Scotland was recently voted ‘The Most Beautiful Country in the World’ by the readers of Rough Guides– and with its breath-taking ‘Munro’ mountains, stirring castles and wind-swept lochs, its easy to see why. But even if you’re not into the great outdoors, Scotland has a lot to offer. Its proud culture is displayed everywhere, from its food and language, to the Ceilidh dancing that takes place at weddings and veterinary conferences alike.
For many Australia vets, travelling to work in the UK is almost a right of passage. Emma, a mixed vet from country Victoria, took it one step further and relocated to a clinic in rural northern Scotland in 2018.
I am lucky to have known Emma for years, having graduated together as vets from the University of Melbourne. And I was even luckier that years later, she landed a job in the same remote corner of Scotland where I was based. We sat down together over flat whites on a rainy summer’s day to talk about the challenge of local accents, working in the dark, and the elusive work-life balance.
First up, tell me a little about your background:
I’m from a town called Warragul, in Gippsland, Victoria, which is about an hour and a half out of Melbourne. I was born there and I lived there basically my whole life. I did my Bachelor degree at The University of Melbourne and then the DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) course there as well. [After graduation] I worked for a couple of years in Queensland and did mostly small animal and equine practice. I was working out of a horse hospital which was really good fun.
I was thinking that maybe I would do some locum work or travelling when this job came up in Scotland. So I thought, “hey, sounds like fun”. And that’s how I ended up working here in Scotland
Great. And what kind of practice are you working in at the moment?
Its a mixed practice. The practice on the whole does a lot of farm work, you know- your sheep and your cattle. I get more of the horse and small animal work because that’s where my skills and my interests lie. But I also pick up some farm [work] depending on what’s needed.
How did you find the process of moving to the UK? Was there a lot of paperwork and planning involved?
Yeah, it was pretty stressful. I think I got lucky in the process because I came over for a permanent job so [the practice] helped sort things out like my visa. There was a bit of a delay because I had to have interviews [for a visa at the British Embassy] in Australia to get my visa so I think they had to push my start date back a couple of times while I waited for appointments.
Once I got [to the UK], it was easy. I had an appointment booked with the Royal Veterinary College in London so I turned up to that, ran through some paperwork, said the oath and I was good to go!
You know I was really scared the when I first went to the Royal College to register as a vet. I thought I’d have to study all my vet notes, and that they might quiz me on all my knowledge. Like I’d walk in and suddenly it would be like- ‘ here’s a badger pop quiz’! [laughs]. But it wasn’t like that at all.
I did the same thing! I was really worried about what they might ask! It turned out I was the only person there who wasn’t a new graduate. In my interview group they were all from non-english speaking backgrounds, coming to work for the first time. So actually I realised it wasn’t too bad, I’ve got this covered!
(Check out the Vet’s Guide to moving to the UK if you want more info on this process!)
And what was the visa interview like at the British Embassy in Australia?
I had to go into Melbourne to do that, so I had some interviews and they took all my biometric data and looked at my passport and forms. It was not too stressful at all. They didn’t actually ask me any questions, they just needed all the paperwork and photos.
Then basically I got to Scotland and was given an identity card which had the photo and information on it. I didn’t have to worry too much about it, it was just waiting for me
To work in Scotland as a vet, you do need to be fluent in English. But this area is known for its strong local accent and dialect. How did you find communication once you arrived in North-East Scotland?
Well that was a challenge! [laughs]
[It was] particularly the farmers I had trouble with. The accent and the ‘Doric’ dialect is quite thick. I struggled a lot and I still struggle on the phone- there are some clients who I just can’t understand. I guess the flip side is that they can’t understand me either so sometimes we’re both on the phone going “I don’t know what you’re saying!” [laughs]But I’m getting better in person!
There are certain different ways people express things that was a challenge at first- for example people began talking about ‘lugs’ which are ears, apparently. It took me a little while to figure out what that was supposed to mean, but everyone was lovely. They could tell I’m not a local, so they tried to go easy on me.
Or someone will say “my dog wants a ‘bosie’” (kiss). I just have to say, “I don’t know what a bosie is. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?” But it is mostly ok.
And do you see different species as a vet in the UK compared to when you worked in Australia?
Yes, there are lots of different species here.
