2 Weeks at an Exotics Practice

Even though I know I get terribly homesick, I keep booking placements really far away from home. This time, I'm in the midlands. 

My first day was a little slow - there were 3 inpatients, a chameleon, a ferret and a pigeon. The chameleon needed a partial tail amputation that took all of 5 minutes, the ferret had an ultrasound revealing a very advanced (likely) cancerous process, and was sent home on steroids. That was a particularly interesting ultrasound because he also had a very abnormal kidney - so abnormal that to begin with the vet thought it was the gallbladder. The pigeon is an racing pigeon who had become lost a year ago, but was caught by a cat that pulled some of his primary feathers out so he couldn't fly. This is apparently quite a common occurrence here, and one of the vets has a colony of released ex-racing pigeons living nearby. 

I followed some consults - several rabbits, guinea pigs, a hamster, a gerbil and a tortoise. The sad thing about exotic animals is that because most of the animals are "prey" animals, they are exceptionally good at hiding their pain. Several of the animals were so sick that there was not much that could be done by the vets. 

There were also 2 birds brought in from pet attacks (cat and a dog, attacking a blackbird and a pigeon respectively), both had to be euthanised. I'm definitely an outsider in this team because I'm a cat-lover, but it is awful to see the aftermath.

Since I was there for two weeks, I will try to summarise everything as much as possible, instead of writing detailed paragraphs for each patient. 

I saw lots of ultrasounds of animals (notably a ferret that had very advanced multicentric lymphoma, that was very interesting), I tried my hand at blood sampling from lizards, chelonians, birds and small mammals, I did my first ever castrate! On a small rabbit, which was very interesting, and very different to the dogs that I castrated in the following weeks in Málaga. I even learnt how to euthanise several small mammals, which I'm sure will be a useful skill in the future - one I hope not to use too often.

Throughout the two weeks, we saw lots of wildlife like caught birds, hedgehogs and more pigeons. Someone even brought in an Eagle Owl, although that had been kept as a pet for 40 years. I observed a lot of consults with different vets which was really useful to see how other people communicate with clients. 

I think my two biggest takeaways from these weeks are; "few things in exotics are real emergencies" and "there's no need to put a yellow catheter in a cat or a dog - if you can get a blue in a rabbit". I learnt an awful lot and I wish I could remember it all, but I'm sure that it's nestled away in my long term memory, ready to resurface when the moment arises. 

At the end of my placement, I got some really nice feedback from the vets, and although I don't think I'll  be moving to Bristol any time soon, it's nice to know there's a team that would welcome me. Although I'm fairly certain I want to specialise into feline medicine, I think it's good to know a bit about every animal as I'm likely to come across them in the meantime.