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Episode 16- Exploring the Transformative Role of Artificial Intelligence in Veterinary Medicine

Episode 16- Exploring the Transformative Role of Artificial Intelligence in Veterinary Medicine

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In this week’s episode

  • Transformative AI in Veterinary Medicine: Hamzah discusses how integrating AI into veterinary practices can enhance efficiency and support professionals in their daily tasks, moving beyond the fear of replacement to empower practitioners.
  • User-Centric Design Approach: He emphasises the importance of designing AI tools that are user-friendly, drawing inspiration from common messaging apps to ensure accessibility and comfort for veterinary professionals.
  • Real-World Applications and Insights: Hamzah shares that users often employ AI for sense-checking medical information and writing client communications, showcasing its role as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for human expertise.
  • Blending AI with Professional Care: Hamzah offers insight that while AI can provide useful insights and automate routine tasks, the personal relationship between veterinarians and pet owners remains crucial. The goal is to integrate AI support into veterinary practices while maintaining the essential human connection that fosters trust and effective communication.

Tune in to discover how Hamzah Malik explores the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in veterinary medicine, emphasising the importance of maintaining the vital human connection in practice management.

 

Additional Guest Spotlights

  • Chloe Hannigan: Reflects on her early days as a vet in a hilarious and eye-opening tale that follows an unforgettable experience of a rabbit vaccination that ended with a surprise landing!
  • Andy Green: Teaser from our next interview with Andy Green, director at Pennard Vets, discusses how cultivating strong relationships and effective communication can transform your veterinary practice as he shares his essential elements which enhance practice work.

Show Notes

  • Out every other week on your favourite podcast platform.
  • Presented by Jack Peploe: Veterinary IT Expert, Certified Ethical Hacker, CEO of Veterinary IT Services and dog Dad to the adorable Puffin.
  • Jack’s special guest was, Hamzah Malik, founder of Vet Pulse, shares insights on transforming veterinary practices through the integration of AI, user-centric design, and a commitment to enhancing both client and team experiences
  • Many thanks to Hamzah Malik for his expert insights. Hamzah worked at Vet Times for several years before starting his own company, Regent Branding, and he is deeply interested in the world of AI and how it can be safely used to enhance the every day lives of veterinary professional’s around the world. Hamzah’s recommended resource is Velocity by Ajaz Ahmed, a business book that explores how organisations can adapt and thrive in an increasingly digital and fast-paced world. In it, Ahmed outlines seven key principles or “laws” that he believes are essential for success in the digital age.

 

Transcription

Jack Peploe
Coming up on modern veterinary practise.

Hamzah Malik
You used well, sending you asked. It was a you had a you had a poison calculator and toxicity stuff and but it never. It never felt natural. And you had to kind of know the right words to get it to say the right thing. So I shelved it because I thought there’s no one’s gonna use it when this conversation that I came out, I thought, OK, I’m not wed like you. Of committed to one platform, but I do know that this as an industry is going to explode, which it has. So we made a vet pulse and the first thing we did was not kind of let’s make the all knowing on the present AI. It was how do we make this safe, scalable and comfortable for our users because. The veterinary market of. You know, in some ways they’re way ahead when it comes to ethics and technology and stuff, like just baked into behaviour in other ways, though, that they’re on the ascendancy, they’re kind of, they’re nearly there when it comes to sort of adopting new, new, new tools. So I didn’t want to make it too scary and high tech. I just wanted to make it like a friend, which is thankfully, has been received as.

Jack Peploe
Welcome to the modern Veterinary practise podcast. I’m your host and veterinary IT expert, Jack Peplow. In this episode, I’ll be welcoming Khamzat Malik to the podcast who will talk to us about the transformative role of artificial intelligence in veterinary medicine, exploring how AI can enhance daily operations and support their new professional. We intervene.

