In this New Year’s special we interview James Harris. We interviewed James at the Adelaide UPAV conference and it was a pleasure to chat to him. James is universally known and loved as a living legend in exotic pet medicine, with a phenomenal reputation as an exotics and wildlife veterinarian. He outlines his journey from the UK to the USA, and eventually Tasmania, where he now resides. James was awarded an Order of Australia medal for services to wildlife care.
Chemical Essentials. Cleaning and disinfection products and solutions for a wide variety of industries throughout Australia, as well as specific markets in New Zealand, Singapore and Papua New Guinea. The sole importer of the internationally acclaimed F10SC Disinfectant and its related range of advanced cleaning, personal hygiene and animal skin care products.
Specialised Animal Nutrition. Specialised Animal Nutrition is the Australian distributor of Oxbow Animal Health products. Used and recommended by top exotic animal veterinarians around the globe, the Oxbow range comprises premium life-staged feeds and supportive care products for small herbivores.
It’s our Christmas special with Mark and Brendan getting into the holiday spirit (literally) as they reminisce over the happenings in 2018 and look forward to 2019.
News: The winners of the 2018 Comedy Wildlife Awards are out.. and, not surprisingly, they are quite humorous. In other news, a dog digs up a bone.
We wish all our wonderful listeners a safe, happy and restful holiday period and a wonderful 2019.
Chemical Essentials. Cleaning and disinfection products and solutions for a wide variety of industries throughout Australia, as well as specific markets in New Zealand, Singapore and Papua New Guinea. The sole importer of the internationally acclaimed F10SC Disinfectant and its related range of advanced cleaning, personal hygiene and animal skin care products.
Specialised Animal Nutrition. Specialised Animal Nutrition is the Australian distributor of Oxbow Animal Health products. Used and recommended by top exotic animal veterinarians around the globe, the Oxbow range comprises premium life-staged feeds and supportive care products for small herbivores.
How should we talk to dogs? We finds out all about ‘dog speak’ in our first news item. Dachshunds are popular pets in the UK – should they be? A good news story to finish: a dog saves a young boy from a dryer.
Dr David Middleton is our star guest and main topic for this week. David is the owner of Mt. Mary vineyard in the Yarra Vallet wine region of Melbourne, Australia. Not only is he famous for his wonderful wines, David mentored Brendan when he was a zoo veterinarian. We sit down with David to discuss wildlife medicine, tell a few stores, and David tells us a wonderful story from his days working as a zoo veterinarian in the field. A wonderful man and a person we could chat to for much longer. We expect we will have David back on our podcast in the future. The interview was done at the Australian Veterinary Association annual conference.
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Chemical Essentials. Cleaning and disinfection products and solutions for a wide variety of industries throughout Australia, as well as specific markets in New Zealand, Singapore and Papua New Guinea. The sole importer of the internationally acclaimed F10SC Disinfectant and its related range of advanced cleaning, personal hygiene and animal skin care products.
Specialised Animal Nutrition. Specialised Animal Nutrition is the Australian distributor of Oxbow Animal Health products. Used and recommended by top exotic animal veterinarians around the globe, the Oxbow range comprises premium life-staged feeds and supportive care products for small herbivores.
Brendan may have Man Flu but that doesn’t stop the vet gurus from releasing another podcast full of veterinary goodness! He soldiers on, delirious, to warn us not to feed the monkeys, and directs our attention to a cute polar bear cub born in the UK. Mark presents 6 unusual facts about Tapirs and muses over the potential demise of the world’s smallest porpoise.
Our review this week is a movie – or make that 2 movies: BladeRunner and the recently released BladeRunner 2049. Both of us award it over 9 out of 10.
Top Tips and Tricks about Guinea Pigs is out main topic this week. We provide some fun facts and figures regarding our piggy friends, including the fact they don’t come from guinea, a disturbing picture of geriatric male guinea pig rectums, and the composition of uroliths in this species.
Mark is angry about dogs licking their faces, yet happy about horses roaming free. Brendan flexes his muscles with talk about a squirrel glider gym and is pleased that the 1st International Snail Grand National has been cancelled – ready, set, escargot for this and more from the VetGurus!
Wildlife care is our main topic this week. A discussion on triage of wildlife brought into veterinary clinics, including decisions on when to euthanase, analgesia options, and the debate about who pays for wildlife care.
It’s the Australia Day holiday down under and Brendan and Mark are in a festive and feisty mood.
News
Mark jumps in the deep end to ponder on the meaning of Australia day – and what exactly should we be celebrating? Another load of news stories this week: Songbirds struggling with noise; banning of circus animals; and animal welfare campaigners protest a proposed dog breeding facility. in lighter news we jump on the treadmill with baby sea turtles and discuss a fishy story about tapeworm infections in humans.
