“Why not work in Sweden ? You don’t even need to speak the language, as most of our clients and all of our staff are speaking English !”
I noticed this advert in the Vet Record last summer just after my return from Canada and it appealed to me right away: not only had I worked in Scandinavia previously (before coming to England), I also speak Norwegian (which is not so far away from Swedish) and I have always had a longing for the Nordic Countries. Going to Sweden would not only give me an insight in veterinary medicine in another country, it would also pay the bills and it would give me a chance for endless cross country skiing (on snow !) while I was not working ……
Consider this, it didn’t take me long to put a CV together (something I hadn’t done for over two decades !!) and to get in touch with Hugo, the author of the advert. I explained my personal and professional background and closed my e-mail with : ” …. send me as far North as you like, as long as there is snow!”
A lively e-mail transfer followed and once we had identified January as the earliest time I could go, Hugo had found me a place in Falun, 150 km North-West of Stockholm. Falun is not only a very famous mining town, it is also the “Heart of Nordic Skiing” in Sweden, being the location of both the national Nordic Skiing stadium and the Nordic Skiing museum.
For many years Falun has been the host of World Cup skiing events and the world’s largest cross country skiing race is held annually, just around the corner, between Saelen and Mora. I couldn’t have asked for a better choice !
The clinic I was supposed to work at, was a completely different set up from my own place in Virginia Water – rather than just a couple of vets and a handful of (brilliant) support staff, this clinic is the working place of over 100 professionals, serving the whole region between Stockholm and the Norwegian border in the West. So rather than seeing a case through from the first consultation until discharge, I would have to work in a team, doing only a part of the treatment and as a locum I would be a very junior member of this team, without a track record, solely depending on my skills.
Exciting !……
Once my vehicle was road worthy again, I took the motorway North and after a brief stop at some old friends near Gothemburg, I arrived at the virtually deserted Vandrehem in Falun, just in time for the New Year fireworks, which I enjoyed with a nice bottle of red and the unexpected company of a somewhat aged punk rock musician who was the only other resident.
I assume it was just a matter of time that this had to happen…..
Chasing my trusted Bavarian carriage through the length and breadth of Central Europe, there was finally an error message I just couldn’t ignore:
the left rear tire was losing pressure and a visit at a garage in Wilhelmshaven on the German North Sea coast, where I had caught up with the family, was unavoidable. This was a day before Christmas and what I had expected to be a simple puncture, turned out to be a crack in the alloy wheel, which not only necessitated a complete set of new alloys, it also meant that I would be unable to continue my journey until well into the New Year, as all the suppliers were closed over the Christmas holidays.
Modern cars are getting so complicated and it is virtually impossible to fix anything yourself these days….
Resigning myself to my fate and to dampen my frustration I took by roller skies (in the now normal absence of any snow in this part of the world) and paid Dangast, an artist colony on the other side of the bay a visit, making full use of the well tarmaced maintenance track behind the sea wall that is protecting the coast line.
It turned out to be a beautiful trip (just slightly slower than on snow) and I was rewarded upon my arrival with a slice of the signature rhubarb cake at the beach side cafe.
Another thing Dangast is renowned for is their very own interpretation on how the land is connected with the sea…..
When I returned from my trip, it turned out that my problem was resolved as well – my ever resourceful brother-in-law happened to know a car dealer who had 1 (!) set of wheels with winter tires in storage and it turned out that this set was a perfect match! The chances for this to happen were in the region of a big lottery win !
With the trusted mechanic working a whole morning matching tires, wheels, valves, sensors and wheel nuts to the rest of my car, I was ready to continue before the end of the year to the next destination of my travels:
Christmas had come early for me this year when I decided to treat myself to a cross country skiing altitude training camp with Peter Schlickenrieder, an Olympic champion and the current coach of the German national team.
Most of my friends know that this is probably my favourite form of exercise and that the lack of snow and of opportunities to practice it, has been a huge draw back in England. When, at the beginning of the year, I stumbled across an article about this training camp I had to take the opportunity to sign up.
For those of you who are not so familiar with this sport, I would compare it (as a Liverpool fan) with booking a camp with Juergen Klopp or as a tennis fan with being instructed by Boris Becker or by Roger Federer (ok, he is still playing…..).
