The Taringa Vets Family

Livvy is the hilarious, joyful face you so often see at the front desk or the confident, knowledgeable voice on the other end of the phone. Livvy is like a chess master, she just knows how to tweak the scheduler to prevent a busy day from imploding.

We knew that Livvy needed to work with us for a long time, it was just a matter of patience. You see Liv and Livvy worked together for 3 years at a previous practice, forming a strong friendship. Livvy had been lured away from the profession and, in 2020 agreed to come on board to help us out for a short time...Luckily, we changed her mind and she is back!

She is a superb veterinary nurse who sings the most calming rendition of “Smelly Cat” anyone has ever heard!

Highly recommended by fellow colleagues (some of them Veterinary Specialists!), we literally shed tears of joy when Lib (as we call her - Olivia being too formal and Liv and Livvy being taken) said she’d join us!

Besides being an amazing vet, Lib is a very special person with a great sense of humour, calm aura and immense generosity.

Graduating with honours from the University of Queensland in 2015, she hit the ground running by gaining one of only a few internship placements at the University of Queensland’s Small Animal Hospital. Here she worked intimately with a team of specialists, helping them and learning from them before heading off to adventure in the UK.

This vast array of experience, not to mention her natural affinity for veterinary medicine/surgery has given her a veritable fountain of knowledge which she is so generously sharing with our team.

Lib’s interests are diverse. Currently her focus is on developing advanced pain management and palliative care programs to help our golden oldies to live their best lives.

If Magnus were a hairstyle, he would definitely be a Mullet- “party in the back and business in the front”.

When you first meet him you will see his professionalism, his knowledge and his kindness. However, over time his witty humour will sneak out to surprise you.

Magnus is the most experienced and qualified of us all at Taringa Vets and so his main role is that of a Veterinarian. We all turn to him for reason and advice on our obscure cases and are grateful for his insightful contributions that invariably help us to come to the solution.

His other role is as a leader, though he fulfils this role quietly only exercising his own fierce determination when he can see that Liv is preparing to act without adequate thought.

If Taringa Vets were a ship, then Liv would be the wind and Magnus the port. Without him who knows where this ship would have strayed!

It was Paula’s warm smile and easy sense of humour that first welcomed us into Taringa Vets, that day back in 2016 when Magnus and Liv first walked through the doors of Taringa Vets. Instantly, we knew that it was the place for us.

It is also Paula that kept the wheels in motion during Magnus and Liv’s early days. She filled the roles of Practice Manager, Head Nurse, Receptionist, Recruitment Officer and Mentor for at least 12 months while they found their feet.

These days, with a young family, Paula has to be more selective with where she spends her energies so her focus is on developing her natural talent for leadership – working very closely with Liv to ensure that the Taringa Vets team continues to develop in line with our dream and values so that we can continue to help animals and people to live better lives.

We have a guilty confession to make regarding the way Alice came to join our team. We poached her! We had heard of this fabulous nurse with an abundance of talent and a great attitude and we knew that we were the people to help her flourish.

We were not wrong! Alice has developed her nursing skills so quickly and now supervises the development and training of the more junior nurses. She is a major reason that we are able to move through our workload efficiently while maintaining our exacting standards of care.

Looking back, I believe that Alice, with her sunny nature, competent hands and great interpersonal skills, would have flourished anywhere. We're so grateful that she chose us.

Zoe graduated from the University of Sydney in 2015. After time in NSW, FNQ and the UK she is now Brisbane based.

Zoe joined us initially as a locum early in 2021. Just chatting to her on the phone made Liv determined to convince her to stay with us long term – she was so warm, enthusiastic and open. Thank goodness our values aligned and she is now a permanent fixture.

Zoe’s drive to continually build upon her (already phenomenal) knowledge and skill set has led her to undertake a gruelling Cardiology course. It is so exciting to watch her helping so many of our patients in ways that have previously been the domain of specialists.

Zoe is an incredible and determined vet who’s secret superpower is her exceptional ability to think and communicate clearly and concisely. She has so much to give to animals and the people who love and care for them, not to mention the team that surrounds her.

Amanda, Liv and Magnus were all in vet school together. She is a ray of sunshine with the levels of knowledge and insight that only vast experience (life and veterinary) can bring.

Amanda’s 17 year vetting journey has been a typically diverse, interesting, exhausting, stressful and at times overwhelming journey. There are not many of us who manage to maintain our passion and enthusiasm but against the odds Amanda has done just that.

She is the ideal general practitioner – capable and bold enough to undertake just about anything you throw at her, but wise enough to know when specialist help is needed.

We grasped the opportunity to have Sophie on our team as quickly as possible! We created a role for her confident by her quiet competence and obvious emotional intelligence that she belonged in our team.

