Chewed Slippers

Hello … I’m Bethan New, your resident veterinary nurse at Chewed Slippers.  Along with my fellow Petsperts, I will hopefully help you to understand certain veterinarian topics through articles on this blog or just by answering a few questions you may have.

So, who am I and why should you read my articles?  This is my brief introduction…

I am a fully qualified, registered veterinary nurse.  I gained my qualifications in 2007 but have been working as a veterinary nurse for the past 8 years and am still practising.  My jobs and responsibilities on a daily basis range from monitoring anaesthetics and assisting the surgeons with surgery, to general patient care, cleaning kennels, blood sampling, and radiography work.  I am involved with ‘puppy parties’, which are a fun way to inform people about diet, flea & worming advice, the importance of socialisation, microchipping/identichipping and the pros and cons of neutering.

I was asked to become involved with this site by a work colleague and was impressed with Ali’s ideas and plans.  I thought it was a great opportunity to offer credible information to you, the visitor.

As a small child, I kept guinea pigs, fish and frogs, but I have grown older (and more mainstreamed) so currently have a long-haired, very temperamental 13 year old Persian X Silver Tabby cat called Misty, to whom I owe much credit for my grooming (and self-defence!) knowledge, after years of practice on this defiant animal!  She “enjoys” a trip to my workplace every 6 months to be sedated and receive a glorified ‘short-back and sides’.  Due to her, frankly, schizophrenic mood swings, I am unable, even with multiple family members in tow, to brush this animal. I’d say she’s very much like the cat from Cinderella, Lucifer … although comparisons with the Devil himself have been made too!

My other, much more manageable, bundle of joy is my big, handsome, 8 year old boxer dog called Bailey.  He is a gem! Being an older dog, he needs medical and supplementary treatments for joint problems caused by an injury sustained when he was younger. This involved a badly judged jump from a groyne at our local beach, which can only be described as a sky dive minus the all important parachute! This injury required extensive cruciate surgery and many weeks of ‘lead walks’. It was only then that I learned just how difficult it is to ‘gently and calmly’ (?!) lead walk a 40 kilo restless and, by then, seemingly well animal, who is set on dragging you down the steps to the beach!   Despite all I’ve said, he is still worth the backache, the raw lead-holding fingers and the daily tableting struggles!  Bizarre what we will do for our animals isn’t it!

Having worked in practice for many years, I’ve come across so many ill informed clients, who have got their facts from various websites that do not necessarily have the qualifications or the background knowledge to be putting out such information in the public domain.  This is why we take care lots of care on Chewed Slippers to collect information from reputable, proven sources and draw on our own extensive specialist knowledge to put you totally at ease with what you’re reading.

So have a browse, familiarise yourselves with the site, and I’ll help to keep you updated on the ever expanding information in the veterinary world in the coming weeks and months…

Bethan x x

Bethan New RVN