People like Peter and the above mentioned athletes will not make you a champion, but they can pass on some of their knowledge and their skills to make you better, and this in two ways: not only will your technique improve (hopefully…..), but sharing a training session and meals and one or the other drink together, gives you an amazing insight in the personalities and the unreported side of world class achievers.
This does not only apply to sports though, it also applies to leading figures of other professions, to top chefs, to musical and decorative artists or even to members of my own profession. The striking thing with most of these people is (in my experience) that the better they are, to more accommodating and approachable they are. Real “Divas” are rare (may be with the exception of Maria Callas….) and much can be gained by sharing some time with “the Best”.
Peter and his team of top athlets and trainers arrived a few days after me on the Lavaze Pass and the first person I bumped into was his amazing wife Andrea who turned out to be the heart and the ever present organiser of the training camp.
Also part of the team was Stephanie Boehler, a double olympic medal winner and with 38 according to Peter now “in retirement”…… Last year Stephanie had participated in her twelfth “Tour de Ski” and I found the description as ill fitting as it felt to myself after closing the Virginia Water chapter. Very reassuring though to see that even people nearly twenty years my junior have to go through the process of redefining themselves…..
After introducing myself to Andrea, her first point of action was to relocate me to another hotel (one with both a hot shower, central heating (which was switched on…) and additionally with a lovely Labrador called “Bella” greeting everyone in the reception).
The other participants of the camp were predominantly seasoned long distance cross country skiing event runners of whom a fair amount had already participated in the 90 km Vaasaloppet or the Marcialonga.
The following four days with a 7 am start where packed with three daily training sessions, plus a final stretching and yoga session. Considering that all exercise was conducted at 1800m above sea level, it was no great surprise that no one had any difficulties to sleep……
Following the long hours in my car and the many days spent in different veterinary clinics with very little opportunities for exercise, this made for a great change and it set me up nicely for my forthcoming adventure to the North….
While writing these lines, I am the only guest in a very spartan hotel, which had seen better days, on a windswept mountain pass at nearly 2000 m above sea level in the Italian Alps. The radiator in my small room was struggling to produce an ambient temperature last night, so that I had to add a couple of woolen blankets to my duvet cover to stay warm enough. The water in the narrow shower is taking more than 5 minutes before producing some luke-warm liquid .
The breakfast is basic, with a small but strong cappuccino as the only highlight this morning.
But as unlikely as it sounds, I am loving it (ok, with the exception of the shower….)!
The important point is not to confuse solitude with loneliness.
Following the past few weeks of working and travelling, of meeting amazing people and their animals, having long and thoughtful conversations, the time has come to take stock and to reflect on what I have seen and what is lying ahead of me.
The basic accommodation is helping to focus my mind and the mountains around me are an impressive background for a couple of training sessions per day.
The local but simple food is a welcomed change to the at times lavish feasts I have enjoyed together with my friends. And a great add on is, that this sort of travelling is hardly breaking the bank…..
From time to time I am enjoying these periods of reflection and to some degree it is the expectation of this, that is drawing me again and again to the mountains.
While recovering from the cross country skiing sessions, I am finding time to read, to write and to make plans for the future. The time in me as well as around me is slowing down and over the whole day there is neither a need nor a point in rushing anything.
While being on my own, there is no need to talk, to explain or to justify.
Like Ying and Yang, solitude and rest can produce the necessary contrast to enjoying company and adventures even more…..
Once recovered from the unwanted advances of the creatures of the underworld, I stocked up with some highlights of the local cuisine (smoked sausages, alpine meadow honey and bread from the region) and it was time again to hit the road with the help of my trusted Bavarian carriage. A fair amount of German “Autobahn” mileage lay ahead of me, as I was now criss-crossing the country, both to meet more colleagues and to get a better feel for the state of veterinary medicine in my home country.
The first stop was still at the foothills of the Northern Alps in Rosenheim, where IVC/Evidensia, the company that had bought Virginia Water Veterinary Clinic, had purchased the clinic of Josef Schiele, an outstanding veterinary surgeon and ultrasonographer, who some years ago had taught me how to scan dogs’ hearts, very much to the benefit of a lot my older canine (and feline) patients in Surrey.
