Here's the past group events...
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OUR FIRST MEETING FEATURED THE FOLLOWING STRUCTURE
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We invited Heidi Hargreaves, Vet with Secret World Wildlife Rescue, who also works in Practice, to specially attend the meeting so that she could contribute to the discussion with how she has experienced helping wildlife within Rescue & in Practice and how she thinks Vet Professionals in Practice can be more supported & what a supportive structure might look like.
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Beth Ragan is a RVN who works in practice and is also one of the Rehabbers for Feline & Wildlife Rescue. FAWR was set up and is run predominantly by Vet Professionals (who each work in different Vet Practices and who set up FAWR together, to have an official organisation under which to rehab the wildlife that they found themselves taking home from practices, to care for). Beth sent in a very short presentation (that was shared in the meeting) on how all of the Vet Professionals who help to run FAWR have also set up a structure in the Nottingham area to support all Vet Practices in the area with advice on how to help wildlife, from providing 'How To Guides' to being a supportive source of advice online and on the phone.
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From this first meeting was born a Facebook Group for Vet Professionals to start finding more about FAWR's wildlife self supportive Vet Practice structure in the Nottingham area and to see if it could be replicated for other local areas.
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NOTES FROM THE (FIRST) MEETING
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It was agreed that everyone found the FAWR template in their area very impressive and that it was felt that having it replicated in local areas (amongst local Vet Practices) could be very helpful.
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Support with building relationships with verified Wildlife Rescues (Rescues with the WCB, maybe) as well as wildlife transport support was agreed to be of great help, in helping Vet Practices to treat wildlife.
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Before the next meeting, we are going to speak to FAWR about creating a template letter, to help everyone - should you want to - reach out to other Vet Practices in your area, to start supporting each other with regards to treating wildlife (the letter will also let people know about the ‘Vet Wildlife Support Package’ and where they can also get transport help as well as the WCB map).
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We are also going to speak to FAWR to get more details about exactly how they help other Vet Practices in their area.
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There was some discussion in the meeting about Vet Practices having a separate account to help them to help wildlife: this was less clear as an idea but its something that can be researched properly for anyone who would like to see if it’s possible for their practice.
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NOTES FROM THE SECOND MEETING (2ND MAY)
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Our second meeting featured a bespoke presentation from Charlee Howard.​
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Charlee is a Student Vet Nurse and has also been rehabbing wildlife herself for the last 6 years.
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The Vet Practice that Charlee works in is run by the incredible Vet Surgeon, Sharon Williams, and is a very wildlife friendly and experienced practice. Charlee has been working at the practice for 2 1/2 years.
Charlee gave a short presentation on the following topics at our last meeting…
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1. How is the practice set up - physically, the different spaces - to treat wildlife as well as pets?
2. How has the practice made it work financially for the practice to treat wildlife alongside all of the other animals that are brought to them for care?
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Charlee's presentation was very well received and there were some great responses. It was so well received that we have decided to independently record the presentation to make it available to all Vet Professionals and it will be available for general access before June.
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