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Bluetongue in the UK: what Ireland needs to know before the virus takes hold

A UK farm vet’s frontline account of a bluetongue season gone from mild to devastating – and what it means for vaccination strategy in Ireland this autumn.

From the Vet Space Ireland podcast with Michelle Maguire and Richard Ryan (ArchersField Vets, Kilkenny), in conversation with Jonathan Hobbs, farm vet partner at North Park Veterinary Group, Devon, and Junior Vice President of the Sheep Veterinary Society.

A season that changed everything

When bluetongue virus (BTV) first reached the southeast of England in the autumn of 2023, it looked like a containable, one-off incursion. Midge plumes had blown the virus across the Channel from the Netherlands into Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent, and government surveillance picked up a handful of positive animals. Affected herds were culled, exclusion zones were set up, and the virus did not survive the winter. It seemed, for a moment, like a lucky escape.

It was not. Speaking on the Vet Space Ireland podcast, Jonathan Hobbs, a farm vet partner at North Park Veterinary Group in Devon and Junior Vice President of the Sheep Veterinary Society, walked through how that single incursion has grown into what he now describes as the UK farming equivalent of foot and mouth disease for his generation of vets.

In 2024 the virus arrived earlier in the season, giving it enough time to establish in the native midge population before winter. It spread from the southeast towards the Midlands and along the south coast, and crucially, it overwintered. By 2025, helped by a prolonged heatwave and drought that accelerated both midge activity and viral replication in the insects, bluetongue exploded across sheep and cattle farms in the southwest of England.

“Last year was our warning shot. This year is the Dutch experience we were scared of two years ago, where twenty per cent of the national flock was killed.”
  – Jonathan Hobbs

What it looks like on farm

The species picture is stark. Sheep are by far the worst affected, followed by cattle, while goats are almost always asymptomatic and camelids remain at some risk. On the practice’s worst-hit farms this season, up to seventy-five per cent of clinically affected sheep have died, which works out at roughly twenty per cent total flock mortality once morbidity and mortality are combined.

Clinical signs in sheep include painful erosions on the dental pad, cuts and crusting around the mouth and nose, swollen heads, and lameness from coronary band involvement, signs that in previous years might have been mistaken for insect stings or adder bites. Cattle tend to show milder signs, including a reddened or crusty nose, swollen teats, reduced milk yield, and some lameness. Hobbs noted that cattle cases are often overshadowed by the sheer volume of sheep cases coming through the door, even though they are almost certainly under reported.

  • Sheep: dental pad erosions, mouth ulceration, crusty or swollen nose, swollen heads, coronary band lameness
  • Cattle: nose reddening or crusting, swollen teats, milk drop, lameness, generally milder disease
  • Goats: almost always asymptomatic
  • Camelids: at risk of clinical disease

There is no animal to animal spread. Bluetongue moves exclusively via infected midges, which is a key point of reassurance when ruling out other notifiable diseases, though Hobbs stressed that every suspect case still needs to be tested, both to confirm the strain and to rule out foot and mouth disease on farms where clinical signs could overlap.

Vaccination works, and the economics are stark

Hobbs was unambiguous: the vaccine is highly effective, and the practice’s own numbers back it up. North Park achieved roughly fifteen per cent vaccine uptake among eligible stock last year, against a national average of just five per cent, and farms that vaccinated ahead of last spring avoided the barren rates and dummy calf presentations that hit unvaccinated herds hard at scanning and calving.

Out of around sixty confirmed cases at the practice this season, only one has occurred in a previously vaccinated animal, a dairy cow with a complicating BVD persistently infected animal issue on farm that likely affected her vaccine response. Hobbs was also clear that farmers should not hold back on vaccinating bulls and rams despite cautious vaccine data sheet wording. The testes are an immune privileged site, meaning bluetongue virus can persist and shed in semen for months even after an animal has cleared the virus from its bloodstream, with normal semen morphology and motility masking underlying fertility damage. A short, mild vaccine reaction is a far smaller risk than a week or more of fever and illness, or worse, from natural infection.

“A dead bull is going to give you exactly zero calves. A vaccinated bull who might be off for a day is still going to give you plenty.”
  – Jonathan Hobbs

The financial case is equally direct. Using an average lamb value of around one hundred and forty pounds a head, a thousand head flock facing twenty per cent mortality could lose in the region of twenty eight thousand pounds. Vaccinating that same flock costs roughly two and a half thousand pounds. As Hobbs put it, that is cheap insurance against a loss that is now playing out on farms across the south west.

Vaccine supply has struggled to keep pace with the sudden surge in demand this season, with wholesalers issuing stock in unpredictable drops rather than the reliable next day delivery practices are used to. Hobbs’s advice to farmers who have not yet vaccinated is to order early rather than wait, given that the peak bluetongue season typically runs from September through November as viral load builds through the autumn.

Reading the case numbers with caution

One of the most important points Hobbs raised concerns how bluetongue statistics are reported in the UK. Government figures record a “case” as an affected holding, not an affected animal, and testing authorities sample only three animals per holding. A single reported case can therefore represent dozens of dead or affected animals on one farm, while a headline figure of a few hundred cases nationally can understate the true scale of an outbreak considerably.

This matters for how the disease is perceived from a distance. Vets and farmers in areas not yet affected, or in countries like Ireland looking at the UK situation from across the Irish Sea, can easily read modest national case counts and conclude the risk is overstated. Hobbs’s message was the opposite: by the time the numbers look alarming, the disease is already established and difficult to control.

What this means for Ireland

Ireland recorded a small number of bluetongue cases in the latter part of last year, and Hobbs believes that was likely sufficient for the virus to have overwintered here. His reading of the UK’s own trajectory, a quiet first year followed by a far more severe second season once the virus reaches a critical mass in the local midge population, is a direct warning for Irish practices and farmers this autumn and into next spring.

