Week 3 of 13
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, where we split into smaller groups and had to evaluate a patient. My group had a 4 month old calf with chronic bovine respiratory disease. The vet said no amount of treatment would allow him to be a good producing cow, he would always stay small, so would make a good house-cow! We did a coprological examination on him, and found lots of strongyloides, moniezia and eimeria.
After ruminants, I was back in the exotics clinic for a practical lesson. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, we had a rabbit that we could practice castration on, instead of the planned practical. I got to do my first ever castrate! It was a bit tricky, rabbit testicles are an odd shape and very slippery, but I think the lack of blood helped with visualisation. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of me doing it, as much as I would love that!
Thursday was my least favourite day - we had a trip to the slaughterhouse that started at 7am, and we had to organise our own travel there. Košice has a very good public transit system, so we got the tram there at 0618 in the morning! It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it wasn't a pleasant experience. We didn't see any of the actual slaughtering; we had a tour of the facility and then inspected some organs that had been removed from some pigs. It was interesting, but I am morally opposed to mass-slaughter of animals. I know it's an important part of the veterinary education, but it's really not my favourite. Two people in my group want to be slaughterhouse vets though which I think is very good for them! We finished at 0930, got the tram back into town and I came home and ordered some food before my online lectures in the afternoon.
Friday, we had another trip, this time to the bull farm in Ozorovce. We were practicing rectal examinations in young bulls. They had to be sedated so we could get near them, and even then it didn't stop them from kicking! It was very interesting to feel the difference in anatomy between a bull and a cow, but I definitely need a lot more practice!
Me, with my hand in a bull! |
Hi there! I'm a Canadian university student about to complete my bachelor's degree in Zoology, and I was hoping if I could ask you some questions about the Vet school and life in Kosice, as you are by far the most recent blogger from there haha. My email is eyalbrosky@gmail.com, if you would like to contact me I would really appreciate it! Have a great semester otherwise!
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Eyal