The Vet Cookbook is BACK!

Does assembling a salad in a jar count as cooking? Absolutely!

You might have heard about the Vet Cookbook?

If not, it was essentially a compilation of recipes and stories to promote wellbeing among veterinary team members. People from every area of the veterinary sector – from veterinary nurses, technicians, practice managers, animal attendants, academics, specialists and GPs and even those who had left practice – sharedrecipes.  

Like our patients, veterinary team members need fuel. It’s even better if that fuel is pleasurable to eat! Sharing food is a wonderful way to come together, support and nourish each other.

It is hard to believe but the Vet Cookbook was published by the Centre for Veterinary Education back in 2017.

We had some fabulous submissions. It was a tough job pulling it together (I was part of a team of dedicated co-editors, including Deepa Gopinath, Lis Churchward, Asti May and Jenna Moss Davis) but we did it.

Chocolate hazelnut "Dogs-in-the-mud cake".

The not-for-profit cookbook sold two print runs and is now a collector’s edition. With the funds raised, we held several events including a wellbeing day (talks can be viewed on the CVE’s Mental Wellbeing Hub) and two sold-out writing courses taught by outstanding Australian authors Tracy Sorensen (The Lucky Galah, The Vitals) and Brendan James Murray (The Drowned Man, Venom, The School). This year, the Vet Cookbook is back. 

That’s right, we’re working on the Vet Cookbook II. The theme is “celebrating the wins” – we want to hear from all veterinary team members, near and far, about what you enjoy about working in the sector. Our editorial team includes Lis Chuchward, Kimberley Blackett, and Sharmila Kumaran (you might recall her as the author of the decadent strawberry cheesecake in VCB I!) 

And we’d love to hear your favourite recipe!

For those who are creatively inclined, we’re also keen for submissions of images of artwork (e.g. could be a painting or drawing, poem, creative writing, sculpture or composition).

We’ve already had some brilliant and creative submissions, ranging from simple recipes to the more complex, to wood block prints, drawings, paintings and photos, and we’ve got room for a few more. You can upload your submission here:

https://form.jotform.com/241008103636849

Please don’t be shy! We’d love you to be part of this – or give a gentle, encouraging nudge to that person in your workplace who loves making food. Please follow the VCB FB page for updates: https://www.facebook.com/vetcookbook/ 

Writing non-fiction: a workshop for veterinary team members

The Vet Cookbook, spotted on a bookshelf in the UK!

If you’re experiencing low morale, you’re not alone. This blog is coming to you from Sydney, Australia, officially in week 8 (or 9, I am losing count) of hard (and getting incrementally harder) lock-down, but essentially week 12 because of a voluntarily lock-down preceding the official one (somehow it just didn't feel right interacting closely with people socially while COVID was re-emerging in Sydney).

The hard lock-downs necessitated by the circulation of the COVID-19 Delta strain seem to be taking their toll on everyone I know, in profound and sometimes heartbreaking ways.

One of my personal coping mechanisms is reading, usually whilst acting as a human hot water bottle for a certain cat in my life. There’s nothing like a gripping story – whether fiction or fact-based – to take your mind to another place. And reading is COVID safe!

Which brings me to the big news: the Vet Cookbook Committee has secured a brilliant author/teacher to run our second ever writing workshop for veterinary team members.

The first online workshop was taught by award-winning author Tracy Sorensen, who, among other things, is currently writing a cancer biography from the perspective of her abdominal organs. If you missed the workshop on creative writing but want to learn more, I recommend Tracy’s novel The LuckyGalah. A beautiful, richly evocative novel, both uplifting and surprising. I am waiting desperately for it to be made into a movie or series.

Our second online workshop, this time on narrative non-fiction, will be taught by author and school teacher Brendan James Murray. Brendan has twice received National Literary Awards from the Fellowship of Australian Writers for his short stories, and his first book, The Drowned Man, was joint winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best True Crime in 2017. His second book, the critically acclaimed Venom, was featured on the ABC's Conversations program as part of the 'Best of 2018' series (it is, along with the Lucky Galah, on my personal list of best Australian books of all time). His third book, The School was released by Picador Australia in 2021 and proved a gripping read.

