The 25th FECAVA EuroCongress

When opening the FECAVA EuroCongress in St.Petersburg, I was inwardly smiling to myself and was thinking: “Well, you should have seen me last week in my builder’s overall, cleaning the pipework of our old house in Oxford and hauling rubbish to the local tip…..” It just showed that the enjoyment of life is often created …

The veterinary profession at work in St.Petersburg

Calling in a favour from my friend Alexander Tchakov, I took the opportunity to visit a couple of veterinary clinics in St.Petersburg ahead of the FECAVA EuroCongress which opening the next day. Right after breakfast I was collected by Sasha, one of the clinics’ administrators and we were heading first for the impressive Kalininskaya Clinic …

The difference of four weeks or “Patient 58”…

This morning I am again sitting in a plane with a coffee in my hand crossing the North Sea heading for Russia via Stockholm. Behind me (and at times the whole family) are four weeks of a very different life with at times fourteen hour working days, filled with plastering, plumbing, rewiring, painting, flooring and …

The Oxford Cat Clinic

As the Oxfordian bricks and mortar patient is steadily improving (at least until I drilled holes in a couple of heating pipes underneath the floor boards….), I decided to remind myself of my “real” profession and to pay the local (exclusively) cat clinic a visit. This was something I had planned for many years, but …

Getting students to international congresses

A nice, yet short break from my slowly improving patient in Oxford yesterday: I took the soon unaffordable train from Farnborough to London (£43 for a return ticket!!…) and met with Independent Vet Care’s Director of HR Richard Parker to sign a sponsorship agreement between FECAVA and IVC to allow ten vet students from different …

A car that might change your life

Seen at the Folk Music Festival in Canmore I had to share this with you as well: A clever little (business) idea – let your car earn the necessary funds for your drinks while you are enjoying some great sound (just don’t drive afterwards…) Well, all you need is a pretty unusual car – enjoy …

Num-Ti-Jah Lodge and the Bow Glacier Falls Trail

On our way back South from Jasper to Canmore along the Icefield Parkway we had booked one night at the iconic Num-Ti-Jah (meaning “Pinemarten” in the language of the Stone tribe which used to live here) Lodge on the shores of the Bow Lake. This self built and by now pretty dated wooden structure was …