Hey friends here’s a list of some books the vet community has recommended for aspiring vet students :)!
I received a bunch of lovely comments and emails from aspiring vet students at primary school level, asking for vet book recommendations, so here we are! I’ll aim to update this list often so feel free to check back and see what’s new here 🙂 If you have any suggestions as well please comment below or pop something into the contact form, I’d love to hear from you.
Hi friends, sorry it’s been way too long since I’ve updated this blog! Some quick updates:
I’ve started a free newsletter that you can sign up tohere – it’s basically a place where I can share some vetty insights, some practical self-growth ideas and where I’ll probably be updating you about life as a new grad vet when it starts!
This blog – I have been updating the resources on this blog every now and then but think I’ll do a revamp of the whole website at some point, another thing on my very long to-do lists.
If you’re new here and stumbled on this blog, I hope your vet school applications go well and then any thing on this site can be useful to you 🙂
Take care and see you on YouTube or my newsletter!
Hey friends, in this post I share the tips I used to help write my veterinary medicine personal statement which got me interviews and offers from the University of Cambridge, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow and also UCL (for biomedical sciences). For my application, I did my A-levels in Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Physics and applied via the UCAS portal.
I divided my personal statement into 3 sections: the introduction, body and conclusion.
Introduction
You want to be personal, share your reason for pursuing veterinary medicine, your ‘WHY‘. It also helps if you can catch the readers attention so be creative and original! I talked about my introduction in the video at the end of this post.
Body
I wrote 2 paragraphs on the work experience I did, I discussed the insights I gained while on placement and how it reinforced my decision to pursue the veterinary medicine degree. For applicants that are facing difficulties securing work experience due to the pandemic, check out this free virtual work experience resource by Vet Medic Mentor (sign up closes soon I think!) and this free course on futurelearn.
I wrote 1 paragraph on the extra-curricular activities I was involved in school and how it contributed to building my character, soft skills acquired in the process (communication skills, leadership roles and all sorts).
I wrote 1 paragraph on my hobbies and interests outside of the school setting, so any volunteer work or music/ sport activities that help you wind down after a stressful day. This demonstrates that you are a well-rounded person and able to handle a challenging (but v rewarding) degree.
Conclusion
Summarise your points and reinforce your position why you think you suit the veterinary career or talk about other specific interests you have in veterinary medicine. This could be a good talking point for when you go for your interviews!
Final tips
Start early! Give it a go before reading other personal statements so that you’re not influenced by others and you have sort of an original framework to start with. Don’t worry about ‘perfecting’ the first draft as you will reiterate your personal statement over and over (and over) again!
Re-read your personal statement before interviews as they will most likely ask you about the books or cases you listed, studies you’ve mentioned, read up and remember some facts.
Get it proof-read by an English teacher or people you trust!
Be concise! You only have 4000 characters, ensure each paragraph has a purpose in conveying your passion/ capability of pursing vet med.
Don’t stress too much about your personal statement as remember that they are looking at your grades and interview as well so have faith and just do your best!!
Lastly, if you’d like a copy of my personal statement, you candownload it below
PS: If you’d like to sign up for my free newsletter where I share interesting vet articles, studies & practical tips on how to live your best life,click here.
Hey friends, hope you’re well! Apologies that I haven’t been updating here lately, if you are craving for more vet school updates do check out my youtube channel where I share some vet school application tips and bits of my vet school life 😊
Hope you enjoy this ‘mini-series’ I put together documenting my EMS veterinary placement last year.
Also it has been so nice receiving messages from you guys asking me questions on vet school applications, if you ever need some advice, simply reach out to me using the ‘Contact me’ form and I look forward to hearing from you!
Happy 2021 folks! Apologies for the long hiatus, no excuses (ok maybe I was a bit busy balancing vet work while attending the Part Time YouTuber Academy course by Ali Abdaal (link to his course here) , so I have been more consistent with posting vet school content on YouTube! Video attached at the bottom of post!)
