Small Mammals Practical - Blood sampling and nasolacrimal duct flush

We had our second Small Mammals practical this afternoon and learnt all about blood sampling in rodents and rabbits.

We were able to take blood from the medial and marginal ear veins and the saphenous vein in the back leg.

I got the ear vein straight away as we've done that quite a few times before but couldn't get the saphenous; the vet tried afterwards and he struggled too so I didn't feel too bad!
The other rabbits saphenous was much more prominent and other people got that one fine.

We also did nasolacrimal duct flushes which is when you place a catheter in the nasolacrimal duct in the bottom eyelid. It is then flushed with saline which comes down the duct and out the nose to remove any blockages or pus.
The flushed material can be collected and sent for microbiological culturing.

Anatomy Dissections

We've moved on from Splanchnology to Blood Vessels in Anatomy for the past few weeks which seems more logical but tricky learning where all the blood vessels come from, lead to and the inter species differences.

Group photo around the thoracic limb pre-credit test!

Maxime and I dissecting the hind limb of a goat

Falconry Club at Exotics Clinic

The university is having their EAEVE accreditation inspection this week so a few of us from the Falconry and Raptor Rehabilitation club were asked to come to the Exotics Clinic to speak to them about our birds.

We took along Mrs Clarence the Kestrl and Duckie the Peregrine Falcon who were both very well behaved and posed for photos!  

Diseases of Reptiles practical

We had another Diseases of Reptile practical this afternoon where we learnt all about husbandry with common problems and how to prevent or treat them.

After that we were able to handle a variety of reptiles and then take blood samples from each.

I was able to take blood from the front cervical sinus of a turtle, a large boa and a Savannah Monitor 

Quail Hatching and Rearing

We hatched 30 Japanese and Italian Quail down at Falconry Club a few weeks and they've been thriving.

We're a self sufficient club so have to provide our own equipment and food for the birds.

Usually we feed day old chicks, pigeon and sometimes hare or rabbit.

Quail is a really good source of food for the birds but quite expensive to buy frozen. I've reared quail and poultry for years so thought we'd give it a go.

The plan is to keep back a group of about a dozen which we will breed from to rear the offspring as a food source.

Here they are at a few days old and later on at a few weeks old:

Luiz the Italian Quail:

Brooder:

and at a few weeks old...

Blood Vessels of the Head

This week we have been looking at the arteries and veins which supply the head.

We were warned that it was one of the hard weeks but I thought it was actually really logical and the names made sense according to the parts of the skull we learnt last year

And a view of the aorta and head

I've had a really busy weekend but not really got anything done... It's been 4oC and really windy so feels even colder and its only October - can't wait for the snow!

We had a training day for new members of Falconry Club so that took up all of yesterday.
Went out for a classmates birthday but I'm not drinking until Oktoberfest and managed to resist € pizza on the walk home while everyone else got three slices!

Today we were back at Falconry fitting Frantiska's new equipment - I bought a set of anklets, flying and mews jesses and got her a new leash.

She ripped the mews jesses within two minutes of being perched outside and was about to swallow it before I ran into the weathering area and pulled it out of her mouth.

We made some new ones with thicker leather but she was still going at them so we're going to have to keep a close eye on her while she's perched out...

Took Molly and Denny the resident clinic dogs for a walk in the park then came back and watched Supervet - should really get some studying done.

Northern Goshawk necropsy; Aspergillosis and Trichomonas

I saw a necropsy of a juvenile wild Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis gentilis) today, which sadly died after being brought into the clinic last week.

He had anklets put on his legs so that he could be perched and fed on the glove but was found collapsed on Sunday afternoon.

The bird died from chronic Aspergillosis seen as spores and large granulomas in the air sacs.
They think the bird had been ill for several weeks as the granulomas were so big and that would coincide with his capture and being brought into the clinic.



He also had secondary Trichomonas gallinae parasites seen in the mouth which were probably elevated due to immunosuppression.

Weekend in Ukraine

I have three friends visiting from home and we took a trip to Ukraine for the weekend.

We got a coach from Košice to Uzhhorod/Ужгород just over the border which took about 3 hours and stayed in Mala Praha, a local hotel.

We had a massive suite with a bedroom, lounge, kitchen and bathroom for €5 a person.

I was surprised at just how different it was to Slovakia considering how close it is. It was like stepping back in time 50 years with lots of old cars, buses and a cobble stone road!

They use the Cyrillic alphabet so I struggled to read but luckily Mika is a language god and so translated for us.

We spent the evening at Uzhhorod Castle where we had a three course meal with drinks for €7 a head, the food was surprisingly good and the castle was massive.

 Later we took a wall down to the river and sat in a bar where a beer cost 14 hryvnia, 42p; cans in the shop on the way home were even cheaper at around 20p!

My friends got the train from there to Budapest for a few days and I had to wait a few hours for my coach back to Košice.

On the way back through the border I was pulled off the coach to ask where I was travelling and why I didn't have a visa... I explained I was studying in Slovakia and didn't need a visa; they checked and I didn't need one but it was a sweaty palm 10 minutes.

I'm really glad we went, especially at such an important time in Ukraines history, but won't be rushing back any time soon.

Freshers Fundraising - UV Party

A couple months ago we thought it would be a good idea to arrange an event get all the Vet, Medic and Dentist Freshers together and raise some money for charity.

We started with the idea of a UV Party and it all went from there booking the venue, DJs, security and started advertising.

Tickets sold out before the night and Medics were selling glowsticks to raise even more money for charity.

The event was held at Tabačka Kulturfabrik on Wednedsay and was a great night which went down really well with everyone out.