Working in Queensland, I’d never worked with a rabbit, [rabbits are illegal to keep as pets in some Australia states]. Whereas rabbits are pretty common over here. I’d never seen a hamster before I got here. I’ve also been working with chinchillas- my first experience was an after-hours call when I had never seen [a chinchilla] before in my life. So that was pretty exciting.
I’ve also [worked with] some highland cows, with the big horns. I’ve never had to deal with cows with horns before so it was an interesting experience too.
Oh, right there’s quite a lot of cows with horns in Scotland aren’t there? Have you had to de-horn cattle as a mixed vet here?
Yes. The first time, I went out with one of the senior vets. It was raining, I think it usually is here. I had never [de-horned cattle] before in my life, so she was showing me how you do it. I did a couple myself and that went fine. And then the Senior vet got phoned to leave for an emergency.
So it took me hours in the rain to get through the rest of the herd- it was certainly an experience. Everyone was so apologetic that I had to stay so long. The farmer and the farmer’s wife were so lovely and helpful. It just took way longer than it should have for someone who’s better at it- but we got there!
Oh no, it’s definitely not an easy job! It’s very physical. Do you find that work in Scotland is more physical than what you were used to in Australia?
Well that’s it! I used to work in a hospital scenario, so if we had heavy lifting for horses we could do that with either multiple people or a crane. Or if the horse was under anaesthetic for an in-depth procedure, I was the one keeping it asleep, not doing the actual procedure. So it was a different sort of physicality to it. It’s certainly been a different experience- even just working in the rain. We don’t get much rain in Queensland [some parts of the state are in drought]. If it rains, the calls get cancelled. Whereas here, it’s like, “It’s raining again, well off you go”.
Yeah, or else it’s pitch black in winter, and you’re still at work!
That was another thing I found hard to deal with because in winter it was dark at 4pm! People would come in for their 5 o’clock appointments with their dogs and cats and I’d be like, “isn’t it bedtime? I feel like its time to go home”.
So it was a bit different doing calls in the dark.
I’ve had to do farm procedures using the headlights on my van to light up the barn because it gets dark so early.
It’s insane! I was completely unprepared for that sort of thing- it was never on my radar that it could get dark that soon! Then suddenly it was pitch black and I realised I didn’t have a torch! But at least most of the farmers up here are prepared, they had lights set up.
What kind of common emergency conditions do you see here in Scotland?
The major emergencies for the large animals tend to be cesarean sections, so problems with lambing or calving. For horses, the conditions are pretty similar [to Australia]- you get your colics or your trauma, for example, horses going through fences or becoming lame. The only difference we get here is grass sickness, which is something we don’t deal with at all in Australia. It is a bit of an odd one for me because we don’t really know much about it.
For smallies, the most common emergency I’ve had to deal with is trauma, for example hit-by-car. We also get caesarean sections, and also a lot of foreign bodies. So they are the big ones, and usually that’s what I see after hours. Occasionally they’ve eaten something [toxic] they shouldn’t have. So I think trauma is probably the most common for small animals.
Originally, I thought I might see more conditions related to the cold and the ice in Scotland, but that was never the case.
Yes, I think I had a horse once that slipped on the ice and was a bit tender on its leg but it wasn’t an emergency. But that’s about it, I haven’t seen anything else.
There is one condition I can say that I haven’t seen anywhere else in the world, except for in northern Scotland.
I was working in one of the smaller towns in the North-East that has a lot of oil industry workers, so a lot of wealthy people. I had a small epidemic of dogs whose owners would call because they couldn’t get up! The dogs couldn’t get on their legs, and of course I would wonder if they were collapsed with seizures or pain or had a serious disease. But when I went to the house calls to treat them I realised they were just older, large breed dogs who had arthritis in their joints. And because this was an oil-industry town, there was a lot of workers who had recently made a lot of money and moved into huge houses with polished marble or wood floors. And their poor old dogs couldn’t cope with suddenly being on the slippery polished floors. They couldn’t get the traction to get their legs under them to walk around. So I had to tell the owners, your Labrador is doing fine, you just need to buy some rugs! Your house is too nice for your dog!
And get started on some joint supplements. It’s nuts, I saw this same presentation three or four times in the same area, but I’ve never had it happen anywhere since!
Thats crazy! I’ve seen dogs slip a little bit on the clinic floors, but never to that degree!
Yes, this was extreme, these owners really thought it might be time to say goodbye because their dog was non-ambulatory, but you’d carry the dog to the carpet and he’d jump up, tail wagging! It was crazy.