This post will be a brief overview of the equine ambulatory rotation and common clinical conditions that we observed whilst on rotation.
Overview:
It was a 2-week long rotation which involved us students driving to calls located within a 30 minute radius from the vet school to observe first opinion clinical work. As there weren’t any students on the Equine Hospital rotation week, we got to observe some cool procedures at the equine hospital as well, which was really nice. Whenever we had down time or an early finish from ambulatory calls, the clinicians would discuss some cases with us or showed us radiographs to talk through a lameness work up etc. We were also given some powerpoint case studies to work through during the week to keep us busy.
Routine first-opinion equine work consists of vaccinations (tetanus and equine influenza), dental work, 2-stage or 5-stage pre-purchase examinations (vettings), lameness evaluation, colic work ups and wound management.
For vaccinations, we administer them intramuscularly (IM) usually in the neck, but other sites include the pectoral muscles and gluteal muscles. To locate the injection site on the neck, you place one hand cranial to the scapula, one hand below the nuchal ligament and avoid the S-shaped cervical vertebrae on the horse (to form a triangular area). However, if the horse has a known history of reacting to the vaccine resulting in myositis (stiff muscles), we are advised to avoid the neck as the horse would struggle to lower their head to eat and drink, instead you would administer the vaccine in the pectoral muscles.
For dental work it is useful to revise the dental formula of the horse and familiarise yourself with the equine teeth numbering system. It is numbered 1-2-3-4 from the right maxilla -> left maxilla -> left mandible -> right mandible. (Eg. the wolf tooth in the upper right arcade is numbered 105, first pre-molar on the left mandible is 306.) In the past, wild horses grazed on rough grasses so their teeth were worn more evenly. However, the domestication of horses have led them to graze softer, lush grasses and concentrates, reducing the amount of natural wear. Horses also have a wider upper jaw and narrower lower jaw, hence the shearing forces often lead them to have sharper edges on the outer-side of the upper arcade and on the inner-side of the lower arcade. This can cause their tongue and cheek to get caught and may lead to ulcers. This is where dental work comes in! We rasp the teeth edges down as well as conduct a thorough dental examination to check for any abscesses or impactions. This is commonly done under sedation (detomidine or xylazine in combination with butorphanol) for the patient and vet safety.
Image source: GoogleList of dental equipment
Pre-purchase examinations (‘vettings’) are conducted when a buyer is interested in buying a horse from a vendor. The vet conducts a thorough clinical exam, inspects the documentation, obtains a blood sample to screen for any abnormalities and works the horse (trot up, lunge) depending on the stage of vetting (2- stage or 5-stage) and reports back to the buyer whether it is suitable for their intended use (hacking, dressage, racing).
An interesting case we saw involved a swelling of the hock joint (tarsus) on the horse. Prior to this, I did not know that there were a variety of disorders involving the tarsus of the horse.
In brief, an explanation of each one
Bog spavin -> inflammation of the synovial membrane of the hock joint resulting in excess fluid in the joint. Corticosteroids may provide short term relief or surgical removal of fluid with an endoscope could be performed.
Bone spavin -> osteoarthritis of the joint, often causes lameness. Corticosteroids and NSAIDs may minimise or eliminate signs
Curb -> thickening or bowing of the plantar tarsal ligament that runs down the back of the hock. Usually caused by a strain as the ligament becomes inflamed and thickened after falling, slipping, jumping or pulling injury. In acute cases, manage with cold packing and rest.
Capped hock -> distension of the calcaneal bursa
Thoroughpin -> tenosynovitis of the tarsal sheath. Tarsal sheath is the synovial sheath of the lateral digital flexor tendon at the level of the hock (tendon sheath of the DDFT). Could be of idiopathic cause or due to direct trauma. Treatment depends on the underlying cause and could include rest, systemic/ local anti-inflammatory drugs, cold therapy. Intrathecal medication with hyaluronan and/or corticosteroids may be useful in severe cases. If infectious, may need to lavage tarsal sheath and provide antibiotic therapy. One way to distinguish thoroughpin from bog spavin is that you would expect to see fluid filled swellings on both sides ABOVE the tarsal joint in thoroughpin.
