Client stories

Dana is the General Manager, Nursing Services, and has worked at Lort Smith for nine years. She manages the entire nursing program, including approximately 90 vet nurses. Her role involves:

• recruitment, training and retention
• professional development
• rostering
• relationship management
• OH&S
• improving systems and processes
• managing the Melbourne Polytechnic nursing students (80–100).

There are various areas of nursing at Lort Smith: surgery, accident and emergency, critical care, wildlife and exotics, and inpatients.

"At Lort Smith, you are working with lots of people with different skillsets. The opportunity to learn is great. The types of cases you see in a day would be the same as what you would see in a year at a general vet practice," explains Dana.

As part of our nursing program, we have a nurse educator who provides mentoring and upskilling opportunities. The variety of shifts, knowledge and skills our nurses have access to is immeasurable.

Vet nurses at Lort Smith use advanced technology, including a CT scanner, advanced anaesthetic monitoring and X-ray imaging, which they may not have access to at smaller practices.

"Our nurses come from a variety of backgrounds and possess a real team mentality. Strong friendships are formed between the vet nurses and they offer great support to each other," says Dana proudly.

Why Lort Smith

"When I think about working for an organisation so old, and one that carries the same values I have, I feel proud. Lort Smith gives everyone the same opportunity to have and love a pet, and to experience the human-animal bond. I'm proud of the fact that a female created Lort Smith and it is still here today."

In 1948, a weekend at Lort Smith earned you $4, and it cost $1.25 to spey a cat. That's when Pat Jarratt started work.

Raised on a farm, Pat had always looked out for strays. After the war, she read about Lort Smith in the paper. "I rang and enquired about volunteer work. They told me they didn't offer volunteer work but they did have weekend work available. I started, on my own, the next Saturday and I didn't know the blunt end from the sharp end of the hospital. The phone used to ring non-stop!"

The animal ambulance

Pat did a bit of everything: answering the phone, feeding and exercising animals, cleaning cat cages, and driving the ambulance. For collecting several animals, she took the English Bedford. "It had paintings of little critters with bandages all over it. And compartments for the cats and dogs."

"I could count on one hand the number of vet clinics in Melbourne in those days. There were only two or three in the metropolitan area, and none were open on weekends – so we just had to do the best we could."

Her most memorable patient was an old dog found by workmen demolishing a house in Essendon. "When I got there, the two 'heroes' were drinking a cup of tea and one of them asked 'haven't you got a man with you?' and I replied 'no, I don't need a fella!'" Inside was a filthy, battle-scarred dog whose feet "looked like swollen red footballs". His family had moved to Bendigo, and he'd escaped and walked all the way home. When they were contacted, they said he was too old for them. "I responded with 'he's not too old to walk 200 miles in your name!'" says Pat.

Mrs Lort

Louisa Lort Smith phoned the hospital every Sunday morning without fail. "She would ask me my name, how much I enjoyed working there and then always say 'Keep the Flag Flying' before slamming down the phone," laughs Pat.

"Obviously I have enormous affection and respect for them [Louisa Lort Smith and Lady Lyle] for being so brave. Because people didn't do that kind of thing for animals back then. Animals were secondary. They were two pioneers in animal care. Both marvellous women."

Rowing up the Maribyrnong

When Pat found draught horses kept in terrible conditions before slaughter in Footscray, committee member Joan Richmond, an aviator and racing driver, came with her to investigate. Refused entry, they hired a rowing boat and paddled up the Maribyrnong River so Miss Richmond could photograph the horses. Days later, the story was in The Herald.

"She had a real impact on me, she inspired me. I just loved the style of the woman – eccentric!"

Lort Smith still relies on the generosity of the community, just as it did in Pat's day.

• Our story
• Louisa Lort Smith
• Nurse Lorraine remembers

Lyn Orton has worked at Lort Smith as an Animal Welfare Officer for more than 35 years.

"The team joke that I went to school with Louisa Lort Smith!" laughs Lyn.

Growing up, Lyn always had a strong love of animals and wanted to be a vet. Life took her in a few different directions before she landed at Lort Smith, working with the animals in our Adoption Centre. Her duties include:

• guiding people through the often emotional surrender process
• working with the veterinary team to coordinate health assessments of each animal, and any extra medical treatment they need
• coordinating foster care
• giving lots of TLC and enrichment as each animal prepares for adoption
• helping to carefully match each animal with their perfect new family.

