Diary of a Dick Vet

I’ve just finished my first week of EMS here in my hometown, at a busy and well-equipped 7-vet practice with forty staff members. It’s been quite a change from my UK experience, where there were three vets, four staff, and only a very small surgery with fairly minimal equipment. Aside from the change in size, there’s also new trade names to learn for the drugs and different methods in treating even the common ailments, and a few diseases and breeds you don’t find commonly in Scotland.

It’s a big busy practice and it’s been a challenge meeting and gaining the trust of the staff, but I’m starting to feel a little more settled in; everyone has been extremely friendly, but there is a gap between being the weird girl who stands and watches everyone and gets in the way, and the one who the techs are willing to help practice blood draws. I have two more weeks of practice to see and there’s a lot I want to try before I leave, so hopefully comfort levels will grow and they’ll let me do even more over time.

Of course, a few interesting cases have presented, including an injured deer and a small but critical anomaly in a routine bitch spay, that allowed me to watch an expert work under pressure. The dog was fine and was discharged the next morning. The deer had a sadder ending, but there is certainly some relief in knowing that it was humanely euthanized instead of falling victim to a predator due to its weakened state.

This week of EMS has really driven home to me how beneficial the program is. So far, I’ve seen many ‘foxtails’ or ’spear grasses’ that have managed to invade the ears, foot pads, nostrils, eyelids, and more unusual spaces of both cats and dogs. These tiny but painful foreign bodies are common to the area, particularly at this time of year, and while I was taught about foreign bodies and their removal in class, it was only briefly, before moving on to more interesting but less common diseases and ailments. EMS allows me to see and practice the day-to-day stuff, AKA the stuff I need to know, and not just the kind of problems you see in the referral setting. Removing the foxtail isn’t necessarily the difficult part, but learning to see the symptoms it tends to present with is useful.

Perhaps the most useful part of doing EMS back in the US? I think I might be getting my American accent back! The techs and vets said I sounded funny, but I think I’m starting to revert to my true accent. I must, however, stop saying ‘consultation’ and ‘qualifying’ instead of ‘appointment’ and ‘graduating.’ Bad habits die hard!

My exam is done, which is such a relief. For the week leading up to the event, I usually alternate between confidence and begging for just a few more days, until about 24 hours before, when I resign myself to destiny. This time, unfortunately, I spent just about every minute up to the exam trying to cram a bit more info (cf. knowledge) into my head, wishing I could just give up and spend the evening before the exam knitting. In hindsight, the tangle of thought I attempted to sort on that last day probably resulted in approxiamtely nothing, but I suppose it kept my conscious clean.

It’s nice to be out of my study-funk, although the aftermath is fairly brutal. Whereas other students tell me that their flat is never as clean as it is during exam week, I tend to live in the library from 10am to 11pm at night, so when I come home, I dump my notes on the desk and my throw my clothes on the floor and go to bed. Thus I have a disaster zone to organize; I have so much to do, it’s easier to just do nothing at all. But I want the flat to be clean before I head off to the States for five weeks, for the first half of my summer break.

Ah yes, summer. I have a few weeks of EMS scheduled at home with what looks like a really nice small animal clinic with lots of gadgets, a trip to Oregon for a Shakespeare Festival and a weekend in Yosemite, plus hopefully loads of time to browse the local yarn shops. I am bringing about 1400m of yarn with me to knit a cardigan, and hopefully I’ll make space for some more on the way back! Sadly, yarn is much cheaper in the US than in the UK, and while I love supporting independent dyers and British-based yarn companies, I can’t knit entire sweaters in Rowan or Debbie Bliss. Well, I could, but I could then afford to knit about one sweat a year…yep, it’s cheap US yarn for me. Looking forward to it!

I’ll try to remember to update about my EMS experience. I’m hoping I’ll get to try out some of the simpler surgeries and see some interesting cases, and add more check-marks to my list of procedures to accomplish before final year. Happy summer, everyone!

