The Vet Vault: Veterinary Career, Clinical Skills & Wellbeing

In theory, itchy skins should be simple to treat, right? There's a fairly limited list of things that can go wrong, and a fairly predictable list of levers we can pull to manage atopy. So WHY ARE SKIN CASES STILL SO FRUSTRATING?!In this episode, dermatologist Dr Dani Hoolahan helps us figure out why our atopy cases keep coming back, why clients aren't always following our carefully constructed treatment plans, and what we can do differently to get better results.Dani takes us beyond simply controlling the itch to building a proper multimodal management plan. We talk about the often-neglected skin barrier, why desensitisation still matters in the age of Apoquel and Cytopoint, and how to choose and combine treatments for those frustrating flare cases. We also get into the practical stuff: stopping those boomerang ear infections, making better use of therapeutic diets, and getting clients on board with a treatment plan that they can actually stick to.It's a practical rethink of how we approach one of the most common and frustrating problems in general practice, with plenty of tips you can put to use in your next skin consult.Topics Covered:Why dermatology is so hard, even when you know what you're doingThe commonly neglected parts of a multimodal atopy management planWhen to refer, and why desensitisation still mattersExplaining skin barrier dysfunction to clients, and practical ways to support itApoquel, Cytopoint or prednisolone? Choosing the right treatment for intermittent vs chronic casesManaging breakthrough itch, including combining antipruritics and topical therapiesWhat does successful itch control actually look like?Stopping those recurrent ear infections with a proper maintenance planThe role of therapeutic nutrition in skin barrier support, food trials and long-term managementPractical strategies for improving client compliance without turning every skin consult into an hour-long conversationThis episode is supported by Hill's Pet Nutrition, Australia's #1 trusted and recommended pet food brand among surveyed vets. Hill's Prescription Diet Derm Complete supports the skin barrier and microbiome as part of a multimodal approach to managing allergic skin disease. Visit myhillsvet.com.au for therapeutic nutrition information, educational resources and tools to support your recommendations.More from The Vet VaultWant more practical clinical conversations like this one? Head to The Vet Vault for access to our clinical podcasts, detailed show notes and resources to help you feel more confident in practice.And if you like your veterinary education with a side of adventure, check out Vets On Tour for our upcoming destination veterinary conferences.This episode is intended for veterinary professionals. The discussions, opinions and information presented on this podcast are for informational and educational purposes only. They are based on the professional experience and research of the hosts and guests. This podcast is not intended to provide veterinary medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment for individual pets. If you are a pet owner and you have any concerns regarding your pet's health, please always consult your licensed veterinarian. 

A frightened cat in a cage. A vet who has to decide if it lives or dies, because the shelter is full, and a new batch of cats will be arriving on Monday.  These are familiar situations for many vet teams - so much so that it can feel like just an unfortunate reality of veterinary work. But what if we’re thinking about it all wrong?  If you don't understand the underlying cause of the problem, you’ll choose the wrong solution.Professor Jacquie Rand is a veterinarian, emeritus professor at the University of Queensland, and founder and chief scientist of the Australian Pet Welfare Foundation. Her work asks how we can stop healthy, treatable animals being killed, while protecting the wellbeing of the people who care for them.In this conversation, we question some assumptions about cats, wildlife and responsible pet ownership. Jacquie explains why labels like “feral” matter, challenges the evidence behind widely repeated wildlife claims, and shares results from community desexing programs that offer a different, more hopeful approach to managing stray cats.We also tackle the uncomfortable question of who gets to have a pet, and who should pay when veterinary care is out of reach. From the emotional cost of killing healthy animals to the proposed VetiCare funding model, we consider how care could work for the community we actually have.I came away questioning some firmly held beliefs, and feeling more hopeful about problems I’d put in the too-hard basket. I think you will too. Jacquie’s work and resourcesAustralian Pet Welfare Foundation — research, advocacy and ways to support the work.Community Cat Programs — how the programs work, results and presentations.APWF research library — papers on animal management, welfare and access to care.APWF Vet Partner ProgramFurther readingRosewood Community Cat Program outcomes — Rand and colleagues, 2024: the study of targeted desexing and changes in shelter intake, euthanasia and council complaints.Bella and Charlie Are Not the Problem—It’s Us: The Real Causes of Wildlife Rescue in NSW — Dutton-Regester, Rand and Liang, 2026: the wildlife rescue research discussed in the episode.The impact of lethal cat management on human wellbeing — Scotney and colleagues, 2023: carers’ experiences following the Port of Newcastle cat cull.Learn, travel and stay connectedCombine veterinary learning with an adventure through Vets on Tour: Italy and the Dolomites, January 2027, or Africa, April 2027.For clinical pearls, useful resources and reflections on life in the profession, subscribe to Hubert’s Vet Vault 3–2–1 newsletter on Substack.