Florian Frey (from North Germany like myself) and Josef were extremely welcoming and it was great to see how friendly and relaxed their team was. Their clinic – one of the best in the area – featured very modern equipment, including their own CT and the footfall of the clinic certainly benefited from having a large pet supermarket just next door. What was striking was that despite the fact that this was one of the wealthiest parts of Germany, veterinary fees were much lower than in the UK.
We put this down to the lack of a well established pet insurance system and possibly due to stronger competition between vets.
After this brief encounter, I put the foot down and headed North passing Nuremberg and the Czech boarder and arrived late at night in Biesenthal in Brandenburg near Berlin. This was part of the former GDR and it took me a moment to get used both to the local dialect, to the choice of words (like Australians, people definitely are swearing here more commonly…) and to the directness of the people here. However, as my father was born here, there was a certain familiarity for me and I knew that behind the perceived rudeness, there was usually a big heart. I also had to get used to a – even for me as a fellow German – unusual cuisine, when I was invited to lentils with vinegar and sugar (!) for supper (which was actually very nice!…).
Sandra Lekschas, who probably has traveled more than me and who has not only a British and a German, but also a Chilean veterinary license, has here her clinic. Sandra had worked for several years in the UK and obtained during that time a Certificate for Avian and Exotic Animal Medicine. For many years she had been my “back up” if I was not sure about the treatment of one of my less “usual” patients. Because of Sandra I know now how to take a blood sample of a tortoise and how to do a penis amputation in an iguana…..
While “shadowing” her during her consultation, I was amazed how similar our case load was and how similar the expectations of the pet owners. A noticeable difference though was the very frequent use of homeopathic or herbal treatment. A range of medication was unknown to me and required some further investigation.
At Sandra’s house I also met “Schneewittchen”, the first of my friend’s cats, who had left the UK together with her owner and who was now supplementing her diet with Prussian mice.
After spending a couple of days with Sandra and her little team in the countryside, I made a detour into Berlin
to call on my colleague Conny Rossi, who I knew from a range of veterinary meetings in Brussels, where she was representing the German state veterinary service and I the European small animal veterinary profession. Conny is head of the Veterinary Office in Berlin Tempelhof and when I arrived she was busy preventing African Swine Fever from getting into Germany.
Thankfully this didn’t stop her to be my native guide at her local Italian for an excellent dinner including an outstanding Tiramisu.
Conny’s cat is an old boy called “Mau” who is clearly drinking too much and I left Conny the next day under strict orders to see her local small animal vet as a matter of urgency….
The next cat was called Dobby, like Harry Potter’s house elf, but rather than doing any house keeping for Barbara and Stephan Neumann his owners, he owed his life to the magical skills of Stephan, who adopted him following several operations after a car accident.
Whereas a lot of vets, by treating so many different species, are “jacks of all trades but masters of none”, Stephan is a real “renaissance man”: Stephan is the head of the small animal clinic of the University of Göttingen, South of Hanover. He is giving lectures on husbandry and diseases of farm animal at the Agricultural department. He is educating the Forestry students on wild animals and he is also a pathologist and a leading member of a range of national and international veterinary and pathology organisations. In addition to this he is active in various local committees and he also knows how to work a power drill and how to wire up his own house. With some reluctance he has just recently stopped to perform all mechanical work on his own cars. He is a passionate motorbiker and a skilled ballroom dancer……(I think I better stop here – I think you get the point)
It was impressive visiting Stephan’s spacious university clinic and to meet his team. At the university – similar to most privately owned clinics that I visited – I noticed both a sit down desk and a fairly high examination table in the consulting rooms.
Compared to the UK, more dogs are lifted on the table to be examined and the conversation with the owner is concluded after the examination, while both parties are sitting. Compared to then UK I also noticed the far more frequent use of long needles. I am not sure if this is always good and I am happy to stick to my shorter “British” ones. Size doesn’t always matter…..
Leaving the welcoming Neumann household, I travelled further West to Bad Honnef in the Rhine valley, not far from Cologne. Here I met another German colleague with a British history : Ariane Neuber is one of the few Diplomates in Veterinary Dermatology and a number of my referral patients were successfully treated by her. Sadly Ariane and her British husband Tom were frustrated by Brexit and decided that continental Europe was offering a better future for the whole family.