Other topics that we discussed during the rotation include:
laminitis -> worked through radiographic findings and treatment options
PPID (a.k.a. equine cushings)
EMS equine metabolic syndrome
If you’d like to see what we got up to, here is a vlog of the 2 weeks! 😀 Enjoy and as always, stay safe and take care 🌻!
Me monitoring a patient situated in the MRI chamber behind me. I am listening for heart rate via an esophageal stethoscope, while keeping an eye on the monitors for SPO2, EtCO2, BP etc
Most people have told me that anaesthesia was a relatively chilled week, but somehow I felt like it was pretty exhausting, maybe it was because I was churning out some content for the Cambridge Vet School’s Instagram page everyday for a week as well (@camvetschool by the way, if you wanted to check it out!) So I am quite relieved that I don’t have to do it anymore! Although I did enjoy seeing the audience engagement increased each time I posted something. Anywho on more pressing matters, here is a review of the anaesthesia rotation :)!
Overall thoughts and reflections
The first day was pretty chaotic (as with most first days) as we were still figuring out the routine of things. The thing with anaesthesia is that you arrive at Small Animal Theatre with your theatre scrubs and scrub shoes and then change into them with your name tag and put your scrub hat on to meet with the anaesthesia team for your induction/ briefing. (Oh, remember to bring water and snacks into the changing room too #essentials) There is a board with all the cases of the day with timings and people in charge of them and you sign up to a case each. When your case has been admitted, you change out of blue scrubs into your grey scrub top and normal clothes to go to wards/ reception etc to do a pre-assessment of your patient. You get really good at changing in and out of clothes real quick by the end of the week (I wore stretchy but formal-looking leggings to give myself some comfort, lol!) After you assess your patient, you come up with an anaesthetic plan with risk factors, considerations and your choice of sedatives, analgesic, anaesthetic agents etc. Then you discuss with the anaesthetist in charge about your plan, put in an IV catheter if needed, induce, intubate and start monitoring your patient’s vital parameters as required (useful to bring a fob watch and stethoscope with you!) Throughout the procedure you are monitoring your patient, with attention to their SPO2 , EtCO2 levels, blood pressure, heart and respiratory rate, temperature and to make adjustments to the anaesthetic agent or analgesia if needed.
What I found most stressful was during the critical moments of inducing your patient, as you need to ensure that they are at an adequate plane of anaesthesia to intubate ASAP in order to get oxygen (and/or medical air) into your patient. While monitoring your patient, you may get quizzed (which is also super awful but necessary evil- especially when you know you literally read it the night before, but I swear the stress just makes your brain go mush and delays your ability to recall facts..) so you are basically trying to do multiple things at once and I was pretty overwhelmed the first few times round (probably still am tbh).
