Feeling a Little Faint

This weeks neuroscience lectures have brought up some interesting topics, but this one is a little strange!

There is a breed of goat called 'fainting goats' that just run along as normal, but then if they get a fright, they just fall over, or 'faint'. Sounds a little crazy? What's even more crazy is the 'International Fainting Goat Association', which actually breed goats with this brain defect, as they want to preserve this breed of goat.

What the goats actually have is mytonia. This is means that the ion channels in their muscles are not working correctly, so that when they are startled for example, their muscles contract too much and they 'faint'. Once they fall over stiffened, they get back up after about 10-15 seconds and walk away with slightly stiff legs. All very strange. If you want to know more, the website for the international association is: www.faintinggoat.com and there's a wee clip here: http://www.rfaintingfarm.com/goat.mpeg

The Results Are In...

After my success in animal husbandry (did you see? 5 out of 5?!) I didn't expect to find out even more results this week. We had oral exams on Large Animal Anatomy last week, and, although I didn't think I performed at my best, I got a respectable 7/10. Very pleased with that. Bring on the rest of the exams!

Five out of Five. I passed!

After a roller-coaster week of animal husbandry practicals and orals, results were sharply posted and....I passed them all! Cattle, Sheep, Feeds, Breeds, Cats, Dogs, Lab and exotics. Phew!

Having a ball!

Hogwarts School of Vetcraft and Dickery presented the Annual College Vet School Ball yesterday. After a grand champagne reception in Summerhall, we were escorted to The Corn Exchange in Edinburgh. The hall was decorated with a Harry Potter wizard theme. Everything from house coloured banners to Berttie Botts Every Flavour Beans on the tables. The Second years and graduate entrant students were sorted as Gryfinndors: Brave and honest folk that we are. After the initial shock of vet students in ball gowns and tucks instead of boiler suits and steel-toe caps, it was a great night. A good meal, good post-revision chat and wind-down, topped off with a wee bit of dancing (got to love a ceilidh)- what a magical night!

An iguana? With three legs? I didn't see that coming.

It doesn't really matter how much you prepare for a small animal practical exam, but having first had a nice little cute male, syrian hamster and assessed every possible husbandry aspect of hamsters that there ever was, you don't expect the examiner to look over a huge, solid, looming, kennel-like cage door and casually ask you to pick up a 3-legged iguana. (No, not the pictured one, although I think I should have asked for a snap-shot). Having never picked up such a beast before, I stared momentarily at it in all it's glory: at approximately 2 metres long, whip-like tail, powerful jaws, beady eyes and amputated leg. I walked into the enclosure, kneeled down, kicked over the water-bowl, and picked up the iguana. Perhaps not perfectly, but very correctly and successfully none the less. He still has all his remaining limbs intact and I had no injuries, except for a very wet leg. Think I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for the slightly more catchable tortoise next time.

Two Little Lambies (Or Red Stripe and The Gerbil)

Two weeks of lambing over, and although I think I might need a week to recover, I'm definitely sad to see it pass by, especially since I didn't even manage to sneak at least 1 pet-lamb in the boot of my car before I left (Don't think my Dad would have appreciated that...).

A prime suspect for lamb-napping would have been the lamb in the photo: Red Stripe (due to the spray mark on his back). His mother, Mrs Red Stripe (also pictured), had a prolapse and stopped producing milk, so Red stripe became a pet-lamb who was bottle fed every day whilst staying happily with his mother. After a few days, he was more like a puppy as he followed us around whenever we entered the pen and tried to suckle our waterproof trousers. Not much milk in those...

The second week was just as busy as the first, more and more lambs just kept coming. Including a lamb that was one of a triplet. It was very very tiny and had to be stomach tubed and put under the heat lamb straight away. The poor lamb could almost sit in the palm of your hand, had only 1 eye and had surprising resemblance of a gerbil. Henceforth, the lamb was affectionately named 'Gerbil'. After a day of feeding via a stomach tube, the Gerbil moved enthusiastically onto sucking a bottle and was improving rapidly. However, the lady visiting at the cottages next door soon became a fan and took the Gerbil to feed and care for. It turned out it is completely blind in the remaining eye too, but was apparently happily running up and down the hallway bumping into things. Now, the gerbil is going home with the lady to live the life of lamby luxury in the North of Scotland at a riding school. And so the Gerbil lived happily ever after. The End

A Brief Interlude

Not only did they have sheep on the farm, but also around 70 suckler beef cows, 2 bulls (meet Trigger on the left there) and lots of calves. So, there were 3 calves that needed de-horning and castrating. Scalpel in hand, I successfully removed the testicles of an unsuspecting bull-calf and removed the horns, using a wire, (and a lot of muscle,) of 2 calves. All great experience, and one of the highlights of my 2 weeks so far.