This workshop is on narrative non-fiction.

Brendan James Murray, author of The Drowned Man, Venom and The School.

So, if you feel like you have a story – or a book – inside you, consider enrolling. And if you don't feel much like a writer but you enjoy a good read, the books by both of these authors are outstanding.

As I am sure I have mentioned, when we compiled the Vet Cookbook, it became clear that many members of our profession are terrified of being negatively judged (even about a recipe). This workshop is a safe space where veterinary team members are free to express themselves. 

There are 23 places left in the two-part workshop, to be held from September. The not-for-profit workshop is subsidised by funds raised by the Vet Cookbook to promote the well-being of veterinary team members.

For more information and to enroll, check this page. Enrollment is open to all veterinary team members, regardless of their writing ability.

The Recent Graduate Survival Seminar and an update on the Vet Cook Book

First day at work feels?

It’s that time of year again – final-year students from most Australian veterinary schools are about to graduate into fully-fledged vets.

The first year out isn’t easy. Despite the hours (and there were many) of practical, clinic-based learning it’s still not the same as being confronted with animals we are ultimately responsible for. Competence and confidence take time to develop (and so they should) – but it’s easy to be impatient.

As a mentor of new graduates, and receiver of the occasional distraught phone call, I recommend seeking support, attending continuing professional development events (if not for the knowledge, for the networking), and having something non-veterinary in your life that can recharge you.

Every year the Centre for Veterinary Education (CVE) runs the Recent Graduate Survival Seminar, a one-and-a-half day review of the skills you will need when starting or returning to practice.

The theme is clinical reasoning, which is common across all areas of practice.

Among the speakers this year are colleagues James Carroll and Anthony Bennett, who were in my year at uni and are now successful mixed practitioners in Southern NSW and stars of the TV show Village Vets. There’s also Professor Geraldine Hunt, who taught us surgery, invented a novel approach for porto-systemic shunts, could close wounds that no one could believe would heal (they did), and is about as flappable as Ripley from Alien (although internally she did have anxieties like other vets, documented in the excellent book Pitfallsin Veterinary Surgery).

Also on the program are some amazing speakers including medical doctors, cattle vets, mixed practitioners, pathologists, regulators and specialists.

I will be giving a talk called “why is it so hard to be a good vet”, about some of the ethical challenges that practice throws our way.

If you want to check out the program or enroll, visit here. It has been designed to be as affordable as possible.

If you’re interested in reading more about clinical reasoning, there are three fantastic articles on clinical reasoning in fine medicine available via the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The other big news is that the CVE threw their support behind the Vet Cook Book and it’s in the process of being printed. The Vet Cook Book, for those of you who recall, is an attempt to promote collegiality by collating recipes and stories from veterinarians, nurses, groomers, kennel-hands, doctors, receptionists, counsellers…anyone involved in our profession.

Behind the scenes there have been some very intense weeks between the editors, the team at the CVE and the printers. Things one takes for granted – turning 100+ word documents into a single volume, working out how to price a book you don’t know how many copies you will sell, working out the weight of pages in advance – has been challenging.

The book is now for sale via the CVE website, and there is a discounted price for students and nurses. You can order here - you do need to create a login, but it doesn't take long.

It contains recipes, stories and mental health tips.

Late last week we received the news that a number of organisations have come on board as sponsors. This means that if we sell all of our copies we should have some funds so that the CVE can develop and provide a mental health resource (the details to be worked out – we’re going to consult a number of groups including contributors once we have the figures).

As we state in the book, we’re under no illusion that a pavlova will end mental health issues or even the shocking suicide rate in our profession. But we do believe that making and sharing meals with colleagues is one way to start meaningful conversations.

