Vets Now RVN Katherine Alexander has used her skills in Africa and China, the South Pacific and now Glasgow. She’s cared for bears and pumas, elephants and jaguars, as well as ministering, more routinely, to domestic pets.
The common link is that, in all those places, her time has been given freely – outside of her normal, paid, clinic and hospital work.
Volunteering and doing good is in Katherine’s blood, and that’s just what she’s doing on the streets of Glasgow every chance she gets. When she’s not on duty at the state-of-the-art Vets Now hospital in the city, she’s looking after the pets of the homeless at a soup kitchen.
Helping the homeless
Katherine is one of the veterinary professionals giving their free time to charity StreetVet, set up in 2016 to help the animals of the homeless. Since then, it has cared for more than 1,000 street dogs.
While those she aids are eternally grateful, Katherine insists she gets just as much back – and she says volunteering is helping her combat the stresses and potential burnout of the 21st Century veterinary world.
Katherine graduated in 2008, having spent four years studying between the Royal Veterinary College Middlesex University and the College of Animal Welfare, and her volunteering passion began while she was still at university.
Passion for animal welfare
“I hadn’t even been abroad until I was 15, but I went to volunteer at a wildlife rescue centre in Bolivia at the end of my second year,” said Katherine. “I was working with pumas, jaguars and monkeys, which was obviously totally different to anything I’d seen before. I just got hooked on helping.
“I was brought up in a family that was passionate about animal welfare, and I felt that I was making a real impact on the welfare of the animals I saw.”
Wanderlust
Katherine’s wanderlust saw her make repeated trips all over the world, both helping out as a volunteer at wildlife rescue centres and nursing. She has worked with lions, rhinos and antelopes in Africa, as well as helping to improve the welfare of elephants and orangutans in Asia.
“I did volunteering work with bears in China and then went back as a full-time nurse,” said Katherine. “In that case the excellent facilities and equipment were on a par with any hospital in the UK. But I had previously done volunteering elsewhere where you could only choose one antibiotic and one pain relief to have in stock. You were having to think outside the box to make use of what little you had to help that animal.
“It made me a better vet nurse as I had to deal with really difficult experiences.”
Back in the UK
Katherine’s UK nursing time has been just as varied, from one vet/one nurse practices to referral hospitals, including locum work with the RVC Queen Mother Hospital.
Time at a 24-hour London hospital gave her a taste for ECC work and she got more exposure in Australia while she was based at Melbourne University.
“I really loved it and knew ECC work was what I really wanted to do once I was settled in the UK,” said Katherine. “Obviously I knew Vets Now was a leader in ECC and I was really lucky that a job became available. I also really wanted to do a nursing ECC course, and I’ve signed up to do that here in April.
“I also wanted to be in Glasgow as I knew it was somewhere StreetVet worked and where I could volunteer.”
Glasgow
Vets Now has provided OOH and volunteer support to StreetVet since 2018 and treated 19 cases – from GDVs to fractures – at its hospitals and clinics last year. It provides professional indemnity cover for staff who volunteer for the charity.
Katherine had long been aware of the plight of those living on the streets with their animals. She used to keep the free food samples that came into the London practice where she worked in her bag to give to those she saw in need.
In Glasgow, the StreetVet sessions are held weekly at a soup kitchen in the city centre, not far from the Vets Now hospital site. The aid is aimed at those who are homeless or in temporary housing, but advice, food and treats are given to anyone who wants some. There is always at least one vet and one vet nurse at a StreetVet session, more if available.
All round care
“We supply food as well as the advice and care,” said Katherine. “So, often those who come to the soup kitchen for food for themselves, come to us for food for their animals.
“The numbers of people using our services vary a lot, and we can see maybe 10 or so on an evening. We get some people who just come occasionally when there is a problem and others who are there every week.
“If possible, we also join the soup kitchen staff on walkabouts in the city centre, looking for those who are sleeping rough.”
Canine priorities
The StreetVet teams know which of the city’s hostels will allow animals and are able to give that guidance as well as giving advice, treatment and food for the animals.
“The people we see would rather sleep on the streets with their dogs than sleep somewhere with a roof over their heads without them,” said Katherine. “Their dogs are everything to them. They are their lives, family, friends and protection, so want to do whatever is best for them.
“So many of them say to us that they would go hungry just so they could feed their dog. If it was between them and their dog, they would give their dog their food. They are so grateful for what we are able to do and say they don’t know what they would so if we weren’t there.”
Mental benefits
Katherine’s shifts at the Vets Now hospital can be full-on and, in addition to the challenges of ECC medicine, there are the stark pressures faced throughout the veterinary profession. But Katherine insists the mental benefits she gets from her volunteering work are crucial.
“I find it a massive help,” she said. “It’s completely different to going to work. I love meeting the homeless people, the people at the soup kitchen and vets and nurses with different interests.
“Having focus on something else helps me switch off from ECC and I feel privileged to be a vet nurse and have these skills.
“I feel I want to use them to make a difference to the lives of animals. I always look forward to a StreetVet evening and I always feel better at the end of the night.”
- For details of how to volunteer, or donate to Streetvet, visit www.streetvet.co.uk
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