If you’re around the Clutha area, have you met our new large animal vet Ruby?
She joined our South Otago team at the start of the year from Australia. With the launch of our new clinic in Milton in 2025, Ruby’s here to help us expand our production animal support further into Otago. Although based out of our Balclutha clinic, she travels to farms as far away as Mosgiel.
Ruby grew up in a town called Broome, in the north of Western Australia (croc and Brahman cattle country). She was a self-proclaimed 'weird horse girl' as a kid and dreamed of becoming a professional jockey. But when she found out she wouldn’t be able to eat as many sweet treats in that line of work, she quickly had to think up a new idea.
A love of animals and people led her to focus on a potential career as a vet. After taking a gap year to work on a cattle station, she got a taste of the production animal industry and the role vets play in the food supply chain. This confirmed for her that she wanted to be involved with agriculture, so off to vet school it was...
She trained as a veterinarian at Murdoch University in Perth – the most fun five years of her life she says!
Since graduating in 2023, Ruby’s been working as a mixed animal vet in Geraldton, a town a few hours away from Perth. It’s known for great crayfishing and staggering 50-degree days in summer. There she looked after all sorts of pets, horses, and farm animals – an even the occasional native animal.
She took a break last year to scratch her travel itch and soak up some tropical goodness, including spending time in the Philippines and visiting the Indonesian island, Lombok.
Now in her third year of practice, Ruby continues to love the variety that a career as a vet brings to her days – from the species you're treating, to the clients you get to chat to.
She’s excited to be in New Zealand and living and working in such a beautiful place. She says driving around our stunning countryside to jobs often has her pinching herself in wonder of it.
Despite the water being about 15 degrees colder than what she’s used to (forcing her to don the annoying wetsuit gloves and booties), Ruby has been loving trying all the surfing spots around the region when she has time off. Sometimes her partner has dragged her out into some questionable conditions though! Her hot tip: Pūrākaunui Bay is absolutely insane and a must-do for surfers or beachgoers.
She also enjoys trying all the local coffee spots and getting out tramping (so she hit the jackpot coming to the South Island of New Zealand). The most epic tramp she’s done here so far is the track up to the Brewster Glacier – which she describes as brutal but worth it. She shuffled around on very sore legs for a whole week after that!
A weird and wacky fact about her is that she can stilt walk. Perhaps this might come in useful if she encounters a herringbone dairy shed with no platforms or trolleys when scanning or metrichecking...
Be sure to have a yarn with Ruby if you see her in-clinic or out on your farm this spring.
