Opinion

One thing that can keep you going through difficult days is a sense of humour. Many stressful and apparently bleak situations can have a humorous side if viewed from just the right oblique angle. Laug…

What a sweet sight – sitting there munching a nut from last autumn before spotting me, then scampering off and heading up a tree trunk deftly to leap from one branch to another as it speeds away. And …

Locum, locum everywhere and not an employed vet to find. How close is this to the future reality of the veterinary workforce? The current recruitment and retention crisis facing the veterinary profess…

The world and vets’ working lives have changed hugely over the last few decades. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the fact that our patients are very inconsiderate in choosing which day and at wha…

A few years ago, I went to a college reunion celebrating 25 years since the first admission of women. I sat next to a professor of clinical medicine in her later years, who had qualifications and acco…

I am feeling reasonably optimistic that the anti-vaccine movement may finally be being brought to task in the public eye. I know I am preaching to the converted, but I thought a quick review of recent…

Summer must be nearly here; though as I write, it’s still mid-April, on my regular walk this weekend, I heard the sheer glory of a skylark’s song and saw one hovering high above me. If you have a devi…

Patient care is uppermost in our minds when at work; it is what we are all about and why we go to work. Our practices have advanced in kit and facilities over the years and veterinary surgeon and nurs…

Nearly two decades into the new millennium and my kids have dragged me into the 21st century by buying me an iPhone for Christmas and helping me set up an Instagram account. (Follow me, if you feel th…

We are living in a prolonged period of political uncertainty, the scale of which many of us have never experienced before. Within our industry, the potential wide-reaching implications include effects…

A long-standing follower of mine on Twitter sent me a direct message a few days after Crufts. A friend of his had announced that having watched the show, she had decided to get either a miniature Dach…

“Daddy… Daddy! Can we ask you a question?” asked my three sons 15 years ago, when they were seven, five and three years old. “What would you like us to be when we grow up?” Well, that was easy. “Happy…

To keep the public happy all the time is an impossible task. We all know that, but still get affected by complaints, grumbles and social media diatribes. People are now more likely to publicise their …

It is important that you minimise the gaps between expectations and experience to boost customer satisfaction

What is seen, heard and felt are the most important factors driving clients’ opinions of a practice

The world of veterinary practice is in a state of flux. The delicate balance of providing veterinary care to animals 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is one of the factors that can, for all its diff…

"Folklore husbandry” is an emerging term describing the phenomenon of unevidenced, pseudoscientific, convenience-led habit and opinion handed down from one ill-informed animal keeper to the next. Kev…

There is a lot to be said for keeping things simple in a complex world. In our work as veterinary surgeons we are often bombarded by the need to make decisions, many of which will be based on incomple…

Christmas comes but once a year and when it does, it brings the Christmas rota. At the last RCVS survey, about 60 percent of practitioners said that they still do their own on call, and for those of y…

David Williams congratulates vet students coming to the end of the first term of their six-year course