Team Member in the Spotlight – Junior ECC Vet – Dr Ethan Elliot

So I’m originally from New Zealand (All Blacks Pride) and finished up vet school in 2024. After vet school I underwent a rotating internship at Massey University in 2025 and only recently moved to Melbourne in January 2026. Emergency medicine most certainly was not on my trajectory in vet school and was the part of the internship I was most stressed about, however, I’ve grown to love it. I also have a passion for the field of neurology; and hope to develop this in my career. Arguably a lot of vets find neuro and emergency quite challenging – so I guess I’m a sucker for punishment?

The fast paced nature and exposure to advanced cases/procedures – but also seeing critical cases like hit by cars get stabilised, better and leave the hospital is very rewarding.

I always knew I’d move to Melbourne eventually and started interviewing late last year. The interview with Southpaws, dare I say, went really well and I had a really positive vibe from the staff who seemed (and are) very supportive right off the bat.

That Australians aren’t as blunt as I thought? (Coming from a kiwi don’t deport me)

Coming from my internship we were the only vets on during the night shift, and while we had an on-call system we still had to act in those first 10-15 minutes to stabilise, work out what’s going on or even potentially perform CPR. What’s nice at Southpaws is that we always have another vet on with us to bounce ideas off of, and help with procedures where required – which certainly has reduced the stress significantly!

I managed a case earlier this year where a dog had eaten bones and felt quite ill with vomiting – initially I was suspicious the dog was meeting sepsis guidelines criteria and a few hours later it was evident that the bones likely perforated her intestines. Foreign body cases in general usually are straight forward – but this case showed me just how deadly these relatively common presentations can actually get, whilst consolidating the knowledge I had been taught surrounding the septic patient approach.

Unblocking a cat! Somehow I completed my entire one year internship without ever having an unblocking case – now I’ve had several and can do them completely solo.

We all try our best to make sure each of us aren’t too overwhelmed – i.e. delegating tasks, taking on more inpatients if the other vet is doing consults and still maintaining overall patient care whilst balancing the more critically ill patients who require more staffing attention.

Easy – the team. Not only is the team highly experienced but we always have good banter and get along well – even at 4:00AM.

It’s a great way to learn as you get opinions and recommendations from departments outside of ECC. I would strongly recommend starting in a specialist hospital with a rotating internship programme prior to jumping into ECC for the reason of having that broad exposure!

I’d love to continue to develop my skills in Neurology and take on advanced courses which cover the inner details of the brain – to me neurology is like a puzzle and is very satisfying when you’re able to neurolocalise a specific condition.

Usually you’ll find me at the gym bench pressing to girly pop music, at the beach when it’s sunny or lately exploring the cocktail bar scene of South Yarra and the CBD!

Coffee – the amount of caffeine I drink in a day would be enough to kill a horse.

Cats all day everyday.

Day shift.

Seizures – combines the thrill of emergency with neuro.

Italy or France.

“Damn girl that’s a lot of diarrhoea”

Probably something about concerns for my health with my V energy drink addiction… or complimenting my bright scrubs!