OUR EDUCATION LEADERS

Qualifications: BVSc, MANZCVS, Honorary FANZCVS

Biography:

Terry, born & bred in Townsville, North Queensland, received his BVSc from University of Queensland in 1975, and Membership of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists (now ANZCVSc) in 1996 in Emergency & Critical Care.

Terry believes he has been blessed with three major career moves, all in small animal practice – 19 fantastic years in general practice on Brisbane’s northside, then 7 years as a medical clinician in UQ’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital (a time he wouldn’t swap for anything) before being extremely fortunate to join Veterinary Specialist Services in 2002, and this has ‘seen him out’. Terry is not a specialist, but spent the last 30 years as an internal medicine referral clinician with a special interest in the emergency & critical care patient, working alongside bona fide specialists and specialists-in-waiting in all the traditional & emerging veterinary disciplines.

Devoted to the veterinary profession, Terry has strived to repay it & his colleagues for the enjoyment & friendships he’s received by serving on various committees and sometimes office bearer on Brisbane Veterinary Practitioner Branch of AVA, AVA Qld, ASAVA, and the ANZCVS. He has been external examiner, guest lecturer and tutor at UQ’s School of Veterinary Science as well membership examiner for ANZCVS. Terry has been an active participant in scores of meetings and conferences around the country, lecturing in many of these, and has accepted the honour of ‘getting a guernsey’ to speak at WSAVA & FASAVA conferences in many parts of Asia, and one cameo in the USA in a toxicology conference with the topic ‘Deadly Australians’, being able to warn our American cousins on the dangers of drop bears!

Awards Terry treasures (straight to the Pool Room) are AVA Meritorious Service Award (1991), Life Member of the UQ Veterinary Student’s Association (2002), ASAVA Practitioner of the Year (2005), CVE’s Tom Hungerford Award for excellence in continuing veterinary education (2016), Honorary Fellowship of ANZCVS (2018), and ASAV's John Holt Distinguished Service Award 920230.

Blessed with being able to work & learn with veterinarians all over this country and the World, Terry is adamant that Australian veterinary care is second to none. Terry is a committed family pet practitioner, loves the animal-person bond, and undertakes to prolong it. While all facets of small animal medicine & surgery have progressed enormously over Terry’s nearly 50 years of involvement, he believes care of the critical patient as well as palliation (a multidisciplinary approach involving multi-model therapy) of the chronically (and terminally) ill lead our advancement in family pet medicine.

Terry loves reading, writing, and sharing good beer & wine with family & friends, or anyone he can find to fill a glass with. He considers himself a champion of the barbeque; loves walking his dogs, swimming (slowly), anything to do with horses having grown up with them, and mowing the lawn with his trusty Victa (his favourite pastime). Did you know that it has been clinically proven that cut grass (freshly mown lawn) releases a chemical called Serenascent that makes people happy & relaxed and prevents mental decline in old age; it works directly on the brain, in particular, the amygdala (emotions) and the hippocampus (memory) - Lavidis & Einstein 2006; Spiers et al, 2016 .

As well as the above, on his days off work, Terry cooks dinner, takes out the rubbish and does the household chores, trying to make up for the last 45 years of marital neglect.