Why does a vet who's flat out every single day still hit a pay ceiling? Dr Andy Roark explains the hidden economics of veterinary practice, and an uncomfortable truth: the thing that makes us good vets might be the same thing holding our pay down.Andy is a practising vet, the founder of the Uncharted Veterinary Conference and podcast, host of The Cone of Shame podcast, and one of the best-known voices on the business side of vet medicine. He works with thousands of practice owners and managers, and he's still in the consult room too, trying to figure out how to find solutions for a client with $150 to her name - like you. In this conversation, he picks apart the sum every employed vet has done on the back of a lab result printout: why is there such a big mismatch between what I’m treating and the number on my pay slip?In this episode, he explains:■ The Mediocre Industry Problem: Why it's better to be mediocre in an exceptional industry than exceptional in a mediocre one, and where vet medicine sits on that scale.■ The Inherent Tension: Why veterinary profession is one of the only jobs where we beg customers not to leave, and how our drive to keep care affordable puts the ceiling on what we earn.■ Where Every Dollar Goes: The three buckets that eat 85 to 90 cents of every dollar a practice brings in, and the one number that puts everything in perspective. ■ The Invisible Stress of Ownership: Why practice owners often feel real shame when pay comes up, and how much of the finances they should share with their team.■ Resentment as a Metric: How to tell when resentment is warning you about something, and how to choose what to do about it.■ Corporate vs Independent: What a US survey found about who earns more and who finds more meaning in their work, and why comparing salaries is so often the thief of joy.■ The Retail Model Mistake: The one thing Andy would change if he could rebuild the profession from scratch.Mentioned in this episodeThe 10th Anniversary Uncharted Veterinary Conference Cone of Shame PodcastThe Uncharted Veterinary PodcastBlunt Dissection with Dr Dave NicolQuestions With Crocker with Dr Tanasia CrockerFictional podcast StoryCorpsCome skiing with us (while you learn)Vets On Tour is heading to the Dolomites. It's a week of CPD in Canazei, Italy, from 16 to 23 January 2027, with a Dolomiti Superski pass covering 1,200 km of runs. The learning is excellent, the snow is better, and the après is non-negotiable. Book your spot here.Topics and time stamps| 2:38 | Money & Business in Vet Medicine – Why vets are uncomfortable talking money | 3:55 | "Money is not distributed fairly" – Mediocre industry vs. exceptional industry | 5:06 | The Disney World analogy – Why vets can't just walk away from unpaying clients | 7:07 | The Inherent Tension – Caring for pets vs. maximising revenue | 9:31 | Why Employees Don't See the Full Picture – The young vet's $50/hr frustration| 14:04 | Compensation is more than money – Benefits, culture, flexibility & context | 18:53 | Corporatisation & high salaries leading to unhappiness | 22:35 | Resentment as a Metric – Choosing how you suffer | 23:49 | The Dollar Conversation: "Andy, explain my pay" | 27:29 | The Anchor Principle – Why clients think vet care is overpriced | 29:13 | The Three Buckets – Labor Cost of Goods Overhead | 33:54 | The Invisible Stress of Ownership – Catastrophising & shielding the team | 37:53 | The Medusa Problem – Building trust before tackling money conversations | 41:37 | Empathy for the business owner – Shame, fear & emotional baggage around money | 45:49 | Corporate vs. Independent – Trust, meaning & pay trade-offs | 49:07 | "Comparison is the thief of joy" – Don't chase dollars alone | 54:42 | The Pass-Along Question – Redesigning the vet profession from scratch 