Bluetongue was also compared during the conversation to Schmallenberg virus, which is carried by the same Culicoides midge and is already well established in parts of the southeast of Ireland. Hobbs described bluetongue as essentially “Schmallenberg on steroids”, a useful shorthand for vets explaining the risk to clients who may already be familiar with Schmallenberg’s fertility impacts but have not yet seen a bluetongue case.

His central message for Irish vets and farmers is not to be lulled by a mild season. A low case count this year does not mean the risk has passed, it may simply mean the outbreak has not yet reached the threshold it needs to explode the following spring. Supporting general herd and flock health, including worm control, mineral status and nutrition, also appeared to reduce case severity and improve response to treatment on affected UK farms, alongside vaccination as the primary defence.

Sheep Veterinary Society conference, Kilkenny

Hobbs also used the conversation to flag the Sheep Veterinary Society’s autumn conference, taking place in Kilkenny from Monday the 28th to Wednesday the 30th of September. The Society is a specialist division of the British Veterinary Association, open to international members including vets in Ireland, with annual membership priced at around seventy pounds.

The three-day conference costs under five hundred pounds and includes international speakers on bluetongue alongside Irish parasite specialists, with at least half a day dedicated to vets presenting clinical cases from their own practices. Hobbs, who takes over as Society president at the event, described it as a genuinely clinically focused meeting, with much of the value coming from informal conversation between sessions. For more information go to – sheepvetsoc.org.uk

This article is based on a conversation recorded for the Vet Space Ireland podcast. Listen to the full episode at vetspaceireland.ie.

Article written by Vet Space Ireland

To contribute to the Vet Space Journal, appear on the podcast, or get involved with VSI, contact us at inspire@vetspaceireland.ie or visit vetspaceireland.ie

Vet Space Ireland is a non-profit, volunteer-powered veterinary community platform. Founded 2019.

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The deal you’ll only ever do once: selling your veterinary practice

A Roberts Advisory series for veterinary practice owners

By Roberts Advisory  |  4th August 2026

If you own a veterinary practice, you have spent years, or possibly decades, building something with your name on it. You have carried the late calls, the staffing headaches, the quiet worry about cash flow in a slow month, and the pride of a waiting room full of clients who trust you. And then one day, whether by plan or by a phone call you did not expect, the question arrives: would you ever think about selling?

For almost every owner, selling the practice is a thing they will do exactly once. That single fact sits at the heart of everything we want to share in this series, because it changes the odds in a way most owners only realise afterwards.

A game you’re playing for the first time

Think about what happens when an approach comes in. On one side of the table is you: an excellent clinician and a capable business owner, but someone selling a practice for the first and only time in your life. On the other side is a buyer who may complete a deal like yours every few weeks. They have a team of finance and legal people. They have seen every kind of practice, every set of accounts, every negotiating position. They do this for a living.

It is a little like sitting down to a game of chess having played a few friendly matches, opposite someone who plays at a professional level. You might be sharp, and you might do well. But the person across from you knows the openings, the middle game and the endgame in a way you simply cannot after one sitting. That is not a criticism of you. It is just the reality of experience against inexperience, and it is the single biggest imbalance in any business sale.

Your accountant and solicitor are excellent – and this is a different job

When we make this point, owners often say, reasonably, that they already have a trusted accountant and a good solicitor. So they do, and those relationships matter enormously.

But it is worth being clear about what those advisers do brilliantly, and what sits outside their day-to-day. Your accountant prepares your accounts and manages your tax. Your solicitor handles your conveyancing and your legal affairs. They are very good at those things. Negotiating and controlling the sale of a business against a professional buyer, though, is a different discipline again, and for most general practices it is not something their working week is built around. A sale is a specialist, one-off event, and it rewards those people who do it repeatedly.

There is also a quieter point about objectivity. An adviser who has known you for twenty years, who is a friend as much as a professional, can find it genuinely hard to deliver an uncomfortable message at a tense moment. Sometimes the most valuable thing in a deal is someone whose only job is to look after your side of the table, and who has no hesitation about telling you the hard thing when it needs to be said.

What it means to have someone in your corner

So what does a dedicated adviser actually change? Three things stand out, and none of them is about magic.

The first is simple experience. Someone who has been through many of these processes knows what tends to happen next, where the pressure points are, and what “normal” looks like, so that you are not reading every move as a crisis or a windfall.

The second is that a sale is a project, and it lands on top of a working life you still have to lead. While you are negotiating, you are also running a clinic, seeing patients and managing a team. Requests for information and documents can arrive from every direction and at every hour. Having one person hold all of that, and act as the single point of contact, keeps the process calm and keeps you doing the job you actually trained for.

The third is pace. Time is the quiet enemy of any deal. When a process drifts, energy fades, confidence erodes and good deals can fall apart for no reason other than fatigue. Someone whose job is to keep things moving, steadily and to a plan, protects the outcome as much as any clever negotiating point.

You don’t have to be selling to start thinking

Here is the part we most want owners to hear. None of this is a reason to rush towards the door. Most of the owners we talk to are not selling this year, and many are not selling for several years yet. But the owners who do best are almost always the ones who started thinking early, calmly and on their own terms, rather than the ones who were caught on the back foot by an unexpected approach.

Over the coming articles in this series, we will walk through what that looks like in practice: how to think about timing, how to get your numbers in order, how to make the business less dependent on you, and what a genuinely good outcome involves beyond the headline figure. All of it high level, none of it a hard sell.

Because the goal is not to talk you into anything. It is to make sure that if the day ever comes, you sit down to that one game of your life with someone in your corner who has played it many times before.

Roberts Advisory is Vet Space Ireland’s Horizons Partner and works with veterinary practice owners across Ireland on exit planning, business readiness and the sale of their clinic. We are always happy to talk to owners at any stage, whether a sale is years away or already on the table. Reach out to us at hello@robertsadvisory.ie.