What to revise to make the best out of your rotation
principles of anaesthesia – multimodal analgesia, the concept of targeting different levels of nociceptive pathways for analgesia, considerations for an obese patient, young patient etc
clinical exam for pre-anaesthetic assessment
anaesthetic machine check list
mechanism of action and common functions, effect duration of common sedatives, anaesthetic agents, analgesic drugs, for example:
alpha-2 agonists causes vasoconstriction -> leads to hypertension -> causing a compensatory bradycardia in patient (so you would expect to see some bradycardia in patient)
are sedatives but also have analgesic effects, can be antagonised by atipamezole (which works quite quickly in an animal, within ~5 minutes! I was v surprised)
takes about 10 minutes if given via IM in the animal to take effect,
acepromazine ACP has loads of effects and mechanism of action
phenothiazine- main action central dopamine antagonist
a1- antagonism
anxiolytic
antiarrhythmic
antihistamine
duration: 6-8 hours
everything in the little clinical anaesthesia booklet
Minimum alveolar concentration MAC – the concentration of vapour in the alveoli of lungs that is needed to prevent movement (motor response) in 50% of subjects in response to surgical (pain) stimulus
MAC is used to compare strengths/ potency of anaesthetic vapours
Isoflurane – 1.3% in dog, and 1.6% in cat
Since it takes 1.3% of isoflurane to anaesthetise 50% of subjects, using it at 2-2.6% would theoretically anaesthetise 100% of subjects (and 2% is what I have commonly observed in past procedures done)
Sevoflurane – 2.4% in both species
Some things I learnt on rotation
anaesthesia considerations for obese pets
respiratory considerations- as increased intrathoracic fat (and intraabdominal fat) causes animal to be more prone to diaphragmatic splinting, respiratory depression
short nose breed dogs have a shortened skull and excess soft tissue relative to skull, resulting in compression of the nasal passage and excess pharyngeal tissue -> increased airway resistance, a.k.a. they cannot breath properly so a lot of care must be taken into account when placing them under general anaesthesia
potential risks in a BOAS dog
They are prone to airway obstruction during the perianaesthetic period hence need extensive monitoring and should not be left alone – in an acute emergency case of obstruction, first thing to do is to pull their tongue forwards to raise the larynx, which buys you some time to think about what to do next, and in severe cases you may need to re-intubate the dog
Regurgitation risk – 40-60% of BOAS dogs, can be caused by oesophageal diverticula, hiatal hernia. A chronic increase in thoracic airway pressure also draws the stomach into the chest, causing gastroesophageal reflux.
How to combat this – Fast BOAS dogs 3-6 hours prior to surgery
Prophylactic omeprazole, metoclopramide as regurgitation and cause gastric reflux of stomach acids that can harm the oesophageal lining
Keep HEAD RAISED, especially during induction
Intubate ASAP once pre-med and induced, inflate cuff ASAP to prevent possible regurgitation that can lead to aspiration pneumonia
If regurgitation has occured -> suction to remove the contents, or use a swab to remove as much as possible, you can even use a urinary catheter attached to a syringe to ‘suction’ it out
dental block seminar – purpose is to reduce systemic analgesia needed and provide a stable anaesthetic for patient during dental extraction procedures
types of dental nerve blocks
1. mandibular – desensitizes the lower jaw including canine teeth, done extraoral (insert needle where the dip/notch lies on ventral ramus) or intraorally. When we did this, we put the needle in the appropriate area first before attaching the syringe containing lidocaine.
concerns: if done bilaterally, animal may lose awareness of jaw position and may clamp jaw down and traumatise tongue in the process, so better to do unilateral block or provide extra monitoring if unable to do unilateral.
insert needle/ thread catheter through to the mental foramen
3. infraorbital – desensitizes incisors, canine and first 3 molars (but depending on the dog’s facial conformation, may not provide sufficient coverage for the canine tooth root)
insert needle into infraorbital canal via infraorbital foramen
4. maxillary – desensitizes branches of the maxillary nerve, upper rows of teeth and hard palate
2 methods
a) thread a green catheter via infraorbital foramen to reach the nerve bundles located caudally
b) using lateral canthus of eye as a guide, follow to narrowest part of zygomatic arch and feed needle on the ventral aspect of the zygomatic arch to the nerve bundle area
5. palatine – rarely done in small animal surgeries, more in equine
local anaesthetic agents – Na channel blockers
lidocaine
5 minute onset time, duration of action: 1-2 hours
antiarrhythmic- effective for ventricular tachycardia tx but can be pro-arrhythmic in other heart conditions besides VT
bupivacaine
20 minute onset time, duration of action: 6-8 hours
do not use IV! can cause myocardial toxicity, can cause arrhythmias
nb: if there is an area of infection like pus due to a tooth root abscess etc, the local anaesthetic (LA) would be less effective as infection increases acidity of the region. LA efficacy depends on the pH and pKa of the region.
useful to draw the breathing circuit out to help understand how it works
Westie WHWT breeds are prone to pulmonary fibrosis a.k.a. Westie lung, so although may not be picked up during lung auscultation exam, may see an abnormally high end tidal CO2 because of subclinical pulmonary fibrosis.