All the proceeds from ticket sales went to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières providing medical aid, food and water to refugees in Greece and the Balkans areas who have been forced out of their homes due to war and human rights violations.

Sarah and Max some of the Medics were the driving force and overall we managed to raise €1,413 which is an amazing achievement!

They donated the money today, the International Day of Peace; here's the guys making the donation:

Taxidermy

Over the last few months I've become really interested in Taxidermy, particularly birds and skeletons or bone studies.

I guess it's because we use bones in Anatomy self study every week, skulls and vertebrae are the most interesting to look at and I think it's pretty cool that we can label all the parts of each bone in the skeleton.

We visited the Natural History Museum in Dublin which I loved and the Nature and Science Museum in Ueno, Japan, which was equally amazing.

I'd love to start a little collection like the photo below but I don't have the funds or a place to display it.

So for now I've just been looking at skeletons and bones. 

n my room at Uni I have a dog skeleton which I got from the clinic and I've just bought a Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) to add to the collection.

I had a few chicken skulls from my Poultry Dispatch course which I left in warm water for maceration but the bones were so fragile and just fell apart, I guess as they were so young they hadn't fused together properly, so I scrapped them.

I'd love to make a lamp like this, but it would have to be done properly or it could end up looking even weirder than intended!

Poultry Dispatch, Pluck & Gut Course

I headed back to Wales this weekend to run another Poultry Dispatch, Pluck & Gut course. I started doing them about 5 years ago now after friends asked me to show them how to prepare excess cockerels for the table and it's grown from there.

We drove down on Sunday and stayed in an awesome little cottage - the previous tenant was a vet and the landlords dad was a vet, which was a nice little coincidence.

The course was held at Denmark Farm Conservation Centre just outside Lampeter which was a great venue.

I had eleven attendees, so one of the biggest courses yet, who all dispatched two chickens, learnt how to dry and wet pluck, skin and joint a bird and then how to gut them. 

They take the second bird home un-eviscerated to hang and practice the gutting process again.

Passed First Year

I PASSED!

I've finally passed all my exams for my first year at vet school. It's been hard work but I've had a great time, met some amazing people and I'm already looking forward to next year.

One down, three to go...

It's the final countdown

Veterinary Genetics Exam

I had my resit of Veterinary Genetics today and never been so nervous for an exam in my life!

I was in with a panel of four examiners because it was my Rectors go (last chance) but I studied hard for a week and passed!

I was in there for an hour and 15mins expecting them to grill me and while they did, they also helped me through it and rephrased questions I didn't understand as it's an oral exam.

Just two more exams to go until I can go home for summer!

Chocolate Pekin Bantam chicks

The Chocolate Pekin Bantam chicks are about 8 weeks old now and growing quickly!

Here's one of the pullets 

The award for the scruffiest chick goes to...

They're off heat now living in the utility room and I'm going to keep them in for about another month. 

Last year I put some Pekin chicks out at about this age and they really didn't thrive so hopefully another few weeks inside will do them a world of good - also means they'll get used to people as we're in and out of there all the time.

Tokyo Ueno Zoo

We visited the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo today and I was pleasantly surprised.

Asian zoos don't have the best reputation so I wasn't sure how much space the animals would have, especially in the capital of Japan but it was pretty good.

They had Giant Panda, Gorillas, Asian Elephants and Polar Bears.

The exhibit the female elephants were in wasn't massive but the bull was in a much bigger area so I guess they rotate and it seemed to have lots of things to keep them amused. The keepers were in with the elephants, sweeping them down with a broom doing health checks, weighing them all individually on a weighbridge and hosing them all down as it was 34oC.

GRIDS Akihabara Capsule Hostel Tokyo

We arrived in Tokyo three days ago and after two nights in a great AirBnB the other side of town, we are now staying in the GRIDS Akihabara Capsule Hotel.

We're in a 30 bed room with loads of these self contained capsules, lockers and shared bathroom.

It's actually really nice, surprisingly private considering you share a room with 30 people and the bathroom is the nicest we've had since arriving in Japan.

There is a laundry room and shared common room upstairs, bar and cafe downstairs and the staff have been great.

Only thing that could make it better would be another pillow but to be fair I haven't asked for one, was too tired and fell straight to sleep!

Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery

Tonight we went to the Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery on Bentota beach in Sri Lanka. We arrived at 6:30pm as advised by Lonely Planet and we're not disappointed! We were the only people looking around the hatchery and had a great tour of the whole sanctuary.

Fishermen collect eggs laid by the females on beaches and take them to the hatchery to receive 2,000 rupees (£10). They're collected as otherwise iguana, monitor lizards and mongoose dig up and eat the eggs.

The eggs are buried in nests in the hatchery, covered by fencing and netted over the top to keep predators and birds out.

The turtles hatch overnight as it's cooler and are looked over for deformities, blindness and sexed according to tail length; males go into one nursery pool and females are kept separate.

Males are kept for 3 days while they absorb the yolk sac and fed some fish food pellets before being released into the ocean at night. A much lower percentage of females hatch so they are kept for a few years to grow until they are bigger and stronger to give them a fighting chance at survival.

The hatchery had quite a few large females ready for release as well as some residents - two blind and four with deformities, from one missing fin to all four fins missing. These are all hand fed tuna and seaweed.

After being shown all around the hatchery we collected 15 three-day-old Green Turtle hatchlings and headed down to the beach.

There were two Sea Eagles hanging around so we waited for them to leave and then released the babies into the Indian Ocean.

Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

Juvenile Brahminy Kite