How on earth (a) did break end, and (b) am I almost finished with the first week back? Exams are in a few weeks time, and I don’t know how I’ll learn all the new material and review the old stuff in the meanwhile! The perennial problem for the student, of course.

When I last left you, I had nearly completed a stunning first week of EMS. The second week was great as well, especially since the vet who did most of the operations was back from vacation. I was able to watch a femoral head and neck excision arthroplasty on a Border Terrier and a splenectomy on a Rottweiler before I left, have a good chat with everyone about the realities of working in a small animal clinic, and enjoy some good cuddles with lots of interesting pets. Success!

Sadly my scheduled trip to Holland/Belgium/Luxembourg was cancelled due to an unfortunate cloud of ash from some Northern neighbors, but at least I spent an extra week ’stranded’ in Edinburgh, rather than stuck in a foreign country, with no certain way of getting home. I spent my last week of sweet, sweet freedom knitting and watching The Mighty Boosh on DVD. As you do.

Some FOs:

My o w l s! This was my first proper sweater, and I would say it’s a good beginner jumper. Perhaps it wasn’t as challenging as I had originally anticipated because I was already confident with circulars, cables, and short-rows, but I still think anyone who can knit and purl can make this! The pattern is written wonderfully and is hugely popular on ravelry, and I’m proud someone who wrote something so fantastic is also a current resident of Edinburgh! I want to knit all of her designs (Manu is going to be my next ‘big’ project.) I’ve gotten several compliments on this sweater, which illustrates how knitted garments can truly be trendy and fashionable.

In addition, I found a way to use some of the lovely 4-ply I bought from Scottish indie yarn dyer Ripples Crafts:

It’s a very simply little shawl/wrap - I didn’t want a complicated lace pattern to obscure the colors in the yarn. I genuinely enjoyed knitting the the stockinette stitch base and then simple lace section, before finishing with some good old-fashioned garter. Garter - it’s coming back in, man. I have purposely photographed this from a distance, because upon closer inspection, it’s very, very obvious that I was off on some of my stitch counts, leading to a disruption in the lace pattern. You’d only noticed if you looked closely, and I’m going to let my amazing shawl be spoiled by details.

And finally, my pretty green hat. My wardrobe is unintentionally skewed green but my accessories are not, so this was a way to fill the deficit. The colorway is ‘Light Olive’ but it makes me think of lichen or moss, of damp forests and mushroom hunts with my dad when I was a teen. I call it my ‘Angwin Tam,’ and the yarn is 50% angora, 50% wool - it’s super-soft! I think I might buy another skein and knit some simple mittens to match, for next winter.

In addition to knitting my fingers raw, I also took a semi-impromptu day-trip to Thirsk, where the famous vet, James Herriot, had his surgery. All Creatures Great And Small is practically the bible for aspiring vets, and I’d been wanting to visit ever since I learned his old surgery is now a museum. The three hours of train journeys made it just far enough away to be someplace very different, but close enough to enjoy a full afternoon, arriving home in the early evening.

It was a very overcast day, but for a gal who lives in Edinburgh, the absence of rain is enough cause for joy. So forgive me if my photos are a bit gloomy and gray.

Donald Sinclair, aka Siegfried Farnon, vetted the Thirsk Races every year. I could just see the track, as I made the 20 minute walk from the train station to the town center.

On the front of Skeldale House

I was practically alone on my tour of the house. The guide at the entrance insisted that I take loads of pictures, and filled me in on many of the little details of the house, such as which pieces are original to the house, and sights that were directly referenced in the books. Wight’s widow was involved in the curation of the museum, so the house is a fairly accurate picture of how it looked in the 1940s. I couldn’t help but find the place a bit romantic, full of old charm, and a reminder of what vetting used to be. My absolute favorite room was the old dispensary, where James and Siegfriend mixed any number of strange brews for the farmers.

A real potions cabinet, full of 'Placentula or Cleansing Drink' and 'Oxygas for Udder Ill' and other strange wares. I wonder how vets 50 years from now will find our current pharmacies?