DECLARATION: I work with the CVE on a volunteer basis from time to time.

Self care just became a professional obligation for doctors - and its about to be for vets

This goanna was soaking up the heat on the road to a bush trip I did with AMRRIC last week.

Self-care just became a professional obligation for doctors, and it’s about to become so for veterinarians.

This month, on October 15, the World Medical Association ratified some key changes to the Geneva Declaration – a kind of modern-day Hippocratic Oath.

A petition, started by New Zealand doctor and signed by over 4700 doctors in Australia and New Zealand, called for the addition of apledge about self-care.

The ratified change reads thus:

I WILL ATTEND TO my own health, well-being, and abilities in order to provide care of the highest standard;

(You can read the full declaration here…its fascinating).

This change is a big deal. Although we know that doctors and other health professionals – including vets and vet nurses – suffer from health issues, there remained an absurd notion that a health professional put their patients interests, always, above all of their own. This just doesn’t work. To do their job properly, health professionals need to eat, sleep, and attend to their physical and mental health.

The Australian Veterinary Association is currentlyreviewing its professional code of conduct, and care for self and others is part of that too.

Self-care, and care for one’s immediate colleagues, has been formally recognised as an ethical and professional obligation.

Speaking of self-care and caring for colleagues, the VetCook Book is entering the final stages of preparation. The fantastic team at the Centre for Veterinary Education are finalising the design and layout, and this resource – designed to promote collegiality with cakes, curries and carbs on the side – will soon be available to purchase.

I don’t want to jinx it by sharing the tentative publication date. Pulling together a project this takes an army of people, there are so many details to finalise and little challenges to sort through, and things can change. But a date has been floated! Believe me, it hurts not to share!

The CVE have been amazing in supporting the vision, coping with our creative quirks and managing a pretty unwieldy bunch of word and image files. They’ve donated their time and their skills, and they’re really keen to support the well-being of our profession.

This is not a money-making exercise, but any proceeds raised will be donated to mental health resources available to all veterinarians.

Please jump on facebook and like the Vet Cook Book page, and watch this space!

The Vet Cook Book is one step closer!

If you really, really love food, you'll love this book. But even if you can't and don't want to cook, we promise it will be a good read.

One of the projects we’ve been involved with over the last twelve months is the Vet Cook Book. This week we can announce that we have partnered with a publisher, the Centre for Veterinary Education (CVE).

It’s huge news as this project is a biggy, and these things don’t get done without serious work. Over 100 contributors from around the world have submitted recipes, stories, photos and mental health tips to the Vet Cook Book.

We've included Dr Magdoline Awad's mum's falafel recipe...

Nothing like this has been attempted before.

Deepa Gopinath, Asti May, Jenna Moss Davis and myself have been working hard testing recipes, editing recipes (you’d be surprised how easy it is to confuse teaspoon with tablespoon, and how that can make a good recipe go South, especially when baking which I learned involves precise measuring), tasting, jostling would-be contributors, chasing up recipe I-O-Us, and sourcing the odd exotic ingredient. There have been excursions to supermarkets, the acquisition of appliances, the use of the aforementioned, and many dishes done.

But we can only do so much. So it is AMAZING to get (more than) a little help from our friends. The CVE are big supporters of the veterinary profession, through a variety of high quality continuing education events, distance education programs as well as publications such as Control and Therapy. They are just as concerned about the mental health issues impacting the veterinary profession, and are keen to promote collegiality.

Dr Mike Woodham, founder of the veterinary orchestra, has contributed a recipe and a discussion about music and its connection to mental health.

What’s left to do?

• Final editing.
• Design & Layout.
• Printing.
• Distribution.

A number of students contributed, including Sharmila the DVM student who submitted two mind-blowingly delicious recipes.

You guys run to your mailbox or pick up a book from a pre-arranged site, hold it in your hands, read it and think “wow”.

You cook something.

You invite someone over to share it.

