Dr Belinda The Vet | Veterinary blog for pet owners, veterinarians and veterinary students

For daily stories get social with Dr Belinda

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How seriously cute is Jack here! He was meeting a new kitten that we were fostering.

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Small animal veterinarian & acupuncturist in Sydney who wants to improve pets' lives through educating owners & providing integrated vet care

DOG INFORMATION

Resource for dog owners providing recommendations, tips and tricks

CAT INFORMATION

For all of the feline advice you'll ever need.

VETERINARY ACUPUNCTURE

Full of everything you never knew that you wanted to know about veterinary acupuncture

CAREER INFORMATION

Being the General Manager of large veterinary hospital means that I've had a bit of experience employing new vets and nurses.

WELCOME

Welcome to Dr Belinda’s Veterinary Blog

Welcome! I hope you find this an informative, pet-focused, and at times light-hearted online community. On the blog, I’ll be sharing the ins and outs of small animal veterinary practice, offering personal recommendations, and celebrating the adorable pets that I meet and treat on a daily basis.

Recent publications

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My New Veterinary Service – Rouse Hill Family Vets
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GROWING THE HOUSE CALL PRACTICE Over time as my business started to grow, I wanted to continue to provide the best care for my patients and so I started to purchase new equipment. First up was a microscope so I could perform cytology as I refuse to be the vet who simply guesses what medication is required to treat an ear infection. Next up was my pulse oximeter & non-invasive blood pressure monitoring. Given that I see many elderly patients, it was important that I could monitor their blood pressure (particularly in cats). The best part of getting the new equipment was learning how to use it and getting to test it out on some of my regular patients just like Ruby. ❓ What would be your must have house call piece of equipment?

BUILD OURSELVES FROM THE GROUND UP Sometimes feel like you are a pile of dirt and a dusty plot of land. Full of opportunities but still so far from what you want to be. Setting big goals can be daunting. When you are starting your career or heading off down a new path you have to start building from the ground up. Taking the time to work out what is important to you is time well spent. Writing it down will also help you to keep focused and reach your goals. After a bunch of soul searching I understood what I wanted. I wanted to be a business owner, I wanted to surround myself with people who shared the same values and I wanted to test out my own grit and determination. I’m so deep down in the details and planning and organsing phase of the @rousehillfamilyvets clinic build. It is overwhelming, exhausting and seemingly never ending. I’m not doing it alone. I have a fabulous team of builders helping me out (and putting up with my endless questions and inability to answer things immediately), a supportive financial advisor who is one of my biggest cheerleaders and advocates for me all over the place, equipment suppliers who want to see me succeed and have been through practice building themselves, the @7ssociety team helping me build my branding strategy and navigate the madness and excitement that is practice ownership, a army of family and friends that are supporting me and helping when I’m dropping the ball all over the place, my AMAZING practice manager Emma who I would be so very lost without and I couldn’t imagine anyone better to be building our clinic together and of course my loving husband who not only puts up with my weird requests for bad acting but also does so much for our family and literally keeps us afloat. We don’t build great things alone. Tell me who is helping to build you up?

BEST CLIENTS EVER! My patients and my clients are simply the best. They make me laugh. They share stories with me. We celebrate each others wins and we care about each other. I am so grateful to have clients who embrace my quirks and that I can laugh with. I’m a firm believer that life is too short to not have fun. I look forward to catching up with so many of my clients - many whom I’ve known for years!!! Tell me your favourite client interaction stories below

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT WE BOUGHT A VET CLINIC!!! Check out the link in my story to our parody video. You won't be disappointed!!!!