The consultation room for small animals

The cheerful kitchen

I doubt this tea cozy was originally in the house, but I'm still in love with it!

The back portion of the property included a short video on Wight’s life, and the car used in the television series. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the show and wouldn’t call myself much of a fan, but I wasn’t going to pass up a chance to sit in that sweet car. Sadly, no one was around to take a photo of me in it, so I had to improvise:

It's me!

Upstairs was a totally brilliant museum of veterinary medicine. I majorly geeked out, looking at the old instruments and reading about all the wonky things early vets used to do. I recognize that non-vets probably couldn’t care less about this, and since my tiny readership consists of my immediate family, and people from my knitting group who openly stalk me (hi, Jez!), there’s no need to detail all the photos I took, but I will share this beauty:

An old probang - used to retrieve potatoes and turnips lodged in the throats of cattle. It looks remarkably similar to the modern version, although the favored material is no longer leather. On a side note, it's a bit...wrong...that an instrument made from cow hide was shoved down the throats of other cattle to retrieve potatoes. I suppose it's not unlike using catgut in sheep!

In addition to the potato-grabber’, calving aids and castration instruments appear to have changed little in the past 100 years, and why would they? Those were skills based on experience and knowledge of anatomy, along with a bit of strength. The most important contribution to veterinary medicine (human medicine, too) has undoubtedly been antibiotics, and anthelminthics have dramatically improved welfare and production systems for food animals, but these don’t retrieve a stuck lamb or geld a horse. This was represented on the poster boards that guided the tour of the museum, but I imagine only someone involved in the vet profession would realize how humbling it is, after having a good laugh at the often useless potions at a vet’s disposal, that so much of this field hasn’t actually changed since the introduction of antimicrobials.

Okay, one more geeky thing:

A cat castration box - use your imagination. (Anesthesia is such a wonder!)

I spent about two hours exploring the museum, and loved every minute. I bought myself a few souvenirs and walked down the street to St Mary’s Church, which is a gothic-period church in really good condition. Its original windows had been destroyed during the Blitz, but this appears standard for most British churches; what makes it unusual is that one of these windows had been restored to near perfection. The inside was lovely:

View from the alter

There are a few more pictures on my flickr, especially of the vet museum, if you’re interested. Now I’m back in classes, and trying to relight that fire that led me to this place, to complete this course…with exams so frighteningly close, let’s hope I find my spark!

Howdy folks! I am very, very pleased to report that (a) I em enjoying my EMS at a small animal practice in town and (b) I have something vet-y to write about!

To be honest, I was a bit worried about starting EMS: I haven’t been enjoying classes very much this year, and I couldn’t tell if I was overwhlemed by everything, or I had fallen out of love with being a vet. Maybe, I thought, if I loved this more, I wouldn’t feel so exhausted all the time, or I wouldn’t catch myself losing focus in class and drifting off while studying. But being a vet and learning about how to be a vet are two very different things (’chalk and cheese,’ if you will), and I’ve realized that my disgruntled opinion about school does not extend to the actual practice of everything I’ve been learning. So that’s good.

I started my EMS on Tuesday, because they were closed for the UK public holiday of Easter Monday, so the first day after a long weekend was quite busy. I watched two cat neuters, several dentals, and an attempt at an insulin-response test on a very grumpy kitty during the morning operations period, then helped with consultations in the afternoon. The consultation room is incredibly small - room enough for a vet, and owner, and a pet - so I was a tight squeeze, but it was nice to get a chance to listen to a heart murmur, watch a puppy get a drip placed, and observe client-vet interaction. Sadly, a cat’s oral tumor had progressed so much that the decision was made to euthanize her that afternoon, so my first day included the most emotionally draining part of a vet’s job. However difficult this was to experience, I can’t help but see it as a learning experience.