That is all from me for now! Stay tune for (hopefully) some vlogs coming up on the youtube channel 🙂 Oh! And I recently got a KO-FI link, so if you find the content on this blog useful, and would like to support to buy me a cup of coffee (no pressure!) You can do so here:
My beautiful rotation group – and now we are finally complete!
Yikes! Another week has gone by and we have completed our Neurology rotation… (no more neurology until we face our final year exams – not sure how I feel about that) This week felt slightly more manageable than Medicine week, maybe it is because we have familiarized ourselves with the routine of reading up history -> consults -> clinical/neuro exam -> discuss with clinician -> write notes/letters. It was pretty busy nevertheless, with our days starting at 8am and ending between 5-7pm depending on our cases. Sometimes you get emergency cases and that can be quite unpredictable as well! In addition, we also worked an evening shift each (at least 1) during the week which lasted until 9pm. So here is the rough structure of my blog post:
Overall feelings and thoughts
Useful things I have learnt/ picked up during the week
A basic neurology consult & exam (notes for reference)
1. Overall feelings and thoughts – Before this rotation, I was worried because neurology seemed like a scary and unknown subject to me, having seen only 1 or 2 neuro cases in my past EMS placements. But actually, it wasn’t that bad. By the end of the week, I guess I was convinced by the clinicians that it is not as complicated as one might think! I came to enjoy neuro because of how systematic it was, where you go through the 6 components of a neurology exam (explained later in this post) and assess for any deficits and abnormalities to get to your neurological localisation. Once you have your localisation, you combine your clinical findings and signalment and can usually narrow it down to a handful of differentials (using VITAMIN D). In that sense, it feels more simple than Medicine where it could be any of the organ systems involved if you’re given vague signs like lethargy and inappetence. However, I did find that with Neurology it can be a lot harder if you have a case presenting with mild non-specific deficits. It involves a lot more case discussion and is not as clear cut as Medicine when it comes to the diagnosis (well, before conducting the advance imaging, MRI tests etc). For example, if you have a Medicine case with increased liver parameters in the blood work up, there is most likely a liver pathology involved. But if you have an animal presenting with spinal pain and increased inflammatory markers in the blood work up, it could be degenerative disc disease, infectious, inflammation or even a foreign body.. so you would have to do imaging and further tests to help your diagnosis.
One of the things I didn’t enjoy about neuro week was the number of breed-related cases you tended to see. It is unfortunate, but French bulldogs and Dachshundstend to have a high risk of breed-related spinal diseases. It is not only unfair for the animal, but also a cause of emotional and financial distress for the owner. While waiting for better breeding laws to catch up in the UK, we can only hope that prospective pet owners think responsibly and read up on thegenetic welfare problems of petsbefore choosing a specific breed.
At least I finished my last day of the week while it was still light!
2. Useful notes (compiled throughout the week)
Differentiating central vs peripheral vestibular lesions
proprioceptive deficits – seen in central vestibular lesion
mentation deficits – central (however, difficult to assess, as peripheral vestibular can cause animal to be nauseous and present ‘depressed’ without actual mentation deficits)
cranial nerve involvement other than CN 7, 8, sympathetic trunk – central
vertical nystagmus – more likely central
direction of nystagmus changes when direction of head position changes – central
When presenting on rounds or carrying out a neuro exam, it is useful to drill yourself to get used to this format:
nb: menace response usually develops in animal 3 month old and above in dogs (or 5-6 weeks depending on breed and species)
Acute phase proteins APP: albumin is a -ve APP while CRP is a +ve APP
so low albumin (alb) indicate inflammation, high CRP indicate inflammation; hence can be useful to assess if both correlate when looking at biochemistry test and suspicious of an inflammatory process going on)
low alb in inflammation occurs as increase leaky endothelial cells causes alb to leak into extravascular space, increased degradation, cytokine act on hepatocytes to downregulate ALB production and upreg SAA production,more info
Treatment for degenerative disc disease is SUPPORTIVE, pain relief and CAGE REST – possibly NSAIDs or steroids to reduce inflammation around disc and TIME for the annulus fibrosis or nucleus pulposus to heal
When getting a thorough history from client
Get comfortable asking owner weird questions – does dog eat horse poo (as could indicate ivermectin toxicity, toxoplasma or neospora infection through poo consumption)
Clarify the time of onset of the neuro abnormality (seizure, off its back legs etc) AND TIME of progression, when exactly did it get worse?