TEAM BUILDING ‍‍⚕️‍ I have always dreamed of being a part of a people centric team where we share values, say what we mean and mean what we say, where we embrace change and face up to having difficult conversations and where we are each other's biggest cheerleaders. We are so fortunate to have Emma as an integral part of our team. Without Emma, @rousehillfamilyvets would not be able to achieve half of the things we have. She works tirelessly behind the scenes ensuring so much of our admin and marketing is completed. We are excited that we are moving in leaps and bounds towards opening our clinic and that we have started the process of interviewing staff for our new clinic. Part of our team building is to have an orientation week prior to the clinic opening and we will be doing a bunch of team building exercises. Tell me what your favourite team building exercise is below

MY NEW OFFICE Talk about living my best life. With my house call business came many gorgeous new office spaces. I get to spend afternoons in the garden treating patients with acupuncture. My clients open their homes to me and make me feel very welcome. I get to see my patients in their home environment where they are most relaxed. I love practicing mindfulness and often pinch myself after my house calls when I’ve been enjoying chatting with clients, cuddling with patients and enjoying visiting various parts of our beautiful city. I alway make sure that I take a moment to fully appreciate where I am and the space around me during my house calls. So my new office is wherever my patients need me. Sometimes that is enjoying the summer garden, under a flowering jacaranda tree, in a gorgeous lounge room or hanging out on acreage. In the past I never really enjoyed house calls. My wonderful clients have changed my mind. Tell me what your idea office would look like?

Calling all difficult women (and men who can work with difficult women) - are you willing to challenge the norms? Have difficult conversations? Be innovative to find ways to address the challenges we face? Do you like change? Are you looking to join a team that can have a laugh, but also develop your nursing skills? We may just be the team for you. Rouse Hill Family Vets is looking for a full-time nurse to become part of our family vibe team and help create our perfect practice. What can we offer you? Shorter hours finishing at 6:00pm most nights Guaranteed lunch break Learning opportunities and furthering your practical skills Being able to finish on time! That's right no emergency ex-lap! Team bonding events Opportunity to input in building our new practice and bringing new ideas to the table Respect of your time and knowledge What we require - Willing to work on Saturdays when necessary - Full time hours - Qualified Veterinary Nurse - Minimum 3 years experience - Great work ethic - Great Team player If you think we could work together and create awesome team work and be the best we can be for our clients and patients, please contact us at emma@rousehillfamilyvets.com.au Check out our clinic on Instagram www.instagram/rousehillfamilyvets, Facebook Rouse Hill Family Vets and our website www.rousehillfamilyvets.com.au NB Difficult women = women with opinions, women who are comfortable in their own skin and happy to share those opinions & help each other grow. We lean in to difficult conversations and embrace change.

THE GOOD THAT COMES FROM THE BAD As I have discussed previously, I take my role as a leader very seriously. I am not always a good leader and I certainly do make mistakes. I do however try my best to learn from those mistakes. My own experiences with burnout have allowed me to assess what is important to me and what can be done to prevent me burning out again in the future. I will avoid the feeling of prolonged helplessness and hopelessness. Creating my own business has given me the opportunity to no longer be restrained by other people's perceptions of what is and isn’t acceptable staff conditions. Being my own boss allows me to have more power to challenge the norms of vet business and finally put my own unique spin on things into action. I am not someone who is scared to put trust in others. This is the thing I’m most excited about. Helping my team to grow and develop. I love to watch people thrive. Putting steps in place to ensure people thrive and not flail is super important. Also, providing clear expectations from the start will allow team members to fulfil their roles. This is stuff is easy to say, but much harder to implement in reality. Emma and I have been working hard on creating policies and procedures as we go so that when we are ready to grow, we have the framework ready to go! Tell me about what is the most important attribute you look for in a veterinary job

TIME TO TIGHTEN OUR BUDGET We do not have a money tree providing us with an endless amount of money. In order to help build our business we have had to make some sacrifices. While we love traveling and exploring the world, it was time to holiday at home and enjoy what our backyard had to offer. We packed up our 30 year old tent and hit up some local caravan parks. Our holidays were fantastic, the kids had the best time and we were able to unwind. What I found was that these were the breaks that I didn’t know that I needed. ❤ Talking of tightening the budget, I am expecting that I won’t be able to pay myself a wage for up to 6 months - that is terrifying given our loans have increased, our repayments have skyrocketed and we will be relying on one wage. So, I’m currently going through our garage looking for things to put up for sale. So tell me, what is your best money saving tip?

THIS PURRFECT VIEW MAKES ME HAPPY It’s the little things that make me happy. This was taken before the deluge of rain that his Sydney recently so the grass was a bit browner and the land a lot drier. I’ve got some really exciting plans in my future and when I’m ready I’ll be able to share the news with you but for now, enjoy the view