Meet Dr Fabian Rivers, host of Petgevity: The Podcast 🎙️

I’m Dr Fabian Rivers, a veterinary surgeon and the host of Petgevity: The Podcast. I’ve been a vet for around eight years, with particular interests in exotic animal medicine, dentistry and preventative care. I also have a postgraduate qualification in exotic animal practice and starting my postgraduate qualifications in dentistry this year.

A lot of my work outside the consulting room is about making veterinary medicine more understandable and accessible. I’m particularly interested in the relationship between animal health, behaviour, lifestyle and the environments we create for the animals we live with. But also making sure we treat animals with the same respect as humans – especially in times of sickness.

What do you hope listeners take away from each episode? 🎓

I want people to come away knowing there’s a lot we can achieve when your pets get sick.

There’s so much information available to pet carers now, but it can be difficult to separate genuinely useful science from marketing, trends and misinformation. I’d love every episode to give people at least one thing they can actually use or feel empowered by – whether that’s recognising a subtle change earlier, asking their vet a better question, or understanding why a particular habit might matter over the course of an animal’s life.

Ultimately, longevity isn’t just about adding years. It’s about trying to make those years healthier and happier too. The ‘healthspan’ is the new term for that.

A few fun facts 🐀🐔🐟

I’m probably incapable of having just one interest! Outside veterinary medicine, I’m into running, the gym, photography, music and DJing, reading philosophy, psychology and geopolitics. If it’s a challenge, I’m into it!

I’ve also always been drawn to the slightly less conventional animals, which probably explains why I ended up working so much with exotic species. Reptiles in particular have a special place in my heart. My hope is to focus my advocacy around animals that don’t get the attention they deserve… That’s why rats, chickens and fish are also personal favourites.

One of my favourite things about being a vet is that animals constantly humble you. You can have years of experience and still meet a patient or a case that makes you go away, open the books and learn something completely new. Novelty and curiosity is the cornerstone of my motivation to keep getting better.

Memorable animals 🐕🐲🐢

I’ve been lucky enough to work with an enormous variety of animals over the years, from the dogs and cats people expect to see at the vets to reptiles, birds, rabbits, rodents and wildlife.

My own animals have had a huge influence on the vet I’ve become too. My Lakeland Terrier, Jackson, was with me for nearly 16 years and passed a few months ago. Caring for an animal from youth right through to old age gives you a very different perspective on what ‘longevity’ actually means. It isn’t simply reaching a big number. It’s preserving the things that make their life worth living for as long as we reasonably can.

I’ve also shared my life with reptiles, including bearded dragons and a red-footed tortoise, stick insects, rats and the rest, so exotic animal medicine has never felt like something that exists purely at work.

Favourite Petgevity episode so far 🏆

This is difficult because one of the things I enjoy about Petgevity is getting to explore completely different aspects of animal health with people who really know their field.

I am biased, but speaking with long-term friend Sean McCormack about ethical dog breeds is up there. He has such an eloquent yet concise way to speak about his scientific but also ethical frustrations around breeds, and we have such a good rapport and understanding of this subject. His added expertise and nuance is just so wonderful to hear. He’s a gem.

Something else that helps explain me 🤔

I think curiosity is probably the thread connecting most things I do.

Veterinary medicine is full of things we once accepted as standard that have changed as the evidence improved. I like asking, “Why do we do it this way?”, “What does the evidence actually say?” and, importantly, “Could we do this better?”

That’s one of the reasons I enjoy this podcast, honestly. I get to ask experts the questions I genuinely want answered, rather than pretending I already know everything. Which I certainly don’t. Being a vet is just an excuse to always ask “Why?”

What topics are you excited about covering? 👩‍⚕️

I’m particularly excited by the areas where veterinary medicine is changing quickly:

• Pain management
• Emerging therapeutics
• Ageing science
• Nutrition
• Behaviour
• The ways technology might allow us to detect disease earlier

Animal medicine is often a really good playground to fuse technologies that we extrapolate from other animals and humans. And when you find something that truly improves animals’ lives, it’s like a ‘eureka’ moment.

I’d also love to explore some of the less glamorous things that probably have a huge effect on lifespan and quality of life:

• Dental disease
• Obesity
• Exercise
• Sleep and rest
• Chronic pain
• Environmental enrichment
• Recognising subtle changes before an animal becomes obviously unwell

And I’m always interested in where we talk more about the humans behind the animals. Sociological, economical and cultural reasons for the things that we do for our pets. Those are often the conversations where a podcast can be most useful. Because my job isn’t just animals – it’s humans too.

Get stuck into Petgevity: The Podcast 🎙️

Have you caught up with our podcast dedicated to pet wellness yet? Each fortnight, we translate viral trends into trusted, science-backed insights – meaning genuinely useful, practical takeaways for the listener (ie you). And it lasts 24 minutes, which happens to be the average dog walk time 🐕🎧 Get Petgevity: The Podcast into your ears!