Stories from a vet in outback Australia
Cattle, sheep, horses, and the occasional ostrich or buffalo – a vet on her own has to think on her feet!
As a newly minted vet in rural Queensland, Margareta Shiel performed her first-ever caesarean on a cow at midnight by the lights of a tractor (the cow did fine). She went on to work in isolated clinics in Western Australia and eventually settled in Tasmania. Her lively stories, from improvising a catheter from some bits and bobs in the shed, to wrestling with a pig in a broken-down pen, to stitching in a prolapsed oviduct on an ostrich, show the hard work, self-reliance and resourcefulness needed for life as an outback vet – and the satisfaction of helping animals and their owners in the amazing country she travelled through.
Margareta Shiel
About the author
Margareta Shiel came to Australia from Sweden in 1973. After working on large sheep and cattle properties for many years, she trained to be a vet. She then worked as a locum all over Australia and overseas before starting her own veterinary practice in Tasmania.