Mutton, I mean, lamb, dressed as lamb

One week of lambing over and I'm loving it! Although I've done a bit of lambing before (well, 4 years ago,) I am enjoying it even more this time. One of the farmers is a vet so it's all very hands on. So far I've lambed several ewes with lambs coming in all directions (head first, bum first, back first, two at a time,...) and given epidurals to ewes, carried out several intra-muscular injections and even my first intravenous injection. The ewe in question was looking very depressed and ill so she received multivitamin injections and antibiotics to perk her up. the next day, she was acting as if nothing had happened, so no need for a re-match in the IV department.

We're nearly at half way with the lambing, and most are lambing well. Ideally, each ewe would have 2 lambs. However, there are ewes that have either one single lamb or triplets. Therefore, if any lambs die we have to try and 'twin on' a second orphan or triplet lamb. To do this, the dead lamb must be skinned, and then the skin put on the new lamb. It sounds a bit gruesome and cruel at first thought, but this one of very few ways that a ewe will accept a lamb as her own, and the lamb being skinned is already dead. The lamb to the left is my first twinned-on lamb, and therefore marked as 'CAT'. the pair and mother are all doing well out in the field now.

Keeping warm on a Scottish morning: The moment we've all been waiting for...

Having got over people thinking I'm going to be a zoo-keeper (must be if I studied zoology...), I now get 'Oh, you're going to be a vet? You'll be sticking your hand up cow's backsides then? Eww!'. Actually, yes I will and I did. Not as bad as it seems: suited and booted in boilersuit, wellies, full length waterproof outfit (very attractive) and extra-long glove, we are kindly introduced to the back end of an un-suspecting cow. All in all, a suprisingly... err.. pleasant experience, (apart from the obvious stench, flying faecal material and backward glances from the cow,) which allowed us to get a wee look/feel into what we will find in the back of a normal cow (pelvic boney structures, female reproductive organs (I found an ovary!) and possibly touching on intestines, that is to name a few). Quite challenging at first, but practice makes perfect. I'm happy with it, but I'm not sure about the cow.

Ewe find anything yet?

Ever seen a sheep that looked like this? Well neither had I, until now. This is a virtual pregnant ewe-that is a bath tub type thing with a hole in, filled with warm water, a plastic bag with a lamb and a pelvis attached to put your hand through. Sounds a bit bizarre but unfortunately there's not enough conveniently timed, willing ewes giving birth for us to practice on. These contraptions gave us all a really good chance to appreciate how much space there is in the ewe and how difficult it might be if the lamb were in an abnormal presentation: not as easy as it looks! That is if you don't cheat and look over the top! (I'm watching you Beth... (The spiky haired one lambing the bath tub)).

It was a good afternoon of virtual problem solving, topped off by looking at the real thing: A ewe with a prolapse kindly gave birth to triplets, one in breech position, just as we walked into the shed. Then came the ins and outs of lambing-everything from carrying and moving the lambs to stomach tubing. Only a few weeks until the 2 weeks experience in March-Watch this space!

Edinburgh Cat and Dog Home

An afternoon practical session had us heading for Edinburgh's cat and dog home. Row after row of unwanted or stray dogs had us all quite emotional. Most of the unwanted dogs were there because of 'snapping' or because of new arrivals in families, and the dog didn't fit in. There were fewer cats, again mostly strays.

After the tour, we had an hour's handling dogs and then an hour of the cats. After choosing an unsuspecting subject, each group assessed the breed and age of dog, lifted it onto the table, administered a 'tablet' (actually a rather more tasty doggy chocolate drop, and a liquid drug (water...) and applied a muzzle to the extraodinarily well behaved dog. The cats were not always as cooperative, typical moggy style.

All in all, it was an eye opening reminder of unwanted pets and a valuable handling experience.

Drum roll please......

Today I received the results of my very first set of exams at vet school. After several weeks wait... I passed! Especially proud of my dissection lab book-a grand 95%

Back to uni, down on the farm

Post-Christmas, and first day back we're in with the calves at Langhill farm. Having been assigned a calf between two, we proceeded to improve our handling and assessment of theses 3 week old cows. As it turned out, I got some extra experience as our wee cow had scour, looked quiet, and, on recording his birth and current weight, found he had infact lost weight. So, we injected him with a general antibiotic intra-muscularly in his rump. First injection into a cow. Very successful.

This little piggy went to market...

My first encounter with pigs was great!...

The college at Oatridge breeds pigs, keeping around 100 females and 6 males, producing hundreds of piglets reared for the food industry.

We were shown around the farm, observed how the pigs were kept and the different stages along the way, from boy meets girl to the larger groups of piglets, ready to leave the farm. Females having just been seperated from their litter required vitamin injections. Cue vet' students-that's me in the top left injecting a sow with a vitamin supplement. First pig injection, very successful!

How much does a sheep weigh?

Baaack to basics with the sheep. We moved, herded, identified, condition scored, aged, weighed, assessed, flipped and trimmed feet of sheep at Easter Bush. No lambs yet though. (And just incase you were wondering, this suffolk ewe weighed in at 42kg).

Graduation

Today I graduated in Biological sciences (Zoology honours). It was great!