National award for vet from Mullingar
A young veterinary surgeon working in Mullingar has been named as a major award winner at the Irish Veterinary Awards 2018, held on Sunday of last week in Dublin.
Caroline Farrell of Auburn Veterinary Hospital , Mullingar, was winner of the “Large Animal Vet of the Year” award at the ceremony, which was held at CityNorth Hotel, Gormanstown.
The Auburn team were thrilled at their colleague's success: “This is a great achievement for Caroline ,” said Enda Finnerty, proprietor, Auburn Veterinary Hospital.
The “Large Animal” category relates to cattle and sheep mainly, but, says Caroline, she doesn't confine her attentions to larger animals.
“There's great variety here: we deal with a lot of small animals, so you could find yourself vaccinating a litter of puppies one minute, and half an hour later, doing a C-section on a farm.”
Growing up on the farm of her parents, Seamus and Bernadette, at Moydow, Caroline always loved animals – especially cattle.
That's what fired her with the ambition to become a vet, and so, when few Irish students were yet doing so, Caroline – who set out studying physiotherapy – headed to Hungary to study veterinary science at the Szent Istvan University in Budapest.
Five and a half years later, she took up her first job, in Rathdowney in Laois, and four years ago, she made the move to the Auburn Veterinary Clinic. Caroline loves the work – but laughs when asked is it much like as depicted in the famed tv show “All Creatures Great and Small”.
“I think they may have been looking through rose-tinted spectacles!” she says.
Veterinary work isn't 9-5, and there have been occasions when Caroline has received the dreaded 3am call-out for an emergency, and had to take herself out in darkness to pull a calf, or attend to a seriously ill animal.
It's this dedication, say colleagues, that saw Caroline nominated for the award presented to her last week.
“All at Auburn Veterinary are rightly proud of Caroline and to be associated with this prestigious award,” said Mr Finnerty.