The Maffra District Knackery has now admitted that they processed horses from the Northern Territory.

Now read on to see why it was always the most likely explanation…

An outbreak of liver failure in Victorian dogs has been linked to raw meat from a local supplier. At least 14 dogs died and a further 30 were hospitalised.

I’ve been following the story carefully. The more we know the stranger it gets.

Why The Dogs Died

We now know that the dogs died after being poisoned by indospicine, a toxic amino acid found in many plants of the Indigofera genus. The suspicion that it came from their food is strong enough to make the following statement: fresh or frozen raw pet meat sourced from Gippsland between 31 May and 3 July should not be fed to dogs.

This includes products sold across more than 30 stores described as beef and kangaroo pet meat.

Whether cooked or raw, meat containing indospicine is very toxic to dogs. Once you see where it comes from, you might share my concerns about all raw pet meat. You might also wonder if cats are at risk, given that they don’t get the same level of attention*.

Where Indospicine Comes From

There are six plants^† known to contain high levels of indospicine, but only one of significance to us: Indigofera linnaei or Birdsville Indigo. The map at the start shows it to be widely distributed across the northern half of Australia.

So how did it get into Victorian dogs?

The answer is that it accumulates in the meat of animals which graze on it. Birdsville Indigo is a tough drought-tolerant plant with a deep taproot, able to exploit seasonal rainfall before anything else does. As a result, it’s often the only decent food available for livestock.

Deaths in Australian dogs have been previously documented from the eating of camel meat¹ and horse meat². In both cases these animals were presumably grazing in the areas on the map. In fact, we’ve known since at least 1952 that the plant is the cause of Birdsville Horse Disease³.

Which I hope begs the obvious question: if we already knew about it, how did it happen?

The Raw Pet Meat Business

Meat is expensive, and only getting more so. Up against that is an increasing demand from dog owners for raw meat at affordable prices. The result is an unstable balancing act where the pressure is always on to find a workaround.

In this case, that workaround was probably meat brought in from the Northern Territory. Not that I’m not blaming the NT at all: they actually have some pretty tough regulations designed to prevent just this sort of thing.

Here are three examples from their laws:

• A person shall not sell pet meat unless it is dyed blue in the prescribed manner
• A person shall not slaughter a horse, donkey, mule or hinny for pet food if he or she knows, or has reason to suspect, it has been in an area in which Birdsville Horse Disease occurs
• A person shall not sell meat for human consumption, pet meat or bait meat with intent to deceive the buyer as to the true identity of the meat

So What Exactly Happened?

I think there is only one sensible answer: the meat came from horses transported from the NT into another state prior to slaughter. Here’s why:

1. Illegal slaughter is very unlikely in Australia anywhere
2. Camels could be slaughtered legally for pets in NT but the meat would be dyed blue
3. Cattle (beef) are improbable as they haven’t been associated with indospicine poisoning
4. Horses, donkeys etc would have come from areas in which Birdsville Horse Disease occurs and therefore be illegal to slaughter in the NT
5. Of the likely species, horses are the easiest to transport to another jurisdiction
6. Outside of the NT, meat sellers don’t always need to tell us what species the meat actually comes from

If I’m right, this is all legal, just very unethical.

Name That Species, Please

I’ve written about meat substitution before, and the only thing preventing me taking it further is the prohibitive cost of species-of-origin DNA testing. Even if the meat that killed these dogs was actually beef, it still must have come from areas where such meat should not be fed to dogs.

And in fact, as vets we should be looking harder at any cases of unexplained liver disease in dogs. We should be asking about access to pet meats in the same way we’re asking about grain-free diets in heart disease.

One thing for sure is that there’s still a lot more of this saga to come out. Whether that happens or not is another story.

In the meantime, I hope this makes us think twice about cheap ‘pet meat’. And if you ever see meat actually marked as horse or camel, you should only buy it if the seller can guarantee it’s not contaminated with indospicine. How they can, I’m not sure.

Related: Should I add meat to my dog’s kibble, anyway?

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

* Try putting “canine” and “feline” into Google Scholar and look at the number of results. You’ll see a 3:1 bias in favour of dogs.