"It's so rewarding when the animals get homes, especially those that have been waiting for some time, or those with behaviour or health issues. We love receiving updates from the adopters," says Lyn.

Big changes

When asked about the biggest change she's seen at Lort Smith, Lyn is quick to answer: "The building of the new hospital", meaning the larger building in North Melbourne. "When I started, it was a series of portable structures," explains Lyn.

Since then, Lort Smith has grown even further, opening our clinic and Adoption Centre in Campbellfield.

"What those two women did [founders Louisa Lort Smith and Lady Frances Lyle] was just fabulous, and I feel privileged to be able to play a small role in the Lort Smith story," says Lyn.

A million stories

Lyn has a million tales she could share about her time at Lort Smith, from ghostly sightings on the premises to bringing in her own horses for "pony rides" at the Lort Smith carpark fetes. Her best-known story, though, is about her beloved George the goldfish.

"In 2014 George underwent life-threatening surgery to remove a tumour. It was either that or I had to put him to sleep. I love every single animal on the planet … and George was a little being who deserved a chance as much as anything else. The surgery gave George another three years of life! We had no idea that George's story would go global. It appeared in the news around the world and even made it into the Ripley's Believe It or Not book!" says Lyn.

Lyn has just adopted her 17th animal from Lort Smith, a kitten named Keith! But she says the most memorable animal she has met was a cat called Grace Kelly.

"It's not a very nice story. She arrived as a kitten with her throat slashed, one leg hanging by a thread and another severely damaged. The team worked so hard to stitch her back together. We saved her life but she lost one of her legs. I grew very attached to her and had to adopt her. She was such a princess and I often sang Amazing Grace to her – so it was only fitting that she be named Grace Kelly. She passed away just last year and lived to 18 years," remembers Lyn.

Lorraine Evans was only 19 years old when she started working at Lort Smith as a vet nurse, with no training, in the 1970s.

"Back then, parents thought that only boys needed an education. So at 16, I went to work at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. While there, I decided I wanted to be a vet nurse. No one typed in those days, I handwrote God knows how many resumes and sent them off to every vet in town!" laughs Lorraine.

Lorraine found science interesting, and says she must have had some kind of natural technical talent, as she used to do surgery on day-old mice.

At the time, there was no veterinary nursing course, so Lorraine enrolled in the brand-new Animal Technical course at Box Hill TAFE (four years part-time) while still at Walter and Eliza Hall.

"I had an interview at Lort Smith and got the job. They put me with Joan Humphries, a female vet, to learn from. She showed me how to correctly hold the different animals, how to scrub up and how to set up the operating theatre," explains Lorraine.

Animal MASH

Lorraine worked 13-hour days, from 8:30am to 9:30pm, and remembers being paid about $30 a week when she started.

"If there was a big emergency that couldn't wait til the next day, like stuck puppies, pyometra or a twisted stomach, there would be nights I'd be still cleaning at 11pm and due back early the next morning. We were so busy, it was like animal MASH. I learnt that young people are very resilient," says Lorraine.

During Lorraine's time, the entire staff was two "office ladies", four vets, four vet nurses, two people in the cattery and six in the kennels, a tea lady named Jean and a yard man named Harry.

"Back then, we didn't take appointments. People would just turn up, check-in at the office and the office ladies were expected to know what was an emergency! We would use index cards and nurses had to remain with their assigned vet for the full 13 hour shift. We were not to leave their side and told our very first priority was 'don't let the vets get bitten!' Vet nurses really are instrumental," says Lorraine.

Lorraine's main duties were surgical nursing, consult nursing, dispensing drugs and taking X-rays, including developing them by hand in the darkroom.

"I liked working in the theatre most. We would bring in cassette tapes and sing along to Abba and Joan Baez," smiles Lorraine.

Leading the times

"I think Lort Smith reaching 85 years is absolutely wonderful and I think it has kept up with the times. NO – it has led the times! I'm proud I was a part of the evolution of Lort Smith. Things were tough back then, but they were good."

