Episode 14 of The Chatty Vets Podcast is one of those classic Two Week Takedown episodes where we start with “just a few quick topics” and somehow end up covering half of general practice. This week, we chat through vaping exposure in dogs, Giardia, the canine microbiome, raw feeding, dentistry, retained roots, deciduous canines, and the bigger welfare questions around brachycephalic breeds. A calm, focused, linear episode? Absolutely not. Useful? We hope so. We begin with a

Honest, practical advice for new grads and vets starting out in practice Starting in general practice is exciting — but it can also feel overwhelming. One minute you’re a student, the next you’re in a consult room on your own with a client expecting answers. If that feels scary… that’s completely normal. In this first episode of our Survival Guide to GP Practice , we’re talking about how to choose your first job, what to look out for, and how to survive those first few weeks.

Blog post for Ep 12: Two Week Takedown: Difficult Clients, Aggressive Patients, and Pyometra Debates Welcome back to another Two Week Takedown - where we take a step back from the consult room chaos and talk about what’s actually happening in UK general practice right now. This episode was a proper mix. The kind of conversations that don’t sit neatly in textbooks but come up every single day: Clients who don’t want your plan Patients you physically can’t treat easily The unco

It’s March. The daffs are out. The chocolate’s everywhere. The hot cross buns are “cooling on the side” (they’re not). Which means one thing in practice: toxin season is back. In this bonus episode, we wanted to pull together a practical, basic GP-friendly approach to common toxicities we see in practice. Not a pharmacology lecture. Just: How they present What to do first When to induce vomit When not to vomit When charcoal helps When intralipids are worth the risk And a CRI

Who Actually Follows the Vaccine Datasheet? (And What We Do Instead) What happens when the datasheet says one thing, the guidelines say another, and your waiting room is full? That was really the theme running through this episode of Chatty Vets. We set out to talk about vaccines, a new injection site, and Brucella — but what we actually uncovered was something bigger. Modern general practice is becoming less black-and-white. We are increasingly being asked to balance guideli

Vomiting in dogs and cats is one of the most common presentations we see in general practice. It can be straightforward and self-limiting, or it can be the first sign of something far more serious. One of the biggest challenges is that “vomiting” has numerous causes and sequelae that can be difficult to predict, so superb communication is paramount. In this post, we’re taking a practical look at how to approach acute vomiting in dogs and cats in general practice: from disting

Ultrasound—whether you’re scanning the thorax or the abdomen—is really about answering a series of simple, clinically useful yes/no questions. As your skills improve, the number of questions you can confidently answer grows. We’ll cover abdominal ultrasound in more detail in future guidelines. But for now… let’s focus on thoracic ultrasound. Is this dyspnoea primarily a respiratory problem or primarily a heart problem? Is there fluid? Do I need to tap something? Do I need d

We're planning the schedule for our BONUS EPISODES for this year, and we want to know what you're yearning for us to do a clinical deep dive about. This could be a specific disease process that you find confusing, new updates into treatment methods for a specific illness (eg/ FIP in cats), or a clinical presentation you'd like to discuss work up for. These podcasts are for YOU, so we want to know what you'd like us to talk about! Please drop a comment below, you can remain an

This can be anything from new drugs you've heard about, new surgical techniques, new consulting tactics, or any wierd and wonderful papers or literature you'd like us to discuss. These podcasts are for YOU, so we want to know what you'd like us to talk about! Please drop a comment below, you can remain anonymous (or direct message us via email or socials) if you'd prefer. Best wishes, Brendan and Charlotte

These patients—typically bulldogs or pugs—often arrive after exercise on a warm day or even during the relative cool of the night after a hot day. In these night-time presentations, hyperthermia is a consequence of upper airway obstruction, panic, and increased respiratory effort rather than environmental heat alone. I've had many patients, especially Frenchies, arrive with frequent coughing up of thick white foamy saliva. However, their primary problem is upper airway BO

* What it is: A plasma-based nucleosome assay used for cancer screening and monitoring in healthy, asymptomatic dogs only. * What it isn't: A cancer-specific diagnostic test or a substitute for pathology. * The Goal: It acts as a non-specific biomarker of pathological cell turnover. * The Origin : Developed with the highly regarded Texas A&M Gastrointestinal Laboratory, the same team that did so much to establish B12, TLI and PLI testing within general practice. 🔬 The Biol

Client communication tips: A lot of the win here is how you frame it: What owners think: “Neuro signs” → “stroke” → “brain tumour” → “put to sleep today”. What you can say early (when appropriate): “This can look terrifying, but it's usually a balance problem rather than a stroke, and a lot of these cases improve quickly.” “Let’s check for the red flags that would make us worry about brain involvement.” “If it’s the common ‘old dog vestibular’ pattern, we treat the nausea and