While quizzing Ariane about her experiences of working in Germany compared to England and about the current trends in veterinary dermatology, Tom was not only refilling our glasses at a steady rate with French champagne – a by product of his job in Strassbourg – he then engaged me in a well informed conversation on insects as a form of food and animal feed. This is a very new area of veterinary interest, which we had only discussed recently at our European meetings. However, it is an industry of huge growth potential, which had not eluded the observant eyes of Tom, who has a background in finance.
After an entertaining evening and after the demise of probably the best part of a crate of champagne (!), I tried to retreat to my bed, but found this already occupied by the fourth feline, similar to the Brandenburg mouser another British refugee, who was – when not sleeping on my bed – pursuing water rats in the Rhine Valley.
So, what were the conclusions (among others) of my travels so far?…..
German vets are cheaper than British vets
Needles in Germany are too long
Nice dogs and cats (and their owners) are on both sides of the Channel
Pets can be radiographed without sedation in Germany
Cats are still exclusively spayed midline in Germany
Cats are commonly blood sampled from the front limb rather than from the neck and this is often done with a plain needle without a syringe attached
Dogs appear to worry less, when an i/v line is placed into the hindlimb while standing (on an examination table)
Homeopathic treatment is more common in Germany (and apparently in South America ?!…)
This was enough of veterinary medicine though and the next morning the journey continued again South, for another completely different aspect of life………
Driving another 500 km further East for being snarled at and for getting a beating, sounds not very appealing, but my next stop was not only throughly enjoyable, but in fact I would highly recommend it to anyone !……..
Passing Munich and Salzburg, my journey took me to the North of the Dachstein Glacier, to a valley that was cut deep into the Northern Alps, forming the world famous Hallstatt Lake. To this place, which in the depth of winter never sees direct sunlight, I was invited by my British friend Chris Greaves, who owns there a house with an old soap making workshop, to witness the Krampuslauf, a gathering of nearly a thousand creatures of the underworld which had been summoned by St.Claus to give the unruly children of the valley a hard time ………
The term “Krampus” refers to the word “Krampe” or claw and these creatures which are a traditional part of the Christmas celebrations in these valleys, are dating back to pre-christian time and were believed to be of offspring of Hel, the keeper of the underworld in the Nordic mythology. St.Claus and the angels are there to keep these beasts in check – at least they are supposed to….
Throughout the event the organisers are stressing that the annual parade is very “children friendly” , but man, the kids here must be of a somewhat tougher constitution and it appears to be advisable in the valleys to listen to your parents….
Well, admittedly throughout the whole parade I never saw a single crying child and it appeared to me, that the kids actually loved it. Well, and this included being suddenly grabbed, jumped on and wiped (actually quite hard at times….) with birchwood or willow twigs!
The whole thing kicks off at 7 pm with a gunshot. The creatures of hell make their way slowly from one side of the town down the high street to the other side. While being accompanied by the odd St.Claus and a few angels who are handing out sweets to the children, the main part of the parade is behaving rather thuggishly by attacking the spectators. The wiping is always directed to the lower part of the legs and seasoned spectators have prepared themselves with shin pads or a layer of cardboard underneath their trousers. This is one event where you think twice if it is really wise to stand in the front row.
It also appeared to me that the Krampuses had a clear affinity to pretty girls, which for some weird reason seemed to be exceedingly reciprocal, the uglier and the more fearsome the creatures were……
The young men ( and some women) underneath the costumes had been making “house calls” on the two previous days (after been invited by the parents), before then gathering for the final parade. Special “clubs” spend the whole year preparing the costumes and the floats. Especially the masks take a lot of time and skill to prepare and they are changing hands for considerable amounts of money between owners and collectors.
The whole parade lasts for well over an hour, during which one stays warm with the help local Glühwein and warm Leberkas (the Austrian alternative to a burger….).
There was also a good reason why at the end of the parade all locals very quickly disappeared…..to finish everything off, the creatures finally descended from all sides on the market square making sure that everyone had the blood circulation restored in their legs before their victims could take shelter in one of the local restaurants.
Only few Krampuses could be convinced to pose for a final selfie…..