For spinal pain patients, ask: are they still climbing up and down stairs; showing any urinary/ faecal incontinence
Nb: a normal gait in client’s perspective is not necessarily normal, so it is important to gauge (according to the owner’s perspective) if it has changed or not (to ensure you are detecting the actual abnormality and not the inherent breed related problem)
3. A Basic Neurology consult and exam
Key questions for a neurology consult
Onset – peracute/ acute/ chronic (peracute: hours to a day (eg. dog was fine in the morning, when you popped to the shops and got back, found dog has hind limb paralysis), acute: roughly 1-3 days, chronic: roughly weeks to months)
Progression – did it get worse or did it improve?
Pain
Symmetry – owner notice any symmetry in signs, ie. is one side worse than the other
(Signalment- breed may not necessarily be important but parameters like age are more important, eg. SRMA usually in dog < 3 years old so if you have a 6yo dog with neck pain it is less likely to be SRMA)
Neurology exam is a systematic exam, with 6 main components
Mentation and behaviour – observe patient when client bring it in, while chatting to the owners you can observe a lot from patient (depressed, BAR..)
Gait analysis (3 different types of ataxia- vestibular, cerebellar, proprioceptive ataxia) & posture (head tilt, kyphosis, more info in this VIN article
Cranial nerves – you can observe quite a lot even before touching the animal
CN II – vision (owner report if animal is stumbling into objects, see if animal can follow object movement when walking into consult room)
CN III – pupil size (constricted if normal, dilated if have lesion. Parasympathetic NS involved in constricting pupils, sympathetic NS involved in dilating pupils)
CN III, IV, VI – eye movement (so if animal able to move eyes around)
CN V – chewing and face sensation (notice any temporal m. atrophy)
CN VII – facial expression (notice any droopy eyelid, lips)
CN VIII – vestibular (head tilt, pathological nystagmus – flicking of eyes L to R or vice versa when head is stationary, a vet once told me an easy way to remember the lesion site is to see where the eye is running AWAY from (like running away from something bad), so if eye position moves L to R, it is running away from the L, therefore lesion site is on the L side)
then you carry out the cranial n. exam checking for all the cranial n. (using your forceps for facial sensation, corneal reflex.. etc)
side note: 2 CN tests that also check for forebrain/ conscious response are the menace response and the nasal sensation response (place forceps into nasal planum and trigger response)
tip on doing menace response: to ensure you get the attention of your dog, could do palpebral test first, then as you have their focus you carry out the menace response!
with the knuckling test, it is not a weight bearing test so ensure you support the weight of animal when carrying out this test
Spinal reflex
Besides the muscle stretch reflexes (extensor carpi radialis, patellar reflex..), perineal reflex and cutaneous trunci reflex (start CAUDALLY and move cranially), the main one to consider is the pedal withdrawal reflex!
The pedal withdrawal reflex involves pinching the webbing between digits to elicit a withdrawal response. Observe the strength and completeness of the response and not the speed. Ideally you want all 3 joints to flex completely and to look for subtle differences between thoracic & pelvic limbs or R and L limbs. Ideally do it while animal is in lateral recumbency but if animal is too stress you could do it while animal is standing. (but bear in mind there is the added difficulty of working against gravity to flex those joints.)
