There are occasional landmarks in life that serve to make one feel a little bit old – and I passed one of those this month – my oldest son started at vet school last week.

When I first started writing this column, I was a young vet just starting out at a Dorchester practice and now I am old enough to have a son at university!

As you can imagine, I am immensely proud that Ned has worked hard enough to gain a place at vet school and chuffed to bits that he has followed in my footsteps.

Vet school has changed an awful lot since my day. Everything seems very shiny and new. Also, whereas in my year we were about 50-50 males to females, Ned is one of only 17 boys in a year of 164 students.

The courses have modernised, which can only be a good thing; there was a tendency for our old lecturers to speak to us from their ivory towers and some of them were downright terrifying.

These days it feels like the students are better looked after and there is much more emphasis on mental health as well as dealing with clients and patients. Our first three years were all theory whereas they are already getting examples of real-life cases and how all the basic science relates to the job in the future.

The career that Ned enters in five years’ time will be quite different from the one I entered 25 years ago – but that is not a bad thing, change in inevitable. I am just proud and excited that he has the chance to join a profession that I have loved so much.

Alice Moore is a vet at Castle Veterinary Clinic, Dorchester and Weymouth. Tel 01305 267083