Before you are required to ‘repeat the year,’ you are given one more chance in the form of August re-sit exams. Should you fail to pass, you are not allowed to move on in the curriculum and must re-take the exam when it runs again at the end of the next semester, with the next year of students.

So, you can understand why I was quite nervous to learn that I had failed one of my Christmas exams, and would need to re-take it in August. Despite failing my first exam here at the University, that particular course had two exams over the course of the year, and I did well enough on the second exam to receive a passing mark overall, and thus save myself from August testing. This time, though, the re-sit was inevitable, which only added stress to my Spring exams: would I end up having to re-sit two? Surely then I might pass one but not the other, forcing me into a new year and away from my friends!

I very fortunately passed my Spring exam, which just left the one. Now, the majority of the class happened to fail this particular Christmas exam, so I wasn’t in the bottom of the class, just the lower half. Passing the re-sit wasn’t going to be any easier, though. I was very, very nervous, because while the first time I sat the exam, I consoled myself with the information that I could re-sit it should I fail, I didn’t have that little line to reassure me the second time around.

But, I did pass, which means I get to be a 4th year.

I don’t ever want to re-sit again, so hopefully this experience only motivates me to work harder for the next two years! Festival is much less fun when you’re biting your nails as you wait for results, anyway.

Midday was actually very sunny today, and the sunflowers outside the corner shop further brightened the start of my walk.

From the Grange, the hill looked very tall to me. I’m not going to pretend I’m anything other than totally out-of-shape, but I wanted the achievement of climbing even a small hill. Actually, worse than up, as far as I’m concerned, is down, especially when dealing with often muddy Scottish footpaths. I slip often, which is more messy than embarrassing, and I won’t climb anything if I can’t picture how I’ll get back down. But I remained determined.

Despite the heavy rain over the past few days, the mud was only slight as I climbed the hill. And gosh, it was beautiful.

Just as I was at a steep point, and starting to feel sorry for myself, Arthur’s Seat was there to remind me that there are most challenging climbs:

There were many, many, many, many dogs running around. Here are a few:

By the time I reached the top of Blackford Hill, the sun had slipped behind the clouds for a bit. The view was no less stunning.

To the North was the Castle and Calton Hill, to the West I could see Craighill (another favorite spot of mine), and the Pentlands were off to the South. I could also see clearly across the Firth of Forth to Fife - Kirkcaldy is supposed to be somewhere in the distance in the photo above. I sat on a rock and ate Jaffa Cakes and rehydrated, while enjoying the dogs running up and down the peaks.

It was time to come down. Fortunately, the descent was far less treacherous that I had imagined, and I ended up at the bottom free of mud and full of pride.

Naturally, the sun came out as I reached the bottom of the hill. But it was still a warmish, dry day in Scotland, so why would I complain?

Bordering the park was a collection of allotment gardens. I’m fortunate enough to have the space to garden if I want to, but I couldn’t help but crave my own allotment, if only to be surrounded by so many pretty and well-loved gardens.

Before leaving the park, I stopped to see Blackford Pond, which was lovely and tranquil, and full of swans and quirky ducks. Benches line the pond, so I sat down and enjoyed the scenery, and quiet. Unlike the rest of Edinburgh during festival, which is noisy and crowded and exciting, a Friday afternoon on Blackford Pond was a mostly solitary occasion.

It was a very, very lovely walk.

I think there are some Dicks-to-be who read my blog, so I thought I interrupt my scheduled knitting (heh) to offer a few works of advice. Maybe they’re the kind of lessons you learn on your own, but they’re hard learned, and I’d rather you skip the agony.

1. When it comes to studying, it’s quantity over quality. Don’t agonize that other people seem to be studying more than you, because you can sit in the library for hour upon hour after class, with no benefit, if it’s just time spent. Enjoy your evenings - you’ll be more productive during the day if you do.

2. It’s perhaps an overused epigram, but remember that the person who graduates last in class is still called a vet. It’s nice to be first - and if you’re like me you want to know everything because you want to be the best vet you can be when your qualify - but trust me, if you can learn just over 50% of the material they want you to learn, you’ll still be a good vet. And there’s more to being a vet than being book smart!

So, good luck, lads. If you want to meet for a coffee, or have any questions, email me at zutaloo at gmail.com. I’m going to go back to knitting: I’ve still got a month left before I start, and I intent to savor it.

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!

I just finished this pullover, and just in time, too! It’s knit in baby alpaca, making it far too warm to wear in California, so it will stay in the closet until I return. Oh well, at least it will be something to look forward to.

I’m really pleased with it. It may not be the most polished piece of work, but I added the waist shaping, re-designed the torso, and raised the neckline all by my little self, meaning it’s really modified to suit my figure. The snake-stitch pattern on the torso ended up pretty clean, as did the yarn-over holes along the shoulders and sleeves… I spent a lot of time working on this and a lot of time taking it apart to re-do what I didn’t like, but now it’s finished and I’ll be proud to wear it!

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!

Spoke by someone who has obviously (patiently) helped many-a student with their first bitch spay.

On Friday, I’m going to sit an exam with a few dozen multiple choice questions and four essays, pulled from five months of lectures.

PS My GI and Neuro notes are in a separate folder.

Veterinarians play a crucial role in providing safe animal products for the consumer, acting as an early notification system for disease outbreaks and preventing sick animals from entering the food chain. Farm animal vets frequently work in close association with local health authorities, and slaughterhouses require veterinarians on-site to identify diseased animals and to assess any obvious disruptions in carcass quality. However, within the world of vet school, which is mostly populated by students interested solely in small animal medicine, the role of the vet and public health safety is a terribly unpopular subject. Students who express actual interest in the topic usually meet raised eyebrows from their peers. It’s certainly a very unglamorous department, although obviously vital component of our education. Unfortunately, the great expense of employing veterinarians by health agencies means there is a general movement toward non-vets taking on more and more of the work, possibly to the disadvantage of the animals involved.

I do find food health safety moderately interesting, not at the level of creating ‘control’ strategies for meat processing, but in basic surveillance of emerging disease trends by the compilation of data from a network of veterinarians. Unfortunately, nowadays the majority of food-borne disease agents in meat do not actually cause sickness in the carrier animal, meaning the veterinarian is unable to identify them on the farm. Food inspection and proper processing and storage are the most successful methods of identifying unsafe animal products. Still, veterinarians prevent those diseases that infect animals and humans from crossing the line to the consumer. Safe meat, dairy, and eggs: brought to you in part by veterinarians!

I’ll be glad when I finish my exam tomorrow, because my cat and dog course is nearing a close, and that exam will demand a lot of attention. The assessment tomorrow is worth only a fraction of my overall grade for the class, which runs throughout every year in school except for final year, so there is more wiggle room for a less-than-passing score. Still, I don’t want to plunge my running total in the gutter and not be able to climb out!

The other reason I’ll be glad to finish this exam? Since reading so much about food safety over the past few days, I’ve become more concerned than usual about whether or not my own food is safe! I can’t wait to stop reading about outbreaks from seemingly safe food. It just takes a few bugs in the right environment….

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!