Article written by Roberts Advisory for Vet Space Ireland

To contribute to the Vet Space Journal, appear on the podcast, or get involved with VSI, contact us at inspire@vetspaceireland.ie or visit vetspaceireland.ie

Vet Space Ireland is a non-profit, volunteer-powered veterinary community platform. Founded 2019.

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VCI approves new accreditation standards as nurse retention crisis continues

New accreditation standards for veterinary education take effect in Ireland this week, against a backdrop of continued Oireachtas scrutiny of veterinary nurse recruitment and retention. Across the Irish Sea, a sharp rise in bluetongue cases is a reminder for vets here to keep pushing vaccination advice, while a fresh BVA intervention on RCVS governance reform echoes debates the VCI itself has faced over its own council structure.

By Vet Space Ireland  |  30th July 2026

VCI’s new accreditation standards come into force

The Veterinary Council of Ireland’s newly approved accreditation standards for veterinary medicine and veterinary nursing programmes come into operation on 31 July, applying to all existing and future programmes seeking VCI accreditation. Made under the Council’s statutory remit set out in the Veterinary Practice Act 2005, the standards set contemporary benchmarks across curriculum design, clinical training, facilities, staffing and governance, underpinned by defined “Day One Competencies” for graduates.

VCI president Joe Walsh said the standards reflect both the evolving nature of veterinary practice and the Council’s commitment to ensuring graduates meet the highest standards of animal welfare and public protection. The framework was developed following consultation with higher education institutions and stakeholders across the profession, and is aligned with European and international accreditation frameworks to support the continued recognition and mobility of Irish veterinary graduates.

Oireachtas committee continues to probe veterinary nurse retention

The Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food has continued its engagement on veterinary nurse recruitment and retention, hearing evidence that nearly three-quarters of registered veterinary nurses are considering leaving the profession, unsure about remaining, or planning to leave altogether. The Irish Veterinary Nurses Association has pointed to low pay, burnout and limited career progression as the main drivers, noting an average salary of roughly €36,800 and citing unpaid placement hours as a particular concern.

The VCI has since appeared before the committee, telling members that regulation alone cannot resolve every workforce challenge, while Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has said pay and conditions in privately operated practices are a matter for employers and employees rather than government. The exchanges suggest the issue is likely to remain live well into the autumn.

Bluetongue cases climb sharply in England

Defra figures show 54 confirmed bluetongue (BTV-3) cases in England and Wales since the start of the current season on 1 July, with the National Sheep Association reporting 29 positive cases in the last fortnight alone, 15 of them in sheep. The South West, particularly the Exmoor area, has emerged as a hotspot, with officials linking the rise to lower uptake of vaccination this season. Five further cases, in sheep in Devon, were confirmed as recently as 28 July.

Bluetongue is not a UK-only concern. BTV-3 was first confirmed in Ireland in a Co. Wexford suckler herd in January 2026, and DAFM surveillance has since identified cases in at least eight counties, including Wicklow, Laois, Louth, Monaghan, Kildare, Cork and Tipperary. The department has described bluetongue as a disease Ireland will have to learn to live with, following an EU recategorisation that treats it as endemic and under surveillance rather than something to be eradicated. Against that backdrop, the scale of the current English outbreak is a further reminder of the value of continued vigilance and vaccination advice for farmer clients here.

BVA sets out its stall on RCVS governance reform

The British Veterinary Association has published its response to the RCVS’s consultation on governance reform, which closed on 23 July. BVA is calling for reform to be delivered as a single, holistic package rather than piecemeal changes, and wants RCVS Council members, both veterinary and lay, to be appointed through an open, competitive process rather than elected, mirroring governance models used across human healthcare regulation.

The intervention keeps up pressure on a reform process that has been building since Defra’s white paper on replacing the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, published earlier this month. For Irish readers, the debate over how a regulator balances elected representation, lay input and independent oversight has clear echoes for the VCI’s own governance, even though its statutory footing and functions differ from those of the RCVS.

References

Veterinary Council of Ireland (30 March 2026), ‘Veterinary Council of Ireland Approves New Accreditation Standards for Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Nursing Education’: https://cms.vci.ie/veterinary-council-of-ireland-approves-new-accreditation-standards-for-veterinary-medicine-and-veterinary-nursing-education/

Agriland (18 June 2026), ‘Veterinary nurses: “We are facing a retention crisis” : https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/veterinary-nurses-we-are-facing-a-retention-crisis/

Agriland, ‘Regulation alone cannot resolve every workforce challenge’ – VCI: https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/regulation-alone-cannot-resolve-every-workforce-challenge-vci/

Houses of the Oireachtas, Committee on Agriculture and Food video archive (15 July 2026 session): https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/oireachtas-tv/video-archive/committees/11989/

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, ‘Bluetongue Virus’ (case history for Ireland, first confirmed 24 January 2026, Co. Wexford) https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine/publications/bluetongue-virus/

Agriland, ‘Bluetongue “a disease we’re going to have to learn to live with” – DAFM’: https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/bluetongue-a-disease-were-going-to-have-to-learn-to-live-with-dafm/

GOV.UK, ‘Bluetongue: latest situation’ (Defra/APHA case figures for England and Wales): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bluetongue

National Sheep Association, ‘2026 bluetongue updates’ (24 July 2026 entry https://nationalsheep.org.uk/2026-bluetongue-updates/

British Veterinary Association, ‘BVA calls for holistic approach to RCVS governance reform in its response to the College’s consultation’: https://www.bva.co.uk/news-and-blog/news-article/bva-calls-for-holistic-approach-to-rcvs-governance-reform-in-its-response-to-the-college-s-consultation/

Article written by Vet Space Ireland

To contribute to the Vet Space Journal, appear on the podcast, or get involved with VSI, contact us at inspire@vetspaceireland.ie or visit vetspaceireland.ie

Vet Space Ireland is a non-profit, volunteer-powered veterinary community platform. Founded 2019.

