Last year, Donna interviewed Fabian Rivers on her Cuppa Tea With the Vet series. He was a fantastic guest, who has a really interesting C.V! His exploits include being offered a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School, studying Veterinary medicine in the Czech Republic and appearing on CBBC! He has even been awarded BVA “Young Vet of the Year”. So naturally, we were fascinated to hear what Fabian loves about physiotherapy!

What does Fabian love about physio?

I love physio because of how much it can do for especially the mammals that I see: Guinea pigs, rabbits, I’ve had such positive results from such a grave prognosis. When you see, like I say that mammals with nerve damage or osteo arthritis or so many conditions which causes them to freeze because they often are the big wimps of the three, whether it’s reptiles or birds, I’d say the biggest wimps are the small mammals unfortunately… but I have found so much positivity through the basics. And I love the fact that physiotherapy is a labour of love, it is a labour of commitment, it is a desire for things to get better without being too upset about the instant responses…

I feel like naturally I’m more of an internalist and more of a person who wants to see gradual improvement and bring as many different factors into that and I think physiotherapy marries all the best things about my job as an internalist or a specialist or whatever and helps bring that level of holistic way of approaching pain or osteo arthritis or joint issues or nerve issues and puts that into a discipline that can have such positive effects…  

Fabian’s Biography:

Fabian Rivers graduated in 2018 from University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Brno. He is currently an exotics and companion animal vet in Birmingham. More commonly known as Dready Vet an initiative started in 2013, he has written, featured and given talks to a variety of veterinary and non veterinary publications, universities and initiatives.

He is the British Veterinary Association recent graduate representative and is a keen contributor on topics surrounding mental health, racism, new graduate and student welfare, and the wider complexities of the veterinary community. In 2020, he was awarded BVA Young Vet of the Year.

He is currently undertaking a certificate in exotic animal practice clinically and has mentored students on exotic specific casework when going into practice. Fabian is the lead exotics vet at an independent practice and his interests are in preventative welfare particularly in reptiles. He is also one of the vets on the Pets Factor, a children’s TV show on the CBBC, mainly placed as the exotics focused member of the team.

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Enjoy the show! And if you want to nominate your vet to join Donna for an interview, then email [email protected] and we will do our best.