Hubert Hiemstra on Cuppa Tea With the Vet Podcast

It was incredible talking to Hubert back in December. I learnt so much! Did you know that a Koala must eat its mum’s poop so that it will not die when it eats the eucalyptus leaves? If the vet has to give the antibiotic they don’t do well on them so they give them poop milkshakes to enhance their gut flora again. The guts are such a delicate balance of life. 

Hubert has been a vet in South Africa, Wales, and now lives in Australia. We met when he reached out wanting to learn more about physio so I joined him on his Vet Vault Podcast. It’s always so wonderful when vets want to learn new things. 

Hugh shared that he actually didn’t enjoy being a vet for the first 10 years of his career! This is sad to hear but what is worse is that, this is not unusual to hear. There is a lot of pressure on veterinarians and many get into it for the love of animals but forget you have to love the owners and your colleagues too. Hugh managed to work out what was the tough part of his job and then learn how to address it. Incredibly instead of leaving the profession, he fixed the problem and now embraces the profession. What an amazing accolade! And thank goodness as he would have been a real loss to so many who have needed him. 

It was a real pleasure to chat with someone in Aus. He got up at 5am to join us live. Now that’s dedication! 

What Hubert Loves About Physio:

I’m still very early on that part of learning about that. My problem with it is because I do emergency I don’t normally get to that stage and in a patient, so I what I love about physio is the potential to increase, speed up and increase quality of life, because up for 20 years to be honest, it I was oblivious to it. It was just yeah, you’re gonna have your surgery and then nature will do its thing and you’ll you’ll be okay.

So what I’m excited about is to see the feedback and to hear what people say and the way that we start. It’s very hard for me in my job in my role to take it on. What I will do as an emergency vet now and I’ve said it already a few times because we’ll get them only when things go really wrong. It’s Sunday and it’s closed and the arthritic old dog had a slip and fall and now it’s really painful. So my job is just whack it with drugs and make it comfortable to get them back to the mend again. But what I would do now is say go and talk to your regular vet about physio as well.

Hugh’s Biography:

Hubert is an emergency veterinarian and co-host of the Vet Vault and Vet Vault Clinical Podcasts. His veterinary career has spanned 2 decades and three continents, including owning and selling a large veterinary emergency practice. Hubert’s mission is to find ways to help those on the front lines of the veterinary profession thrive both professionally and personally.

The Vet Vault Podcast has over 100,000 listens worldwide, and has helped countless veterinary professionals find the answers they need to make this niche of the veterinary professional work for them.

If you want to catch them live, join her on her socials on our facebook and youtube channels or follow us on spotify. You can catch up on previous episodes on our vlogs page.

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.