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Bluetongue in Ireland: Where We Stand as the High-Risk Season Begins

A summary of the Vet Space Ireland podcast conversation with mixed animal vet Richard Ryan, owner of ArchersField Veterinary Clinic, Kilkenny. Aired 2nd July 2026

By Vet Space Ireland  |  27th July 2026

Bluetongue is no longer a theoretical risk for Irish farms – it’s here, and the coming months are when we’ll find out how it behaves. In the latest episode of the Vet Space Ireland podcast, hosts Michelle Maguire and Evelyn Coleman sat down with returning guest Richard Ryan, a mixed animal practitioner based in the southeast, to unpack what vets and farmers actually need to know as midge activity ramps up.

A notifiable disease, but not a foot-and-mouth scenario

Bluetongue virus (BTV) is a notifiable disease in Ireland, meaning any suspected case must be reported to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). But Richard was keen to reassure new grads and farmers alike that this doesn’t mean the sweeping restriction zones many feared a year ago. Early discussions floated movement exclusion zones of over 100km around affected farms – a measure since abandoned once it became clear that midges simply can’t be contained by drawing a line on a map. Reporting a suspected case today does not shut down the farm, and it certainly doesn’t shut down the neighbours’ farms either.

Cases were first picked up in Ireland last year, largely as antibody-positive results in routine testing, with some deformed or aborted fetuses turning up at regional veterinary laboratories this spring -evidence of infections that occurred the previous season. The predominant strain circulating here is BTV-3, the same serotype driving most UK cases, though BTV-8 (a different, non-cross-protective serotype) is present in the east of England.

Why this July matters

Midges need sustained temperatures above roughly 12–14°C for the virus to replicate, and Ireland’s midge activity is now climbing fast. With midge clouds capable of travelling on the wind from Britain and mainland Europe, Richard expects clinical cases to start appearing as the season progresses – mirroring the pattern seen in the UK, where practices initially questioned whether vaccination had been worth the cost, only to see that judgement reversed once outbreaks hit.

What’s actually at stake

Bluetongue carries no food safety or zoonotic risk – meat and milk remain safe, a message Richard and Evelyn both emphasised as essential to get across to a public that tends to hear “notifiable disease” and assume the worst. The real cost is animal welfare and farm economics:

  • In sheep, mortality is the primary concern, with losses reported as high as 30% in affected flocks.
  • In cattle, death is less common, but reproductive loss is significant – up to 30% of pregnancies can be affected, including a distinctive presentation where calves are born looking outwardly normal but cannot suck or stand, due to fluid-filled rather than developed brain tissue (a consequence of infection in early pregnancy).
  • Clinical signs are easily confused with other conditions – IBR, photosensitisation, and malignant catarrhal fever can all present similarly with facial swelling, oral and ocular signs, and respiratory symptoms – which is exactly why testing to rule out bluetongue matters, even when another diagnosis seems likely.

Vaccination remains the key tool

The BTV-3 vaccine is licensed for use in pregnant animals and was rolled out ahead of the spring breeding season specifically to protect early embryos from the effects of a prolonged fever. Cattle require two doses; sheep need only one. Richard’s framing for farmers who are on the fence: can you afford to vaccinate unnecessarily, versus can you afford 30% of your dairy herd coming back empty? For anyone who hasn’t vaccinated yet, particularly sheep flocks, it’s not too late.

Practical midge-avoidance measures – nets, altered grazing times – were also discussed, but Richard was candid that these are only realistic for a small minority of Irish farms (indoor robotic herds, for example). Routine ectoparasite spot-on treatments may offer some incidental benefit, though most are not licensed or tested against the Culicoides midge specifically.

If you suspect a case

Richard’s advice for vets in the field: ring the local District Veterinary Office (DVO) or regional veterinary laboratory, who will advise on sampling and next steps. In his own experience with a suspected case last year, results came back within 36–48 hours – a fast, well-supported process, not weeks of uncertainty. Affected animals are not culled; treatment is entirely supportive (anti-inflammatories, fluids, antibiotics if secondary infection develops), with animals expected to clear the virus themselves over time.

A note on reading UK case data

One useful caution from the episode: UK bluetongue case figures are likely a significant undercount of actual animal-level spread. Testing budgets typically allow only a handful of animals (around six) to be sampled per suspected flock or herd; if those come back positive, the whole group is logged as infected, but only the tested animals are counted as “cases.” A flock of eight and a flock of 800 can therefore contribute the same number to the official statistics – worth bearing in mind before drawing conclusions from headline case counts.

Trade implications

With Ireland no longer BTV-free, animals being exported now require bluetongue testing – a change from the previous system, where only imports were routinely tested. As of recording, Richard hadn’t heard of processors adjusting prices as a result, noting that bluetongue is already endemic across most of the EU, so Ireland’s change in status is unlikely to significantly affect market access.

Official resources

For the latest guidance, case updates, and reporting information, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine maintains a dedicated bluetongue page:

This article is a summary of a Vet Space Ireland podcast episode and is intended for general awareness. It is not a substitute for official DAFM guidance or veterinary advice specific to your herd or flock.

Article written by Vet Space Ireland

To contribute to the Vet Space Journal, appear on the podcast, or get involved with VSI, contact us at inspire@vetspaceireland.ie or visit vetspaceireland.ie

Vet Space Ireland is a non-profit, volunteer-powered veterinary community platform. Founded 2019.

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Is The Veterinary Profession Becoming That Relationship We All Fell in Love With… Until We Actually Had to Live With It?

By Dr. Lisa Reidy, The HR Vet  |  16th July 2026

A friend was talking about the end of a long relationship.

“It wasn’t that I stopped loving him,” she said. “I just realised that loving someone isn’t always enough. Sometimes you’re trying so hard to make the relationship work that you don’t notice you’ve changed too.”

But somewhere between dessert and the drive home, I realised she wasn’t talking about relationships at all.