Book Review
Brendan is good at sniffing out obscure titles and this week is no exception. Following on from the discussion in Episode 5, he reviews the educational, lighthearted, and fun book ‘Does it Fart?’. He scores it an aromatic 8.0 out of 10.
Bearded Dragon Care
The main topic is the iconic Australian reptile commonly kept as a pet world-wide, the Bearded Dragon (Pogona spp.). We outline the basics for keeping these as pets, and the common problems encountered when unwell bearded dragons are taken to veterinary clinics.
We are excited about our new professional recorded intro and outro. Lots of news this week: including how to cope with ‘vet shaming’; an automatic bird identification system program excites Mark; natures smallest rainbow found – on a spider; a lethal bat fungus sees the light, and Brendan dreams of heading off to Richard Branson’s private island.
For our product review Brendan looks at the free PDF e-book Australasian Parasites Inside and Out.
Ears are our topic for this week. We discuss the treatment of aural haematomas, and chat about various ear conditions in unusual pets, and ask the question ‘Why do most ferrets have grotty ears?’
Having (just) recovered from their Christmas festivities, including a face-to-face catch up in Melbourne, Mark and Brendan reminisce over the happenings in 2017. They look into their crystal ball for 2018 and consider the future of veterinary science. We receive a fascinating email from a subscriber in Singapore, who educates us on the otter population in Singapore. In other news we report of a fire at London Zoo, person is killed in the USA from a dog attack, and we discuss an article about Christmas and dogs. Mark is concerned about the low genetic diversity of ferrets in some geographical locations, and is looking younger due to his skiing.
Our main topic this episode is our thoughts on the year about to end and what to expect in 2018 – what is the outlooks for graduates? What are the likely popular species of pets?
We wish all our subscribers and listeners a wonderful New Year and a safe and happy 2018. We look forward to talking to you soon… and don’t forget to send us an email to say hi.
Ho Ho Ho. In this special edition Mark and Brendan spread some Christmas cheer. Each of us review items for use over the holiday period – some veterinary based and some not.
In news we talk about the world’s heaviest flying bird and a fossil named after Darth Vader.
Looking for some new equipment to spice up your practice? Then consider the great fold-away and portable Buster ICU enclosure, which will pay for itself in no time. Or keep your patients toasty with the aptly named HotDog pet warming system. The Rycom non-contact clinical thermometer is a useful temperature measurement gadget that Mark uses – 5.9/10.
Suprelorin (deslorelin) implants are reviewed by Mark, as well as bird foraging video.
Tired of vet life and need something to take your mind off work? Look no further than the intriguing documentary about Vivian Maier. It’s a great true mystery documentary about a street photographer and excellent viewing even for those with little interest in photography, as it is also about the human condition and is very poignant. 9.2 out of 10 From Brendan.
A novel to read over the Christmas break is Artemis. It is a science fiction novel set on the moon by the author of The Martian, which was made into a film starring Matt Damon. Artemis is the story of Jazz, a small time smuggler on the moon and her adventures. A fun, fast paced, easy to read novel perfect for the post Christmas period, recommended by Brendan. Or consider the book The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, a thought provoking read for the holiday period.
A non-fiction text to consider is the Avian Anatomy, Textbook and colour atlas. This second edition text is a high quality production
For some Christmas cheer consider a beer from the Grand Ridge Brewery, located in Mirboo North, east of Melbourne, Australia in the Gippsland region.
Kruuse Buster ICU enclosure: A PDF detailing the enclosure can be found here; It can be purchased in Australia from various suppliers including Sound Veterinary Supplies
Lots of news this week: Vets save lions from illegal zoo in Bulgaria. Australian vets no longer require licensing for examining dogs and cats for export. Mark walks on the wild side with his experience dealing with venomous animals, and we discuss pigeon brains. Brendan provides some insider tips to Melbourne culture and explains why the ‘magic’ is his new favourite beverage and how it can help you discern the good from the bad coffee establishments. The final news item is that the Magpie have been voted Australia’s favourite bird, though Brendan and Mark have other thoughts.
We launch out Patreon site where subscribers can help by ‘throwing us a bone’ and kicking in a donation to keep the VetGurus podcast going.
Mark shines a light on the WolfEyes Tactical torch in a product review.
The main topic this week is rat care. The basics of preventative health for pet rodents are discussed, including diet, desexing, environmental enrichment and geriatric care.
Links:
Melbourne’s Magic coffee is for coffee lovers. Find out more about the types of coffee you can get in Melbourne at this website or here
