South African Vet Student, Zoologist & Wine lover

I am on an adventure that is my life... I am in vet school, I probably drink too much wine, I sleep too little, I laugh a lot and Dream much! I wait in anticipation for all the incredible experiences that are in store for me !!!

[vetschoolandotherthings]

HYPERTROPHIC OSTEOPATHY (Marie's disease), was not my first thought when my patient presented with swelling of the distal limbs, severe lameness, lethargy and fever.

I jumped to infection but I'm learning hopping on the first diagnosis is a bad idea. I realised the discomfort and swelling was focused in regions surrounding the long bones. The woollen areas were hot to the touch and indicated that an inflammatory process was going on. The blood smear was unremarkable.

We decided that the next step would be rads as one of the clinicians has a suspicion about Marie's disease.

We found significant periosteal proliferation of the long bones as well as a large opacity in the thorax which fit the preliminary diagnosis.

Marie's disease is a diffuse periosteal proliferative condition of long bones in dogs secondary to neoplastic or infectious masses in the thoracic or abdominal cavity. Paraneoplastic syndrome for the win!

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/veterinary-science-and-veterinary-medicine/Hypertrophic-osteopathy)

A diagnosis I shan't forget in a hurry.

[vetschoolandotherthings]

Kolle is a stray that presented for traumatic dog bit wounds to his face and neck. He is the sweetest of the sweet and it's been quite a pleasure watching him heal.

I didn't ever see myself as being a small animal veterinarian but the more I work in the field the more I enjoy it.

I am currently on my outpatients rotation which entails alot of emergency care. We have had a horrid bout of organophosphate and rodenticide poisonings, most of which were malicious. Desparate people and the increasing crime rate means dogs are being bumped off to make it easier for intruders.

[vetschoolandotherthings]

My new favourite patient

[vetschoolandotherthings]

So my first 4 out of 12 weeks of Equine medicine and surgery are done and I still feel like a mild imbecile 😂👍. I have loved everything except the quiet days between patients and ICU night shifts which have made me question my choice of career 🤔🙄. I have learned so much already and am becoming more and more interested in equine surgery.

[vetschoolandotherthings]

MY FIRST FEW WEEKS OF CLINICS!!!! (the beginning of the end).

I have waited so long for this day to come. I have waited and worked to finally get to put my blue doctors jacket on, with my stethoscope around my neck, and walk confidently into the hospital and pretend to know what I'm doing.

In my first few weeks I have learned:

1) If you don't know, ask. DON'T EVER try to bullshit anyone into thinking you know what you're doing or understand something if you don't. It will come to bite you in the ass later.

2) You are going to get shat on...more than once... Probably about the same thing. Get over it. We all make mistakes and we are here to learn. Clinicians can't be our best friends and it's important for them to make us aware of our mistakes so we can try to correct and not repeat them.

3) Your hands feel stupid for the first few moments of every procedure, especially when being assessed by a clinician. I had to collect semen from a dog for a fresh semen AI and I quite literally felt as if I had bought a pair of dysfunctional hands on sale from a dodgy online site and wanted to ask for an immediate refund.

4) ASK YOUR PEERS FOR HELP! This is not a competition to see who is going to be the bestest vet ever. Sometimes something you struggle with comes naturally to a friend. Don't be afraid to ask and don't feel like you're failing because you're not as good as your mate in a specific area. We all have strengths and weaknesses.

5) BE KIND TO YOURSELF. I am very good at beating myself up about every and any mistake I make. I also push myself way to hard. Ensure you're looking after yourself, mentally and physically.

6) BE KIND TO YOUR PEERS. If you know your friend has just come off an ICU shift or a really tough rotation. Try give them the weekend off that you only wanted because you had a music festival. Be considerate, you would want the same done to you.

7) CELEBRATE the small things. This week I did a rectal on a pregnant cow for the first time and was overjoyed at being able to stroke it's little face in utero. I also managed to do my first pregnancy diagnosis on ultrasound! Yay me!

8) ENJOY EVERY MOMENT. I don't know about you but this is what I have been waiting for... Almost there baby vet, almost there...

[vetschoolandotherthings]

A brief reconnection with my favourite creature

It's been 6 months... YES, 6 months! 6 months of studying, planning my clinical rotations, studying for my final exams but MOSTLY it's been 6 months of long distance and not seeing my dearest human. Long distance is hard! It is so much harder than I thought it would be, but also worth it.

I am 6 days away from flying overseas and jumping into the arm of the man who holds my heart. Oh how I adore this human. When you are in a long distance relationship all you have is conversation to keep things going (a hard task when your partner is an introvert).

The many hours of phone calls and video chats have actually forced our relationship into a depper zone than I am used to, considering we have not even been dating more than 8 months. We discuss dreams, fears, how we want to raise our kids one day and where we see our relationship in the years to come. It has pushed the relationship towards a level of solidity that it needs in order for it to work. I like solid. This works for me.

I was teasing him on the phone yesterday about something silly involving me being an ex girlfriend. After laughing about it I told him I planned to never be his ex, to which he replied, 'I know, you're going to be my wife one day'. Oh how this makes me grin.

This man knows my heart, has felt my anger, delt with my insecurities (of which there are many) and still looks at this crazy woman and wants to spend his life with me... All without having seen me for 6 months!

I am so excited to see him. Its like having a first date all over again #butterflies.

