Veterinary nurse who almost fell asleep on a spaniel on the working desk after injecting herself with animal liquid painkiller is struck off

A veterinary nurse who nearly fell asleep on a dog after taking drugs meant for animals has been struck off.

Dayna Johnson injected herself with pain relief meant for a pet undergoing surgery and replaced it with a different liquid, a disciplinary committee has heard.

The Bristol-based nurse excused her behaviour with reasons including suffering from ‘jet-lag’, that it was her ‘birthday’ the night before and also that she was nervous about starting a new job.

She was also found to have taken drugs at four different veterinary practices in the space of a year on five separate occasions.

Following the hearing, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons disciplinary committee found her guilty of misconduct and struck her off the veterinary nurses register.

Ms Johnson’s negligence was ‘sustained and repeated’, but in one particularly damning incident while working her first shift at Yatton Vets in Bristol in September 2023, she nearly fell asleep on a spaniel lying on the operating table. 

During a trial shift the day before, the veterinary nurse had asked an owner of the independent practice about which drugs staff were required to record the use of.

Ms Johnson was informed by a colleague that synthetic opioid buprenorphine was not recorded.

Later on, when she was alone with a controlled drugs cabinet, Ms Johnson took methadone and ‘concealed it in her clothing’.

During her first day on the job, she took controlled drugs in a surgical prep room, stole two boxes of nerve painkiller gabapentin and put an empty bottle of buprenorphine in the bin.

When conducting a dental surgery on a spaniel that day, the surgeon asked Ms Johnson if she was alright.

She replied that she was ‘fine’ but ‘tired and had not got much sleep the night before, as she had been nervous about starting the job’.

But, as time went on, ‘she appeared to fall asleep standing up’ and ‘jumped as if she had been startled awake’ when the surgeon asked her a question.

When writing the anaesthetic record, Ms Johnson’s ‘pen was not touching the paper’ at points – this turned out to be ‘illegible’.

The committee heard that her condition even deteriorated ‘to the point where she was almost leaning on the spaniel, asleep’.

Despite insisting that she was fine to carry on when challenged, she went on a break when she was told to.

Ms Johnson had even reported that the spaniel, which was 13 years old, had a normal temperature – but it was actually hypothermic (a dangerous drop in body temperature).

Following the incident, she was very apologetic to staff and said that ‘she had not slept well and that it had been her birthday the night before’.

Her job offer was then rescinded and the practice discovered that 10ml of buprenorphine, 100 tablets of 100mg gabapentin and 116 tablets of 300mg gabapentin were missing. 

After being interviewed by police about the incident in October 2023, Ms Johnson said in a written statement: ‘I KNOW i will NEVER do anything like this again’.

But, just the next month, she was found taking a syringe of buprenorphine from vet charity People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), when she was working there as a locum veterinary nurse.

After stealing this, she lied to a veterinary surgeon who questioned her and claimed that another surgeon had authorised her to administer the medication to a spaniel.

Moreover, the hearing heard that the two incidents were not the first time the now disgraced veterinary nurse had taken drugs meant for animals.

In May 2023, Ms Johnson was interviewed by police after injecting herself with around 5ml of methadone while prepping drugs for pet operations when working a locum shift at Vets4Pets.

She was seen swaying when she came out of the toilet, and when a veterinary surgeon asked her what was wrong, she said she’d ‘just got back from a holiday’, the committee heard.

An ambulance was called after Ms Johnson passed out, with a syringe discovered in her pocket.

She later admitted to police that she needed to ‘stop lying’ and ‘just fell apart that night’.

Ms Johnson was given a conditional caution by police in relation to the theft, under the condition she attend a drug awareness course by October 2023.

Between February and August 2023, at the time of the police investigation, she was working as a veterinary nurse at the Langford Small Animal Hospital in Bristol.

In August 2023, a syringe of methadone for a cocker spaniel’s joint surgery went missing.

A fellow nurse noticed that Ms Johnson’s behaviour had changed, that she was now ‘disinhibited’ and ‘disclosing inappropriate personal details’ to people in the operating theatre.

The hospital reported the incident in November 2023.

In December 2023 she pleaded guilty to and was convicted of theft of buprenorphine on 26 September 2023, and was also fined.

The committee was also told that Ms Johnson was also dismissed due to gross misconduct from her role at a Healthcare Services company in January 2025 after an investigation was launched about ‘some codeine tablets that were missing’.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons said: ‘The College submits that [Ms Johnson] has directly breached three of the most fundamental tenets of the profession: the promotion of animal welfare, the responsible use of drugs and behaving with honesty and integrity.

‘It is also submitted that she breached the trust of her employer and risked placing her colleagues under suspicion regarding dishonestly taking the drugs.

‘The College submitted it was significant that the conduct was sustained and repeated: it took place at four different practices over the period of approximately one year, it involved three different controlled drugs and it took place on five separate occasions.

‘The drugs in question were all controlled drugs, and of a type which are associated with misuse and dependency.

‘The conduct took place repeatedly despite intervention, warnings and promises that it would not happen again.’