District nurse whose patients are all pets
MEET Britain’s first district nurse… for pets. Carla Finzel is so devoted to her animal patients she visits them in their homes as they recover from illness, injury or surgery.
The veterinary nurse spent years in practice supporting vets during surgery and worked in a critical care unit of an animal hospital.
After realising pets are often ending up more poorly because owners aren’t able to give follow-up care, she decided to work as a district nurse for dogs, cats, rabbits and other small animals.
Carla, 47, from Brighton, said: “If a pet has been seriously ill or injured, they’re sent home and their owner will be faced with doing very technical and complicated things to help them fully recover.
“They’re expected to give injections, change catheters, give fluids, change dressings, treat diabetes and even cancer. Something that sounds relatively simple like giving eye and ear drops is difficult for owners.
“If eye drops aren’t administered properly it could lead to the pet losing an eye. We spent years learning this at university but we expect owners learn the same in just a few minutes.
“Sometimes owners are scared to come back for check-ups because they think they have done something wrong.
“I knew by going out and supporting owners in their homes it would provide the missing piece of the jigsaw, and in some cases would help keep pets alive and pets and owners together.”
Carla quit her £28,000-a-year job in 2015 and started treating animals in their homes. She gets referrals from the pet’s vet telling her what treatment is needed and she reports back to them.
Her work is varied but includes giving injections and post-operative care. She sees several pets a day to give medication.
One of her success stories is diabetic cat Monty, owned by an 85-year-old woman who had arthritis and cataracts. She was not able to take him to the vet for daily treatment. He faced being put to sleep or sent to an animal shelter.
Carla supervised him being fed every day and checked his blood sugar levels. He no longer has diabetes.
A vet call-out charge is about £70 in Brighton but she charges £15 to £25 a visit, depending on the owner’s financial circumstances – many of them are elderly or disabled – and if the treatment is covered by insurance.
In her first year her salary was £5,000 and she lost her home. Carla, who relies on crowdfunding to support her, also volunteers for charity StreetVet, which helps pets living on the streets with homeless people.
She said: “I’m doing all I can for the importance of district vet nursing to be recognised and to make it a career option. Many vet nurses have contacted me about it.
“I want to be able to train them so they can work in their communities.”
She is now in talks with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.
For more details about Carla’s work go to carlafinzelvetnurse.com
For donations go to justgiving.com/ crowdfunding/carla-finzel to