Cuppa Tea With the Vet – Chris Furley

We chatted to Chris Furley MRCVS of The Henley Mobile Vet Service. He was such an amazing and interesting man! We actually learnt so much about him that its impossible to list it all here!

Despite sounding like he has never left the UK, he was born in Kenya, so when he moved here he has no idea about our culture. Chris has spent many of his years all over the world! He was head vet at Singapore zoo and I’m not sure there is anywhere he has not worked! 

Chris has a huge compassion for animals. His most hated thing is seeing cruelty. We can all relate to that, but he has seen some awful things. He loves the environment and feels strongly that this needs protection. If money were no object, he already has a plan to make it happen! This is wonderful. We just need to find him the money! He also had a dabble at running for foreign minister! 

He feels strongly that owners should have consistency in their vet care and that pets should be seen where it is the least stressful, and this is at home. Chris loves being a mobile vet, and having worked as a locum, he has learnt from many clinics about what he wants to avoid from modern veterinary care. He certainly has a lot of fans! I asked Chris what does he love about physio. He gave a wonderful answer.

What Chris Loves About Physio:

Physio is I think probably a forgotten skill, because I think particularly animals recovering from surgery: where they’ve had surgery on a limb or a back bone or something like that, they often will suffer from muscle atrophy and you know “if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.” And I’ve seen a  number of cases where animals have been off and had the most amazing bits of complex surgery and it’s all terribly wonderful when they come home, but 4 months later they’re still lame because they haven’t been told how to use that limb properly and they’re still hopping about. So I think physio, certainly in the experience I’ve had, it’s been useful helping animals recuperate and it’s also quite useful for animals that have arthritis: animals which have never had surgery but have arthritis and are in pain. It’s useful to have physio to generally try and ease that tense musculature down the spine and down the hip area and so on. And that helps just to make life more comfortable for them.

Chris Furley

Chris’s Biography

Chris Furley set up the Henley Mobile Veterinary Service in May 2016 and believes bringing treatment to the home is less stressful for animals and owners alike. As former Head Vet for Singapore Zoo & Night Safari, he brings experience with handling wildlife into the home and sees the natural biology of the animal as essential to diagnosis and treatment of illness.

If you want to catch up on our past shows then catch up on our vlogs page. You can also watch out shows live on our facebook and youtube channels.