Have you faced any cultural challenges while working in Scotland?
There are a lot more entire dogs here- a lot of people aren’t desexing which might be a cultural thing. Perhaps a lot more people are breeding or thinking of breeding in the future, whereas at my last clinic most people weren’t interested in that.
I think the expectations and demands of clients here may be quite a lot higher than in Queensland, in the sense that people expect you to come to them straight away and to see their animal right now. I think clients are a lot less patient with the idea that you actually do have a life outside of work, or that you might be busy elsewhere while working. However it may also be that when farmers call for help they do expect you to be able to be there pretty readily. Whereas I didn’t have many farm clients in Queensland.
I think there’s a lot more pet insurance in the UK, which is a good thing. It means we have the ability to be able to refer more. But I really do appreciate the level of insurance here because it just makes my life so much easier to know we have access to specialists if needed. We have the option to refer.
I’ve also noticed that there is a higher willingness to refer cases to specialists in the UK. Where I worked in Australia, referral has never really been an option.
In Townsville, we had JCU (James Cook University) nearby, but it was a big cost and a lot of people weren’t insured. So [our clinic] did a lot of procedures, which is good for us to get lots of experience, but it also meant that we had a lot of amputations because clients couldn’t afford the higher level orthopaedic work. Whereas here, when clients are insured, we can just send them straight to the specialists who can do what needs to be done to save the limb.
There are so many veterinary programs on TV in the UK, like ‘Supervet’ and ‘The Yorkshire Vet’. I find that clients do often talk about ‘Supervet’ in consults, I wonder if that influences the public’s openness to specialist procedures on their pets.
Oh yeah! They do, I have lots of clients who ask me to refer them to supervet! I try and talk them round, like it’s a very long trip [to southern England], we could do the same procedure at [the nearby specialist] much more easily!
Does your clinic employee professional veterinary nurses? What type of roles do they perform?
Yes, we have lots of nurses at our clinic, who range in experience from the head nurse to the nursing students. I think it’s a 2 year college course the nurses do, which is a little different to the training in Australia. But a lot of the nurses here do anything from ordering stock, watching drug levels, to anaesthetics, to patient care. They had their own consultations, so they cover a wide variety of tasks. I can also take a nurse out with me if I need help with a horse or an extra set of hands. So really they do a bit of everything.
It can be difficult after-hours, when you get calls when there are no vet nurses on roster. You have to find everything in the clinic yourself and get things set up when usually in the daytime it’s all done for you. They are invaluable in the clinic. We have some really solid nurses and some really good trainees as well- they are going to be amazing when they are ready to go, they already make life so much easier.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the UK veterinary Industry at the moment?
I think we are having a difficult time transitioning from smaller practices with veterinary owners who are always working and always on call to an industry where young vets are expecting a better work-life balance. Young vets are wanting to have more free time, which is very valid and reasonable, but it creates a big split between us and an old guard who say we need to always be available and do things for clients at a discount cost.
Don’t get me wrong, I like helping people and that’s why I do this job. But at the same time, the value of free time and down-time is important. We haven’t quite figured out that balance just yet. We have a lot of disillusioned young vets who spent a year in practice and realise they always on-call and always stressed. They become unhappy with their job and think “why am I still here?”
That is going to have to change and we going to have to get better protection for our hours, our breaks and our free time. I’m pleased I’m not one of those people who have to make these big decisions but I think that will be the next challenge- finding vets to fill these roles because we if we continue this way we’ll just lose more of them.
That’s true. And that feeds into the other problems we had with recruitment, job satisfaction and mental health problems. It is quite a generational challenge.
Yes, there are senior vets at my practice who love their job, and have been doing it for a long time. If they are called out, they work all night then they turn up and work the next day, still driving miles around on no sleep- and that’s just how it is. Whereas for me, I still do that- it’s my job! But if I work that many extra hours I expect some compensation- either in time or financially. But I don’t think that system exists to many practices in the UK. There are a lot of corporate groups in the UK that are buying up vet practices and I wonder how that will affect this problem- if it will make it better or worse.
Either way you look at it, mixed vets are always going to have after-hours work- it will never be a 9-5 job. But I think they have to have a better balance, because no one is going to keep doing this job the way it is.. We don’t get paid for all the hours and late nights we spend working, so we are going to run out of people who want to work ridiculous hours in the middle of nowhere for little pay. I don’t know how they’re going to do it- but it will be the next challenge over the next ten years I reckon.
