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Animals are unpredictable things, and so our life is unpredictable. It's a long tale of little triumphs and disasters and you've got to really like it to stick it.
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A Vet Story

Stories, tales and general rambling of a Vet Student at the Royal Veterinary College, London who took the long route to get there.
Alison. 22. RVC 3rd Year, ex G+T.

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23:01
Tuesday 10 June 2014
A long over due update

I'm useless and procrastination brings me back to blogging again. 

Since my post in July last year I have completed all my rotations ending in February 2014. I'm happy to say I passed everything with a minimum of a pass and had all round good feedback! 

So after anaesthesia, I had my first research block which wasn't very productive and the less said about that the better! 

After research was Equine Surgery - one week of soft tissue surgery and one week of orthopaedic surgery. Really interesting two weeks for me as I like horses and I saw surgeries I would never have seen anywhere else. 

Then came small animal medicine - which I wasn't looking forward to but I did end up really enjoying it. I had an awful vein two weeks, could not get blood to save my life. Until the last day when I managed a blood sample, then the dog bit the nurse assisting. I felt awful. Anyway despite the practical skills hiccup I was highly commended for my written work and organisation. The clinicians were lovely - and still remembered my name months later so at least I made an impression! 

Next I had some tracking rotations. Oncology which was busy but really interesting. Managed to get veins that week so all was good and had some really good students with me which is always a bonus! 
Critical care came next which was helping out in the intensive care unit for a week. Really learnt a lot about the amount of care required for very poorly patients. Perfected a lot of skills and got on very well with the team on ICU with my first emergency medicine experience! 

After some EMS my next rotation was Farm, which I was apprehensive about. I really enjoyed it. The staff were brilliant and the week in kent was very useful! Did a lot of routine fertility work and whilst back at Hawkshead did a goat castrate, goat tail amputation and continued care for alpacas and a sheep with a broken leg! Unfortunately group issues really over shadowed farm and the following rotations.

After farm was small animal surgery - again a week of soft tissue and a week of orthopaedics. I worked myself to the bone for these two weeks due to the group issues and was very stressed by the end of it but I think I coped the best out of the group. Thankfully my feedback reflected my hard work. I saw lots of interesting things such a oncology surgeries, boas surgeries and fracture repairs. 

After surgery I had more EMS at Bull & Alexander which is always great! Then came my final track - Neurology which was split over the Christmas break. I was again apprehensive about this but need not have been. It was brilliant, and improved my skills massively in neurological examinations. 

After neuro, I then moved on to radiology. First small animal then large animal. Was very good to put my knowledge to the test and I got a lot out of both weeks. A particular highlight was practicing equine x rays: 

Anyway. Then came dermatology and I was definitely on the countdown to finishing and was ready to finish. Derm was great, very relaxed and very practical seeing useful things for first opinion practice such as atopic dermatitis, demodecosis and malassezia infections. 

Then came my final rotation which I was dreading... Emergency Night Shifts. I did manage to stay awake thank god but I was exhausted and eating tea at 2am was strange. I perfected my catheter skills and response to emergencies. Had some really applicable things like anaemic cats, seizuring dogs, acute kidney failure dogs, perineal hernia and prolapsed bladder and a cat with ATE. I did really enjoy it but was so tired and was very glad to head home for four weeks of EMS. I did two weeks equine at Ledston and 2 weeks farm at Bishopton. In total a great month which grew my confidence massively! 

Then I had my second research block which I did finally complete my project albeit with a little stress surrounding it which couldn't be avoided due to personal circumstances. 

Before Easter came my osce exam which was ok but I had one disaster station which ruined the day for me and left me very nervous. 

Post Rotational taught tracking was after Easter and I got all my first choices - Equine Soft Tissue Surgery which included lots of practical aspects castrations, dentals, endoscopy, sinus surgery. 
Equine orthopaedics was more theory based but got to do equine acupuncture as well as lameness exams. 
Next was ethics and welfare which was a lot of discussions! 
Then Equine diagnostics which I missed most of due to interviews. 

I had my oral defence today which was surprisingly good, a nice chat about my project really! 

Onto interviews I've had three and have been offered a mixed practice job in North Yorkshire :) that's all I'll say for now but let's hope I pass my exams! 

Better get to bed and crack on with revision tomorrow!


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