Sophie is a qualified Veterinary Technician. Veterinary Technology is a 3 year bachelor degree that provides a base for graduates to become vet nurses, industry representatives, practice managers and also to undertake further courses to allow them to assume some of the diagnostic duties of a veterinarian – for example ultrasound.

Although the newest member of our team, Sophie seemed to fit in like she had been around for years!

Australia only recognises a few vet degrees from around the world so it’s not unusual for us to have vets from other countries apply for nursing roles. However the role of a Vet Nurse is completely different to that of a Vet so it is not something we usually consider. In fact us vets are traditionally totally useless as nurses!!

But, when Natalia, a vet from Colombia, enquired about a position there was something about her that we couldn’t ignore and so we took a chance. We were right. Natalia is one of the kindest, most patient and most resilient people we know. There’s not many people that could work in a vet environment speaking their second language!

Natalia has been with us for nearly 3 years now and it will pain her to hear us say this but she is becoming outrageously ‘Queenslandified’. Recently she answered one of Liv’s telephone calls and was mistaken for someone else because her accent was so Aussie!

If you’re lucky enough to have your call answered by Jenn you will know one reason why we were keen to have her on our team! Her beautiful, Irish lilt is so soothing – to people and animals alike!

We had to work hard to get Jenn to join us. While she always wanted to be a vet nurse, and spent time doing prac work with us, she was already working full time in child care and had a lot of loyalties to her previous role. From the moment we met Jenn she was so wonderful, we knew she was supposed to be a part of our family. So we kept trying, and waiting, and trying and waiting....and eventually we convinced her! We always knew that she couldn’t fight destiny forever😉

Jenn is fun, kind, calm and sensible - just a joyful person to be around. The many overlaps between her previous professional life and her new one mean that she hit the ground running.

We first met Teia through her cat, Turnips - Greatest. Name. Ever.

So, when she asked if she could do some prac work with us we didn’t hesitate to say yes already suspecting that she was pretty cool.

They say that you should hire for talent not skills and this was what we did with Teia. Her talent was apparent during her prac work. She continuously showed forward thinking, preparedness, willingness to learn and very fast uptake of information. It is incredible how quickly she has picked up the knowledge and skills of veterinary nursing, every day she astounds us with her abilities in her role.

We needed someone who could hit the ground running at the start of 2021 and Chiarra was the perfect person. Her previous work place recommended her so highly that we hired her in our minds before even speaking to her! Luckily she said yes!!!

Chiarra’s chosen path was initially to become a nutritionist but over 2021 we slowly but surely brought her to see the light and to understand that she was born to work with animals!

So, this year she has switched paths and will continue to work as a Vet Nurse with us whilst studying animal nutrition and maybe even animal myofunctional therapy. She is a bright star who we hope will continue to shine her light on us for a very long time still.

When we interviewed Jess we asked her to tell us one of her most embarrassing stories. I love that not only did she share it with us unhesitatingly but she still wanted to come and work with us!?!

The qualities we admire most in Jess are her openness, her cheerfulness and her super work ethic.

Jess has taken on many of our reception and administration roles. She has just started her nursing journey but already is showing exceptional ability – evidenced during her first anal gland expression - “Just like popping a pimple” she said. If that doesn’t show a true calling we don’t know what does.

Indy is currently half way through her Certificate IV in veterinary nursing. She is a wonderful and calm addition to our team. Indy is in it for the long run, her plan is to use Vet Nursing as a base from which to become a Vet. Her curiosity and desire to understand the diagnostic and treatment steps will stand her in good stead on this journey. We really hope our paths continue to align for a long time.

Sarah has been quietly working behind the scenes since she was in her second year of Vet Studies at the University of Queensland. She is now in her final year!

It has been quite incredible watching her develop into the confident, competent team member that she is today. The knowledge and skills she has acquired both here and through her studies as well as her understanding about how a gold standard vet surgery operates is going to make her a fantastic vet!

Jess is currently undertaking her certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing and has been recognised by her institute as someone with particular talent and aptitude in the field. Her significant experience both within and outside the animal industry have likely helped her to stand out so much.

Jess’ bright, bubbly and cheerful personality make her a student we love to have around. She is showing great aptitude for the role and we are grateful to be helping to mould her into a wonderful vet nurse!

Jade is currently undertaking her Certificate III in Animal Studies. This a typical stepping stone to the Certificate IV and already she has already undertaken 180 hours of volunteer hours in the RSCPA Wildlife Hospital.

Jade is a very impressive student and we have noticed that she has exceptional attention to detail and an ability to see ways to improve organisation. Her pride in helping us as well as in her studies makes a huge difference to the day to day running of our practice. We foresee a bright future for her!