You talk. You laugh. You cry. You plan another get together and look forward to it.

You make something and take it to work to share with colleagues. They smile.

You leave a copy in the staff room and someone, somewhere, reads a mental health tip that resonates with them and adopts it into their life. Or they might skip everything, head straight to the resource page, and contact one of a large number of organisations offering assistance.

Its a not-for-profit project that we hope makes a real difference.

The plan is for a release towards the end of the year, in time for Christmas. We’re currently compiling a list of those interested in purchasing a copy or more, so if you are interested please email us with your name, contact details and the number of copies you think you might want. In the meantime, we have a little more work to do. Thank you for the support!

Mental health resources for vet employers and students, and national galleries host dog day out

The ploughperson's lunch: my variation on the ploughman's lunch. The bull terrier teapot is more for show - her lip is a bit wonky so when you pour from her she dribbles everywhere. 

As regular readers will know, one of the projects we took on last year is The Vet Cook Book, an initiative to promote collegiality in the veterinary profession.

For some it’s a bit of an odd thing for smallanimaltalk to blog about. And those who have seen me in the kitchen (not my natural environment) raise their eyebrows when they hear I am co-editing a cook book. The background is that those working in the veterinary profession have a higher rate of suicide than the general population. That’s part of it. The bigger part is that plenty of vets, nurses, kennelhands, practice managers and others suffer from stress and burnout. And that impacts them, those around them, and their patients. Not that we have a monopoly on stress. It seems the modern world is geared towards everyone feeling overwhelmed, overloaded, over-contactable yet isolated, and suffering FOMO because everyone else on social media seems to have their lives in order.

The Vet Cook Book really is a One Health/One Welfare project: we need to be well in order to look after animals to their best abilities.

As one of the editorial team I was interviewed about the project last week by Dr Jo Righetti and David Prior on 2UE (you can listen to the segment here). 

During this period we’ve uncovered some really useful resources including Heads Up, an online resource to assist in developing a mentally healthy workplace. This is a fantastic resource for veterinary practice owners and managers (as well as business owners in general). You can check it out here. 

The Australian Medical Students Association, in conjunction with its New Zealand counterpart, also produces a guidebook for medical students which covers everything from mental health care, life tips, eating well on a budget, finding the right GP for you, surviving rural rotations and  managing your finances. It is a very helpful guide and can be downloaded for free. 

The recipe for my variation of the Ploughperson's lunch pictured above is:

1 bag potato chips (corrugated are better)

1 tablespoon of cashew cheese with dill (made by Peace,Love and Vegetables but I am told those possessing a food processor can work similar miracles).

1 block of cheese (I used soy cheese)

1 carrot or parts thereof

Small tomatoes of some kind or other

Pickles (I used Grandpa Jack’s Artisan Pickles: Strong pickled onions with garlic and habaneros)

Fresh bread (note I've revived some frozen bread with my toaster in this version)

1 cup of tea

The great thing about this recipe is you don’t need to cook anything…just assemble it. Quantities can be varied according to taste and hunger.

And for those wondering what on earth this has to do with ploughmen, check out Wiki on this meal here. 

PAWS FOR ART

Over the break we visited the National Portrait Gallery to check out the Popular Pet Show (you can read our interview with curator Dr Sarah Engledow here).

This weekend, on Saturday January 21, the National Portrait Gallery will join the National Gallery of Australia to host an outdoor event for dogs. If you live in Canberra, or your dog loves a road trip, this may be the place to be.

Dogs won’t be allowed in the galleries as such, but there will be plenty of dog-friendly spaces and activities outside. For more info, click here. 

Vets and cooking: what I've learned so far.

Leftover dough from my biscuit recipe has been used in this incidence to convey the nature of my post-festive case load (i.e. I saw a lot of dogs with diarrhoea after they indulged in ham, lamb and sausages). Cathartic and delicious! (Photo - Dr Deepa Gopinath).