What is your biggest struggle or frustration that you face as a vet?
Hmm. I guess there’s actually two main ones. One is mainly a client problem, in the sense that some people just don’t have money and they can’t afford vet care. I find that very frustrating because people often have the attitude that they’ve rescued a dog or a cat and that they’re such good people for doing that. But suddenly they are not prepared for when they need to pay for veterinary care. Then the clients get frustrated and I get frustrated because I’m trying to do my best for someone but you can’t just provide a service for free. And especially when people go against our veterinary advice or just don’t show up for appointments, I do find that frustrating.
The other side is a staffing factor, which is the days that we are so busy, everything gets over-booked, there are emergencies and you don’t get to stop for the entire day. It’s frustrating for a different reason.
I think that’s the two major frustrations I face. Having said that, I can’t imagine doing anything else. I think the world of this job.
I agree. Its so challenging when clients are unprepared for the fact that medical care for their animals can be quite expensive.
As vets, we do want to do the best for people no matter the circumstances. So then you find that to help people, you’re trying to do things as cheaply as possible, without undermining the value of our services. And so what vets end up doing is discounting their time…
And then that feeds into the problem that we discussed earlier about long-hours and low wages….
Exactly, your time is actually worth money! You trained for years to do this and you have experience, you’re taking money away from other things- you can’t just discount that. But when you have someone in the consult room screaming at you because they can’t afford the care their animal needs, its easy to think ‘Well, what if I just knock a little off?”. Which then makes things more difficult.
Of course. And then you start to face the emotional challenge and the guilt, because you desperately do want to help the animal, but you can’t do things for free. So you take on that emotional burden yourself.
Yes, and that emotional guilt and that emotional load is one that I think young vets in particular struggle to cope with, and put aside at the end of the day. Then you have vets becoming really emotionally fatigued and having to leave the industry, with all sorts of mental health crises.
I think you have to slowly build on that resilience to survive as well. Sometimes I feel like I am less caring than I used to be, because I have to put up these emotional barriers at work to get through the day.
And you don’t want to lose that empathy entirely, because it is part of the job! But there are points in time when you have to be aware of what you can give away, and when you have to put your foot down and say this is just how it is. Its a hard balance.
What is your favourite part of being a vet?
Ooh. I really love working with clients, I really honestly do. I get a kick out of it. I love consulting days when people come in with their dogs and cats, and they’re in a great mood and you can tell they really care about their pets. They want to tell you stories and show you videos and their dogs are so happy to see you, or the cats are happy wandering around the consult room. Or their horses are really lovely. I really like interacting with people, I find it really interesting
I think that’s my favourite thing. I also really enjoy working with the great team, that makes days a lot easier and more interesting. But it’s the client and patient interaction that I really really enjoy. Who doesn’t love cuddling a cute dog?
What advice would you give to a newly graduating vet today about how to enjoy and make the most of their career?
Tricky question. I think, do what you love. Find what it is that makes you happy, even if it takes you a year or so of trying everything. You need to decide what you want to do and go from there.
And outside of work, find a work-life balance in that first job. Make sure you do something outside of work, whether it’s to play netball or video games or whatever it is- find something and make sure you do it. Because it’s easy to get bogged down when you just work, and all your friends are from work. You need that down time and that time away. Don’t think that because everyone else is working that you have to do it too- it’s a bad habit to get into. So value your downtime, value your off-time and find hobbies that are not work related
And the final question! How many rectal exams have you done this week?
Hmm, you know what, I’ve just got back from holidays, so none this week at all. So thats a nice change of pace. Usually, its a LOT more than that, I do preg-test a lot of horses, so lots of rectal there!
A huge thanks to Emma for sharing her Scottish experiences with me!
Further Information
If you’re a vet or nurse interested in moving to Scotland, make sure you check out my series on how to do just that, with posts covering general info on moving to Britain, as well as specific information for getting started as a vet.
Locuming is a great way to experience life as a vet in Scotland. Find out more about how to become a locum in the UK in my series- Getting Started as a Locum in the UK.
If you’d like to read more interviews with vets who have worked in a heap of fascinating places around the world (like Dubai, Sweden and the Galapagos), head back to the Global Vet Interviews page!
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