† Those 6 plants:

• Indigofera hendecaphylla
• Indigofera linnaei
• Indigofera lespedezioides
• Indigofera spicata
• Indigofera vicioides
• Indigofera volkensii

They are all low shrubs found in livestock grazing lands from Africa, through Asia and the Pacific Islands, to North, Central and South America. It makes you wonder if it’s also happening to less ‘affluent’ dogs elsewhere. Just look at how long it took us to notice a new exotic disease even in Australia when it was happening far away from the capital cities.

References

1. FitzGerald, L. M., Fletcher, M. T., Paul, A. E. H., Mansfield, C. S., & O’Hara, A. J. (2011). Hepatotoxicosis in dogs consuming a diet of camel meat contaminated with indospicine. Australian veterinary journal, 89(3), 95-100
2. Hegarty, M. P., Kelly, W. R., McEwan, D., William, O. J., & Cameron, R. (1988). Hepatotoxicity to dogs of horse meat contaminated with indospicine. Australian Veterinary Journal, 65(11), 337-340
3. Hegarty, M. P., & Pound, A. W. (1968). Indospicine, a new hepatotoxic amino-acid from Indigofera spicata. Nature, 217(5126), 354-355
4. Tan, E. T., Ng, J. C., Al Jassim, R., D’Arcy, B. R., Netzel, G., & Fletcher, M. T. (2020). Emerging food safety risk of hepatotoxic indospicine in feral Australian camel meat. Food Control, 113, 107205

When Is A Swollen Belly An Emergency?

Dogs with any of these symptoms need to be taken to a vet immediately:

• Vomiting
• Hard, painful abdomen
• Collapse
• Severe lethargy
• Not eating

Now dive deeper…

The picture above shows what a dog’s normal body shape should be.

Could it just be fat? The answer is usually ‘no’. Overweight dogs are so common that they look normal to most people. Therefore, trust your instincts: if the stomach looks odd, it’s almost certainly not just fat.

For example, the pictured dog isn’t fat anywhere else, and the belly hangs down more than it should. Even though he seems well, he’s in a lot of trouble.

Causes Of An Enlarged Abdomen

There are many reasons why the stomach gets bigger than normal. I’ll classify them by the cause of enlargement and start with the most serious. There are two special cases in puppies near the end.

Gas: Bloat

Bloat or GDV occurs when the stomach suddenly twists and blocks the escape of gases. Gastric expansion follows, and without treatment dogs die a rapid and horrific death.

Affected dogs are usually large breeds with obvious distress and a hard, painful abdomen. If your dog is comfortable and eating or drinking, they don’t have bloat. You can read more about the causes and prevention of bloat here.

Sometimes a dog’s stomach swells up with gas for less serious reasons, like overeating. I saw one this week which happened with no obvious cause. These dogs need xrays to tell them apart from life-threatening cases of bloat, and to monitor the stomach size.

Pain: Peritonitis

Abdominal pain makes dogs hold their belly stiff and tight like a drum. We call this splinting. You should always treat this sign as an emergency.

The most common cause is pancreatitis, which you can read about at the link. However, this is indistinguishable without testing from other causes of inflammation or infection, such as:

• Intestinal obstruction from swallowing the wrong thing
• Ruptured or twisted bowel
• Gall bladder diseases
• Gunshot or stake injuries

Blood: Haemorrhage

Internal bleeding can cause the belly to look bigger, however it’s rarely the most obvious sign. These dogs are also usually weak, pale, lethargic or even collapsed.

There are two common causes of abdominal bleeding:

1. Eating rat poison stops the blood from clotting, and although there’s an antidote, most dog owners haven’t realised their dogs ate it until symptoms begin
2. Haemangiosarcoma is a tumour of the spleen whose first sign is often unexplained blood loss

It’s also very possible to have abdominal haemorrhage after any major surgery or injury. Obviously, whatever the reason, bleeding is always a critical emergency.

Urinary Tract Damage

Damage anywhere in the urinary tract can cause urine to leak into the abdomen. The most common reasons for this are bladder stones blocking the urethra, and car accidents.

Like with bleeding, the amount of fluid is mostly small, and other more obvious signs of illness are present, like lethargy, straining or pain.

