Vet Student at Košice

 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 ...

This exam period started as they all do, with a million credit tests in week 13, and me feeling far too unprepared. I had more oral exams than I've had previously (4), which was a bit nervewracking.  I didn't track all the time I studied this exam period, but this is the majority of it. I sort of fell off the wagon using the Forest app this term, but I will be more diligent with it next term. For some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to try for my andrology exam on the saturday at the end of term, before going home for a couple of weeks. Luckily, my study/sleep alternation worked, and I walked out of the room with an 'A'. My first exam back after my short break was diseases of exotics. I was a bit apprehensive, as I'd heard some things about the teachers asking difficult questions. I try to disregard that sort of talk as much as possible, and there's only really been 1 unpleasant teacher interaction. My method for this exam was rereading a bunch, t...

This is it now, the home stretch!  I have 7 exams this winter semester, 2 of them are online, 1 of them was for my optional course and wasn't so much an "exam" as it was a short presentation and then being given our grades.  So that leaves 4 exams (fish, andrology, exotics, epizoo)- they're all oral exams which is a bit scary, but I've managed to get through them before.  I'm doing my first exam on Saturday the 17th, it's Andrology. 3 questions, 2 from the theory side and 1 from the practical side. I'm cramming it a bit, because it's only a few days away, but I don't think it will be too awful. The teacher is very nice, and as soon as I'm done with my Pathological Anatomy credit, I will be able to focus all my attention on andrology. Then I'm going home for 2 weeks!  16/12/2022: pathological anatomy credit went really well. My teacher had been testing people since 8am, and I was last on the list - I think he just wanted to be done but I...

I completely forgot to write a post for week 10! We're reaching crunch time so I haven't been able to think about much else other than my impending credits tests and exams.  Week 11 was more of the same, just stressing about upcoming credit tests and exams. Most of our practicals have finished by now, and we're just working in theory in most subjects.  I actually got covid this week as well! I was horribly ill on Sunday/Monday - I couldn't stay awake, and I was pretty dizzy with a very stuffed up nose and cough. It took 5 days to feel normal, and 6 to test negative. I'm very relieved it wasn't worse, but it still wasn't a great time to be sick.  2 more weeks of term left, 9 credit tests. I'm doing my first exam in Andrology on Saturday 17th. The teacher was kind enough to give us some dates before the official exam period, and I'm hoping it won't be too bad. Still plenty of time to study, so I should get back into it!

Absolutley nothing happend this week honestly. I had all my same lectures and practicals for Monday to Wednesday. Thursday (17th) is a National Holiday in Slovakia, so we had that off, and then the Rector surprised us with a Rector's day on Friday! Exotics was the most exciting practical that we had - we were talking about lizards and snakes, their most common problems and how to treat them. It was a little distracting because we had 2 bearded dragons to examine, but they were incredibly cute. The snake was very sweet too. I'm almost convinced to get one because of how lovely and smooth they are to touch. I think I prefer cuddlier animals though. Maybe one day! 

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...

As mentioned in my previous post, I didn't have uni on Monday or Tuesday this week. I spent a bit of time catching up on sleep and housework. On Wednesday, I didn't have to be in uni until 1225, so I went to the library to do some work. The normal room I work in was shut off because there was a book fair for medical textbooks, so I sat on the armchairs and worked on my thesis for a little bit. I also did a lesson in my Slovak A1 course, then it was time to go to ruminants. We examined some calves, then spoke about one of the patients - a cow who came in with a suspected left diplaced abomasum. It turns out she didn't have an LDA, but instead ruminal atony and severe dehydration. She was also 8 months pregnant. She was given aggressive fluid therapy, and she seemed to recover, and then very unexpectedly gave birth to her calf 3 weeks early, with no warning signs. The calf was very small, and died very soon after birth so it's suspected there was some pathological process...