Palpate pain
Doodles:
Menace response pathway: Lesion in optic n. and cerebellum causes ipsilateral signs; lesion in forebrain causes contralateral signs (Image cred: Jen)
Differentials – use VITAMIN D! nb: below is not a complete list but just the main ones we discussed in the morning introduction session*
V: vascular, for example FCE is peracute onset and improves quickly without pain usually (or pain subsides in 24 hours)
I: inflammation or infectious, common ones being MUO, toxoplasma, neospora
T: trauma
A: anomaly, structural abnormalities like chiari malformation
M: metabolic would see more symmetrical and generalised signs
I: idiopathic, usually epilepsy
N: neoplasia
D: degenerative, commonly disc diseases
Thank you for making it all the way to the end of this post, hope you are all safe and well, take care and see you in 2 weeks! In the meantime, I am attempting to finish a few vet school videos for the Youtube world. 😊
Thought I’d do a quick summary review of my first ever rotation week! To serve as an educational/ sentimental purpose for the future when I look back and see how far we’ve come.
I cannot believe it is the end of the week already! (well, not quite, as I still have to go in tomorrow eve for a hospital treatments shift heh) This week was pretty intense but super fun yet rewarding!
The dream team!! (Sorry Alex I promise we will take more photos next week)
Day 1 consisted of our introduction, it felt a little bit chaotic at first because we weren’t familiar with using the system to look up hospital records, (thank you kind intern J for helping us out!) who to refer to for things etc.. I also felt a little bit bad for asking lots of questions to the clinicians/ interns (thanks for your patience! heh) because I was double-triple checking myself to make sure I did the right thing (from asking history, where to bring patient, which sheet to fill in…)
Notes from day 1:
When taking history, quantify the degree of inappetence, dehydration or lethargy using scales or percentages. (eg % of weight loss *measured in records* over a specific period of time or ask ”on a scale of 1-10 how would you rate Poppy’s change in appetite in [insert window of time’]”) This is important to quantify so it’s not entirely subjective!
Always ask if their pet has travelled abroad!!
Presenting on rounds: Summarise your case with succinct points (significant findings instead of every single test you did), have a list of differentials ready and be prepared to answer the questions ‘what is your plan/ what is the next step’ ! (talking with all eyes on you can be daunting, but with practice it can only get better!!! back yourself!!
Day 2 was a little bit busy for me because I was juggling 3 cases at one point and had a quick lunch – the combination of stress and eating quickly didn’t go well with my stomach, ended up with cramps throughout the day haha! But I got to practice taking bloods and putting in IV catheters so that was good, note to self to learn how to be more confident/ back myself when doing things under time pressure next time.
Notes for day 2
Use the correct sheets to SOAP your patients! (Orange for first admit, blue for the next day sheet) Remember to double check the assessment and plan with your clinician, as it can get a bit busy at times!
Need to work on taking succinct history notes while balancing a conversation with the owner, any tips of advice would be welcomed please!
Learn to ask more detailed questions to differentiate between the conditions and terms, eg. if pet is having a urinary issue, ask questions to dfx dysuria, stranguria, incontinence, pollakiuria etc (same for vomit/regurg/coughing)
extra note: could quickly look up differentials for potential conditions of your patient to impress clinician 😉
Day 3 and 4 somehow blurred into one but overall I think our group got into the swing of things and (somewhat) knew what we were doing. I found that making phone calls to owners was quite daunting, but hey like everything it takes practice! We also had differential rounds in the morning where the clinician comes and goes through the differentials of a condition which was pretty useful.
Struggled with IV catheter placement and got some pretty neat tips from the intern 🙂 !
Loosen everything when you open your packet- give the hub and stylet a wiggle, give the bung a wiggle, so that when you’re in the vein you don’t struggle to remove those components
Steady the vein with your non-dominant hand (dominant hand is holding the catheter) by getting a firm grip and using thumb to ‘steady’ the vein parallel-y *veins can be very mobile*
Using your thumb and forefinger to pinch the wing holder- so u can use the other hand holding the stylet piece to flick off the hub – ADVANCE THE HUB AND NOT pull out the stylet – I never use to understand it when they tell me this but I think I understand now- the reason is simple, because if u remove the stylet before advancing the catheter it will kink 😅
Notes overall
It is ok to make a mistake when presenting on rounds (like mixing up the gender heh) the team is really supportive and it makes for a good laugh sometimes.