Food: Overeating

A classic and sometimes serious cause of bloated stomachs is when a dog biscuit bag is left out while you’re not at home. Most dogs will binge on the kibble until they can’t eat any more, then the kibble starts to swell as it takes on water. These dogs often need the vet to induce vomiting to relieve the distress.

In puppies, abdominal distension after eating is quite normal. As long as they are bright and playful, and it goes down in a few hours, there’s nothing to worry about. However, the next cause also needs consideration…

Parasites: Worms

Intestinal worms are a very common and serious reason for a swollen stomach in a young puppy. Roundworms (pictured) often get large and numerous enough to swell the belly and block the passage of food.

Read all about preventing and treating intestinal worms here.

Fluid: Ascites

Many diseases cause the buildup of a clear fluid that we call a transudate. Most of these slowly worsen without any other major signs of illness. Examples might be:

1. Heart disease
2. Caval syndrome from heartworm
3. Portal vein obstruction from tumours
4. End stage liver disease
5. Certain widespread cancers
6. Protein-losing enteropathy
7. Protein-losing nephropathy

The first four happen because the blood pressure in abdominal vessels gets high enough that fluid leakage occurs. Number 5 is simply because fluid often escapes from tumours with a high surface area.

Numbers 6 and 7 are probably the most common. They happen when blood proteins are being lost through the gut or via kidney disease. This leads to a drop in plasma oncotic pressure, which causes fluid to leak from small vessels. The fluid will also often be present in the chest cavity.

Testing is essential to identify and treat the cause. Often all of the following are needed:

• History & physical exam
• Ballottment of the abdomen (percussing one side of the belly and feeling for a fluid wave on the other)
• Blood and urine tests
• Ultrasound exam
• Intestinal biopsy

The most common cause is inflammatory bowel disease as a consequence of protein-losing enteropathy. You can read about that here. As you can imagine, without treating the cause, drainage of the fluid is usually useless.

Fat: Hormonal Diseases

Even though fat deposition is unlikely, there are two diseases in which it is laid down in a way that can look like a swollen stomach. These are:

• Cushings disease, associated with an enlarged liver, pot belly, hair loss and excessive drinking
• Thyroid disease, associated with lethargy and unexplained weight gain 

You can read about tests and treatment for both diseases at the links.

Masses & Enlarged Organs

Sometimes a tumour in the abdomen can get so large that it causes the belly to noticeably bulge. These are usually slow-growing benign masses, otherwise they would have caused other signs earlier. Swelling can also occur when organs themselves become enlarged. Perhaps the most important are the liver and spleen. 

Diagnosis requires blood testing and an ultrasound exam. Even large masses can often be removed if there is no evidence of spread.

Uterus: Pregnancy & Pyometra

Lastly and very rarely I have seen owners of a female dog not be aware of a mating 5 to 6 weeks earlier. In older un-desexed females, a uterine infection called pyometra or reproductive tract cancer can also swell the abdomen in a similar way. 

These unplanned events should be a lot less common now that desexing has become compulsory in Adelaide.

I’ll end on a positive note. Despite some of the horrendous diseases mentioned here, most causes of abdominal enlargement that I see are the ones that can be treated, often with just a tablet. Therefore, don’t be frightened of getting the vet to take a look. It’s usually all for the better.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.

I’ve talked before about the reason why vets prices vary so much and again in 2021. That’s great in theory. Now I want to give you a practical example: my dog Tinker.

Tinker’s Liver Problem

A few months ago I noticed that Tinker was at the water bowl more than he used to be. There are a lot of reasons why a dog drinks more water and none of them should be ignored. Blood testing is a great place to start.

Every year since Tinker turned eight I’ve been doing blood tests with his annual checkup. Up to now, all normal, but this year all his liver enzymes were significantly elevated. Something was causing liver damage, and now we needed to find out what it was.

Diagnosing Liver Disease

I started with a liver ultrasound. It’s very good for detecting tumours, like Trixie’s example here, but will also give a good overview of the health of the organ and the rest of the abdomen.

Thankfully, his scan was all clear. You can see some of the pictures I took on our page about dog ultrasound exams.

