First day back in practice!

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After some weeks of resting and learning, I'm back in practice! For the next 3 weeks I'm working at my local mixed vets. 

Today was my first day there and I think it went ok! Embarassingly, I got a bit dizzy during the first spay, but I was ok after that. After that, there was a castrate, and then a dog dental. The dental was a little stressful because the dog wasn't breathing after induction. After some more medications (reversing the premed), the dog got it together and the procedure went on as normal. 

After that, I had a bit of lunch then went out to a farm to watch some TB testing. I've not actually seen a TB test before, so that was really interesting. Two tuberculin types (M. bovis and M. avium) are injected into the neck, after the initial thickness of the skin has been measured. After 4 days the skin thickness is remeasured, and compared. If the site injected with M. bovis is thicker than the site injected with M. avium by more than 4mm, then the animal is a "reactor", and must be removed from the herd. It's not 100% accurate, because sometimes animals are false positives for reactions, but it's better than risking the health of the whole herd. 

I've packed a pair of waterproofs for tomorrow - I learnt my lesson at the farm today. 

Once we were back at the practice, I helped with a couple of consults. First one was a dog who had a cataract - that got referred to the opthalmologist. Next was a teeny tiny stray kitten, so underweight and anaemic from a flea infestation. He had a paw injury and loads of burrs matted into his fur, but he got sent home with some cream and flea treatment and hopefully he'll be ok!
 
Hand for scale, this tiny boy weighed 500g!

 

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