Vets across the UK have been urged to lend their NHS-compatible human ventilators so they can be used by healthcare workers in the fight against coronavirus.

While they remain open for emergency animal care, many veterinary practises have other equipment that could be a huge help to the NHS, including monitors, anaesthetic machines and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Here, veterinary doctor Claire writes about the impacts of the coronavirus crisis on her industry and ultimately, animals.

I’m a vet who works in a small animal practice in the south.

I graduated in July 2018 and have been working for 18 months. My practice has seven vets as well as nurses, receptionists, nursing assistants and admin staff.

We see mostly dogs and cats with a few rabbits or other “small furries”, and we have a separate night vet team at our main site.

We don’t have any ventilators at our practice as most general anaesthetics don’t require them, so our ability to perform surgery isn’t yet affected.

For example, yesterday we performed an emergency C-section on a cat, and we have had seriously ill animals in the hospital for treatment as normal.

Under current advice though we’re only treating animals that are emergencies or likely to become emergencies within the next three weeks.

We’re not yet seriously short on anything we need, though I don’t know how long this will last.

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