Picton vets’ feedback earns award

Quality trumped quantity as glowing recommendations from customers saw Picton Veterinary Clinic acknowledged as a champion in their field.

After spending all night up with a dog in need of hourly insulin injections, Picton veterinarian Christine Mackenzie was told by her vet nurses that they had won the Southern Cross Pet Insurance Clinic of the Year.

While other clinics had more nominations, Christine says she believes it was the quality of the 25 nominations her clinic received which counted toward their win.

“The Southern Cross rep said other clinics had double our nominations, but it was what was said in the nominations that won it for us.

'When they found out, my nurses had big smiles and couldn’t wait to tell me - I was almost in tears out of tiredness and was even more emotional being told we’d won.

“I was so thrilled my team received this special inaugural award - this has made my career and life because this is what I do, and we as a team do it pretty well.”

Christine says she’s pleased for the recognition, but the veterinarian life is not always easy, and not usually glamorous.

“It’s a 'service' award for our clinic team, we are not big and fancy, just practical and provide a service to the animals going above and beyond while being nice and welcoming because animal care is especially important in small towns.

“I’ve found a real love for education too, having done a Kids Animal Care course and wanting to give those learnings over to kids in our community to be able to care for their pets better, with little diagnosis and treatment learnings.

And with the win Christine is hoping she’ll have some special guests for her annual dog-focused outreach event

“More FM interviewed me on the morning show, and I told Simon to come as judge for our fifth Traffic Light Bandage Dog Walk and Games Day in March which I hope he’ll take up.”