EST Donkey Sanctuary Work Exp

During summer 2012 I spent a week at the Elisabeth Svendson Trust Donkey Sanctuary (http://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/riding-therapy) in Sutton Park. This place is not only a sanctuary to 21 donkeys it also provides therapeutic rides for disabled children whom have physical, mental or both disabilities. 

VetMedLink Stem Cell Paper

Ok so at VetMedLink at Nottingham uni in April we were given the chance to do a stem cells paper on a topic of our choice here's mine!

Stem Cell Treatment In Dogs

 With Severe Osteoarthritis

                                                      

    BY

                                                      LUCY CLOUGH

RESEARCH PAPER

BASED ON

PATHOLOGY LECTURES

AT MEDISIX AND VET-MEDLINK 2012

Winter Charity Walk

It was a cold snowy icy day and the sponsored winter walk was cancelled. Brenda and I however decided we would do it anyway and get that money for the motor neurone disease charity because we’re good people like that... Not one of our best ideas... I was walking with my standard poodle, Bob and Brenda was walking with her West Highland Terrier, aptly named, Snow. We were wrapped up in lots of layers with food and drinks packed and a camera on hand and we were ready to go.

We started walking from school and all seemed to be well, we were walking on grass so the ice didn’t really hinder our progress much. We had a bit of fun in the snow, snow angels and such, and then cracked on with the walk. All was fine and the cold wasn’t even that bad due to our brilliant clothing choices. We then reached the road into Staunton Harold… Road and grass are very different. Grass has grip, road doesn’t when covered in ice. This is the part that took the longest, walking down a 2 mile long road in the ice with two dogs pulling us, we both had a few near falls.

Ashwood Vets

Summer 2011 I spent a week shadowing the vets at Ashwood Veterinary Practice (LINK). The vets at Ashwood were really nice and I enjoyed spending time with the vet nurses also. I saw so many different things during the week and saw my favourite ever surgery during this week. This surgery had such an amazing back story and made me even more determined to become a vet so here’s hoping!

Week 2 Ash End House Children's Farm

 In summer 2011 I spent a week at Ash End House Children’s Farm (http://www.ashendhouse.fsnet.co.uk/). At the farm they had many different animals of which I got to work with most of them. The animals included: Horses, Sheep, Goats, Pigs, Ponies, Chickens, Ducks, Rabbits, Guinea Pigs and many other small bird species.

Whilst at Ash End not only did I get to spend a lot of time seeing and working with the animals I also got to interact a lot with the public and especially the younger children and enjoyed teaching them about the animals. Some of my responsibilities were; supervising the rabbit and guinea pig grooming and handling sessions, supervising the baby goat bottle feeding sessions, the chick handling sessions and the sit on a pony sessions. During these activities I had to answer questions from the public about the animals they were seeing such as how old the babies were and when they would come off the milk in the goats case.

Marigold

Before the public entered the farm in the mornings I spent the time cleaning and feeding the animals, this gave me a good idea of what food and conditions the animals needed, I also had the job of milking one of the goats, Marigold.  She was the mother of the goat kids that were being weaned. (She loved a good chin scratch) Another source of great amusement for the children at the farm that kept me busy was a naughty old goat called blackberry who would frequently steal the buckets of feed that the children bought to feed the animals with, someone had to be on ‘blackberry watch’ all throughout the day so we could jump into his pen and save the childs bucket! We also had to watch out for children feeding the goat kids as the food was too rich for their sensitive young stomachs and the children tended to ignore the signs telling them not to feed them because come on, they’re cute!  I also got to have a go at clipping the hooves of the goat kids as they had become over grown and dirt was getting stuck in them.

My First Work Experience Week

I spent my first week of work experience at Shires Veterinary Practice in Eccleshall, I spent the week mostly with a very experience vet named John Treanor (http://www.shiresvets.com/vets.php#Treanor), he retired the year after I worked with him so he knew A LOT! With him I saw mostly large animal work, he was interested in equine medicine so I saw a lot of horses and donkeys too! We also visited many dairy farms where I got to see pregnancy diagnosis and TB testing in the cattle.

On my first day I got quite a shock, straight into PDing on a herd of 200+ cattle! I was stood up in the cow shed watching for around 2.5 hours and for a 15 year old I was NOT used to that, however I was allowed to fill up the syringes with the drugs needed for stimulating ovulation in the cows so that passed the time a bit but I sure was glad to be sat back in the car after that! As the week went on I got a bit more stamina up and got used to the long hours!

Why I Want To Be A Vet

Cliché answer is 'I always have wanted to be, ever since I was tiny' and yes that is true but thinking back I can remember exactly why. 


When I was about 6 I had a white lop rabbit called Polly, I used to obsess over this rabbit I would get home from school and go straight out to her and not come in until tea time. I knew the ins and outs of Polly and knew exactly how she was feeling, she was like a sibling!

However one day when I came in from school I knew Polly wasn't herself, she was acting offish and I knew something was wrong. Immediately I ran inside demanding my mum to take her to the vet, my mum came outside and looked at her and decided she looked fine and that she didn't need to see the vet. I was so frustrated but decided she was probably right.