#vetscience

[ihearthisto]

🤖 Bender-scope 🔬 The microscopes of the future are all surly and a little bit hungover. Current mood: “Bite my shiny metal a$$“

[lizziedoesvetpath]

If an alpaca tried to castrate me I'd punch it, and I'm not going to apologise for that

My classmate on camelids

[why-i-am-a-veterinarian]

Hi everyone,

After a couple of years away from this blog, I am back! A lot has happened between my last post and now, so I thought I would fill you all in.

My last post described my first ever consult as a qualified veterinarian during my first shift of my rotating internship, in the emergency department. After 4 months in emergency (which to be honest, completely destroyed me - mentally, physically and emotionally), I worked in the oncology and the internal medicine department. I learnt an enormous amount during my internship year. The theory behind my internship was to eventually complete a residency in small animal internal medicine (and my, my has my plans changed).

After my internship, I started working in general practice, in a mixed general practice as a matter of fact. I never thought I would touch another sheep, goat, pig or alpaca but here I am, loving it. In fact, I hand-reared 2 orphan lambs (attached photos), Rory and Tommy. I have completed a 55kg pet pig ex-lap, hundreds of cat speys as a part of my clinics charity program as well as working up interesting and bizarre cases.

Currently, I am in Cambodia doing 3 weeks of volunteer veterinary work. In the 4 days that I have been here I have repaired a diaphragmatic hernia in a 1 year old husky (more on this to follow), completed the most bizarre lump removal on a (failed) de-mining dog and worked up a complicated ascending paralysis case in a 4 month old Bloodhound.

I am going to try my very best to fill you all in on the weird and wonderful experiences I have had over the last couple of years.

[vetdownunder]

Surgery Rotation

My final rotation of the year! It seems like yesterday that I was following a hand drawn map of the hospital to locate the ophthalmology room for my very first rotation. How far I’ve come!

On this rotation we began with a small group of four students (rather than the usual eight) which was then divided in half, with two students beginning on soft tissue and the other two on orthopaedics. I was assigned to soft tissue surgery for the first week and it was hectic! My buddy and I were run off our feet trying to complete the work of four students. We arrived at 7:30 each morning and didn’t leave until after 7:00 at night when our patient records were completed. Once home, our evenings were spent frantically researching surgical procedures to avoid looking like complete idiots when the specialists inevitably quizzed us the following day.

Students were assigned to cases and responsible for collecting a history during the initial consultation with the owner, performing a physical examination, scrubbing into the surgery, writing a detailed surgical report, looking after the patient in hospital, administering medications, overseeing wound care, recording vitals and the progress of recovery, and eventually discharging the patient. Our ultimate goal was to get our patients through all of those stages and discharged as quickly as possible, to minimise the number of animals in our care and allow us to leave the hospital at a semi-reasonable hour each day.

Although being a group of just two students meant that we had an insane workload to keep on top of, we did get special treatment in the form of being allowed to scrub into almost every surgery! Students in previous groups were lucky to scrub into five surgeries during the whole rotation, whereas I scrubbed into ten just in the first week! Even so, being specialist surgery, our job primarily consisted of passing surgical instruments and cutting suture material (which was never quite the right length). One day towards the end of the first week, the surgeon surprised me by letting me place two sutures: a simple interrupted and a cruciate. That was two more than my fellow student, so I counted myself lucky!

During the first week, I was involved with a huge variety of soft tissue cases (prepare for big words) including an abdominal hernia repair, ventral bulla osteotomy, two dermoid sinus removals, multiple wound repairs, adrenalectomy, thyroidectomy, melanoma removal and skin flap, tongue biopsy, emergency plication to correct an intussusception, gastropexy, and ovariohysterectomy.

The most memorable case from this rotation was a soft tissue sarcoma removal from the hind leg of an elderly Golden Retriever. The surgery was performed on Monday and I arrived early the following day to find her leg very swollen. Over the week, the leg continued to swell and her condition steadily declined. By Thursday her breathing was laboured and I could hardly hear a heart beat. Our patient was transferred to the ICU to spend the night in an oxygen tank. The following morning she was much the same, still struggling for each breath. The vets had tentatively diagnosed her with von Willebrand Disease, an inherited clotting disorder caused by a defective or deficient protein. This meant the swelling in her leg was likely pooled blood as a result of uncontrolled bleeding from the surgical site. The disorder had never been detected previously and so it was an incredibly unfortunate and unforeseen complication. On Friday evening I went to check on her before heading home and reached the ICU just as someone yelled, “SHE’S ARRESTED!”. The emergency team sprung into action and began CPR. Her owners were contacted and the decision was made to let her go. It was a devastating end to what should have been a simple mass removal. Everyone involved was deeply affected by her death.