Or at least… I wasn’t hearing it that way.

Because I couldn’t help wondering whether she had just described the veterinary profession.

The Honeymoon

Every great love story begins with a version of perfection.

For us, it started long before graduation. It began when we stopped to pet every dog we passed on the street. When we spent our weekends in veterinary practices for no money simply to be close to the profession. When we survived practicals with Hester and Lynn, micro exams and surgery rotations because we couldn’t imagine wanting to be anything else but vets.

We didn’t choose veterinary practice because it looked easy or well-paid.

We chose it because we couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Like every new relationship, we overlooked the realities, the inconveniences. The late nights. The emotional exhaustion. The years of study. The debt. We told ourselves that love would make all of it worthwhile.

And, for a while, it did.

Moving In Together

Then we graduated.

Suddenly, veterinary practice stopped being the exciting person we met at university and became the person we shared a mortgage with.

Every relationship eventually asks the same question: can love survive the everyday?

The emergency phone rings just as you’re sitting down to dinner. Lunch becomes something you promise yourself you’ll have tomorrow. Somewhere along the way, Saturdays quietly become part of the working week. The hottest thing about your coffee is your optimism when you first made it.

None of this happened overnight.

Relationships rarely unravel dramatically or quickly. Most change one small compromise at a time. Our compromises just happened to be with veterinary practice.

The Compromise

This is the stage nobody warns you about. Not the arguments, but the negotiations. The quiet conversations you have with yourself. “It’s only one more consult. It’s just this busy season. Once we recruit another vet, things will settle down. Next month will be different. “

These are the small bargains we make with ourselves, believing each one is temporary, never quite noticing when they slowly become normal.

These are the little bargains we make because relationships require compromise… don’t they? That’s what we are taught to believe, right?

Growing Apart… Or Growing Up?

Here’s the uncomfortable question.

Has veterinary practice changed? Or have we?

A generation ago, working every hour available was almost worn as a badge of honour. Being permanently available was simply part of being a good vet. It was normal.

Today’s graduates ask different questions. “Can I work part time? Can I have a family? Can I leave on time? Can I build a career without sacrificing everything else that matters?”

They’re not asking because they’re less committed. Or less in love.

They’re asking because they have different expectations of what a successful life should look like.

Perhaps the profession hasn’t become less attractive. Perhaps we’ve become clearer about what we need from a relationship.

Why We Stay

Despite everything, very few of us truly fall out of love. Because every so often, veterinary practice reminds us exactly why we chose it.

Someone says, “we couldn’t have gotten through that without you.” A difficult calving ends with two healthy animals instead of one. A child proudly introduces you as “my vet.” Nobody asks if you’re okay after a PTS; they simply make you a cup of tea. A colleague quietly says, “I’ve got this one.”

These moments don’t make the hard days disappear. But they do remind us that, despite everything, the reasons we chose this profession are still there. Still Valid.

Can Relationships Evolve?

Maybe veterinary medicine isn’t the boyfriend we thought we were getting at twenty-three. Then again… neither are we the women we were at twenty-three.

There’s an old joke that women marry men hoping they’ll change. Men marry women hoping they won’t. Neither usually gets what they expected.

Which made me wonder whether we’ve been having the wrong conversation about veterinary practice all along.

Perhaps the question isn’t whether the profession can change. Perhaps the real question is whether we’re brave enough to redefine our relationship with it.

Can practices become more flexible than they already are? Can we protect employee wellbeing without losing standards? Can we build careers that allow people not just to survive in veterinary practice, but to stay in love with it for decades?

I’d like to think the answer is yes.

Perhaps love isn’t what changes. Perhaps it’s what we need from the relationship that does.

And I couldn’t help but wonder… if we trust the next generation to carry our profession into the future, shouldn’t we also trust them to build a relationship with it that works for their generation too?

Article written by Dr. Lisa Reidy for Vet Space Ireland

To contribute to the Vet Space Journal, appear on the podcast, or get involved with VSI, contact us at inspire@vetspaceireland.ie or visit vetspaceireland.ie

Vet Space Ireland is a non-profit, volunteer-powered veterinary community platform. Founded 2019.

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We Launched. Here’s What That Means For You.

A note from the Vet Space Ireland team on our new platform, what we delivered, and why every person in Irish veterinary has a seat at this table.

By Michelle Maguire, Founder  |  June 2026

We officially launched the new Vet Space Ireland platform – a redesigned website, a new journal series, a new podcast format, and three launch partnerships – and the response from the people in the room told us everything we needed to know. One attendee described VSI as “an independent, friendly, approachable place for professionals to get advice and engage, creating community and looking to improve the industry as a whole.” Another called it simply: “vets supporting each other.”

We think that’s about right. But we want to go further. And this article is our way of bringing you – the people this platform is really for – along on the journey.

It Started With a Simple Observation

When Hazell Mullins and I founded Vet Space Ireland in 2019, we weren’t trying to build an organisation. We were trying to solve a problem.

“Having spent 20 years in the veterinary industry, I have seen firsthand the incredible dedication it takes to care for our animals – and the toll it can take on the people behind the scrubs.” — Michelle Maguire, Founder

The Irish veterinary profession had no shortage of bodies to represent it – to negotiate, to regulate, to credential. What it didn’t have was a home. A place where a vet nurse finishing a twelve-hour shift, a final year student dreading their first job, a practice manager trying to build a better workplace, and a large animal vet driving rural roads alone could all find something that spoke to them.

Seven years later, that’s exactly what VSI has become. And with this launch, we’re taking it further than we ever have.

What We Launched – And What It Means

A New Platform

The new vetspaceireland.ie is rebuilt from the ground up – intuitive, mobile-first, and designed to be a genuine destination rather than a holding page. Everything VSI offers now lives in one place, easy to find, easy to share.