[vetschoolandotherthings]

Coccidiosis affects goat kids because they're bloody filthy things. Always hopping into diarrhea and then swimming in their water troughs...

Pathology lecturer

[vetschoolandotherthings]

After 8 years, lectures are offially over for this almost vet 😬🎉👆.

On our last day of lectures we decorate our hall and dress up before behaving like the children we all are on the inside.

[vetschoolandotherthings]

My incredible man and his family bought me new paints and paint brushes. I decided to make my own reference sheet for the colours. It's a 24 pan set of Winsor and Newton watercolours.

[theoddvet]

*stabs myself with a scalpel I was using to complete a postmortem*

HO BOY

[veterinaryshitposting]

ZOONOSIS HERE WE COME

[dxmedstudent]

Nice superhero origin story, though.

[veterinaryshitposting]

what superhero? rabies man? brucella buster? haemorraghic fever fighter? no thanks i choose life

[dxmedstudent]

But think of the aesthetic…

[vetschoolandotherthings]

Anthrax Avenger 😂

[veterinaryshitposting]

😂 I’m pretty sure Anthrax Avenger would be a super villain

[vetschoolandotherthings]

I feel this in no way lessens the quality of the origin story 😂😂😂. This could be the start of a whole new graphic novel....

[theoddvet]

*stabs myself with a scalpel I was using to complete a postmortem*

HO BOY

[veterinaryshitposting]

ZOONOSIS HERE WE COME

[dxmedstudent]

Nice superhero origin story, though.

[veterinaryshitposting]

what superhero? rabies man? brucella buster? haemorraghic fever fighter? no thanks i choose life

[dxmedstudent]

But think of the aesthetic…

[vetschoolandotherthings]

Anthrax Avenger 😂

[vetschoolandotherthings]

I have been playing with new techniques and ideas. Just having a little Fun in my down time.

I think all kitties should have flower crowns 😋😏👌

[vetschoolandotherthings]

Community outreaches are a big part of being a vet in our country. We are so privileged to have a group of students dedicated to going into rural communities to help vaccinate and sterilize small animals as well as help out with horses, donkeys and cattle.

Education is the main thing holding people back from properly caring for their animals. It was very humbling to see the amount of people that brought their animals in for their vaccinations and were so keen to learn more about how to better care for their animals despite the fact that many of them are on the bread line. While some may be horrified at the state of the animals brought in or the manner they're brought in, it is so important not to get angry with the owners because it is more often than not a lack of knowledge that has led to the situation. The moment you tell them that there is a better way to treat/feed/handle their animals they immediately take up the chance to show you they are excited to put into practice what you have told them.

For example a woman brought a dog in that had dried ticks all over it as well as burned skin. Clearly she had tried to rid the ticks but in the process had injured the animal. On questioning her I found out she had put ant poison on the dog in an attempt to help it with the ticks. It would have been easy to barrate her but instead I explained that I understood she was desparate and told her that and poison was not a good choice and gave her alternatives. She apologised for using the wrong treatment and asked what she could do to help the dog with the burned skin. Education is key. She had not hurt her animal maliciously and had thought she was doing something to help her dog.

What an amazing day with amazing people. We had over 100 dogs vaccinated and even a good few kitties. Preventing rabies and keeping puppers healthy #allinadayswork

[vetschoolandotherthings]

*See previous post about the feedlot challenge we have running.

A few days ago one of our bulls became quitelame on his right fore leg. We assumed, due to The fact we had just had vet wet weather, that it may have been foot rot. We treated the cow woth Teramycin and a NSAID (Rimadyl) and put him in the hospital camp. He later became lame in all 4 limbs and we began to suspect he could be a potential 3-day-stiff sickness case (Bovine Ephemeral fever virus) which is a insect-transmitted viral disease of cattle. A vaccine for this had not been included in our processing. After no improvement we treated again with Rimadyl and Teramycin and after watching his posture a began to look at Laminitis as another DD.

The doctors and pathologists on site are now also leaning towards Laminitis as the most likely cause of the lameness. In a real feedlot this animal would have been salvage slaughtered as he has already lost 17kg and is not likely to improve for another few days. Luckily we aren't a real feedlot because got a like our Moos.

His temperature yesterday was 39.5 degrees and we have a confirmation of the Laminitis diagnosis. The treatment protocol is to provide NSAIDS to reduce inflammation to prevent separation of the hoof wall from the underlying tissue.

[vetschoolandotherthings]

As part of our bovines module our class is required to run a small feedlot to allow us to understand what goes into the running of a feedlot so we can better understand our role in the industry.

We have been required to buy our o was own cattle at a mock auction, process our cattle, formulate the feed as well as feed and care for the animals for the duration of the feeding period. Currently our cattle are on a starter ration and have an average daily gain of +/- 4kg.

We also had to decide on our own vaccination schedule and what we would do during processing while working within a budget which wasn't easy.

I am starting to get very attatched to our group of cattle. A sign I would make a poor beef farmer 😂🐄🚜

[vetschoolandotherthings]

Holidays are for drinking wine and making beautiful things 🍷👌

[vetschoolandotherthings]

NEW YEAR SAME ME.

The start of the new academic year called for some major organising and some new plants (obviously).

Only 5 months of lectures left and then we start working in the hospital. I have my suture pad ready so I can start practicing and I am beyond excited for what 2019 has in store!