Hamzah Malik
Excellent. So my name is Hamza Malik. I run Regent branding. We’re a digital consultancy with specialist army veterinary and we’ve recently made an AI product called Vet Pulse, which helps veteran professionals in the day-to-day life. Half my business is working with clients around the world and. Large scale brands like Mobi Hotels, the British Army Direct Line and the other half is creating amazing products like net poles to help communities empower them, educate them and uplift.

Jack Peploe
Super exciting background, and we’re gonna dig into that a bit more, Hamza, but welcome to the modern Veterinary practise podcast. It’s great to have you. Here today, how have you been?

Hamzah Malik
Very well, thank you. Yeah, very good. Yeah. We met at the VMAs. Seemed like ages ago. Now, but yeah it does.

Jack Peploe
It was a great show, actually. Shame about the result. From our point we nearly got there, you know, it’s always that last peg.

Hamzah Malik
Fantastic.

Jack Peploe
And it was a really, really exciting time and really great to meet you as well and find out a little bit more about your background and specifically that pulse, which sounds really exciting. Now, ironically or very ironically, we are going to be exploring the transformative role of artificial intelligence in veterinary medicine. Notice how I didn’t use AI because I know some farm vets get a little bit excited. Now with your background, your unique background in AI and your involvement in projects that assist vetting professionals, you can obviously bring a wealth of. Knowledge to this topic so. You you’ve mentioned that you’ve transitioned when you’ve got sort of multiple hats that you wear from sort of the marketing side to spearheading projects that integrate AI into that new care. What kind of inspired this this shift into that really and how has your previous experience influence your current endeavours?

Hamzah Malik
So we’re literally I kind of. Stumbled into it. Originally cause I I interviewed at the vet times. Like in 2014, 2015, long time ago and I worked there in in their digital department for several years at one sort of highly commended marketer of the year and the VMA’s and everything. It was fantastic. Amazing Company, had a lot of fun then I always wanted to do my own thing. So I I went off and did regions. And then I kind of looped back because I agree region in different that’s causing charity and hotels and restaurants and stuff. Veterinary, I I absolutely love it. I love the people in it. It’s a very friendly industry. It’s a very sort of heartfelt niche where people are kind of like really working from their heart, which I really like to see. So then I kind of went back into it and the first thing on my mind was how do I add value and help people at scale? Because the problem I’ve had before is. You know you can approach sort of. A pharmaceutical company or a practise. But we always had trouble sort of scaling it to solutions that can help many people that want so that’s where I kind of, you know, AI. It is a buzzword now. You’re totally right. It’s difficult to use it without all these sort of things popping up in people’s heads. But to me, like, just not to go off on a tangent or anything. But even as far back as like 2016. I was trying. To create chat bots using IBM Watson for veterinary and we went we got pretty far as well because we had an interface and we used what send you asked. It was you had a we had a poison calculator toxicity stuff. And but it never. It never felt natural. And you had to. Kind of know. The right words to get it to say the right thing. So I shelved it because I thought there’s no one’s gonna use it when this conversation I I came out, I thought, OK, I’m not read like, you know, sort of committed to one platform. But I do know that this as a as an industry is going to explode which. It has so. We made a vet pulse and the first thing we did was not kind of let’s make the all knowing omnipresent AI. It was how do we make this safe, scalable and comfortable for our users? Because the literary market. Well. You know, in some ways they’re way ahead when it comes to ethics and technology and stuff, like just baked into behaviour in other ways, though, that they’re on the ascendancy, they’re kind of, they’re nearly there when it comes to sort. Of adopting new, new tools. So I don’t wanna make it too scary and high tech. I just wanted to make it like a friend, which is. Thank you. It’s been received as.

Jack Peploe
That’s very cool. So without getting too technical, can you describe the kind of support that you know I can offer to that new professionals in their daily tasks, like how does it enhance things like efficiency or effectiveness in in a typical vent?