"Louisa Lort Smith was obviously an animal lover, there cannot be any doubt about that. Her heart was always in the right place and Lort Smith did a lot of things early on in regards to education. Like promoting the abolishment of traps, handing out fact sheets about the exponential population growth of cats if you didn't have them desexed, the importance of vaccinations – during my era, there was lots of distemper and feline enteritis," remembers Lorraine.

"Overall, Lort Smith back then provided low cost, mostly very successful treatments to thousands of animals who otherwise would have missed out. I think the strays and staff were victims of the prevailing circumstances of the time – the tail end of the biggest Depression Australia has ever had. Lort Smith did a magnificent job despite this and I feel proud to have been a part of it," says Lorraine.

Dr Rod Brooks was a veterinarian at Lort Smith in the 1980’s. It was his first job out of university and it was ‘all encompassing’.

Dealing with whatever cases came in, Dr Brooks recalls there would often be only one vet consulting and another in surgery each day.

“Working with senior veterinarian Dr Carrado Cimati was memorable. He was quite an amazing vet and mentor for young vets, and very much a character!” shares Dr Brooks.

Dr Brooks enjoyed the variety of cases he saw each shift, and being able to help disadvantaged people by charging less than private clinics.

The hardest component of his job, something that every vet would agree with, was having to euthanise animals. Back then it was a much larger number. Thankfully, times have changed – Lort Smith’s philosophy now is to never euthanise an animal that is capable of being rehomed.

“The most unusual animal I ever saw was a great big python, owned by an exotic dancer! He was my first snake and he was brought in because he wasn’t eating,” laughs Dr Brooks.

Dr Brooks believes the importance of the human-animal bond has grown stronger over time. “Where previously pets mostly lived outdoors, now they are very much an integral part of the family make-up,” he says.

“Lort Smith turning 85 years old and opening up Lort Smith Animal Hospital – Campbellfield Centre demonstrates the need there is in the community for the services that the organisation offers, and the amazing things done over years.”

“People should support Lort Smith because it provides services that are subsidised for people who otherwise couldn’t receive treatment. It provides much better care for animals where people may not take them to the vet,” explains Dr Brooks.

Fun fact: Dr Rod’s mentor – Senior Veterinarian, Dr Cimati, originally from Italy, resided in the flat above Lort Smith’s original hospital (pictured) with his family. This building still exists today and is used by Lort Smith’s administrative staff.

Shelby was just 12 weeks old when Jess welcomed her into a family made up of a bearded dragon and two dogs. Knowing the average lifespan of a macaw is 60 years, with the oldest pet macaw reported to have lived to 112, Jess wasn't put off.

"It's why I got a macaw, I wanted a lifelong pet," says Jess.

An avid animal enthusiast, with a particular love of birds and reptiles, Jess was looking for an interesting pet that would challenge her. Shelby is allowed to roam and fly freely in their home, and also has a walk-in aviary in the lounge room.

Not herself

Jess first noticed Shelby wasn't quite herself at five months old. She became less chatty, was regurgitating her food, looked underweight and had droopy wings.

After visiting another vet clinic, which couldn't give a clear diagnosis, Jess brought Shelby to Lort Smith, as she knew we had an accident and emergency department and could see her quickly.

Fortunately, Unusual Pets and Wildlife Veterinarian Dr Tristan was on shift.

"When I took radiographs a surprisingly large tubelike foreign body was visible. I was able to take it out of the stomach using an endoscope."

"Once we removed it we could see that it was a feeding tube. The carers were not missing any feeding tubes so I suspect the tube had been swallowed while still at the breeders – sitting in the stomach the whole time they have had her," says Dr Tristan.

It's very inappropriate for a breeder to sell an unweaned bird. Lort Smith doesn't recommend buying unweaned birds unless you're very experienced in caring for birds.

Jess was very surprised at what Dr Tristan found, especially the length of the feeding tube, which measured 8 cm!

"I've been really happy with Dr Tristan and the service we've received from Lort Smith. He is really engaging and very informative," says Jess.

Back to full health

At a recent recheck appointment, Dr Tristan confirmed Shelby has made a full recovery, is looking much brighter, and is now at a healthy weight.

"She was a very sick bird when I last saw her, and would have died had the tube not been found and removed," explains Dr Tristan.

Jess is delighted Shelby is back to full health, eating her favourite blueberries and causing a ruckus for Jess and her partner.

Find out about care for unusual and exotic pets