If you are a 'proper' vet, some things will always make you feel sick.

The long list of the obvious is varied and does not make for pleasant reading, so if you are having your breakfast, lunch, or dinner, please turn to the ‘Sport’ section and come back here later.

Vomit, diarrhoea, blood, pus, ear wax, anal gland secretion (surely the smelliest substance known to mankind) and severe tissue trauma are all up there.

But there are other things. Even worse things. Things that make your stomach churn more than anything ever eaten on ‘I’m a Celebrity.’

Like having to pick up the phone and give someone very bad news. Or looking an expectant client straight in the eye and telling them you have just palpated a large tumour in their pet's abdomen. Or realising that you must, for the sake of the animal, advise that it is time to give up the fight and let a wee friend go.

There are other things that stop short of causing full scale, gulping nausea but still leave your stomach in more knots than a novice fly fisherman’s line on a windy, blustery day.

For some, it can be asking a long term client if they would kindly like to settle their hugely overdue account. Quite why this causes such consternation amongst the veterinary profession has not yet been worked out. Probably it has something to do with the level of compassion that is required to get you through the day. Perhaps we should take lessons from lawyers and accountants. Or perhaps not.

Back to our nauseating scenarios, we also have the dilemma of telling overweight clients that their pet too is obese. Some vets shirk from this, but do it we must. The reason is simple. Owners have a choice. They can choose what they eat and when. They can estimate the risks and benefits involved in over eating and balance the pleasure against the pain. Our pets cannot. They have no choice in the matter.

They eat what is put in front of them, when it is put in front of them, and have no idea if or when another meal is coming. So, no matter how unpalatable the task, it is imperative, if we are to do the best for our patients, that we inform our owners about the arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and general lethargy that excessive fat can cause.

Recently, a visiting school student reminded me that you never stop learning. He had a varied couple of days and saw a lot.

He encountered surgery, injections, blood and death for the first time. During a quiet chat, I asked him if the experience had changed his mind about being a vet. He replied that he had found it all really interesting but that he really didn't like, for example, helping to carefully place a deceased pet into a body bag.

I smiled ruefully. After well over 30 years, it suddenly dawned on me that normal vets don't like it all either. But you have to be able to do it.