Hamzah Malik

Practise. So it’s really interesting because I go through the questions asked to vet polls on a daily basis to kind of vet them. I don’t. I’ve never had to ban a user or anything because the professionals using it know how to. Use it I. Usually see them use it to sense check things, so they’ll just sort of double check something like what’s this? In in Milligrammes and they’ll kind of put something in and they’ll say ohh. You know I’ve made this decision. And ad you know it, are there studies that back this up, you know? And then it’ll and we’ll let poles. It’s not allowed to go outside this parameter. So we’ve kind of said look, the energy content hubs are excellent. So we call them, you know you’ve got the VA and all these other you know that times and everything like it can’t think outside that content hub. So it will always give something that and. Related, it will never go to Google. It’s not going to start going on Reddit or YouTube, which is obviously where things can go wrong, so people usually use as a way to just sort of sense, check things and nd kind of like streamline their day-to-day. Some people even use it to like to write letters to sort of their, you know, that their customers and they say stuff like, look, I need to quickly write a letter saying the appointments been moved. I’m sorry and your operations gonna be in the 22nd. And then it’ll ask a few questions to say, look, I’d what operation like you need to tell me. And they rather than write out a long letter, they give it this information. It gives them some content and then they’ll say, OK, yeah, that sounds good. Or just please change it. And it does does us requested. So it’s less about sort of a lot of people have said ohh are you trying to replace the junior. People in the clinic is absolutely, absolutely not. So it’s never gonna. I don’t think ever do that. It’s just more to book men and streamline and make things a little bit faster. It’s kind of. When right back in the day we had to check our emails on a computer and you had to log in and then BlackBerry came out, you know, like 98. And everyone’s like, Wow, push e-mail. And it was amazing. And it just it it didn’t replace desktop, but it just made stuff easier and more sort of, you know, fluid and conversation on that. That’s kind of what we’re going for. Looking to replace, we’re just looking to.

Jack Peploe
And I think that’s a big thing because there is a big aspect of fear around AI. You know, you sort of hit the nail on the head there in the sense of I think people don’t really understand the fact that we are in that kind of buzzword phase. You know, for me, I don’t. Regard AI as. Truly intelligent. We’re not our ur phase yet. And you know. And like you say, it’s a. It’s a. It’s a tool that supports that enables, and I think we’ve got to get into our heads that this is not something that’s gonna replace us. You know, it is something that’s gonna enable us, empower us and make us better and more efficient. And I think that’s kind of what we’ve got to try to, to get to 1st. Would you agree with that?

Hamzah Malik
I I completely agree and the whenever, whenever anyone sort of says, I think that we’re gonna be replaced. I always tell them about sort of ATM’s back in the day. You know that it’s crazy that like when ATM’s were first installed, people said Ohh, you’re gonna put bank tellers out of business. And I like going in and chatting to my bank system, my bank teller. And we talk about the weather and then they give me the money and, you know, this is how it should be. And these machines are impersonal and there’s not enough information and things can go wrong. And there was that resistance in the innovation stage and quite rightly so as well, because it was quite a departure from going inside and talking to a person. But now I I don’t think ever in my life, I’ve gone into a bank to get money out. I’ve always gone to an ATM and everyone kind of just goes to it as like a, you know, and those bank teller still exist. You know, there’s not. They’re still behind glass and they’re still taking money and giving money and their jobs changed a little bit. And if anything, maybe it’s enabled them to do a little bit more with their time rather than just sort of OK you want 50 lbs. Here’s. 3 lbs you know? Like not very efficient. So I see AI as tackling the areas. Of sort of automated efficiency where I think I mean people are absolutely incredible, right, I am always in awe of people generally like I’m not in awe of AI. I’m not in awe of tech or different platforms. I’m in awe of what people can accomplish and you know, they think and what they want to do. So if anything can be automated and removed. And it’s a bit boring then. Yeah, let a I do it because I doesn’t have feelings and it doesn’t think it’s gonna be wasting its day doing anything. And then people can focus on the things that really empower them and kind of like sparking them as well.

Jack Peploe
So picking on that, I mean you spoke earlier about one of the examples of rewriting letters. What are some of the broader impacts you’ve observed with AI implementation in in say veterinary settings, like perhaps some improvements or challenges that were not initially anticipated?

