Week 3 and counting….

During my weekly Monday catch up with David Mountford, our CEO, I proclaimed that this was a quiet week from a BEVA perspective.  “Good,” he said, “enjoy it whilst it lasts…”.  And how right he was, since Monday my diary for the remainder of the year has up filled up exponentially.

Having said that it was a quiet week for BEVA, I was due to go to Cullompton on Wednesday to speak at the South West regional meeting.  Regrettably we had to cancel at the end of last week due to a lack of interest.  We did delay the decision for as long as possible but with only 3 working days to go there were only 6 delegates enrolled.  Although we accept that the regional meetings invariably run at a loss, it’s a little embarrassing when the number of speakers, organisers and sponsors present at the meeting exceeds the number of delegates.  In recent years the delegate numbers at most regional meetings has gradually been declining (the nurse regional meetings and the meetings in certain specific locations remain popular).  We’ve discussed this numerous times at Council meetings and keep changing the formula slightly to encourage enrolment.  We obviously still haven’t quite got it right and would love feedback as to how best to continue to run them, which we’re keen to do.  But it can only happen with your support!  If you have any ideas or suggestions, please contact the office (anne.catchpole@beva.org.uk).

However, the cancellation was a blessing in disguise for me otherwise on Wednesday I’d have had to get from Three Counties Equine Hospital to the Royal Dick in Edinburgh down to Cullompton and back home again.  The trip to Edinburgh was work related and was to partake in a Tranvenous Electrical Cardioversion (TVEC) of a horse with AF with John Keen, Karen Blissitt, Lesley Young and Gunther van Loon…I was only there to carry their bags!  As a group, we did our first one at Three Counties Equine Hospital back in June, which is still in NSR and we are hoping to offer this as a service nationwide from a number of locations.  Gunther, who uses ultrasound guidance for the electrode placement and has performed more TVECs than anyone else Europe-wide, was there to hold our hands.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2MR-I_hhWI  We’re hoping to be flying solo with our next one…maybe then I’ll be promoted from bag carrier!

The remainder of my BEVA week has been lots of telephone calls and email traffic.  The rest of the time I’ve been back at the coalface, which has been really refreshing.  Although I have managed to upset only one vendor by identifying a lameness at a PPE – plus ca change.  And this weekend really is back to the coalface with a weekend on 1^st call and Luise, my wife, on 2^nd!  At least the weather forecast is bad; there’s nothing more galling than a weekend on 1^st call when it’s “wall to wall” sunshine.  It’s early pm Saturday and we’ve already had routine calls, 4 emergencies and a surgical colic requiring 16’ of jejunum to be resected….bring it on.