The Vet Space Journal

You’re reading it right now. The Journal is VSI’s home for written content: clinical perspectives, business insights, wellbeing conversations, career stories, and industry analysis.

We’re looking for contributors across every discipline and career stage. Whether you’re a vet nurse with something to say about your role in practice, a recent graduate navigating your first year, or an experienced practitioner with hard-won wisdom to share – this is your platform too. (More on how to get involved at the end of this piece.)

A New Podcast Series

The Vet Space Podcast – Ireland’s first veterinary podcast – returns in a new format. Deeper conversations, specialist guests, and a genuine willingness to cover the topics the profession sometimes dances around: burnout, career pivots, the state of rural practice, what it’s actually like to be a vet nurse in 2026.

Available on all major platforms. Hit subscribe.

Three Launch Partners

We were proud to launch with three organisations who genuinely share our values:

  • Zoetis – Innovation Partner. The world’s leading animal health company, dedicated to advancing care for animals and the professionals who care for them.
  • Premier Skills Institute – Education Partner. A leader in professional development and lifelong learning for veterinary professionals across Ireland and the UK.
  • Roberts Advisory – Horizons Partner. Specialists in helping practice owners navigate exit planning and business readiness – a conversation more of us need to be having.

The Number That Matters Most

There are 3,622 registered vets in Ireland. There are 1,265 registered veterinary nurses. And there are approximately 4,000 more people working in Irish veterinary practices as receptionists, practice managers, animal care assistants, and support staff.

That’s somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000 people. And every single one of them is part of the community VSI exists to serve.

This matters because so much of what gets built for the veterinary profession is built only for veterinary surgeons. The assumption – often unstated – is that the vet is the primary audience, and everyone else benefits indirectly.

We don’t believe that. A vet nurse who feels unsupported is a retention crisis for Irish veterinary. A practice receptionist who understands burnout is an asset to every clinician in the building. A student who feels welcomed into a community before they graduate is far more likely to stay in the profession. The whole ecosystem either thrives together, or it doesn’t.

The feedback from our launch confirmed this. One of our attendees – a veterinary nurse – specifically noted the importance of “wider networking with nurses and support team members.” We heard that. It’s exactly what we’re building.

What the Launch Room Told Us

Every person who attended the launch was asked to share their feedback. The responses were candid, generous, and a little humbling.

Across the room – vets, nurses, industry professionals, new partners – the themes were consistent:

  • The profession needs a space that is independent of commercial and representational interests.
  • Wellbeing, belonging, and honest conversation are not “nice to haves” – they are urgent.
  • The best employers need to be identified and celebrated. The profession needs to hold itself to account.
  • Content should span every role, not just clinical practice.

One attendee put it particularly well, describing VSI as “a place which is independent, friendly and approachable for professionals to get advice and engage – creating community and looking to improve the industry as a whole.”

Another noted something we think is genuinely important: that many employers who fall short of the standards the profession deserves are not acting in bad faith – they are simply unaware. Education for practice owners and managers is as important as content for clinicians. VSI intends to be part of that conversation.

What’s Coming Next

The launch is the beginning, not the destination. Here’s a preview of what VSI is working on:

  • VSI Recruitment – a new initiative to connect veterinary professionals with opportunities that genuinely suit them.
  • Large Animal Practice KPI & Economic Report – a data-driven look at the economics of large and mixed animal practice in Ireland. If you work in this sector, your insight will shape it.
  • Expanded podcast guest roster – more specialist voices, more honest conversations.
  • New live events – building on Vet Success and Vet Hike Space, we’re growing our in-person community calendar.
  • Growing the partner programme – if your organisation shares our values, we want to talk.

This Is Your Platform

Vet Space Ireland is non-profit, volunteer-powered, and community-led. That means it runs on the people who show up – and we’re asking you to show up.

Here’s how:

  • Write for the Journal. You don’t need to be a published author. You need to have something to say. Clinical, professional, personal – we want to hear from vets, nurses, students, practice managers, industry professionals, and anyone else who works in or alongside Irish veterinary.
  • Appear on the podcast. If there’s a conversation you think the profession needs to have, pitch it to us.
  • Tell a colleague. The person who most needs to find VSI is probably the one who has never heard of it.

The profession has representation. It has regulation. It has trade bodies and clinical journals and CPD providers.

What it now has – what it’s building together – is a home.

Welcome to the new Vet Space Ireland.

Article written by Michelle Maguire for Vet Space Ireland

To contribute to the Vet Space Journal, appear on the podcast, or get involved with VSI, contact us at inspire@vetspaceireland.ie or visit vetspaceireland.ie

Vet Space Ireland is a non-profit, volunteer-powered veterinary community platform. Founded 2019.

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Pay Transparency Is Coming: What Veterinary Employers Need to Know

If you have been following employment law updates recently, you have probably heard references to the new EU Pay Transparency Directive. Many employers have assumed that this is something that only affects large multinational organisations with hundreds of employees. While it is true that many of the public reporting obligations are aimed at larger employers, that does not mean smaller veterinary practices can ignore the changes. In reality, the most notable aspects of the legislation will affect every employer, regardless of size.

The good news is that pay transparency does not require you to pay everyone the same salary. It does not prevent you from rewarding high performers. It does not prevent employees from progressing at different rates. What it does require is that employers can explain how pay decisions are made and demonstrate that any differences in pay are based on gender neutral, objective, and justifiable criteria. For many veterinary practices, that represents a cultural shift.

Where Are We Now

The EU Pay Transparency Directive carried an official transposition deadline of June 2026. However, updates from Irish legal briefings confirm that the government is rolling out implementation on a phased basis. The Department of Equality is initially prioritising pre-employment transparency rules while they finalise the broader structural toolkits required for internal pay auditing.

