Vet Student Advice

 Here are some links to blog posts I've written about being a vet student in Slovakia.


1. How to get residency in Slovakia, as a student

2. Things that help me study

 

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State 1 of 6: Contagious Diseases

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I had my first state exam today - Contagious Diseases. When I tell you I was dreading this, that does not even cover it.  I studied so much for this exam. I don't particularly like thinking about contagious diseases, as I'm a bit of a hypochondriac. I was doing minimum 6 hours a day reading, doing ankis, watching videos, talking about the diseases. Any possible way to study for this exam, I was doing it.  There are 39 questions about various bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases. Most of the questions are ok, diseases that I know about and don't mind. But there were a few questions that I really, really, really did not want. In particular the question about hemorrhagic fevers. Guess which question I pulled?  To make things worse, the professor on the panel studies hemorrhagic fevers, and is a bit of an expert in the area. I couldn't remember the big disease of veterinary importance (Rift Valley Fever), and could only remember some stuff about ebola and hanta fever. I
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The Start of Spring Semester (1 of 13)

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 After a too-short break back at home, I am once again in Košice. The travel here was frustrating, as all the trains were on strike so Rob and I drove up to Stansted. We got there really early, so I spent a few hours waiting around the airport before boarding a very busy flight to a very cold Slovakia!  This term, Monday starts with a few lectures (online for the moment), and then into campus for practicals in diseases of poultry, horses and internal diseases of small animals. It's a pretty long day, starting at 7:15 and ending at 18:00. Top left: the cat that lives in the horse clinic, top right: the hen we examined in poultry, bottom left: the university boar, bottom right: the pig my group examined.  Tuesday also starts with a lecture, and then on alternating weeks, I have to rush into uni for a practical with pigs. It was really interesting - I haven't had much experience with pigs outside of rearing them at home, and I was young when we did that, so I don't remember mu
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From Passion to Completion: My Thesis Journey

In my first year, I emailed my year tutor asking about our thesis. I had only been studying veterinary medicine for 2 months at the time of emailing him, but I already had a question I wanted to investigate. He emailed back, suggesting a supervisor for me. I didn't get a response until my second year, but my idea was accepted, and I began to work on my thesis.  I wanted to investigate if there was a link between the colour of a cats' fur and the incidence of Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disorders (FLUTD). This topic is of particular importance to me, as two of my cats have suffered from FLUTD.  I will be honest, I didn't work too much on my thesis for the first year. A little bit of literature review, a bit of thinking about how to design my study. I was very preoccupied at the time studying for the 3P's (Pharmacology, Propedeutics, and Parasitology).  When I started 5th year, I knew things had to get serious. I needed to start collecting my data, but my literature review
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Week 8 of 13

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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! Abso
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