Ask most vets what feedback means, and they'll think of a meeting. Once a year - maybe someone explaining that you're not billing enough.Dr Liv Oginska reckons that meeting is barely feedback at all.Because real feedback is happening all day: the look on your face when someone walks in, whether you say the thing you've been wrestling with for three weeks, or take it home and complain about it to your partner instead.There's a famous quote: 'The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.'In this episode, we fix that. Liv shows what to actually say when someone goes straight to defensive, why you should never label their emotion, and the work you need to do on yourself first. Plus her practical advice on receiving feedback well.Dr Olivia Oginska is a vet, emotional intelligence specialist, certified workplace conflict mediator, lecturer at Murdoch University and founder of Human-Savvy. She's also just published research examining the links between feedback skills, psychological safety and turnover intention in veterinary organisations. In other words: does the way we talk to each other influence whether people want to leave? (Spoiler: it matters!)Somewhere in your practice there's a conversation nobody is having. It's already changing how everyone behaves. This episode is about having it.Resources and linksLiv's work: Human-Savvy  A new cohort of the year-long Human-Savvy League leadership mastermind opens in October 2026.The Human-Savvy Symposium - a full day of this, in person, Brisbane, Friday 6 November 2026.Stuck on a case and want a specialist's eyes on it? Come and ask in our specialist support space.Close to 700 clinical episodes with full show notes: thevetvault.com (click "clinical content")Vets on Tour - Italy 2027 and the Serengeti with Prof Jill Maddison and Prof Dave Church: vetsontour.comTopics and time stampsWhy Liv Researched This Topic (4:40)  Personal Feedback Stories: Good and Bad (8:11)  Sponsor Break (12:24)  Feedback Is Constant, Not Just Formal (13:17)  Defining Psychological Safety (19:48)  Personality, Environment, and Fear of Conflict (23:32)  Two-Way Feedback: Leaders and Employees (26:12)  Behaviours That Destroy Psychological Safety (31:15)  Handling Defensiveness (33:29)  Practical Roleplay: Giving Difficult Feedback (37:17)  Feedback vs. Other Causes of Turnover (42:53)  A Vision for the Future of the Profession (47:14)  Closing Thoughts (49:52)

What if the thing making your working day harder isn’t the workload?What if it's the building?In this episode we're joined by Jerry Kennard from ⁠Evoke Projects⁠, someone who designs veterinary spaces for a living and has watched a lot of owners get this expensively wrong. Because a practice build always starts as a dream: the right location, the beautiful fit-out - the clinic you've always wanted. But plan it wrong, and that dream can quickly turn into a trap that stifles growth and demotivates teams . And most of it comes down to five mistakes that are a lot easier to avoid before you sign anything than after.In this episode, you'll learn:Why falling in love with your site might be the single most expensive mistake you can makeThe "too big or too small" problem, and how to future-proof for expansion without drowning in debtWhy designing for the pet and the client but forgetting your team is a false economyHow lean design and smart workflow let you do more in less space, without burning anyone outA great clinic isn't designed to look good on opening day. It's designed to perform every day. Join us to find out how. For more episodes like this with practical insights for practice owners join us on the Veterinary Business Accelerator podcast. Join Hugh and Jerry on a Vets on Tour adventure: https://vetsontour.com/