An interview with Rabbit Vet Nurse of the Year, Abi Nell

Abi Nell from Mill House Veterinary Hospital was honoured with the title of Rabbit Vet Nurse of the Year at the Burgess Excel Veterinary Awards in December 2022. 

The awards themselves celebrate veterinary professionals who work tirelessly to improve rabbit and guinea pig health and welfare.

For Rabbit Awareness Week 2023, we caught up recently with Abi to find out more about her specialising in the care of rabbits and how she felt winning the award.

What made you want to specialise with rabbits?

I have always had a keen interest in rabbits and their care since I was a child. I attended the University of East Anglia which is well known for its rabbit research and ‘on campus’ wild rabbit population. During university I also started working for an RSPCA Wildlife Hospital where hand-rearing orphaned and injured wildlife brought me back into close contact with rabbits and leverets.

Once I started my nursing career, I was able to bring my previous knowledge and experiences to practice and have grown my passion and knowledge from there. I have six rabbits of my own and being a rabbit owner has really helped me to make connections with rabbit-owning clients as I am able to make suggestions on topics such as food and hay, rabbit bonding and accommodation based on my own experiences. 

I have undertaken a huge range of CPD to increase my knowledge and have formed many great relationships with other veterinary professional interested in rabbit care and welfare. 

How did you win the award as Rabbit Vet Nurse of the Year?

The Burgess Excel Veterinary Awards rely on nominations from veterinary teams and clients to select a shortlist of rabbit and guinea pig advocates from across the country. The judging panel look at a range of factors including the nomination itself, social media channels and practice information. 

The panel had already heard of me while I was still a student veterinary nurse as I was awarded during Rabbit Awareness Week in 2020 for my efforts in practice and on our practice social media to highlight the resources available to rabbit owners. The panel mentioned how pleased they were to see my name again in a different category two years later. 

And how did it feel to win the award?

I was shocked and thrilled to win this award. I am really proud to show what can be done in first opinion practice to ensure rabbits, the UK’s third most popular pet, receive excellent levels of care regardless of where they have been presented. 

As a result of the award, we have seen new rabbit clients after the practice was mentioned on social media and in local papers, which has been wonderful. I am going to be working with the QI team and Small Animal Board to offer tips and resources to other IVC practices in the near future which is very exciting.

Where do you see your career as a Vet Nurse going next?

In the future I am hoping to continue to build relationships with our local colleges and deliver content for SVNs and animal care students on the correct care and husbandry of rabbits and guinea pigs. Last year I completed my Advanced Programme in Veterinary Nursing of Small Mammals which has helped to extend and cement my knowledge in this area.

What advice you would give other vet nurses looking to specialise in rabbits and/or other exotics?

If other nurses out there have a special interest in rabbit and/or exotic patient nursing, then my advice is to jump right in. Practices really benefit from having a go-to person (or 2!) to be the driving force on making improvements, creating practice policies, collating the most up to date knowledge and being on hand to help owners with tricky or specific questions. 

And what else does the future hold?

I would love to work in an exotics-only practice, but at the moment, I have found that I can make a bigger difference to individual animals and families working in first opinion practice.

Owners who are taking their pet to an exotics practice are likely to already be very well versed in the basic care and welfare of rabbits, whereas some of the rabbit owners I meet may have never owned a rabbit before or have taken advice from friends and family, rather than veterinary professionals.

I feel I have done my job well when an owner calls the practice to speak to me about hand-rearing a litter, or the best age of neutering or how to find a friend for their existing rabbit, rather than searching the internet. The internet has lots of good information and lots of very bad information, so knowing that they have chosen to check in with me is the best feeling. 

I am really looking forward to being able to connect with other IVC staff and practices to ensure we can offer good care to rabbits and their owners over the next year as a result of this Award. 

You can read more about the Burgess Excel Veterinary Awards on the website here. Alternatively, take a look at the Rabbit Awareness Week website here.