Hamzah Malik

So that there. Were a few. People that were so we went global quite quickly by accident, so I only was marketing in the UK and then some veteran professor in the states picked it up and. I think she shared it with all her students and then suddenly you get this massive surge in the States and then they were asking for product recalls. And obviously it’s totally different system. So then we had to scramble quickly and say, OK, these are US product recalls with some massive lists closed. It’s huge country and these are the UK product recalls on the Gov website. And we can’t mix them up. We had to be very, very clear about the people that we’re talking to and where they are. And there were a few students that were evidently using it to. And these students, they’re doing their homework. They’re their course work with it because these questions looked way too curated. So we had to put in a little bit of a note to say look like in my head I was look they just can use ChatGPT anyway. But I don’t like the fact that that pulse was being used for that. So I said like you have to tick a box to say you’ll use it honestly and onion and venom environment, it obviously still happens, but I’ve kind of reconciled it cause I’m like they’re. Either gonna go on Google. Or read it or ask their friends or whatever. Find some Peace Corps work online. Or they can have a conversation with a veterinary expert in the form of AI, where they can get the answers as well. And these conversations wasn’t just write me an essay, it was. I’m researching this specific topic and this specific niche give me 10 reasons why X drug is suitable for ex animal in the long term and. It, it turns everything out and it gives references with every single thing because that pulse has to give a reference with. Says and then they ended up having a long form conversation with it, which was quite nice. And I was like, OK, well, they’re they’re kind of learning as they go. Yes, I didn’t anticipate they would use it for that. Some people have also used it as a sort of a stress management tool, which it’s not intended to be. But we’ve had some pretty harrowing messages on there to say, hey. And these are people in practise. Hey, I’m super stressed. I’m struggling mentally and I’m thinking about something really terrible and for that we have to very, I mean we we we’re working on kind of you know, better mental health charities and kind of linking straight to them because it has to be a person that can’t be AI. Yeah. And we basically told the tool like you will never engage in therapy or counselling because you can’t do it.

Jack Peploe
The same thing.

Hamzah Malik
And it just refuses and slow. I can’t do it. Sorry. Like you need to talk.

Jack Peploe
To someone immediately, please, so it guides them. Guides them to. The appropriate people.

Hamzah Malik
Yes. Yeah. Well, it has to cause, like, yeah, it’ll come up with, like, an article from the that times to say burnout. And the profession is serious. And yeah, they’ll talk to them about it. But if someone in that mental state like. They they need an individual to help them and it’s tragic to me that, like and it, it’s not just a it’s been on Google as well. If you put and send things on Google, the ads come up and guide in the right direction. But people sometimes do feel comfortable talking to a non human entity when they’re struggling terribly because they feel like they’re not judged. And then that’s an element of that pulse where whenever going to be a mental health. Platform, even though that be great. But I think there are better platforms out there that we can partner.

Jack Peploe
Wow. Gosh, I’d never realised that. I never thought of that. That’s incredible. And so kind of moving on from there, like considering your interests in psychology, how do you approach designing AI tools? Like for example that pulse to sort of ensure that they’re user friendly for like the vet need market?

Hamzah Malik
It’s a really good question because I I’m to be honest, I’m not very happy with like the current look. Met posts. It’s like super basic and prototyping and the idea is that I always like to meet people where they are. So rather than like a very intimidating looking interface where you’ve got to know code and. A really good example of this is actually like discord. Yes, and it’s like if you know it, you know it. But like I I’ve used an app called Mid Journey which is an image creation and you probably know, yeah, you know it as well and to use that thing on discord, I believe it is like it it’s a nightmare you have to like. All this random shortcuts and code and up two and three zero. And like it’s really difficult to use. You have enough people use it every day. So with that pulse, my thing was people know how to iMessage, they know how to WhatsApp and know how to text. Let’s make a light. Just texting an Expo. But yeah, so you can talk to it or reply back in little speech bubble. At the moment we’re working with a company that just got funded in the states who have created a system where it will basically talk to you. It’s it’s not going to just read out what it said. It will talk to you in real time. The amazing thing about this company though is that the latency which is at the delay.

