Monday, February 29, 2016

Student to Vet Careers Conference

This weekend we had a Student to Vet careers conference organised by Chris off of @VetSchoolDiary, a 5th year student here.

Speakers at the weekend were two vets:
Mark (@ExpatVet) an American vet, graduated from Budapest, who started off doing mixed practice in Saudi Arabia and now works in the UK.
Hannah, a UVM graduate, who went into Small Animal practice and 2.5 years after graduation opened her own sole-charge practice in Cardiff.

Saturday covered a background on the speakers, how they got to where they are and how to get your first job.
Hannah spoke about starting her own practice and consultation technique while Mark spoke about working abroad and the different requirements (NAVLE exam for America) plus difficulties of working in the Middle East with limited access to veterinary drugs!

Sunday focused on writing a veterinary CV, interview technique and then problems in consults and how to deal with them.
The weekend finished with a Q&A session which covered all sorts of topics from starting salaries, Dangerous Dogs Act, legalities regarding, reporting animal abuse, non-paying clients and was really useful to ask burning questions.

It was great to hear from two European vet school graduates who have been so successful and just goes to show what we can do after leaving here.
They made it clear that European graduates are in demand due to our practical skills, which some UK students are lacking, and that we should choose our first job carefully, at a practice we want to work at and don't just chase any old job or the first job offer; though don't be cocky!
I guess 10 years ago there was some prejudice against EU grads but nowadays all practice owners know (or know of) vets who studied abroad and it's no longer seen as a negative that we've gone abroad to chase our dreams of becoming a vet.
Was also nice to listen to fluent English speakers who have experience of working in the UK!

Chris is our Student Representative for the BSAVA so got us some massive discounts on veterinary textbooks.
I've ordered the Canine & Feline Surgical Principles (£79 down to £25) and BSAVA Pocketbook for Vets which is usually £25 online but discounted to £5.

Great weekend - thanks to Chris for organising it and to Hannah & Mark for coming to speak to us!

Thursday, February 25, 2016

New Small Animal Hospital at UVM Kosice Vet School

We were given a tour of the new Small Animal Hospital today and I'm amazed at how good it was!
Walking in the new entrance there is a massive reception and waiting room divided for dogs and cats, of which comes off the cosult rooms. Behind that is a suite of operating theatres all with automatic doors and pass-through cupboards behind to maintain sterility throughout.
To get into the sterile areas there are two automatic doors which act as a lock, in which you have to get changed into sterile clothing; the clean-side door won't open until the dirty-side door is shut behind you.

Downstairs there are purpose built rooms for MRI and CT scanners as well as massive operating theatres able to hold whole classes viewing surgery.
The theatre control panels are suspended on arms from the ceiling so that they can be moved around the room and have controls for lighting and video as well as gas, suction and trays for sterile instrument packs.

There is also a hydrotherapy room which is something I've not seen firsthand before, only read about and seen on TV shows like Supervet. Also a lameness suite with cameras to detect subtle changes in movement and gait; included in here is a treadmill with force place which animals are exercised on to see how much weight they are (or aren't) putting on each leg.

All the building works have now been completed and most of the large equipment is in, they are just finishing up fitting it out. It is due for completion this summer so I guess the surgery department will move in and then have a grand opening in September.

We're really lucky that as 4th years, we will be the first class (next year) to use the facilities and be in the new clinic for our staże, or rotations as we'd call them in the UK.

I didn't get any photos today so you'll have to do with old progress photos...
Before and after, taken from down at Falconry:

Few progress photos over the last year:


Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Pharmacology; Inhalational Anaesthetics

We've now started Special Pharmacology and begun learning about drugs, their indications and active substance, today we looked at Inhalational Anaesthetics.

Ether (diethyl ether) was developed for use in the 1840's to be vaporised into a gas and numb pain by depressing cerebral activity but leaving patients conscious, used for both inducing and maintaining anaesthesia during surgery.

Ether is no longer used in surgery as it is highly flammable and explosive so safer, more effective anaesthetics have been developed such as Isoflurane and Sevoflurane.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

What's in my microscope today?

Took this down my microscope in Parasitology today.
Any guesses....

Answer:

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Eastern Imperial Eagle in Exotics Clinic

I was in the Exotics Clinic this week when a professor asked me to help him take something upstairs. I followed him and soon realised it was a bird, an Eastern Imperial Eagle which had been brought in by a member of the public.

Unfortunately the bird was completely blind in one eye and had been hit by a car while it was feeding at the roadside, resulting in a compound fracture of the tibiotarsus. The wound was very dirty with dead tissue so the bird was given inhalation anaesthesia while we cleaned the leg and placed a thermoplastic cast and bandaged him up.
The Eastern Imperial Eagle is a breed threatened with extension in Europe so as he is blind and no injured it is hoped that he will recover and be placed in a captive breeding programme to help the future population.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

All done with Anatomy

I've just done (and passed) my Anatomy II Final!

We finished Anatomy I last Christmas so this was a year long module covering splanchnology (internal organs), blood, lymph and the nervous system as well as birds and lab animals, with credit tests every week.

It's been really interesting and nice to see how everything comes together - blood vessels and nerves were much harder than the bones in that we have to learn all the branches, interspecies differences and sometimes you can't even see the vessels!
Lena, a friend from Norway, and I studied for nearly two weeks in the study room, writing out and reciting various parts of the body, branches of this and that and watching videos we'd made in class.
The written part of the exam was the toughest bit as we can be questioned on any minute detail from the books. After we'd passed that we moved to the anatomy dissection labs for the practical exam.

On each of the four tables was a different system with fresh, dried and models of various organs and systems.
Luckily we passed! I didn't get top marks but I did better than I expected to and was really pleased to have got it done. Nerves got in the way but I think after studying so hard we deserved to pass!


Now we move on to Pathological Anatomy...