Yesterday was marked with less sadness. There were the usual dentals, but also the removal of a retained testicle in a dog, and the oddly pleasurable experience of dematting an elderly cat. She was certainly dirty and her fur wasn’t fun to handle, but the end result was an entirely different cat. There was another cat (it was a feline-dominated few days!) that is being treated for a gastric lymphoma at the Vet School that needed bloods drawn to check that its chemotherapy was doing more harm than good, so I got to have an interesting chat about treatment options while reviewing a chemo drug. I also met one of the partner’s Border Collies, who spent all afternoon dropping his squeaky toy at my feet, desperate for an arm to throw it, despite being a bit sleepy from sedation after having an abscess lanced on his foot that morning.

There were no operations scheduled this morning and consultations ended at 10:30, so I’m back in my flat until 2-ish, when I go back to see a Great Dane and a Dalmatian and even more cats.  I’ve spent my free time organizing my summer EMS, which I’m looking forward to. This evening I will pop around to one of my knitting groups, which is conveniently located across the street from my practice, so I will still get a chance to work on the sleeve to a sweater I’ve been slowly building. Hopefully I’ll finish it before EMS is done, and there will be photos to share.

From a 12-year-old kid, while his 7 month-old puppy squirmed in response to a thermometer in its rectum: ‘he’s not used to having anything in there.’

Well, that’s probably good news.

My EMS is over, except for a few pesky forms to fill out. My final week, with chickens, went poorly for a number of reasons, but I made it through. At least it was a beautiful location. I took some pictures to prove it.

View of the farm from the road

A little waterfall. We had rain for a lot of the week after this, and the little waterfall ended up quite big.

In addition to chickens, the farm was also host to some cattle and lots of sheep. Thankfully no pigs!

I may not miss the chickens, but I will miss the truly beautiful walk to and from the farm.

I wish I had nicer things to say about chickens, but the truth is, they’re rather unpleasant. A few clucking around the yard might be nice, but a shed full of 2000 of them makes you quickly realise that they’re devoid of much personality. They’re certainly not as likable as sheep. Or cows, or horses, or dogs, or cats….

Still, they’re not pigs, either!

Hello, it’s your faithful blogger once again.

Meh.

I’ve had a rather busy summer with my EMS: 1 week horse, 3 weeks cattle (2 dairy, 1 with a beef suckler herd), and 1 week of small mammal so far. Next week I’m out in the countryside to work with chickens and then I have three weeks of completely unplanned free-time. Well, only vague planning anyway - I will have 4 more EMS forms to complete and there are a few movies I’m planning on seeing, but otherwise I’m not sure what to do. I made a (very nerdish) list of things to do in and around Edinburgh for under £5, one of which I already unsuspectingly completed: my beef placement was all over the Pentland hills, so I can cross hiking the Pentlands off my list. In fact, as lovely as that park is, after spending days trekking up and down pasture in the heat and weeds, I’m not terribly concerned with visiting that place for a while.

As far as my list is concerned, I think I will wait to do a lot of it until my sister arrives in mid-August. I’m SUPER PSYCHED for someone from my other home to come visit my current home, and also to watch her experience the bizarre land and culture that is Scotland. She will have to be very careful crossing streets! The currency will be weird! Old men will call her ‘hen’! And she will have to try Irn Bru! Plus other marvels of Edinburgh, oh my.

The new GEPs will be arriving in town in a few weeks time, as well. It’s nearly a year for myself since I first arrived in Edinburgh, miserably tired and jet-lagged, with three heavy suitcases and no sense of direction. I survived, and they will, too.

Cue ‘The Circle of Life.’

I’ve had a busy few weeks: a few days North on the Orkney Islands, a day in Aviemore, and now a cattle placement in Ednburgh.

The cattle work reminds me a lot of my time lambing. Once again I find myself walking up and down hills and rounding up herds. I’m absolutely exhausted, and since weather has been warm (mid 70’s F) and I’m out in the sun all day, I’m very sweaty and thirsty. I feel worse for the cows, who are basically heaters on four legs anyway. They must be very, very hot right now.

