embryo without a donor was almost zero. For Katie to generously offer us such an amazing opportunity was an absolute miracle! And there began our very interesting journey of egg donation.
During the month of June, our first cohort completed the 12-month Equine Practice Distance Coaching course, and we also successfully collaborated with the team at Perth Veterinary Emergency to present the Critical Care and CPR Skills workshop for Veterinary Nurses. July saw us kick off our third year of Feline Medicine Distance Coaching, and we also welcomed internationally-renowned feline expert Dr Kerry Rolph as part of our esteemed line-up of CPD presenters.
July 17th marked an important milestone for me, as it was the day I turned 40. As my birthday approached, I found myself reflecting on my journey so far, both in veterinary medicine and in life. I was pleased to say, that even after 15 years as a practicing veterinarian, I still love the job; I feel incredibly blessed for all the amazing places I have been as a result of being a veterinarian, and the wonderful people I have met, many of whom are now lifelong friends. Not to mention, all the patients I have dealt with along the way; from the geriatric Great Dane that put me in hospital during my first year of practice, to Pedro, the orphaned zebra foal with failure of passive transfer that I encountered in my first week as an equine internal medicine resident. Safe to say, there has been some major highs as well as some significant lows throughout my career, but without them I wouldn’t be who I am today.
August was Pet Dental Month, and we were lucky enough to celebrate all things veterinary dentistry with the incredibly talented Dr Kevin Ng. This was also the month that we launched our monthly online Platinum Journal Club, and I got to experience veterinary medicine from the opposite side of the consult table. Platinum chihuahua, Speedy G required surgery to correct his luxating patella, and this experience was well and truly a stark reminder of how having a sick or injured pet can be quite a stressful, emotional and even challenging event.
September was quite the eventful month, starting with the launch of our inaugural #100DaysofHappy challenge. As we entered a new season, we challenged you to make happiness a habit, by doing one thing a day that was good for your body, one thing a day that was good for your soul, and one thing a day that made you happy, for a total of 100 consecutive days! The purpose of this challenge was to increase the focus on happiness within our veterinary profession, and we are looking forward to making it an annual occurrence.
October was off to a flying start, as I got to be part of the vetting team for the Tom Quilty endurance ride. We celebrated Vet Nurse’s Day on the 8th, before gathering together for the AVA State Conference - and how lucky we were to have an equine stream this year! Dr Jess Finlay busted a number of oncologic myths and our equine medicine team got to perform an electrocardioversion in a racing Standardbred colt (successfully I might add) … with a little help from our ECC friends.
In November, The Animal Hospital at Murdoch University and RWWA announced that standing CT and MRI will soon be available, which will be an absolute game-changer for the WA equine veterinary industry. That same month, we devastatingly lost our dear colleague Dr Joanne Evans. I was lucky enough to have known Dr Joanne as a student in South Africa, as well as a fellow equine vet here in WA, and she will forever be remembered fondly.
The 9th of December marked the 100th day of our #100DaysofHappy, and it is safe to say that consciously trying to do one thing for your body, one thing for your soul and one thing that makes you happy every day for 100 days was most definitely a challenge. Whilst I didn’t manage to do each of those things every single day, and I was far from perfect, there is no doubt that I made significant progress. It’s true what they say, tiny adjustments daily really do add up to significant changes! By implementing habits and strategies that can improve your mindset, your health, your fitness, your finances, or even your clinical skills, by as little as 1% per day means that over a 100-day period, you will have progressed by 100%!
So, as you can see, 2021 really was a year; and the past month has been the icing on the cake, as we announced the launch of some very exciting new projects, including our new Membership Program for 2022 and The PositiVETy Podcast. We are also keeping everything crossed for our own little miracle project … could 2022 be the year?
What will 2022 have in store for you?
