A veterinary surgeon and certified veterinary herbalist from West Clare, who is now a newly fledged author, is set to launch a range of pet supplements as well as a book at the National Ploughing Championships next week.
Dr Sinéad Mellett, who is originally from Carrigaholt has been developing the range of products for the past year and a half. She left general practice last year to start up the Natural Veterinary Company and its range of pet supplements has been formulated by the vet herself, and is manufactured in Ireland.
“The supplements are for dogs and cats and have been developed using high dose herbal and marine ingredients, based on clinical research and evidence based medicine,” she said.
“In general practice, healthier, alternative options for dogs and cats are few and far between and when I began my studies in herbalism and found the growing research base behind traditional medicine, as well as the repetitive results I was getting in practice, these were encouragement enough for me to start the Natural Vet Company.”
She plans to launch a total of six products at the ploughing – dental care, joint care, calming, natural anti-inflammatories, digestive support and skin and coat support.
And she has also written and published a book entitled ‘Tails of Curious Cases’ which will be launched alongside the products on Tuesday, September 17.
Her online shop will go live for the ploughing, and all of the pet supplements along and the book will be available to order nationwide.
Sinéad discovered the complimentary route whilst she was travelling in Australia where she worked as a veterinary surgeon.
Finding out about herbalism in veterinary medicine, she observed small animals suffering from ailments would find the treatment harsh on their bodies, and sometimes experienced long-term side affects.
She saw they needed something and ideally, something complimentary that would help them through it. Having done a two-year higher degree in veterinary herbalism, she first did a lot of research and when she started incorporating the clinical research, she could see results.
She didn’t know how receptive the pet owners would be to the idea of herbalism at first but at the same time, she felt that over the last few years people have become aware of what they are putting into their own bodies, and so were more open to natural routes around them.
“When you train as a vet, you train in all species, and I went down the route of becoming a small animal vet,” she said.
“Now my sole focus is as a veterinary herbalist. I am licensed by the Veterinary Council of Ireland to do home visits.
“If I have a full primary vet report, I can interpret that vet’s clinical analysis of the animal and from there, I can prescribe. I can do a remote analysis… but of course the are limits with that.”
Sinéad attended Carrigaholt National School and went to secondary education in Kilkee and Dingle. Now based in Cork where she lives with her husband Eoghan (who is also a vet) and their two young daughters, she loves returning home to Clare as much as she can.
Her father, John Mellett is a fisherman and her mother, Jacinta Copley a primary school teacher there. Both her parents taught her from a young age “how to nurture nature” and she thinks that what she was taught by them goes into the herbalism.
How she practices is that she has a pharmacy of herbs depending on the ailment – there are herbs for arthritis, neurological or digestive disorders for instance, and she has made about 40 different herbs of which she uses about 20 regularly. And in terms of her company’s products, she formulates all of them so the ingredients she chooses to put in, she makes sure to use the highest dosages.
“Obviously other products are produced on an industrial basis and companies are trying to keep the costs down. I personally formulate them and they are all manufactured in Ireland,” she said.
“All ingredients are all human grade so they are as good as we would take ourselves. There were many options to get different ingredients from abroad. I took time because you would often find things are de-naturalised so you have to be conscious of that, and that was fundamental to me. I don’t cut corners; it’s quality for me. I know from speaking with pet owners that we have all a perception herbs are wishy-washy and don’t work, and what happens if you don’t take it consistently and if the stuff isn’t good then it won’t work.”
She has worked on the products for a year and a half, and in terms of the price she will set, she wants to make it accessible and not outlandish ensuring customers get a lot of product for that price. Aside from the product range, she has been working on her book which has taken her the best part of ten years.
“Having gone to Canada in 2014 after graduation, she worked in a teaching hospital.
“She next spent a year in New Zealand in 2017 before working as a vet in Australia in 2019, and so has a wealth of both international and national stories “some funny and a bit mad.
“I found myself with so many stories of pets and people. As a vet, you work closely with people and their stories are very emotional and you become part of that whole journey.
“The reason I wrote it was if you meet a new person, they always ask what you do, and I found that many people say that when they were asked what they wanted to be when they were younger, they would answer a vet.”
And so the book is aimed at adult readers, young adults, or people who are thinking of going down that path.
“There’s an immediate interest and intrigue in a vet’s job, and the book is an honest depiction of a vet’s life,” she said.
“It can be really emotional. I did ask a lot of friends who are vets about their stories. Mostly, they are my stories and I tend to be that person things happen around. I definitely attract the drama.”
In her book, Sinéad also touches on how the veterinary industry has changed.
She explaining that over the last five years, many veterinary clinics have been bought out by corporates so the majority of small animal clinics in cities are corporate-owned today in Ireland.
The Natural Vet Company range of products and the ‘Tails of Curious Cases’ book will be launched on Tuesday, September 17 at the Local Enterprise Village at The National Ploughing Championships.
Sharon Dolan D’Arcy covers West Clare news. After completing a masters in journalism at University of Galway, Sharon worked as a court reporter at the Sligo Weekender. She was also editor of the Athenry News and Views.