Around the middle of 2016 I was part of a team that hatched a plan for a project to promote collegiality in the veterinary profession. Like many projects, this started with a small, humble goal (to produce an e-book with 5-10 recipes) which developed into a major objective (to compile 100 or so recipes from vets and nurses into a print book in an effort to fundraise for veterinary mental health charities).

Exotic salsa (photo by Steve Gibson).

We’re halfway there. We’ve been inundated with inquiries, and clocked 85 recipes from vets, nurses, receptionists, pathologists, dog groomers, parasitologists, laboratory technicians, specialist surgeons and kennelhands. (We’re accepting entries til January 31). We've had some exceptional mental-health experts provide self-care tips. Shortly we will enter phase two, which involves editing, formatting, and potentially crowdfunding to print this amazing tome.

Ivan makes his signature salad (Photo: Ivan Gavazov).

One of the highlights of this week has having co-editor, veterinarian and foodie Deepa Gopinath over to mine to test some of the recipes. This is science at its most delicious, without the pressure.

One of the aims of the project is exactly this – to encourage people to get together and make, test and (hopefully) enjoy food and each other’s company. To our delight it has been happening. We’ve received photos from cooking sessions from around Australia and overseas. People have been making plans to hang out, cook together and eat and chat! Face to face as opposed to online. Perhaps inevitably, the Labrador is the breed that features most heavily in the background of these photos.

The occasional feline has assisted in food preparation. (Photo - Jenna Moss Davis).

We measure everything by its outcome these days, but this project has most definitely been about the journey. Here are a couple of things I’ve learned along the way.

1. Vets love chocolate. As if we needed any more evidence to prove. At least 10 per cent of our recipes involve chocolate in some form or other. If this collection does not satisfy your appetite for chocolate cake, biscuits, brownies or pudding, I don’t know what will. There are gluten-free, nut-free and vegan varieties so no one has to miss out. We didn’t plan a chocolate chapter when we set this up, but it looks like we need one. The people have spoken.
2. Cooking is a great way to spend time! Not only is it relaxing (except when attempts to substitute a Nutribullet for a food processor throw a spanner in the works – see below), its potentially social AND you can enjoy (and share) the fruits of your labour. If you’re clever you can dine off them all week. There’s nothing like rocking up to work with a delicious home-made lunch and knowing you won’t have to try to scrounge something from the staff room or survive off junk food.
3. The majority of vets and nurses (n=200+ that we’ve asked) will tell you that they cannot cook. They can repair complex fractures, resuscitate a moribund animal, treat and rare and exotic species, diagnose hyperadrenocorticism or a pheochromocytoma, manage diverse teams, place an IV catheter in tiny kitten, approach a horse with a potentially fatal zoonotic disease or lance a basketball-sized abscess on a cow, but ask them to assemble something other than toast or cereal and they will tell you it can’t be done. Is it perfectionism creeping into the kitchen? Fear of failure? An aversive food experience haunting them? Reliance on home-delivery? I don’t know but I feel like “home economics” should be a subject in veterinary school. I don’t have the stats to prove it, but there’s a good chance that our non-human animal companions are more likely to be enjoying a complete, balanced nutritious diet than ourselves.
4. A Nutribullet should not be used instead of a food processor. They both kind of pulverise things, which you’d think would yield the same result, but for whatever reason this not so. I’ve tested this several times now – with potatoes, cashews and the like – and each time it has ended in total disaster. You wouldn’t perform dentistry or surgery without the right tools, and apparently the same applies in the kitchen. Sometimes. Occasionally you can get away with it but it seems to be only the food-literate like my co-editors who know when to substitute a teaspoon for a piping bag and still get a good result.