It’s like as fast as a person, which is absolutely means that I was using it the other day and I I actually thought I was like, you’ve got a back office somewhere, haven’t you? Where? You’ve got a bunch of interns talking to me, but it was it was AI, so the next step for me psychologically is to remove the barrier of typing because you can tell it’s an AI when you’re kind of typing on this AI that you know website and just have a button where it’s like having someone on the phone and they’ll talk to you immediately. There’s no delay. There’s no long like dot dot dot. Loading icon it will just say everything immediately and then it will. It will continue that strand of messaging as well. So you can say hey, that thing I said 10 minutes ago about, you know, feline diabetes well, what was that drug you recommended again and then it’ll go back and immediately know. What you’re talking? About that, that’s where we’re going with it in the short term in that the. Next, sort of you know, 8 to 10 weeks.

Jack Peploe
That’s very cool. It reminds. Me of I think it was Google Duplex.

Hamzah Malik
Yes, sorry. Did you  see the demo?

Jack Peploe
When they were the person that well, the duplex was organising a haircut for the for the, for the individual, and it was great because I think the loading time was that and that was quite funny. But you were saying that that’s completely cut out now. That’s. That’s incredible. That’s gonna be very cool.

Hamzah Malik
Yeah, it’s gonna be. Hopefully it’ll be a lot more natural than the duplex demo. It was hilarious because the arming and eyeing was evidently it buffering, but then people lost it when someone said so. They said like I was at 6:00 PM and it went. And I I was like ohh damn. Like he actually knows intonations and informalities. And I think it got banned in the end. Actually like in certain states where they were. Like it’s too real.

Jack Peploe
It has to be announced. So that’s the that’s the big thing that’s happened. I think that’s even within the UK because you can utilise aspects of duplex, but it was immediately banned in the UK. It was very much if you can utilise it.

Jack Peploe
Just to announce that it’s going to be some form of automation. So the person. Knows the deal with which I think is such a. Shame because, well, you know, does it really matter if it’s serving a task? But I’m sure there have been loads of people.

Hamzah Malik
Obviously on that one well, I personally I. I think that like. I mean I I get it that they don’t want you to think that it’s a human stuff, but if it’s as good and it’s a a small, repeatable, non like it’s very low risk task like booking a haircut. I don’t want there to be a thing of really saying just to inform you must be like just waste my time. I want it done quickly. Yeah. So yeah, it’s kind of like I know online. Someone’s not looking my haircut. I use a booking portal, right? It’s all automated. I I guess people would argue to say that, you know it can be abused with spam callers. I agree with that cause my my phone number like a couple of months ago. Was. Spoofed and I had like I. Woke up and I had like 3000. Missed calls because this.

Jack Peploe
Very well.

Hamzah Malik
This company was peering as me, miss calling people and everyone was miss calling but calling me back for real. So I had like, maybe a couple of 100 calls of people around the UK explaining why I’ve been spoofed and everything. And that was always that was done using sort of. It probably wasn’t a I it was probably some sort of basic was yeah bot programme. A real pain in the backside. But yeah, so.

Jack Peploe
So kind of obviously, AI is rapidly evolving, especially considering what you’ve just explained around kind of what you’re planning with at Pulse, which is very exciting. Where do you see it? And this is a big question, but where do you sit heading and say the next 5 to 10 years again within the sector, is there like particular advancements you’re hopeful for or potentially concern?

