Vet Student at Košice

This week was probably the busiest of the semester. Granted, I did make is busier for myself, and I got a little ill towards the end, but I really enjoyed it.  This was my timetable for this week, it's defintely the busiest week I've had so far! Monday was the classic all-online day. We had our first credit test of the semester, in Internal Diseases of Small Animals. This test was foccused on just dermatology, and was online so it wasn't too awful. Several of the questions were similar to past paper questions, which is always a bonus. Monday was also a half-day because they were electing a new Rector of the University. I think our exotics teacher missed the email, because we had that lecture anyway, but only about 10 people showed up! I already wrote about my Tuesday of this week in this blog post - so much happened, it would have made my weekly update gigantic! On Wednesday, I had my final Epizootology field trip. This time we went to the sheep farm to test for mastitis i...

This year, we have to do 30 hours in the ruminant clinic this year. We were all assigned a specific week where we have to do all our hours.  One of the patients We pre-arranged days to meet the vet to get our hours. We'd come in and do TPRs on the patients, and throughout the week there would be specific treatments and things we needed to do, like coprological examinations. We were then assigned a specific patient to write a report about - I chose Izabela the goat.  My goat was scheduled for a mastectomy on Thursday - I got to monitor the anaesthesia for it, which is something that I really enjoy. I only had my stethoscope and a watch to measure everything though. In an ideal world, I'd have all sorts of monitoring equipment, but that's not always practical. We sedated her with Xylazine, then used Ketamine to induce anaesthesia. Both were given IM, and throughout the procedure I would periodically top up the doses. We also gave her ketoprofen. She was given an epidural, usi...

Just a small update on two of the cases from the exotics clinic yesterday that I wrote about yesterday . Chameleon: The chameleon had metabolic bone disease (MBD) from poor husbandry. This is from a calcium deficiency in the diet, and excess phosphorus - she was fed almost exclusively crickets. She had pathological fractures in all her limbs, and was unable to lay eggs, leading to her being egg-bound.  She was euthanised.  Rabbit: She died on 26/10, after a sudden seizure. When palpating her abdomen, several masses were present. The vet is going to call the owner and ask for a post-mortem examination. It seems likely that she had sepsis or maybe enterotoxemia (from overgrowth of "bad" bacteria after oral administration of antibiotics that wiped out the physiological flora).  I don't think the vet had a treatment plan for her past treating the abscesses. Since the abscess started at the root of a molar tooth and spread, most of the mandible was destroyed. The teeth couldn...

This Tuesday was so busy!!! I woke up at time-to-leave-o'clock, and had to rush into uni for my first practical, Food Inspection, at 0730. We normally it a bit later in the day, but because of other timetable changes, it got shifted to earlier in the day. It was pretty interesting, we were learning about how food producing places get approved and registered to produce food for human consumption.  We finished a little bit early, so I could go to the pharmacy building at get a much needed coffee. That break didn't last long because my friend and I realised we could go into the Exotics clinic and watch some surgeries. When we got there, they had just started to spay an African Pygmy Hedgehog. She was only around 3 years old, and had masses in her uterus, so it had to come out. The teacher told us about the "007 rule", where you can use 0.07mg/kg medetomidine as a sort of general dose for most animals. Will do a bit of research into that, but interesting nonetheless.  Th...

I started writing this on 18/09/2020 at 2237; I returned to it on 21/10/2022 at 2330. Thank God I wrote some of this down, because I can barely remember it now, even though it was all-encompassing worry at the time! Hidden costs: When I applied to UVMP back in 2020, I had to fill out; an application form, a personal data processing form, and a GDPR form. I also had to pay a 50€ application fee. The study office were fine with me scanning the documents and emailing them.  I had to contact my previous education institutes (University and college), and ask them to send an email to the study office, confirming I had gone there, and got the academic qualifications I claimed I had. That was all fine, although I was waiting on my university for a little while.  Once I got my acceptance letter, I had to figure out what "apostille" meant, and where I could get it done.  I still remember exactly where I was when I got my acceptance letter - I was in the ultrasound room at work, in...

This week wasn't as busy as others have been. Monday was as long as ever! On Tuesday, I had all the normal practicals, and then a farm trip for Obstetrics and Reproduction. We were doing rectal exams on cows going for slaughter, to feel the anatomical structures. It was much harder than in the bulls, and in the heifers we'd done it in before. Because these cows had had calves, their uteruses were larger and further in than cows. They were also really tall - I was on my tiptoes, using my whole arm, and I couldn't physically reach some parts. As interesting as this was, it was pretty sad - all the cows we were practicing on were destined to the slaughterhouse in the next few days. All of them had some pretty obvious welfare failures, but some of them maybe just weren't producing enough. I know it's how it goes, but it was sad to hear that it didn't matter what we did to them because they were going to be slaughtered anyway. I just think a bit of decency and respec...

The week started as all the others have, with lectures online. I'm finding Mondays pretty tough because it's non-stop lectures from 0715 until 1630. At least I'm at home and can go and make a cup of tea whenever I want, but it's difficult to stay focussed for that long.  We were supposed to go on our Obstetrics trip on Tuesday, but unfortunately the teacher is sick, so we had an online practical instead. It was pretty interesting, about diagnosing pregnancy, but it would have been better to see the ultrasounds in person. We also had a very interesting lecture in Internal Diseases of Small Animals about endocrinopathological causes of skin disease.  On Wednesday, I went on my second epizoo trip. This time we were vaccinating calves against dermatophytoses (ringworm). Ringworm is caused by trichophyton or microsporidium, and these calves are getting ready to be transported to another farm. The vaccination schedule is 3 weeks long, so the next group is going to do their se...

Time is aboslutely flying by at the moment, I'm writing this at the end of week three! It's been a pretty busy week. Mondays are online lecture days, which isn't so bad. I had a meeting with my thesis supervisor in the afternoon and missed a couple of lectures unfortunately, so I have a few to catch up on this weekend. Tuesday was a pretty standard day, nothing to write about really. I spent a lot of time working on my thesis, and preparing the questionnaire that I think is now ready to send out! That's a job for Saturday morning! On Wednesday, I spent the morning in the Exotics Clinic (we have to do 30 hours this term). It was pretty slow, but I saw a guinea pig with urethral stones, a bird for some antibiotics, and an Eagle Owl with a wing injury that was going to get surgery, but the injury was so extensive, the vet didn't know what to do. I think it had surgery later in the week, when the more experienced vet was in. After the clinic, I had Diseases of Ruminants...

As part of 5th year, I've got to complete a number of hours in the small animal clinic (internal diseases), and in the clinic of exotics. The sign up book for the whole year was released a week ago and it's already completely full so I had to take any day I could get! Today, I spent 12 hours in the small animal clinic, on my 26th birthday! When I got in in the morning, there was already a dog in the hospital - a suspected tetanus case. This was really interesting because I've never seen tetanus before, and by this point it was quite far progressed. Unfortunately the dog was non-ambulatory, and was not interested in eating or drinking. Throughout the day, her neurological function declined (no menace response, no palpebral reflex, pupils did not respond to light). At the end of the day, her pupils were different sizes ( anisocoria ), the owners were called and she was euthanised. It was a difficult situation because the owners had refused all other diagnostics, so the vets w...