Week 8 of 13

Classic Monday - all online, not much to say about it! We had a small powercut in the morning so I missed maybe 10 minutes of a lecture, but nothing too awful.

 

Tuesday started at 0805 in the Food Inspection room. It's definitely not my favourite subject, but it's also not my least favourite subject. It's just an awful lot of words and definitions and legislature that all sounds pretty much the same. Nothing a few Anki cards can't fix though!

Internal diseases was pretty interesting, we were talking about urinalysis and why it's so important. I know most of the stuff because my thesis is on Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD), but it's a good refresher. The vet told us a story of how she diagnosed a portosystemic shunt in a 3 month old Lab puppy just because he had ammonium biruate stones in his urine, and no other symptoms. He was able to have surgery and recover 100%, and never even showed signs of a problem just from one little microscope slide! Absolutely awesome to make such a serious diagnosis from something so small. 

In diseases of fish, we were dissecting more fish, but this time to specifically look for parasites. Most of this subject is focussed on parasites actually, so it's time to break out my parasitology notes again soon. We also got to take blood from a fish - I took blood from a chub on my first go. I'm very proud of myself because the teacher said it would be harder than in the carp, because chub's have smaller vessels. Super cool - not sure if it's something I'll ever do again, but good to know how to do it. 

My hands are obscuring the fish, but I promise there's one under there!

We didn't have obstetrics because one of the other groups was on the farm trip, so I had a 4 hour gap before my next class. I came home, ate and had a nap, then did a bit of work on my thesis before going back to uni for Diagnostics of Metabolic Disorders. 

This practical was super interesting! We were talking about examination of the liver, so we did an ultrasound to see it, and then I got to take a biopsy! The cow was also pregnant, so we did a little ultrasound to see her baby - it was moving a lot so it was hard to get a good view, but it was still awesome to see.

Wednesday was also a great day! We had our second epizootology lesson of the semester (we'd missed them because of the farm trips). We were learning about African Swine Fever, which is very topical at the moment. 

Next, we had diseases of ruminants, where we learnt about claw amputations, and how to bandage cattle feet. It's a very important part of herd maintenance, because poor welfare can lead to overgrown claws, dermatitis, or foreign bodies, which can be very painful for the cows. 

Lastly, we had exotics, where we learnt how to do an endoscopy on a bird! That was really cool, and I got to try it myself!

Sorry for the scribble, but I wanted to preserve some anonymity

Thursday was our last slaughterhouse trip (finally!). It's just not fun waking up at 0530 to catch a tram, and especially so when it's 8C outside. This was probably the worst trip of all, because I actually saw a cow being slaughtered. It's not something I haven't seen before, but it was still a little shocking. I didn't know how loud a captive-bolt gun was. We saw the cow being bled, and skinned, but then it was the end of the practical and we left. Maybe for the best, but it might have been interesting to see how a cow is processed. 

On Friday, I had my andrology lecture in the morning, and then went into uni for the andrology practical Today we watched semen collection from a bull, using an artificial vagina. We were all in shock as to how quickly it was over. They call it "the jump" here, because the bull jumps when he... you know. Then we evaluated the semen quality, by assessing the organoleptic qualities, the motility, and lastly a sperm count. It was pretty interesting, especially because I had helped collect a semen sample from a bull before, but didn't fully understand the quality assessment afterwards. 

Lastly, we had histopathology. It's definitely one of my favourite subjects at the moment, but it's just so complicated! The exam is sort of prepared questions, we know what topics we're going to be asked about but we don't know what we're going to be asked. It's a little bit daunting, and the teacher is very evasive when we ask about it in class! 

We already know that at least 1 exam is online at the end of term, but that leaves 5 exams to be potentially oral exams! Pretty scary, and we only have a few weeks of term left. I haven't made any plans to come home for winter break yet, as there are likely to be limited exam dates and places. We will see closer to the time I guess.