Hamzah Malik
About I’m concerned about what patterns are going to do with it, quite significantly, because you know, they’ve got the whole doctor Google thing where, you know, people are uncomfortable where pet owners kind of diagnose stuff themselves, going to the clinic and then the vet has to talk them down to 10 minutes to say, no, you’re your dog doesn’t have cancer. It’s just like this different thing. And the pet owner. Cause now? Well, I saw it. So that element I think is gonna go out of control because with IGBT it doesn’t care about and Google you know like you know Gemini and all this stuff that’s come out perplexity like it they don’t care about the information they give you if it’s going to incite any further work for anyone it’s just. Here’s the information. Here’s the best stuff I could find, so that side of things I think needs to have some sort of management around internally. I’m a lot more hopeful in that I think it it’s kind of inverse. I think AI is going to completely simmer down and become part of the canvas, which is kind of where I think it’s going to start growing because that’s kind of where. It’s safe to scale. So for an example you know, years ago when Facebook was kind of in its growth stage. Users practises would say hey. Follow us on. Facebook and then have all the stuff on Facebook and they’d be trying to do ads and boosting posts and everyone would be focusing on it and maybe doing it right. Maybe not. But now it’s kind of just, it’s part of the canvas, isn’t it? It’s like, yeah, on Facebook, whatever. Like, go on there, you’ll find some stuff. We’re using it responsibly. It’s being used occasionally. For the reasons it should be used for AI will do something very similar where in specific use cases it will be used and forgotten about. It will be like it’s kind of like yeah, the fridge keeps things cold, you know, open the fridge and be Oh my God. Wow, it’s cold today. Like it’ll just be like, yeah, it’s it AI’s doing that. It’s fine. It’s not amazing. It’s pretty standard. Answering the phones and rebooking appointments and talking to, you know, pet owners are bringing pets in for operations like, yeah, I think that’s still be done by individuals, I don’t think is going to take over that because it’s quite a personal intimate connection people have with their pets and they want to know someone on the other line. But yeah, in terms of these small automated repeatable tasks. Talking adamant stuff basically I think would be super wild and then kind of disillusioned by it and then we’ll just continue using it. And it’ll just become part of the fabric.

Jack Peploe
I mean on the doctor Google comment, I suppose the other thing we’ve got to consider here is just that these tool sets are available to very professionals as well in the sense that they can be prepared to know. And it was, it was ironic actually they were talking about this. I was running through the ChatGPT with one of my practises. I was sort of showing them the different things they can. Use it for and. They’re like oh wow. The reason the kind of questions that potentially currency could come to us with and I’m like, yes, exactly like. So we can be prepared knowing what potentially the clients gonna come to us with and where their logic comes from. So it can enable in a way and they can prepare themselves for those kind of situations. Would that be fair to say?

Hamzah Malik
Yeah, I agree with you. It’s a good way to kind of get ahead of the sort of what people will be coming in with that it kind of won’t, it won’t link well with the psychological state of the pet owner and that if they’re super anxious. Or if they’re like. Not very worried that that side of things you only see in person, but I do think that. Every practise, every clinic should be on the free version, at least of ChatGPT, just to understand the way things are moving and whether we want to or not. It’s not even a question of is it going to take off, it’s like. Reached for like 100 million users like faster than anything in history ever and it through social media to the side because it’s useful and it’s simple and it just does what it’s asked. And so I’m not saying clinics should use chat tributes every day. They don’t have to, don’t even have to use vet poles if they don’t want to. But they need to understand that this is the new psyche of their pet. Owner and pet owners and their customers and. And this is kind of where they have to meet them. They will be getting instant real time data and they will be sometimes misinformed. And I’ll have to talk to them in a certain way. So I know you might have seen that on ChatGPT, but here’s why it is incorrect and then kind of just like coached them into the correct state of mind. I think most pet owners will. Obviously still trust the vet. I mean me personally. Like I I don’t make any calls until I’ve seen the vet like people make calls. I’ve seen something on Google and I’m like look like that that Reddit post is by a random person in like Alabama and you don’t even know who they are. Like it was 4. Years ago. Like, just go to the vet. But of course, you know, there’s a lot of. Sort of. People indirectly think that, you know, vets are expensive. It takes ages, and that’s a separate issue of kind of getting people into the right state of mind when they’re they need to take their pet to the vet. It’s not like a. Use AI and go to the vet or just kind of like go to the vet directly. I think it’s going to be. A blend of both, yeah.