The herd I’m working with gets handled by humans a lot more than most beef cattle, so they’re far more tame than I expected. However, they also have 6 bulls, which are TERRIFYING. Handling them is definitely a learned skill, and it takes a bit of courage - so right now I just stand behind the gate and watch! If I do end up working with cattle in the future, I hope I will have mastered the art of reading the bull. Luckily, you usually have stockmen who are familiar with the beast and are better equiped at working with him.

I’ve only been at the placement for two days, but I’ve seen a fair amount already. They’re been artificially inseminating most of the herd, so I’ve helped with that, and today the vet came out to examine some sick bulls. Because of both of these events, we’ve been shifting a lot of cattle, and since the farm is spread out over some 500 hectares, we have a lot of ground to cover. Inevitably, every herd is at the very top of the field, about a million mile hike from the bottom, and once you reach them of course they wouldn’t dare walk in a straight line to the intended gate. Oh, cattle. You are so, so much fun.

I’m doing my final week of horse EMS right now, and it couldn’t be more different from my first horse EMS experience. Rather than working at a small stud, with expensive, delicate thoroughbreds in a small, tidy yard, I am now at a large, slightly sloppy, very lovable riding school full of teenagers and chubby school ponys.

Yesterday we took some of those ponys to Dirleton, near Berwick, to a charity event for disabled kids. We gave pony rides, back and forth across the little lawn. It was quite the surreal experience, to spend an hour in the back of a lorry with complete strangers, to be plopped into the Scottish countryside to lead ponies loaded with all sorts of kids. I am still overwhelmed by the fact that I’m in a foreign country and living a far, far more unpredictable life that I did back in California. These weeks of EMS I’ve completed so far are eventful, not simply because of the things I’ve learned about animal care, but because there was always some unexpected twist. Rarely does the job comply to the ‘9 to 5′ description that it presents with.

Today, as a bit of a reward for hard work, I mounted a horse for the first time in 5 years (after a fairly bad riding experience), and went on a trek with a few other riders. We rode mostly alongside the road, but we were hidden from the highway by the walls of grasses and wildflowers surrounding the path. Oh, and the gorse, of course. Something about those fluorescent yellow flowers and brutal spines makes me perk up. Today my leg brushed against a big branch of the stuff, stabbing my leg and reminding me of lambing in Galloway: I chased a runaway ewe through a cave of gorse, and managed to coax her out of her hideaway and into the pasture nearby. When the fog rolled over the hilside and the sheep were hidden from view, I could still see bundles of gorse dotting the fields. Gorse is integral to my story in Scotland.

Sorry to get so sentimental. These past 10 months have been so terribly bizarre and exciting and exhausting and beautiful, and only now that I’ve finished my first year in school is everything sinking in. How the hell did I get here? Regardless, it’s a good place to be.

I’m spending time at a pig farm this week. Pigs are a species I’ve never had much interest in, and even though many people come away from their pig EMS proclaiming their new-found love of porcines, I’m still very positive that I want to spend as little time on a pig farm as possible.

But I’m here, and I do take it very seriously to use the time to consider the pros and cons of rearing pigs in indoor intensive situations. This blog is not the place to comment on my opinions of certain welfare issues, so let’s just say that I appreciate having the oppurtunity to witness pig farming first-hand, and to make up my own mind. The staff at the farm are very open to discussion, and will defend their positions while allowing you to sometimes questions those positions.

What I do not appreciate is constantly smelling like pig. The first day wasn’t terrible, especially since we leave our work clothes at the farm overnight, but the stench has crept into my backpack, tee-shirts, and hair, and I DO NOT LIKE IT ONE BIT. I am so grateful that we are required to do only one week with pigs, and furthermore that this farm only asks the students to come out Monday through Friday, so hopefully the damage done by the end of my time there won’t be irreversible.

Fun fact: I’ve had a ham sandwich every day of this week so far. Was not thinking ahead when I went shopping Sunday evening.