Once again it shows – there are stranger things in life than veterinary medicine ……
Once I had crossed the Channel, the road took me through Northern France, past Verdun and Metz down to the Northern Vosges mountain range and then across the Rhine valley to Freiburg and the Black Forest.
Over the next few weeks I will rely on the hospitality of my friends (old and new) to both explore the state of veterinary care in Germany and while doing this, I hope to have some fun along the way with non-veterinary things……you will see…..
My first stop was the picturesque Glottertal Valley where my friends from Hanover Vet School, Dörte and Jörg Bretzinger are running a truly “mixed” practice as a husband and wife team. Dörte is heading a small, but very neat small animal practice providing excellent first opinion care. Jörg and a colleague are predominantly doing farm animal work and over the last few years more and more equine work. As if they wouldn’t be busy enough, Jörg is also getting up twice weekly at 4 am to do meat control work at the regional slaughter house and they both do all the meat inspections, which includes a lot of game, for the butchers in the whole valley. With other words – they are really working hard….
And yet in the Bretzinger household there is still time for good literature, fine art (Jörg is a painter with regular exhibitions) and exceptionally good food and wine, which admittedly is unavoidable in these boarder lands between Germany, France and Switzerland. I couldn’t have asked for a better “home” away from home than here….
Despite the excellent skills and equipment of Dörte’s and of other clinics I visit, I notice that not the standard but the cost of veterinary care is noticeably lower than in the UK, which appears to be partially due to more competition and due to the virtual absence of pet insurance.
During my stay in Freiburg I am also visiting the futuristic clinic of Matthias Frank, who has just returned from a lecturing tour in Mumbai as part of a WSAVA continuing education programme. After being greeted by a set of very entertaining steel sculptures in front of the building,
I am running straight into a newly installed dispensary robot in the reception area.
All medication in the unit is climate and stock controlled and a centrally located robotic arm is collecting and dispensing the right amount of medication to the reception team.
Following a very inspiring tour of the clinic, Matthias tells me to gown and to scrub up and minutes later I am joining the team with the surgical case load for the rest of the afternoon.
All diagnostic images (ultrasound, radiography, MRT and CT images) are fed directly into the practice management system and in the spotless consulting and treatment rooms there is hardly a piece of paper in sight.
Despite the fact that this is a clinic with more than 20 vets and all together over 70 members of staff, clients are updated on their pets’ progress on a very regular and personal basis and one can’t help to be impressed by this standard of care.
The journey continues, but this truly was a demonstration of “Vorsprung durch Technik”……..
The living room is littered with stuff in a seemingly random pattern and the Christmas decoration is complete and utterly spoiled……
Returning from Abdingdon following an extra – thankfully quiet – nightshift, I have 24 hours to pack all the gear, clothes, books, IT equipment, skis and instruments I am likely to use during the next up to four months, as I will be on the road again!……
There is a bit of a feeling of deja vu as this was very similar nearly 27 years ago, when I was traveling from Germany with all my belongings in a VW Passat to start my first job in the UK – the rest is history…..
The car has changed in the mean time, but the felling of anticipation and anxiety is much the same – if all goes as planned, the road will first take my East , then North and then to the real North with a lot of new impressions (not all veterinary related…..) and old and new friend to meet and to make on the way.
How does it feel when you have been the boss in your own clinic for over 20 years, having made your own decisions, having taken on most of the risks and responsibilities of running a business and being used to do this “your way” and then you find yourself once again as the “ordinary” member of a team of new colleagues ,who have never heard of you and who have no idea how good or bad you are?…..
To be frank: both exciting and frightening (the latter even more so, as I had done very little clinical work as a vet over the last four months)….
But this was one of the things I had set out to do all along – just put yourself out there again, open your mind to the wonderful profession we have and both try to become a better vet by continuing to learn and at the same time to pass on the skills and the knowledge you have to colleagues, to improve their skills as well.
Good idea, but easier said than done……
Once back in the UK I sent my CV to the local clinics and placed it on one of the the main veterinary locum sites. It didn’t take long until I was approached by the manager of a veterinary group in Abingdon in Oxfordshire.
That suited me extremely well, as there was still some work to be done at “Patient 58” in Oxford – which I hoped to finish in my spare time – and I thought that I knew the town already, having frequented their industrial estate numerous times during the building work in the summer.
