Bye Bye Brian(y)

Brian(y) went to his/her new home today. After hatching, nurturing and loving wee Brian(y), the time came to find a better home for him/her. Unfortunately, I felt Brian(y) needed more space and love than I could offer, so he has been re-homed with a fantastic vet student.

(S)he did get a fun trip to Easter Bush though, complete with oncology lectures, where no snail has been before though. Look how happy (s)he looks:

I miss Brian(y) but know (s)he's gone to a better place, and perhaps a bigger jar...

(P.S. For those that don't understand the brackets: As a hermaphrodite, Brian(y) is both a he and she. There's my snaily fact for the week!)

Pathology success!

Today it was announced that out entire year passed the 'Body systems III: Pathology' module. Very pleased indeed, especially with my credit.


I celebrated by dissecting a Tunnocks Teacake. Mmmm.....

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow,

First day back at uni, early January in Edinburgh and the festive weather has arrived!! Slip-sliding around the city centre on yukky sleet , but a few miles out at the vet school the scenery is very picturesque and there's enough snow to make a snowman. Yay!

(Not a bad picture really seeing as I took it with my phone out of the window of a moving bus!)

Merry Christmas!

C-c-c-clinical extra mural studies (is c-c-c-cold!!)

My first week of clinical ems has begun and I'm in the large animal practice at the University, following the vets on call around Lothian. I started by fertility testing some aberdeen angus bulls, which involved getting an, ahem, 'sample' and assessing all sorts of parameters from both the bull and their sample. It was all very interesting and it turned out both were very good on the fertility front.


In and amongst the usual calls, there was an emergency call out to a cow, which was having trouble giving birth. She was quite a small cow, with quite a big calf, so after a bit of manipulation and pulling it was clear the calf just wasn't going to get through the regular back route. We therefore approached from the side, and to cut a long story short we got the calf out happy and healthy and the mother stitched up and a lot skinnier than she was when we started!
It was a very interesting case, having never done calving or seen a caeser. I got to cut the calf out of the uterus, so I did a good job of midwife for a bit.

Apart from that, i have had a lot of horse visits, everything from more boys' bits to very sore feet. All good stuff but by george it's bloomin' freezing! Thank goodness for the Great British cup of tea :-)

A stitch in time...

We have finally been taught the art of hand ties and suturing. Quite exciting really. I can now scrub, gown, glove, stitch, and bandage. Just need somebody to practice on now...

The gloves are off (and then on again)

Today we learned how to wash our hands. Scrub, scrub, scrub, 80 times per finger, 80 on your hand, and 80 on your wrist. That's a lot of scrubbing. Then there was dressing up: gowns and gloves. It's a very good look I think.