The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has announced the finalists of its 2023 Veterinary Photographer of the Year competition.

The competition, now in its eighth year, aims to showcase the day-to-day lives of vets, their colleagues, the animals they care for and the wildlife they encounter.

There were three categories for entries - 'Vets at work', 'All creatures great and small', and 'Happy pets that make us smile' - with three finalists chosen in each category.

The finalists' photographs will be displayed at this year's BVA Live event in Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (NEC) on May 11 and 12.

The BVA said the winners of each category will be unveiled at a "special prizegiving" to which each finalist has been invited to and received a ticket to attend. Winners will be eligible for £250 John Lewis vouchers.

The finalists for the 'Vets at work' category are:

'A Gentle Touch' - Sam Price. A Ring-tailed Lemur gently grasps the vet’s finger while recovering from an anaesthetic;
'Mopping the Brow' - Justyn Loveridge. The picture shows some light relief after a long procedure;
'#Colostrumisgold' - Sophie Aylett. The image captures the moment a young calf was up and on the teat before the cow’s muscle layers were even sutured up following a c-section. 

The finalists for the 'All creatures great and small' category featured 'Roe Buck Running' by Jenny Grewal, who snapped a photograph of a roe buck running through mustard flowers in the fields of an estate on the Wiltshire-Hampshire border.

As well as Grewal's entry, 'On the Shoulders of Giants' by Katherine Edmondson was also named as a finalist in this category. Her image, taken at sunrise at Kwantu Game Reserve in South Africa, shows three red-billed oxpeckers hunting for insects on the back of a young giraffe.

The third finalist in this category is Lilia Silva with her entry 'Cheeky Munch', which consists of a squirrel snacking on some berries.

The finalists for the 'Happy pets that make us smile' category are:

'Jumping for Joy' by Sam Price. This photo features dog Winnie, who loves nothing more than a beach day.
'Snow Focused' by Alice Watson. Rusty the dog on a snowy day in Nowton Park, Bury St Edmunds is seen in the photo.
'Sheep-a-Doodle Do!' by Charlotte Clough. The photo stars a car boot overflowing with six 12-week-old puppies, in a vet surgery car park.

Speaking on the competition and its finalists, BVA president Malcolm Morley said: “Judging this competition has been genuinely both extremely enjoyable and really difficult.

"From photos that made us laugh out loud, to others that made some of us feel close to tears, they evoked a range of emotions, but we were also impressed by the quality of the images, the creativity of the photographers and the composition of the photos, as well as the stories behind the lens."