This has understandably created some confusion, with some owners assuming they have a reprieve. In truth, some aspects of pay transparency are already reflected in existing Irish equality legislation, particularly around equal pay for equal work and discrimination. The Directive expands these rights and introduces a much greater level of transparency around how pay is determined. While we await the final details of Ireland’s implementing legislation, the direction is now very clear. Employers will increasingly be required to demonstrate that their pay structures are fair, transparent, and based on objective criteria. Rather than waiting for the legislation to arrive fully, veterinary employers would be wise to use this period to review their existing arrangements.

What Will Change

One of the most immediate changes relates to recruitment, and this is where the Irish government is focusing its early enforcement. Employers will be expected to provide salary information or an objective salary range before an interview. Candidates should understand what a role pays before they attend an interview. Employers will also be strictly prohibited from asking candidates about their previous salary history. The intention is to ensure that pay decisions are based on the requirements of the role and the value of the candidate to the organisation, rather than what they happened to earn in a previous job which may have been influenced by market discrepancies or past discrimination.

Employees will also gain enhanced rights to seek information about pay levels within their organisation. This does not mean employees have a right to know what a specific colleague earns, as personal data remains protected. However, they will be entitled to receive a written breakdown of the average pay levels for employees carrying out the same work or work of equal value, split clearly by gender. The overall objective is to identify and eliminate unjustified pay differences, particularly where those differences may be linked to gender.

The End of Informal Pay Decisions

Many veterinary practices have developed organically over time. A veterinary nurse might have joined ten years ago when salaries were lower. A veterinary practitioner might have negotiated aggressively during a recruitment shortage. Another employee may have accepted a lower salary because they were newly qualified and lacked confidence. Over time, practices can end up with employees performing very similar work while receiving very different levels of pay.

Historically, employers may never have been asked to explain those differences. Under the new regime, that is going to change dramatically. The central question will become very simple: why does one employee earn more than another employee carrying out the same role? If the employer can answer that question with objective evidence, there is unlikely to be a problem. If they cannot, the practice may be exposed to significant challenge.

Furthermore, the legal risk is amplified by a critical shift in how disputes are handled. Under the new framework, the traditional burden of proof is completely reversed. If an employee identifies a pay gap and brings a claim, the employer is legally presumed to be in the wrong unless the clinic can actively prove that no discrimination occurred. Given that the Workplace Relations Commission has recently shown a willingness to set aside standard statutory compensation limits in landmark equality claims, the financial cost of casual pay decision-making is now a serious liability.

What Objective Justification Actually Mean

This is the area that causes most concern for employers. Many practice owners assume that pay transparency means every employee performing the same role must receive exactly the same salary. That is not what the legislation requires. Different employees can absolutely be paid different salaries. The key requirement is that the employer can objectively justify the difference using gender neutral criteria.

For example, imagine two veterinary practitioners working within the same practice. Both graduated in the same year. Both have two years of post-qualification experience. Both perform routine consultations and surgeries. One is earning €55,000 and the other is earning €65,000. The obvious question is why. If the answer is simply that one employee negotiated better during recruitment or threw out a higher number, that justification will completely fail to withstand legal scrutiny. Anecdotally, some veterinary employers have been known to operate on an assumption that male veterinary practitioners generate greater revenue or undertake more valuable clinical work than their female colleagues. Whether justified or not in any individual case, broad assumptions of this nature are unlikely to withstand scrutiny under the new legislation. Any difference in pay will need to be supported by objective evidence relating to the individual employees rather than assumptions linked to gender.

In this case, imagine the higher paid employee has completed additional postgraduate qualifications, regularly mentors graduate vets, undertakes responsibility for clinical protocols, manages complex surgical cases, and participates in management meetings. In that situation, the employer has a perfectly legitimate, objective explanation for the difference in pay. The issue is not the existence of a pay difference. The issue is whether the employer can explain it using concrete, business-justified facts.

Performance Related Pay

Many veterinary employers have asked whether they can still reward exceptional performance. The answer is a resounding yes. Suppose two veterinary practitioners are employed on the same salary scale. One consistently generates higher revenue for the practice, develops new services, receives excellent client feedback, and contributes to business growth. There is nothing preventing the employer from rewarding that contribution.

The safest, most compliant approach is to channel these rewards through a transparent performance bonus or incentive scheme. The important point is that the opportunity to earn that additional payment should be available to all employees performing the role, and the targets or metrics should be applied consistently and transparently. Pay transparency is not about preventing employers from rewarding excellence. It is about ensuring that rewards are based on transparent and objective criteria rather than subjective, behind closed doors decision making.

Why Salary Bands Make Sense

One of the simplest ways for veterinary practices to prepare is to introduce salary bands for key roles. For example, a practice might decide that Veterinary Nurse salaries fall within a range of €28,000 to €42,000, while Veterinary Practitioners might fall within a range of €50,000 to €80,000.

The existence of a salary band does not mean every employee earns the same amount. Instead, it creates a structured framework that explains how employees progress. A newly qualified veterinary practitioner may enter at the lower end of the scale. As their experience, qualifications, responsibilities, and performance increase, progression through the scale can occur according to clearly defined criteria. This allows employers to reward development and contribution while maintaining consistency and fairness. Most importantly, it provides an immediate, legally sound explanation if employees ask why different salaries exist within the same role.

What Veterinary Employers Do Now

The current phased rollout presents a vital window of opportunity for employers to get ahead of the changes before full enforcement begins. Start by reviewing the roles that exist within your practice. Consider whether job titles accurately reflect actual responsibilities and whether employees performing work of equal value are being treated consistently.

Review your salary arrangements and ask yourself a simple question: could I clearly explain to an external investigator why every employee is paid what they are paid? Where differences exist, identify the objective reasons for those differences and ensure they are documented now. Consider introducing formal salary bands or progression scales for key roles within the practice and review any bonus or commission arrangements to ensure that they are transparent and based on objective metrics.

