Ashley Thomson
Ashley started off at East Port Veterinary Hospital in 2009 as part of her School Work experience program, before staying on to complete her Certificate 2 in Animal studies as part of her HSC. In 2014, she studied a Certificate 3 in Captive Animals, becoming a Part-Time then graduating to Full-Time ZooKeeper at Port Macquarie’s own Billabong Zoo.
She worked closely with a large variety of both Australian Native and Exotic animals, including Koalas, Kangaroos, Meerkats, Cheetahs, Red Pandas, and Wombats. Her favourite animals to work with were the Fennec Foxes and Dingoes, hand raising the Zoo’s ambassador Dingo, Archer, for their education programme.
Ashley takes a special interest in all things Canine, her fields of expertise include Training & Conditioning, Enrichment, Conservation and General Animal Health & Wellbeing.
Ashley completed her Certificate 4 in Veterinary Nursing in 2018 while working at the Zoo, however completed her work placement component with us, before finally joining the East Port Veterinary team as a Full- Time Veterinary nurse at the start of 2022. She wanted to expand her animal health knowledge and gain more experience with all things Surgery, Nursing had always been a goal and has enjoyed the change of pace and new challenges it has come with.