At the end of the first week, the resident came to see us in the student tutorial room. He told us we had done a fantastic job and he really appreciated our help. The hard work of final year students is often taken for granted, so the few times people have acknowledged and appreciated my efforts have really stuck with me!

Just as we were beginning to feel comfortable with soft tissue surgery, Monday came around and it was time to switch to orthopaedics. New surgeries, new patients, new team. At least I still had my student buddy for support and entertainment. There was an interesting mix of cases on orthopaedics, including bilateral hip dysplasia, intervertebral disc disease, two medial patellar luxations, shoulder arthroscopy, stifle arthroscopy and joint tap, and many tibial plateau levelling osteotomies.

Over the two week rotation, we had several tutorials on wound management, brachycephalic airway syndrome, neurology and fracture management. On the last Friday we had a short exam, followed by an orthopaedic cadaver lab, where we practiced our surgical approaches to the hip and stifle joints, and performed a femoral head ostectomy (a procedure in which the head of the femur is cut off to remove the hip joint).

The last surgery finished late on Friday and the hospital was eerily quiet. It was the strangest feeling saving my final reports, packing up my belongings and preparing to leave the hospital for the last time. The four of us didn’t really know how to react. We congratulated one another on finishing and headed home in stunned disbelief, unsure whether to laugh or cry. We didn’t have much time to process these feelings before our minds became consumed with panicked thoughts of the impending exams. It was time to put our heads down and bums up for one final push to the finish line!

[savetstudent]

Black Cat Appreciation Day // 17 August

Another 10 Reasons Why Black Cats Should be Appreciated Today and Every Other Day of the Year!!

1. Most people believe that black cats are of the Bombay cat breed but there are actually 22 cat breeds with black coloured variants. 

2. Black cats are being used as a models to study human diseases as the genes causing their coats to be black are similar to genes that cause resistance to diseases like HIV in humans. 

3. Black cats get some of their bad wrap from Greek Mythology as the Goddess of Death and Witchcraft’s servant was a black cat. 

4. Apart from Greek Mythology, black cats became known as witch’s companions. Shunned women who were found “guilty” of witchcraft were often seen feeding homeless cats - of which the most common colour is black of course! 

5. Black cats are considered good luck in the sailing community - British sailors believed that a black cat was not only a good companion and rat catcher on a ship but brought them good luck and ensured a safe journey and safe return home. 

6. They look like mini panthers! 

7. Due to some of the genes associated with the black coat colour, black cats are more resistant to diseases than other cats. 

8. Black cats can rust - so to speak! If black cats spend too much time in the sun the pigment in their coat can break down to reveal a light dusty, brown colour. 

9. Some animal shelters refuse to re-home black cats during the month of October out of fear that they may be adopted to be used in Halloween rituals. 

10. Lastly and most importantly, black cats just have the sweetest personalities! 

[shityouhearatvetschool]

“I really need to study this weekend - I am diabolically confused.”

[becthevet]

When you get a super neat line of practice sutures you celebrate 🎉 🐶 Another week of rotations done and dusted! This week was spey week. I got to perform my first solo (but supervised) dog castrate, cat castrate, and a dog spey! (Also a bonus dental). All my surgeries went swimmingly! Each of my patients recovered and have gone home no longer able to reproduce 😁 Next week: GP! 🐶 #vetschool #suturing #suture #stiches #medschool #vetmedicine #vet #veterinaryscience #veterinary #vetstudent #5thyear #vetscience #vetschoollife

[savetstudent]

Final Exams??

I thought some of you might be wondering how the final year veterinary exams work here in SA since I am busy with them at the moment 😜 Here’s a simple break down...

We write two exams:

1. Clinical Exam - consists of Small Animals, Equines, Production Animals and Wildlife

2. Non-Clinical Exam - consists of Public Health (Milk Hygiene, Meat Safety and Zoonotic Diseases), Pathology, Controlled Diseases, State Vet and Epidemiology

We also do a practical examination which consists of four different practical tasks in a set amount of time.

Only a few more days to go! 🐾💪🏻👍🏻🎉🙌🏻🎊🙏🏻😜🤓😅😃