Sinéad qualified as a veterinary nurse in 2018. Her training practice was a small, first-opinion practice with a reasonably varied caseload. On qualifying, Sinéad moved to a large first opinion and referral hospital to further her nursing skills and knowledge base.
She enjoys out-of-hours work and is due to start the Vets Now animal emergency and critical care certificate (ECC) later this year.
Meet Sinéad:
Something I’m asked fairly regularly is this – “After a long day working with animals, aren’t you too tired to go home and look after your own?”.
The simple answer is no. Getting home to my own helps the stress of the day dissolve nicely away. I often hug my pets that bit tighter after seeing a poorly animal or after helping a doting family say goodbye to their pet.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve lived and breathed to provide care for animals. I regularly turned up on the doorstep of my parental home with some sort of animal in need. From kittens to boxes of ducklings and even a tub of crickets intended to be lunch for a tarantula once.
My parents, being animal lovers themselves, assisted me with every rescue and actively encouraged my love for animals from the very beginning.
I was seven when I brought home my first animal, a young stray cat. A few months later she gave birth in our conservatory. She never left after that. I grew up fostering/keeping many dogs from Dogs Trust.
I initially trained as an adult nurse whilst volunteering for local animal rescue centres, which I started when I was fourteen. My duties involved dog walking, kennel cleaning, feeding and weekend respite at my house for those animals who needed it.
I had no idea what a veterinary nurse did and never considered it as a career. I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t class veterinary nurses as “real” nurses. This was due to my lack of understanding of what the profession involves and the complex skills and knowledge vet nurses have.
Fast forward roughly eight years, it was time for me to return to work after a rather extended maternity leave. It was my husband who questioned first, why I worked with people when my real passion had always been animals.
With my family’s support, I took the plunge and re-trained as a veterinary nurse and here I am now… the crazy stray lady, mother of dogs, guardian of the guinea pigs, re-homer of rabbits (actual descriptions of me from my darling vet nurse colleagues).
I was pleasantly surprised to find that my vet nurse training was every bit as ‘medical’ as I hoped it would be. I studied for the Diploma in Veterinary Nursing and it took two years to complete.
My husband may well regret his unwavering support now our house has been filled with the pitter-patter of more than a few tiny feet.
This leads me to the point of this lengthy rescue background. As veterinary nurses, we don’t necessarily get to choose our pets. Hence how we end up with pets who look like the one below.
Beautiful pregnant Lily, Bear’s mum, was dumped at a practice I worked at. She had urine scalding, fly strike and had been in labour for over 24 hours. Amazingly, all six pups were born alive by emergency c-section the same evening. And so, they came home with me.
My daughters were crammed into the same bedroom to allow this little family to have their own space to bond and for one very distressed mother to relax and learn to feed her puppies.
After a week of bottle feeding the puppies and working on mum’s confidence, mum took over the care of her puppies like a dream. My kids quickly forgave me for the loss of their bedroom when a few weeks later, our living room turned into a dog creche.
The mum was the first to be snatched up, even before anyone asked for one of her puppies. I was under strict instructions from a colleague not to fall in love with her because they were having her. I certainly would have kept her.
We ended up keeping Bear as he was the only pup not selected. He is not without his problems, but we love him for the slightly deformed, socially awkward little guy that he is.
He has an enormously undershot jaw and bangs his teeth a lot. He also has terrible anxiety; and is very reactive to strangers, loud noises, bikes and prams.
This is despite getting endless socialisation at all the key periods. Bear was one of the lucky ones in the litter as some of the other pups had angular limb deformities (ALD) and needed orthopaedic implants.
We’ve had the joy of fostering endless furry friends from dogs and cats to baby hedgehogs, rabbits and pigeons. Our latest foster is an unwanted Easter bunny who bit the toddler for whom she was bought. She is currently living in the bedroom, away from our elderly resident rabbits.
Hand rearing is a firm favourite with my little girls, who love nothing more than watching the twitching ears of a suckling kitten. Less of a favourite, however, for my husband who is allergic to cats!
As wonderfully rewarding as all of this can be, it certainly does take its toll when things don’t quite go to plan. Take baby Neil for example. A kitten born with hind limbs fused backwards at the hock. Neil was brought in to be euthanised at four weeks of age by a member of the public. Luckily, they happily signed him over so we could give him a chance at survival.
After extensive orthopaedic assessments, it was discovered that Neil, obviously named due to his legs, had no Achilles tendons. He was not a candidate for arthrodesis surgery to straighten his limbs.
Neil lived life to the fullest! He played, ate and used a litter tray like any other kitten. He never developed pressure sores due to his disability and we expected Neil to go on to live a reasonably long life. But, at ten months of age, Neil sadly lost his life after a sudden, prolonged seizure leaving everybody who loved him completely devastated.
Perhaps Neil wasn’t made for this world but on reflection, I’m glad Neil had those happy months. He touched the hearts of so many people. A massive thanks to the wonderful Wild Acre Rescue for enabling me to take a chance to save him and provide lots of care. I’ve volunteered for this rescue in various ways for the last three to four years.
I’m regularly told, “You can’t save them all”, but I’ll certainly always try my best and acknowledge that I may lose some along the way.
I’ve lost hand rears after days and nights of desperate attempts and had dogs who have shown aggression despite my best attempts to work with them.
I’ve pleaded with vets to ask an owner to sign over a pet rather than make an irreversible decision.
I’ve also upset my family at times by taking up a room or cancelling plans due to a sickly foster or a bottle baby requiring two-hourly feeds.
I doubt I’ll ever change because this is who I am and I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t help when possible.
To those nurses who go that extra mile to help all animals, not just those who are your patients, thank you! You’re amazing and every practice needs a crazy stray person or two!
To those unsure how to help, a call to your local rescue/wildlife sanctuary, (in circumstances in which it’s reasonable to do so,) could sometimes be the difference between euthanasia and a fresh start.
Lastly, as a little reminder, never forget to take time for yourself. We have a tremendously draining job and may quickly fill what little spare time we have with animal-related pass times.
Well done for everything that you do but remember to take that bubble bath, read that book or enjoy that hot chocolate and film because a burnt-out nurse can’t help anyone.
You can find my rescue dogs on IG.
Hi, I’m Sophie!
I met Sinead in uni when I was studying mental health nursing. I remember her being passionate about animals and their welfare.
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