Vet Student at Košice

Everybody says "spaying and neutering aren't day one competencies", however, I do like to be prepared - so I booked a week at a spay and neuter clinic in Spain. The clinic is run by a very nice man, Wayne, who retired to Spain 20 years ago. Not one to settle down, and concious of the many lost and stray animals around Spain, he set up the neuter clinic to help learning and newly graduated vets to improve their surgical skills. We also get to practice putting in catheters and intubating animals, which is a good skill to have too. This was another thing that I sorted out about a year ago, when I was still a bit unsure if I really liked surgery or not. I've watched a lot of surgeries, I'm not squicked by the blood or anything, but as time has gone on, I realised that I much prefer the medical side of things. However, it wasn't cheap to visit, and I'm going to have to do surgery at some point, so I might as well learn in a relatively controlled environment.  O...

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 th...

    Full disclaimer, this happened several weeks ago, I am only just getting around to typing it up. So for part of my course, we have to complete a certain amount of hours of "extra-mural studies" in practice. At the end of my 2nd year, we only had to do 80 hours so I booked 2 weeks in a first opinion and referral practice in Belfast. My friend lives and works at the place, so I stayed with her and we did some touristy things around Ireland, like going to see the Giant's Causeway. In my first week at the practice, I mostly just observed, trying to remember everyone's names and what I'd learnt in the last year. The practice focussed a lot on neurology and orthopaedics, so I observed and did several neurological exams.  I got to practice loads of clinical skills like blood draws and placing IV catheters. We missed out of doing most of that in first year because of covid. Because my friend is a nurse there, I had a bit of an "in", and got to do ...

I spent another two weeks at my local vets, and saw lots of stuff! I gave lots of vaccines, held lots of puppies and kittens, and even took some blood from a chihuahua! I'm so grateful for the time, and I made some good contacts for when I graduate! I hope to come back again, maybe in winter break or next summer. A friend and I have got an apartment for this year, it's a relief to not be going back into dorms! Maybe I'll move back in later, but only if I can get a single room! We got a really good deal, and I spoke to the girl who lived there before so I know that it's a legitimate place.  I've spent the last couple of weeks just hanging out and relaxing. I've managed to keep up with my Anki cards for the whole summer, but I regret not studying more. I'm worried about starting the new term - we start some of the hardest subjects this year. Brexit has made studying in the EU much harder than it needs to be, so I've got to sort out residency stuff which is...

After some weeks of resting and learning, I'm back in practice! For the next 3 weeks I'm working at my local mixed vets.  Today was my first day there and I think it went ok! Embarassingly, I got a bit dizzy during the first spay, but I was ok after that. After that, there was a castrate, and then a dog dental. The dental was a little stressful because the dog wasn't breathing after induction. After some more medications (reversing the premed), the dog got it together and the procedure went on as normal.  After that, I had a bit of lunch then went out to a farm to watch some TB testing. I've not actually seen a TB test before, so that was really interesting. Two tuberculin types ( M. bovis and M. avium ) are injected into the neck, after the initial thickness of the skin has been measured. After 4 days the skin thickness is remeasured, and compared. If the site injected with M. bovis is thicker than the site injected with M. avium by more than 4mm, then the animal is ...