Salmonella testing at Zemplínska Teplica

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This term seems to be making up for the time we spent online - we have 9 practical trips in the next 6 weeks. Mostly to the university farm to work with the cows, but we also have several trips planned to the Košice slaughterhouse. Can't say that I'm thrilled about that, but I know it's an important part of the process. 

Today's farm trip was to do salmonellosis testing in calves at the university farm. We had to do a general inspection of the calves, take a TPR, a blood sample and if they had diarrhoea, a fecal sample and a rectal swab. It was a bit chaotic because there were 31 of us - in previous years it's been around 20 people maximum. We split up into 4 groups, and were assigned a section of cows to examine. Eventually we settled into a routine, and we all got to try taking bloods and other samples. I was very happy to hit the vein on two calves as I haven't taken blood from a cow before - not much different to dogs, but the skin is much thicker!
 
The samples we took were sent to the university lab for testing and cultures. 



 
Once I was back on campus, I had to go to the pharmacy to buy some shoe covers and hairnets for the upcoming slaughterhouse trips. I've also started selling some of my first year textbooks - I left most of them behind when I came back to do uni online anyway, and now I've bestowed a first year with the burden of them. 

In the afternoon, I had my second and last class of the day, Diseases of Exotics and Zoo animals. Today we were talking about blood sampling in small mammals (mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs). I got to practice taking blood from a rabbit's ear which felt like a redeeming moment - the last time I tried was in the very first week, and I was shaking so much that I couldn't get anywhere near. 
 
ETA; I forgot to mention I also gave a subcutaneous injection to a guinea pig - their skin is so tough! Much tougher than the cows, but I was using a big-ish needle. Something to bear in mind in the future 


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