Still learning how to balance the importance of taking a TPR and trying not to stress your patient out. Sometimes when you have a non compliant patient, you have to persevere (ask for help as well!) and take a temperature for example if you are worried about pyrexia for the patient.
Day 5 started out with some seminars by the clinicians, followed by a clinical pathology case discussion where we were given practice cases (blood results, short hx) to work on. I found the clin path seminar super useful because amongst other things I finally understood the mysterious anion gap (that no one really talks about x)!)
In a nut shell, your blood contains a balance of positive and negative ions, with your main positive ions (Na+, K+) commonly measured on biochem test and your negative ions (Cl-, HCO3-) less commonly measured. The anion gap consists of the unmeasured ions, to simplify, anion gap = (Na+ + K+) – (Cl- + HCO3-) Examples of unmeasured ions are urea, lactate, phosphate, ethylene glycol, albumin.. etc. Low anion gap can occur if you have more negative ions, conversely high anion gap if you have more positive ions. The key takeaways in terms of interpreting your blood sample is:
Low anion gap can be caused by low albumin levels
High anion gap can be caused by increase in lactate (if bacteria producing them/septic), ketone bodies (if diabetic for eg), ethylene glycol (if toxicity), phosphate, urea
This is how I understood it anyway, please correct me if not! x
❤️Grateful for an amazing medicine team who were so kind + patient to guide us this past week !
Hi all, today’s post is a short and sweet interview with a veterinary student at University of Glasgow. I hope this can provide some useful insights to future applicants!
Scenic view of the University of Glasgow buildings with the landmark Gothic Bell tower dominating the skyline (image source: image: http://www.photoeverywhere.co.uk)
Q: Hi there, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed, could you please introduce yourself? 😊
A: Hey, my name is Hsiao Qien, but everyone calls me HQ. I come from the foodie paradise that is Malaysia!
Q: What year are you in and which other universities did you apply to?
A: I am going into my third year as a student at the University of Glasgow. I applied for several other universities, including RVC, Edinburgh and Liverpool, though I never received an offer from Liverpool.
Q: What is the best thing about being at Glasgow Vet School?
A: Unlike most other universities, students of Glasgow university are exposed to important vet skills, such as suturing and animal handling, right from the get-go. This allows us to have the competitive edge over students from other universities when it comes to clinical skills. The curriculum is also well thought out, in that the modules are taught in tandem of each other, instead of the usual segregation of topics. As such, we have a better understanding of how the various body systems interact with each other. This trains us to be able to think like vets, instead of students, and be more prepared for when we eventually graduate.
Q: How is extra-mural studies (EMS) organised at your university?
A: Pretty much the same throughout UK universities, we have an online database that provides us with loads of available placements. The filter button allows us to select placements based on our set preferences, such as location of the placement, type of placement, etc.
Q: What is it like living in Glasgow?
A: The reason I chose to enter Glasgow was in no small part due to the legendary Glaswegian hospitality. People here are generally quite friendly, and it’s quite difficult to pass someone on the streets without smiling/ throwing a quick “hiya” their way. Living expenses here are also much cheaper compared to England. Finally, the relatively large enclave of Singaporean/ Malaysian students persuaded me to choose Glasgow. Having them around just reminds me of home, and it makes the long winter nights slightly more bearable.
Q: Any tips or advice for future applicants thinking of applying to Glasgow vet school?
A: Gain as much experience as you can before applying. That’s really the only thing that will help you stand out from the rest, because chances are that everyone applying to enter vet school will be just as academically qualified as you. Also, you should do your research on the vet school of your choice if you want to impress them. Most of them have a mission statement of sorts which you can align yourself to during interviews or when writing up your applications.
For more information on studying at Glasgow university:
Vet school things 