We’re serving up a double dollop of featured vets this month, as we talk to the co-founders and owners of Manly Road Veterinary Hospital, Christine Kidd and Pauline Gaven.
Tell Us A Little Bit About How You Became Vets
We’re the same as everyone else really. We just loved animals and science. We both studied at the University of Queensland, although at different times. We’ve been running Manly Road Vet Hospital for decades now, in this building since the mid-1980s.
So How Did You Meet?
I was already working as a vet when Pauline’s mother’s dog fell off a balcony and broke his leg. I got a call at 2am and took the X-rays. Pauline was working in Canberra at the time as a human radiographer, but she’d come up to visit her mother, so that’s how we met. She was kind enough not to critique my X-ray technique! Instead, we got talking and I found out she was planning to come back to Brisbane and study veterinary science in the next 6 months. It was a bit of a meeting of minds. We had the same interests and the same work ethic, so once she graduated, we set up in practice together and Manly Road Vet Hospital was born.
Tell Us About The Practice
It’s a 24-hour vet hospital with around 130 staff in total, including 20 vets as well as us. Not everyone is full-time, but it is pretty full-on! We treat mostly dogs, cats and horses, but of course there are more exotic animals as well. We get the odd pig, cow, llama and alpaca too.
Our practice is purpose-built. We were working out of a small shop before that and we knew we’d outgrow it. We were pretty hands-on in the design and build process – our architect originally had some narrow corridors which horses wouldn’t have liked, so we had to be. We wanted a building which was practical and which wouldn’t date. We’ve done pretty well, but now we’re outgrowing this building too.
We both see all kinds of animals, but my area of focus is reproduction in dogs. Pauline works predominantly in ophthalmology. She lectured at the University of Queensland and she also works with the zoos in and around South East Queensland. There’s nothing like having to climb a ladder so you can treat the eyes of a giraffe!
In the future, we want to go on doing more of what we’re doing now, running a practice which marries high quality work with kindness to our patients and our clients. We’ve already expanded into another building.
How Long Have You Known The Radincon Team?
We’ve known them for too long to remember! We use Radincon DR X-ray systems for both small animals and equine / large animals as well as their ultrasound when we’re out in the field. We had equipment from somewhere else originally, but we chose Radincon for the quality of the equipment and because of their reputation. The after sales service is amazing. We call on Sundays or after hours and we always get help. I remember one weekend Alex was on his way out to attend a wedding, but he stopped and took the time to help us out.
We use RocketPACS to store all our images too. We’re a busy practice and the old eFilm reader was getting clogged up with too many images, so we switched over about 18 months ago. It’s been easy and now we’ll never run out of space.
And What About Life Outside The Practice?
What life outside the practice? 90% of our spare time we spend being vets, talking to staff, or talking to each other about the practice. It’s our life and our passion, so we’re not complaining.
Of course, there are all the animals of our own we’ve had over the years. Dogs, cats, birds, chickens, horses, geese. A cow once.
Finally, What Advice Would You Give Vets Just Starting Out Now?
That’s tough…
There are two main things, I think.
First, don’t limit yourself by specialising too soon.
Choose a good practice to start with – one which has a wide variety of patients and cases. That will give you the chance to learn what you enjoy, then you can decide what you want to specialise in – or whether you want to specialise at all. You might prefer to keep treating a variety of patients all through your career.
Second, if you decide you want to run your own practice, be aware that it’s fantastic but intense.
Vets are not trained to run a business, so you’ll have to learn all that as well. If you’re thinking about it, do a couple of business courses and talk to business owners. Talk to the vets who run your practice too, and observe what they do. And never underestimate the energy it takes to support your staff so they get what they want and need.
You need to run a business which makes money so you can continue, but it’s not all about the money. We’ve always put our patients and our team first. That’s the secret to our success.