Customer Reviews

It Really Does Happen to a Vet

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This was an enjoyable, often humorous, journey with a contemporary first-year Veterinarian. The book was written by a Brit, for Brits, and published in London. This can lead to confusion if one is reading it on the other side of the Atlantic. I have resolved to procure one of the "British-American" translation dictionaries available here on Amazon.com- possibly "Divided by a Common Language" by Christopher Davies and Jason Murphy? Some examples of the confusion are: "locum" as in "I registered with a couple of locum agencies yesterday." And Auntie Em, I don't think we're talking about Dorothy's lovely blue and white gingham number when Joe wears "Jumpers."

It was also interesting that there was no disclaimer, as frequently appear at the front of "true" North American books like Ann Rule's, saying something to the effect of "the names of the innocent and non-major players have been changed to protect their privacy." Joe, our rookie vet and author, doesn't do this, and frequently has unkind things to say about certain farmers and pet owners. Some things, unfortunately, do not change. He says: "About one in seven vets get sued in their first year in practice." Ouch!

Are there no laws or regulations governing the release of waste over there? Our new vet and longer-term surfer says: " I tried out a little reef break off the headland called "sewer pipe" by the locals, for obvious reasons. The break is directly out from the main sewage outfall from Westward Ho! And you have to time your surfing very carefully to avoid the times when they pump out the sewage, otherwise it gets pretty nasty!"

All in all it's an interesting "year in the life" story. His disclosures of some of the bad veterinarial practices of others are scary and cautionary to chose one's vet wisely. And I shall never eat veal again!