The next step is a liver biopsy. Without an inspection of the liver cells, we can’t make a diagnosis. Without a diagnosis, we’re shooting in the dark. Or are we?

How Vets Make Decisions

There’s something you need to know. Animals get certain diseases commonly and others rarely. Which ones they get varies between species. The same symptoms in a human can give a very different list of likely problems than in a dog, cat or rabbit.

When vets make a decision, we’ve got in our mind something we call a differential diagnosis list. It’s, in my opinion, our most important skill. We think about all the things that could cause the symptoms, and then rank them in order of likelihood.

There isn’t the money in the world to test for everything that could be wrong so we have to prioritise. How many tests we will do depends on a few things:

• The odds of each problem occurring
• The urgency of treatment
• The vet’s own attitude to risk
• The owner’s preferences

The Tinker Protocol

There’s more than one way to, um, well you know what I mean. Each pet gets their own tailored protocol that will depend on each owner, vet, and disease.

In Tinker’s case, after the blood tests and ultrasound had been done, one canine liver disease stood out: chronic active hepatitis. It’s not the only possibility, but by far the most likely one. Additionally, it can be easily treated with anti-inflammatory doses of prednisolone.

Consequently, I decided to perform a careful treatment trial, something a lot of vets may criticise me for. I was happy to take the chance as I felt that further testing was not in Tinker’s interests.

I watched him closely and saw his drinking reduce and his health appear to improve. Then, last week I repeated the blood tests. As you can see, his results are good. Although I’m happier, it still doesn’t guarantee that my decision was the right one.

The Choices For Treatment

In Tinker’s case, I could have made five decisions. Each step increases the chance of success along with the price of treatment (costs below):

1. Play the odds in the consultation and start prednisolone
2. Decide from the blood test that CAH was likely
3. Decide from bloods and ultrasound, as I did,
4. Go for the liver biopsy for added security
5. Refer to a canine medicine specialist

The hardest thing for a vet is communicating these choices in a way that gives an owner informed consent. If we just say it’s option 4 or nothing, some dogs will die for lack of treatment, and others will miss out on referral. These are the phone calls I take on my commute home only to find I’m still talking when I get there.

So, TodayTonight…

I was approached to be interviewed for the story, and here’s what I said: “if I was that vet who only charged $60, I’d be worried.” Can you see why?

It’s likely the first vet took a zero tolerance attitude to risk. Their only fault may have been in not tailoring the options for the client. True, his or her employer may not allow that sort of flexibility.

The second vet chose that testing wasn’t necessary, equivalent to option 1 above. You’d want to be sure you’d got informed consent for that one. If the first vet was right, disaster is just around the corner.

Vets, after all, are just people. They all care, but they also all think differently. That’s why I always say the best test a pet can have is a second opinion. Why use only one brain when you could use two?

And don’t forget that you are in control. If you want a test done, or want to know how important extra tests are, just ask. We’ll try to guide you but you are in the driving seat. Getting the most out of your vet means having conversations like these.

Costs of treatment

To finish, here’s roughly what each option would have cost in 2018. Visit our price list here.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