Finally, remember that the purpose of pay transparency is not to create uniformity. It is to create fairness. Veterinary practices will continue to reward experience, expertise, qualifications, responsibility, and performance. The difference is that employers will increasingly need to demonstrate exactly how those decisions are made. Practices that establish clear and transparent pay structures now are likely to find themselves in a much stronger position as Irish legislation solidifies.

Article written by Dr. Lisa Reidy for Vet Space Ireland

To contribute to the Vet Space Journal, appear on the podcast, or get involved with VSI, contact us at inspire@vetspaceireland.ie or visit vetspaceireland.ie

Vet Space Ireland is a non-profit, volunteer-powered veterinary community platform. Founded 2019.

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Why Transparency Matters: What Research Tells Us About Complaints, Communication, and Client Trust in Veterinary Medicine

Veterinary professionals often assume that complaints and legal disputes are primarily driven by poor clinical outcomes. A missed diagnosis, a surgical complication, or the loss of a beloved pet are commonly viewed as the events that trigger dissatisfaction.

The research, however, tells a more nuanced story.

While adverse outcomes undoubtedly contribute to complaints, studies examining veterinary negligence claims have consistently identified communication failures as a major contributing factor. In one analysis of settled veterinary negligence cases, communication problems were identified in the majority of claims reviewed, with many considered contributory to the adverse event itself.

This raises an important question for the profession:

What if reducing complaints is not simply about improving medicine, but about improving how clients experience that medicine?

Clients Judge More Than Clinical Outcomes

Veterinary medicine is unique in that we care for patients through intermediaries. Unlike human healthcare, our patients cannot tell us how they feel, ask questions, or consent to treatment. Every decision is filtered through an owner who may be frightened, emotional, sleep-deprived, financially stressed, or struggling to understand complex medical information.

When complaints arise, they are often linked to factors such as:

  • Feeling uninformed about treatment decisions
  • Perceived lack of communication
  • Unexpected costs
  • Unclear expectations
  • Feeling excluded from the decision-making process
  • Believing that concerns were not taken seriously

In many cases, the complaint is not solely about what happened. It is about how the experience felt.

A client who loses a pet may still express gratitude toward the veterinary team if they felt supported, informed, and involved throughout the process. Conversely, a successful clinical outcome does not always prevent dissatisfaction if communication was poor.

Trust, rather than outcome alone, frequently becomes the deciding factor.

The Difference Between Being Told and Being Shown

Communication has long been recognized as an essential clinical skill. Yet there may be another factor that deserves greater attention: visibility.

Being informed about what is happening is important.

Seeing what is happening may be even more powerful.

When clients are separated from their pets during critical moments, gaps inevitably emerge. Those gaps are often filled with assumptions.

Did treatment start quickly?

Was everything possible done?

How sick was my pet really?

Did the team understand how urgent this was?

Were enough people involved?

These questions are not necessarily a reflection of distrust. They are a natural response to uncertainty.

The less visibility people have into a process, the more room there is for misunderstanding.

Lessons From Human Healthcare

Human medicine has explored this concept extensively through research on Family Presence During Resuscitation (FPDR).

Historically, many hospitals believed relatives should be removed from the room during CPR and other emergency interventions. Concerns centered around emotional distress, interference with medical teams, and increased conflict.

The evidence that emerged challenged many of these assumptions.

Numerous studies found that family members who witnessed resuscitation efforts often reported greater satisfaction with care, improved understanding of what occurred, and better acceptance of outcomes. Many relatives described feeling reassured after seeing the efforts made by healthcare teams firsthand.

Perhaps most importantly, witnessing care reduced uncertainty.

Rather than imagining what happened behind closed doors, families could see the reality for themselves.

The experience often reinforced a belief that everything possible had been done.

While veterinary medicine differs in many respects, the underlying psychology is remarkably similar. Owners facing a life-threatening emergency are asking many of the same questions as relatives in a human hospital.

What happened?

What is happening now?

And is everything being done for the patient I love?

Transparency as a Clinical Tool

Transparency is often discussed as an ethical principle, but it may also be a practical one.

When clients are given greater access to information, greater visibility into the care process, and more opportunities to participate in decision-making, trust tends to improve.

This does not mean every owner should be present for every procedure. Patient welfare, safety, workflow, and clinical judgement must always remain priorities.

However, there are many ways practices can increase transparency without compromising care:

  • Frequent updates during hospitalization
  • Clear explanations of diagnostic and treatment plans
  • Honest discussions about prognosis and uncertainty
  • Involving owners in decision-making wherever possible
  • Allowing owners to remain with patients when clinically appropriate
  • Improving visibility into emergency and critical care processes
  • Providing realistic expectations regarding costs and outcomes

Many of these interventions are simple. Yet collectively they can transform how clients experience veterinary care.

A Changing Approach to Emergency Medicine

Some veterinary organizations have embraced transparency as a central part of their care model.

One example is the emergency sector, where certain hospitals have adopted more open treatment environments, increased client access, and real-time communication throughout the patient’s stay.

While more veterinary-specific research is needed to determine the direct impact of these approaches on complaints and litigation, the principles align closely with what communication and healthcare research have consistently demonstrated: trust grows when people feel informed, included, and able to see what is happening.

The Future of Complaint Prevention

Veterinary medicine faces increasing pressure from rising client expectations, workforce shortages, financial challenges, and the emotional realities of caring for sick animals.

In this environment, complaint prevention cannot rely solely on clinical excellence.

Clinical excellence remains essential, but it may no longer be sufficient on its own.

The emerging evidence suggests that trust is one of the profession’s most valuable assets. Trust is built through communication, strengthened through transparency, and reinforced when clients feel included rather than excluded from their pet’s care.

Perhaps the future of complaint reduction is not simply better communication.

Perhaps it is something broader: making veterinary medicine more visible.

Because when clients can see the care, understand the effort, and participate in the journey, they are far more likely to trust the people providing it – even when the outcome is not the one anyone hoped for.

Article written by Dr. Lisa Schaefer for Vet Space Ireland

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