Little did I know of the medieval history of the place and of the villages around it and of the also very interesting recent history (eg that MGs were produced here at some point).
So one early Monday morning at the beginning of November, I fund myself in the middle of a very international group of vets, veterinary nurses and receptionists at the main clinic in 2,The Vineyard (with not many vines in sight….) in Abingdon. My colleagues came from Spain, from Portugal, from Hongkong, from NewZealand and yes, there were also a fair number of British vets and nurses. This was a reminder of my first job in the UK over 25 years in Camberley, when the team included vets from South Africa, Australia and Belgium. Seeing all these colleagues with different cultural and educational back grounds communicating and working together as a team was both exciting and refreshing to see and I loved it from the first minute. Everyone was extremely welcoming and friendly, partially because they had been in the same situation not so long before me. With regards to my apprehensions about the current level of my clinical skills – I didn’t have much time to dwell over it, as I had to get into action right away with a greyhound that had just been run over by a car with severely traumatised limbs. This friendly and very brave patient kept me and the team busy for the following four weeks.
Other memorable cases like a 70+ kg weighing Dogue de Bordeaux with a pyometra, dogs with grass blades up their nose, a range of different poisoning cases and the unavoidable seasonal gastro-intestinal foreign body case followed and I realised why I had missed the clinical site of my job so much. It was an inspiration to see how much attention to detail and dedication each member of staff gave to the patients in our care and looking back at it now, we neither lost a patient nor was there a single euthanasia I can recall during my stay.
During my breaks I found time enough to explore the numerous coffee places and delis in Abingdon, the town museum and the medieval Abbey , which was temporarily occupied by vampires …..
Time after work was spend with long night runs along the – sometimes flooded – towpaths of the Thames and the occasional visit to one of the local restaurants with my new colleagues.
It was with a heavy heard when I had to leave this wonderful group of people and the just lovely management team in Abingdon, but new challenges were waiting……
Yes, Yolanda, there is always to one…….
On my last day of work, I even bumped into Santa Claus !……
To be precise into 300 or so of them together with ….not their reindeers, but their dogs !…..
In Wallingford, where I had a small flat while working in Abingdon, they had their annual Santa Claus Run and – of course – the family dogs could not be left behind for the occasion.
And – to maintain the right balance (for my feline-friendly followers….) – there also was one big cat!…..
The Eastern European Regional Veterinary Conference (EERVC) is to a large degree the realisation of the vision of my friend Denis Novak, a Croatian vet with a clinic in Belgrade in Serbia and the new President of FECAVA. Denis had a part of his veterinary training in the UK and he has a good understanding of veterinary medicine in both Western and in Eastern European countries. As long as I have known Denis, he has tried to create a new breed of veterinary surgeons in Eastern Europe, by not only bringing world renowned speakers to continuing education events near them, but also by breaking down historic barriers between teachers and students with a far more relaxed atmosphere at these events and with the prudent use of great rock music……
At the first conference three years ago in Belgrade, Denis and his colleagues started from nothing and yet, due to an excellent scientific programme and due to endless hours of preparation, the event attracted more than 1000 veterinarians from all over Europe and the party at the end of the conference – with one of the best live bands on the Balkan – turned out to be truly legendary. The success of this concept was repeated a year later in Bukarest in Romania and in the following year in Zagreb, Croatia.
This year it was the turn of Thessaloniki in Northern Greece and – with most of my more presentable cloths still in the suitcase which was delayed in Moscow – I looked somewhat out of place in the entrance hall of the Grand Hotel…..
But as luck had it, I bumped right away into both Denis and Kyriakos , the “fixer” of my monastic detour….
This now was more familiar territory for me and once re-united with my suitcase and following a shave, a shower and a change of cloths, three days of lectures and learning followed.
I also found time – but sadly no company – for a sunset run along the promenade of Greece’s second largest city and to catch up with my colleagues over dinner with the outstanding local food (and – of course – wine)!
The event closed – as in the years before – with the hallmark party and dancing into the early hours (we were in Greece after all….).
This also was the end of another journey and not even 24 hours later I found myself – and the remains of my belongings –
back in the UK, where I had to prepare now for a “new” task :
The Blue Vet Diary 