• Aggression At The Vet | Dogs
• Anal Glands | Dogs
• Arthritis Treatment | Dogs | Cats | Rabbits
• Barking | Dogs
• Back Leg Problems | Dogs | Rabbits
• Bee Sting | Dogs
• Bloat | Dogs
• Calicivirus | Rabbits
• Car Accidents | Cats
• Car Sickness | Dogs
• Cat Fight Wounds | Cats
• Cat Flu | Cats
• Cataracts | Dogs
• Chocolate poisoning | Dogs
• Choking or Gagging | Dogs
• Constipation | Cats
• Coughing | Dogs
• Cruciate Ligament Tears | Dogs
• Cushings Disease | Dogs
• Cuts & Wounds | Dogs, Cats & Rabbits
• Cystitis | Cats
• Dandruff | Cats
• Deafness | Dogs & Cats
• Dermatitis, Itching & Eczema | Dogs
• Diabetes | Dogs & Cats
• Diarrhoea | Dogs
• Drinking More Than Usual | Dogs | Cats
• Ear Infections | Dogs
• Ear Swelling | Dogs
• Ear Tip Sores | Dogs
• Eating Rat Poison | Dogs
• Egg Binding/Peritonitis | Chickens
• Eye Problems | Dogs & Cats
• Flea Infestations | Dogs, Cats & Rabbits
• Food Allergies | Dogs & Cats
• Gastrointestinal Stasis | Rabbits
• Genetic Disease | Dogs | Cats
• Giving Birth | Dogs
• Giving Tablets | Cats
• Grape Poisoning | Dogs
• Grass Seeds | Dogs
• Hair Loss and Overgrooming | Cats | Rats
• Heart Diseases & Failure | Dogs & Cats
• Heart Murmurs | Dogs
• Heat Stress & Stroke | Dogs
• Hip Dysplasia | Dogs
• Injuries Car & Road | Cats
• Injuries | Rabbits
• Kennel Cough | Dogs
• Kidney Disease & Failure | Dogs & Cats | Rabbits
• Licking Feet | Dogs
• Limping | Dogs
• Lip & Mouth Sores | Cats
• Lost Or Missing Pets | Dogs, Cats & Rabbits
• Lumps | Dogs | Rabbits
• Lumps In The Mouth | Dogs
• Mite infestation | Guinea Pigs
• Mycoplasma Respiratory Disease | Rats
• Myxomatosis | Rabbits
• Not Eating | Cats | Rabbits
• Onion Eating | Dogs
• Overgrown Teeth | Rabbits
• Overweight | Dogs Cats
• Pancreatic Inflammation | Dogs | Cats
• Patellar Luxation Surgery | Dogs
• Poisoning | Dogs
• Respiratory Infections | Chickens
• Scratching & Itching | Dogs
• Seizures & Fits | Dogs
• Separation Anxiety | Dogs
• Skin Infections & Hotspots | Dogs
• Snake Bite | Dogs & Cats
• Teeth Cleaning & Dentistry Options | Dogs & Cats
• Thunderstorm & Firework Fear | Dogs
• Tick Paralysis | Dogs & Cats
• Thyroid & Hyperthyroid | Cats
• Urinary Obstruction | Cats
• Urinating Inside | Cats | Dogs
• Vomiting | Dogs | Cats
• Walking & On Leash Aggression | Dogs
• Yelping in Pain | Dogs

Is this just over-servicing or are there good reasons to check?

In the end it’s up to you to decide. Once you read Trixie’s story you may see it from our point of view.

Why Do We Do Blood Tests?

Two years ago when Trixie was ten years old, she came for her annual checkup. She seemed completely healthy but when we asked her owner if she also wanted us to take blood she said yes. Here’s why:

• The older you are the more can go wrong
• Dogs age seven times faster than humans; each annual checkup spans seven of our years
• Dogs can’t complain about feeling sick
• Good haemoglobin, kidney & liver values are vital for anaesthetics
• And what most pet owners say: we’d do it for ourselves

What Do Blood Tests Look At?

Trixie’s physical exam was 100% normal but we didn’t stop there. Our nurses do a great job of holding dogs or cats for blood testing, and so the sample was taken without distress to dog or owner.

Although we have our own in-house blood analytical machine for emergency and pre anaesthetic screening, we always send non urgent samples to an external laboratory.

Here are Trixie’s results. I’ve labelled each set of values so you can see what is included in a standard blood test. As you can see, there are a lot of readings taken from a tiny amount of blood.

We can get all of this from 1.5mL of blood. If you look at the second test you’ll see there’s even more. Sometimes I stop to remember how amazing this is.

As you can see, each value is reported with the normal range for that parameter. As you can also see, there are some abnormalities.

The job of the vet is to sort the wheat from the chaff. There are always spurious or irrelevant abnormalities. In this case, though, you can see that no-one would look at those liver enzymes and think they are OK.

Next problem:

What Happens With Abnormal Blood Results?

The first thing you need to know is that we will always call you to discuss blood results, whether they are normal or not. If you don’t hear from us within two days, check that we’ve got your best phone number, because you can bet we’ve tried.

Most of the time, abnormal results don’t give us a diagnosis. We find that something isn’t working properly or that an organ is in trouble. We still need to find out why.

