Lisa Brisbane can still remember the "tricky" first day of trading she experienced after taking the reigns at Canobolas Family Pet Hospital.
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With previous owners Bruce and Sarah Thomson selling the majority of their equipment, Mrs Brisbane was left to order new stock for the business.
Unfortunately for her, it took a little longer than anticipated for her tools to arrive.
"One of the first cases we saw was a dog that came in with a snake bite," she said.
"Basically, it had to sit tied up to a table while we treated it until our cages arrives a few hours later. But we made it work."
On October 7, Mrs Brisbane officially celebrated her 25th anniversary of ownership at the vet clinic.
A quarter-century after first taking on the role, she reflected on the ups and downs of an ever-evolving industry.
"It was a smaller practice at the time. There were only a couple of vets working," she said.
"We had x-ray facilities and blood testing machines, but nothing to the extent we have these days."
Mrs Brisbane had only worked at the practice - then known as Glenroi Vet Clinic - for 18 months before being offered the ownership chance.
With just 2.5 years of total experience behind her, it was a daunting task but one she took in her stride.
"I always wanted to be a vet, ever since I was quite young, but being a practice owner probably didn't factor into that at the time," she said.
"But I thought 'why not'."
There were never any grand plans to expand the business to what it has become.
Everything just happened naturally according to the long-time vet.
"Animals now are a lot more valued family members," she said.
"The things we do to help treat people's pets are a lot more involved and extensive from what they used to be, because expectations have improved and increased."
Challenging industry
When Mrs Brisbane first took on the role of owner, she was in it for the long haul.
Having studied for many years at university, she never wanted her career to be a "flash in the pan".
In saying that, although the job has been "fairly rewarding" most of the time, it hasn't been without its challenges.
One of those main difficulties is happening right now.
"There's a lot of problems in the industry with working conditions and pay rate. A lot of vets are getting stressed and burnt out really quickly. Some of those are very soon after they graduate," Mrs Brisbane said.
"It is quite difficult to employ vets because there's just not enough. There's a nation-wide shortage which makes things a little challenging at the moment."
In 2022, Vet Life Australia reported a quarter of veterinarians suffered from depression and work-related burnout.
The report added that vets had almost four times the suicide rate of the general Australian population. This equated to a vet dying by suicide once every 12 weeks in Australia on average.
"We're ok right now, we've got an amazing vet team and we're all very supportive of each other and look after each other," Mrs Brisbane said.
"But I know there are a lot of new and recent graduates who probably don't have the support that they need."
One of the biggest challenges for Canobolas Family Pet Hospital has been employing vets.
The owner estimated they'd had a job ad run for nearly three years without success.
"We are open seven days a week and do after-hours. That's not very appealing for new graduates because jobs in Sydney, they can go home at the end of the day and all the after-hours cases go to the referral hospitals, but we don't have those things here," Mrs Brisbane added.
"It makes our workplace less appealing."
Despite all of this and a desire to cut back her own hours, Mrs Brisbane isn't done with the profession.
"I've got a few years left in me yet," she added.
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