Equine Veterinary Nurses are an essential part of maintaining high standards of veterinary care. Their role includes a variety of jobs, from assisting in surgery to feeding and mucking out, but what does a typical day involve? We asked Kassie Hill of Cliffe Equine to talk us through it.
- 6am - I start my day by walking my sprocker spaniel Tigger.
- 7am - My favourite hour of the day: taking care of our inpatients, mucking out, feeding and ensuring they're happy.
- 8:15am - The whole team gathers to discuss our inpatients and any day cases coming in/news from the previous day.
- 9am - Clinical work starts and we run our first visiting hours of the day so I get to chat with clients about how their patients have been overnight and plan for the day.
- 10am - We aim to operate on any elective surgeries in the morning so it's all hands on deck!
- 11am - Theatre is one of my favourite areas, as the circulating nurses we ensure that everything runs smoothly.
- 12pm - It's time for lunch for our inpatients and Tigger (and hopefully for me, but if not it's grabbing a quick slice of cake!)
- 1pm - The afternoon looks busy for visits so I load up our trusting nurses vans with the mobile x-ray to go out for a lameness examination.
- 2pm - I assist the vet with a full clinical examination, performing nerve blocks before x-raying to identify the problem.
- 3pm - After arriving back at the clinic I ensure that everything is unloaded and recharged ready for the next call. I also get round to my emails and ensuring that x-rays that need sending to the farrier are sent.
- 4pm - It's time to get the inpatients put to bed and speak with any of the owners coming in for the afternoon visiting hours.
- 5pm - Time to go home and take Tigger for her evening walk.