Burnout, Moral Injury & Compassion Fatigue – When Caring Starts to Hurt

The launch of the Innate Health Assessment (IHA) has sparked a passionate debate in the dog world.*Special Extended Episode* Supporters see it as a practical, simple tool to help improve canine welfare by addressing extreme conformation. Critics have raised concerns about fairness, scientific validity, breed identity, and fears that it could ultimately threaten certain breeds.To separate fact from fiction, Veterinary Voices UK sat down with Professor Dan O'Neill, veterinary epidemiologist at the Royal Veterinary College and one of the architects of the IHA, alongside Marisa Heath, Director of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare  (APGAW) and a long-standing animal welfare advocate.Veterinary Voices UK opened up the discussion to everyone to pose their questions and concerns, and the discussion explored the most common questions raised by breeders, owners, veterinary professionals and the wider dog community.

In this episode, Robyn is joined by Dr Camilla Edwards from First Opinion Veterinary Ultrasound (FOVU) for a really practical, honest conversation about making ultrasound less scary and more useful in everyday practice. If your machine is gathering dust, only comes out for the odd pyometra, or you feel that familiar imposter syndrome every time you pick up the probe – this one’s for you.

In the latest Vet Voices on Air, Robyn is joined by Dr. Marie Francesca Menniti, MRCVS (residency-trained clinical nutritionist) to unpack a hot topic in pet feeding: home-prepared diets.

Veterinary work is rewarding but also challenging. This resource explores three key psychosocial factors—burnout, moral injury, and compassion fatigue—that may impact the wellbeing of veterinary professionals. Sudden crises, ongoing stress, trauma, and ethical dilemmas can all contribute. While many other issues affect wellbeing, this guide focuses on these three. It applies to all veterinary team members, offering insights into recognizing, preventing, and responding to these challenges in the workplace

This week on Vet Voices on Air, Robyn chats with Dr. Laurent, a European & RCVS-recognised Specialist in Veterinary Cardiology and certified perfusionist, about how general practitioners can feel more confident diagnosing, managing, and referring cardiac cases.

Heatstroke is one of the most lethal yet most misunderstood emergencies in veterinary medicine—and it doesn’t only happen on scorching summer days.In this in-depth episode Robyn from Vet Voices on Air is joined by two leading voices in the field: Dr Emily Hall, primary care vet, educator, and researcher whose PhD focused on the epidemiology of heatstroke in UK dogs, and Emily Cockerill, referral RVN and Lowland Rescue search dog volunteer with extensive real-world experience managing dogs working in extreme conditions.Together, they unpack what heatstroke actually is, why it’s so dangerous, and why time and temperature matter more than almost anything else. Using clear, evidence-based explanations, they explore what happens inside the body when temperatures rise—how proteins “cook,” organs fail, and why once a critical threshold is crossed, the damage is irreversible.

In this powerful and much-needed episode of Vet Voices on Air, we dive into one of the most emotionally charged and complex conversations in the dog world right now: breed health, extreme conformation, judging decisions, health testing, genetic diversity, and what meaningful change really looks like after Crufts 2026.

Pet dental health is one of the most overlooked areas of animal care, and in this episode of Vet Voices On Air with Robyn, we tackle a topic that is becoming more common, more visible, and often more confusing for owners: anaesthesia-free dental procedures.Joining us for this important discussion are Alix, an ECVS and RCVS-recognised veterinary dental specialist, and Cat, a registered veterinary nurse and full-time groomer. Together, we explore what periodontal disease really is, why it is so common in dogs and cats, and where the line lies between helpful home maintenance and treatment that truly requires veterinary intervention.

Vet Voices On Air episode for Endometriosis Awareness Month – March 2026The 2021 RCVS report shows that the UK veterinary profession is overwhelmingly female:57% of all registered veterinary surgeons are female96.8% of veterinary nurses are femaleNearly 80% of veterinary degree students are femaleNow put that next to the Endometriosis UK statistic that 1 in 10 females are affected by endometriosis.That means in every practice, in every lecture theatre, in every on-call rota… someone is likely living with a chronic, often invisible disease – whether they feel safe enough to say it out loud or not.

The episode challenges the profession to rethink how it communicates, so that in a world of instant information, veterinary professionals remain the trusted guide – not the last resort after a Google spiral.