If you’re still keen to be part of the Vet Cook Book, there are a couple of ways you can assist:

• Contribute an original recipe. Just email vetcookbook[at]gmail.com for our instructions.
• Provide a story, cartoon, photo, illustration, poem or something else we can print relating to the best advice you’ve ever had, overcoming a challenging time or helping a colleague.
• Tell us (and show us) how you chill out and wind down. We’re putting together a page on this and would love photos and ideas.
• Volunteer to test a recipe and photograph it for us. A small number of contributors have sent us the recipe but no photos, but we feel the photos are helpful for people to have a photo of the recipe as some of us (e.g. Anne) can’t tell what it might look like by reading the text alone when others can read a recipe like Mozart reads music (e.g. Deepa and Asti). We’ve also discovered some potential recipe pitfalls and modifications in the testing phase (e.g. my chocolate biscuits have been infinitely improved thank’s to Deepa’s suggestion to switch Nuttelex for coconut oil).

We're interviewed by Dr Jim Euclid; Victoria Braithwaite talks about pain in fish and a pet portrait exhibition

No, it isn't a Christmas present. Its how wildlife seem to arrive at the vet clinic.

Over the weekend we were interviewed by the wonderful Dr Jim Euclid for his VetX blog. You will need to register (for free) on the VetX website to view this and his other interviews. I’ve been a fan, so it was an honour to be the subject of one of these interviews. We covered everything from existential crises to tips for new graduates to politics of the workplace variety. Listen here.

Do fish feel pain? Last month Professor Victoria Braithwaite shared the history of her research on fish pain via the Human Animal Research Network. You can view the full lecture here.

Finally, if you’re into companion animals the National Portrait Gallery are hosting the Popular Pet Show until March 2017. Check it out here.

This week the number of contributions to The Vet Cook Book has climbed steadily. If you're keen to contribute drop us a line at vetbookbook[at]gmail.com, or follow the Vet Cook Book facebook page.

Pathology-themed mocktails from The Vet Cook Book

Wait - these aren't what you think! They're healthy mocktails!

Earlier this year SAT teamed up with Dr Deepa Gopinath and Asti May to compile The Vet Cook Book. The idea is to promote collegiality in a profession in which many feel isolated. We set up a facebook page and since then entries have been dribbling in.

If you’ve not heard here is how it works: any vet, nurse, technician or person associated with the profession can submit a recipe or recipes.

BUT you also need to make it and send us a photo or two – of the ingredients, the recipe, people enjoying the recipe, something related to the recipe or just your budgie if you need to.

We’re also after a bit of a story. It can be short, long or in between but something our readers can learn about how a colleague helped you through a tough time, or good advice you’ve been given, or the ways you deal with the challenges of working in this profession.

We’ve had a lot of entries but keen to have a few more, especially in the lunches, main meals and vet-themed snacks departments. If you need more info, please email us at vetcookbook[at]gmail.com

Pathology-themed healthy mocktails

The making of...

These beverages are not for everyone. I tend to cope better with reality when I know the gory details and with a dose of gallows humour. When I acquired a Nutribullet juicer I realised that many of the juices I made resembled fluids I was sending to the lab. It didn’t take a lot of tweaking to invent these mocktails, which have the dual benefit of appearing disgusting AND being healthy. Certain friends love these, certain friends run a mile from them. They’re definitely a talking point.

Mocktail name à Ingredients	Biliary peritonitis	Chylothorax	UTI with uroliths	Haematuria
1 Banana	X	X
1 tablespoon cashews	X	X
2 teaspoons agave nectar	X	X
1 cup loose-leaf spinach	X
1 cup water	X		X	X
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
1 cup almond milk		X
2 teaspoons white chia seeds			X	X
1 apple (peeled)			X	X
1 pear			X	X
1 handful raspberries				X

The ingredients for the chylothorax cocktail.

The end product.

Instructions:

• 1.   Put the ingredients in a juicer and flick the switch.
• 2.   Serve chilled.

Serving suggestion: for the full effect, serve in sterile urine jars. But if you do this be absolutely certain to ensure these are not left in the work place or they may be confused with actual samples.

To follow The Vet Cook Book, check out our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/vetcookbook/