Jack Peploe
No, Hamza, thank you very much for sharing your insights today. It’s been really unlikely to hear about the potential AI to transform veterinary care and your perspectives has certainly broadened our understanding of what’s possible in. This field now. People want to get in touch with you. How? Do they do?

Hamzah Malik
That they can go to my LinkedIn or they can go to hansonmalik.com. There’s this my very small splash page or they can just e-mail me at hamzahmzah@regentbranding.co.uk.

Jack Peploe
That’s amazing. How was it? Thank you so much. Really enjoyed the session it.

Hamzah Malik
Was fantastic and you’re most welcome. Back thank you for having me.

Jack Peploe
Each episode we add a touch of humour by asking our guests to share their most amusing and unforgettable animal related mishaps or bloopers. This time we have Chloe Hannigan, who takes us back to a comical yet educational encounter with a particularly feisty rabbit during a routine consultation.

Chloe Hannigan
Ohh, the bun in the bin. Yes. So that happened in one of my first jobs actually. So it was a rabbit consultation as a new grad. Obviously we don’t get quite as much teaching on the exotic side of things as we do with the other. You know, cats, dogs and all the rest of it. And so I’m still getting comfortable, you know, doing my exotics consultations and things and. Had a lady in with her rabbit and it was just in for a vaccination so I thought, oh, this would be fine. Like check the rabbit and make sure it’s healthy. Give some general sort of husbandry tips and you know, inject the rabbit off we go. Well, this lady has absolutely out of that. She was going to hold her rabbit for. For its injection, which I was probably not the most confident in because the rabbit turned out to be like Thumper on steroids, it was feral to say the least. When she got it out of the container, it’s thumping away, really showing that it wasn’t happy to have been. In the car. In in the consult room. I think because I was a new grad, I maybe didn’t have the presence of mind or the confidence that I would now to be like absolutely. There’s no way in hell that you’re holding this rabbit. We’re getting one of the nurses, you know? So she was like, no, I always hold him for things. And I was like, this rabbit. Looks like it’s never been held in its life. OK, so she proceeds to pick the rabbit up, holding it in. And so I inject it. Luckily get the injection in, but as soon as it’s finished, the rabbit takes a massively up out of this owner’s arms and lands straight into the bin next. And luckily, because I’ve been, you know, diligent new grad vet, or as we should all be, I’d been, you know, cleaning the table off in between every patient. And so the bin had a good layer of paper towel and cushion. That’s landing a little bit, but I remember just carrying out that. Just being like, Oh my God, what just happened? Like, get the money out of the bin. And put it back in its carrier, which wasn’t the easiest thing to do. The lady was obviously embarrassed. I, you know, I learned a valuable lesson that day, and I think any of the nurses who work with me at my regular local practises will tell you now that I’m one of the first to come through the back and be like, can I have assistance? Holding this pet, please. I just don’t trust Angus to do it. If I can. And the minute I start getting my like Spidey senses tingling, that you can not adequately hold your pet. No, we’re calling in the nurses. We’re calling them professionals who know. What they’re doing?

Jack Peploe
Coming up next week on the modern veterinary practise podcast, we welcome Andy Green, a small animal and equine vet and an ILM level 7 certified leadership coach, and he will share his experiences from managing. Teams across multiple veterinary practises and his innovative approach to leadership and personal development in veterinary settings will dive into his strategies for fostering excellence in creating positive workplace environments that enhance both team performance and patient care. Tuned in to hear Andy’s expert insights on transforming veterinary practises through effective leadership.

Andy Green
The stuff that allows us to do all the fantastic clinical work and actually bond and gain great rapport with our clients, with our patients, with our teammates, is absolutely fundamental A to being able to do a better job as a clinical vet or VET nurse, but also from a team perspective. More importantly, it makes your whole life easier. It makes life more enjoyable. It allows you to get more out of every interaction that you have and that’s it outside of work as well as inside of work. And for me it genuinely being transformative. From my whole life has been transformed by. What I’ve come to understand. And the depth. Of knowledge I’ve gained in that area over the past 20 years.