Most abnormal results will result in us asking for further specific testing. Often we’ll ask you to collect a urine sample. In Trixie’s case, we started with a second blood test for Cushings Syndrome (which was negative), and then recommended an ultrasound examination.

The ultrasound showed a large mass in the liver, but indicated that there was still time to remove it. She had routine surgery to remove the mass inside its liver lobe.

Recently I saw her again and did her annual checkup. That’s her above looking fantastic. No surprises that her owner asked for another blood test. This one is a good example of the minor variations we can safely disregard.

Should My Dog Or Cat Have Blood Tests?

I like to think of blood testing as a fishing trip. You don’t know what you’re going to catch, and often you come back with nothing to show for the effort and cost (the price of Trixie’s test is listed here).

Read here how often pet blood tests are abnormal. It’s a gamble being played with very high stakes. If Trixie didn’t have her routine blood test we would never have found the tumour in time, and she would not be alive and happy today.

Common and important findings include kidney disease, liver disease, chronic pancreatitis and hormonal diseases like overactive or underactive thyroid, diabetes or cushing’s syndrome. All of these can be managed if we discover them in time. Many of them also affect how your pet copes with an anaesthetic.

Most of the time, blood testing will not be this dramatic, but we regularly see stories like Trixie’s. In the end, we will never tell you you should get blood testing done. It’s always your choice and we respect that. But I’ll bet there aren’t many vets who don’t do it for their own animals.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

This is Micki. He’s so happy and active that this is the best photo we could take. But he wasn’t always so perky. Last year he started having seizures and his very concerned owner brought him to us. There was nothing remarkable found on his physical exam, so we took blood for haematology and biochemistry, as we always do when dogs are having seizures.

In this case, Micki’s blood test results showed elevations in his liver enzymes, suggesting a liver problem. To investigate the findings we scheduled an ultrasound examination of his abdomen.

An image from the scan of his liver is shown. In it, you can see from the scale markings that his liver, although unremarkable in echotexture, is only 2cm thick (the dark oval is his gall bladder) It was clearly reduced in size, and inaccessible to a biopsy needle.

Micki’s Diagnosis

We discussed the results with his owner. It was clear to us that such an abnormal liver was the source of Micki’s problems, but we cannot diagnose the exact liver condition without a biopsy. There are lots of liver problems found in dogs.

However, the problem was likely to be a degenerative hepatitis common to older dogs. You can read about the same disease in one of our vets’ dogs here.

The gradual destruction and shrinking of the liver mean it no longer has the ability to detoxify the products arriving from the gut. Therefore, these nasty compounds like ammonia and urea are shunted past the liver and manage to reach the brain. This is called hepatic encephalopathy.

Micki’s Treatment

An understandable choice was made to not proceed with an invasive liver biopsy via exploratory surgery. The treatment decision was then very clear; to provide a diet which minimised the work required to be done by the liver while at the same time supporting its ongoing survival. This food is called Hills Prescription Diet l/d.

Many owners are reluctant to make the big decision to completely change their pet’s diet in the face of illness. They probably do not think something as simple as a food can do that much to help, and worry that their pet will find the new food bland and uninteresting. However, Micki’s owner took the decision with full enthusiasm and made the difficult swap.

The results were better than even we expected. When we examined Micki recently, his owner reported that there were no more seizures in the 35 weeks since the diagnosis. Micki was brighter, more active and most surprisingly liked the food more than his old food.

Treatment of Hepatic Encephalopathy in Dogs

Treatment options include:

• liver support diets to reduce toxin production (always)
• lactulose to encourage toxin elimination (often)
• antacids to combat gastrointestinal ulcers (often)
• antibiotics to reduce toxin production (rarely)

I suspect that the liver diet is not tastier than his old food, even though it looks that way by Micki’s attitude to it. The more likely explanation is that the new food improves his brain function and sense of wellbeing so he is naturally healthier and hungrier. It’s another example of an answer we often give when an owner asks how they can stimulate their sick pet’s appetite- make them feel better!

Follow up: one year later, Micki is still going strong and is just as full of vigour and life. There is now a second liver diet called Royal Canin Hepatic Support.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.