Chiron is a new type of CPD provider that delivers specialist-led, tailor-made, veterinary surgical training workshops, brought to your hospital door and delivered in-house.

If you think you would like to work together with Chiron to help you develop as a clinician, team or hospital, then either send us an email (to hello@chironvetcpd.co.uk) with your name and very rough outline of what you’d like to explore. After liaising with Chiron we can arrange a phone or video consultation to discuss in more depth what surgical topics you would like to explore and develop with Chiron, and some of the practical aspects of the course. Then Chiron will tailor-make a surgical workshop to meet your needs and bring it to you, including providing written course notes, lectures and surgical equipment as needed for the practicals.

Dates and times for the initial consultation will be fairly flexible and arranged within two weeks. As a bespoke service however, courses will be prepared in advance and so there will need to be at least three months of preparation time before the workshop dates.

Chiron hopes to provide a personable, friendly and truly beneficial service that can help you and your teams develop and improve the surgical services you provide to your patients and their owners. By bringing the service to you, you do not need to arrange travel and accommodation around the country to attend an external training centre. Being a bespoke service, you only learn about the topics you want or need to learn about to the number of delegates needed, whether that be one-on-one training or larger team training. Finally, with a fixed-price pricing system (with the exception of a supplement if using saw bones), Chiron courses can provide a very cost-effective means of training individuals or teams.

As a bespoke service, pricing can vary but we believe our pricing offers an extremely cost effective option for often-expensive surgical CPD, regardless of whether Chiron provides you with one-on-one, small group, or large group teaching. Please feel free to get in touch with us to discuss pricing (obligation free!) if you think you would like to work with us.

Chiron covers all of mainland Great Britain at no extra cost. However, we are very happy to cover locations further afield with travel and accommodation costs charged at cost, in addition to course fees.

A wide range of dates are available with Chiron throughout the year. We can discuss these during the initial consultation, or you can contact Chiron at hello@chironvetcpd.co.uk if you had a specific date in mind.

Barney is an EBVS® European Specialist and RCVS-Recognised Specialist in Small Animal Surgery who has worked in general small animal practice, and in both private and university referral practice. He has always had a love of surgery and teaching and hopes to combine these two passions to deliver a personable, friendly training service that helps bridge the gap between general practice and specialists.

Anyone in your hospital team is welcome! Course content is tailor-made to suit you and your team best, whether that involves training any combination of vets, vet nurses, veterinary care assistants, or receptionists.

Any! Chiron will tailor-make a course to suit your experience level and achieve the goals you want as a clinician, team or hospital.

There is no minimum or maximum number. The surgical workshop is tailor-made to suit your needs, whether that be two days of one-on-one training or multiple team members. Chiron has already trained 16 delegates in one day!

Chiron courses are specialist-led and so can cover nearly all aspects of small animal orthopaedic and soft tissue surgery. The only content not currently considered is arthroscopy/laparoscopy/thoracoscopy or joint replacement. While we will discuss all techniques relevant to a topic, we will also not teach proprietary surgical systems (e.g. HIRS screw, LEAP plate, TTA Rapid, Ridgestop, etc).

Of course! As a bespoke service Chiron can work with you to develop pretty much any surgical course. If you’d like some examples for inspiration, then how about:

• Gastrointestinal surgery

• Hepatobiliary surgery

• Urogenital surgery

• Abdominal surgery

• Thoracic surgery

• Head and neck surgery

• Emergency surgery

• Surgery refresher

• Approach to oncological surgery

• Use of cautery, ultrasonic diathermy, and surgical staplers

• Introduction to orthopaedics

• Management of cruciate disease (lateral suture, TTA, TPLO, CCWO, etc)

• Basic or advanced fracture management

• Any combination of specific fracture management techniques

• Or mix and match any combination of the above!

Currently courses are limited to one or two full days. Time flies during these sorts of practical courses so we generally recommend booking two days, but this can be discussed during the initial consultation to find a set-up that suits best.

We create a bespoke surgical workshop based on the outcome from our consultation. This will include a set of written course notes, writing and delivery of lectures, projector and screen for presenting, practical training, provision of surgical equipment needed for the practical training, and even a special gift! Feel free to stay in touch with Chiron for further advice as needed beyond the end of the workshop.

None. While we can use your own surgical equipment if you prefer, Chiron will bring surgical and presenting equipment as needed. As part of the initial consultation we will additionally discuss what equipment you can buy if you are looking to start a new service at your hospital.

This is something we will discuss in detail during the initial consultation. But it is vital that your hospital can provide the space for lectures and practical sessions. This does not need to be a huge space, but must be workable. We also strongly recommend using cadavers for surgical training and so you and your hospital must source cadavers for this, ideally a maximum of one cadaver between two delegates if possible, and you must have provisions in place for safe cadaver storage.

You and your hospital must provide cadavers. These must only be acquired through kind donations from owners after their pet has died or been put to sleep for unrelated reasons. This may sound like a difficult, emotive topic to broach, but in our experience owners respond very favourably to the idea that their beloved pet could leave a legacy of education and training that helps benefit other animals in the future. We will be happy to discuss the various ways you can broach this topic during the initial consultation.