Small, but perfectly formed.

A couple of days of notes to catch up on...

14.02.12

1. Castrate on a 7m/o little bay Irish Draft fellow. Sedated with dom & torb and injected lignocaine locally around the goolies (testicle, neck, skin of the scrotum). Sterile scrub of the area. Clamped on emasculators for 4mins for blood vessels & another 4 minutes for testicles. Emasculators go on nuts to nuts for first clamp. No trouble, nice and quick. Small, but perfectly formed.

2. Scanned RF tendon on a 20y/o bay connemara. We were hoping for ALDDFT damage as it is simpler to repair, but actually saw a lot of damage to the SDFT. Poor boy was very sore and swollen. 6months of box rest & support bandages to look forward to. Re-scan in 1 month.

3. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous little Welsh Sec A driving pony. Lateral xrays on both forefeet (I did them!) History of laminitis; concussion from driving may have played a role as not actually that fat for a pony. In Imprint shoes and doing really well. Farrier wanted to see xrays to have an idea of how much he could take off the toe. Was first time I saw Imprints go on; really clever little shoes.

15.02.12

1. Vaccinated another 13hh bay driving pony. Checked heart. More regular than my heartbeat (see below!) Pinch skin of the neck and inject under the skin. Not Proteq as she'd had a bad reaction to that last time.

2. Re-application of Liverpool ointment to a small nodular sarcoid on the right forelimb of a lovely little coloured mare. Job jobbed.

Cut my afternoon short here because unfortunately the funny arrhythmia I'd been experiencing for the last few days got worse and I ended up spending 5 hours in casualty having tests. Yippee. Not dead yet though. Must try harder. I learned was that I am very fit and that I don't have a murmur, electrolyte disturbances or thyroid problems. Woohoo!

Many dark bay geldings

First case this morning was stitch removal on a 17hh dark bay handsome old boy. Stitches were snipped out from a wound on the medial tarsus which the patient had managed to align right over his vein and I am reliably informed 'pissed blood everywhere' when he came in. Vet kept head right up next to stifle when leaning over to do the stitches. Thought this was pretty sensible for general kick avoidance. Also vaccinated their little shettie field mate who had a simply adorable pink hearts fleece rug on and was quite a character.

Second in was a set of forelimb radiographs on another big 17hh bay gelding with a history of laminitis. Radiographs were to check for changes in the feet consistent with laminitis or founder. No changes were present, but some osteophytes possible on the proximal interphalangeal joint. Took obliques to check out the osteophytes. Nothing major.

Got stuck in loads of traffic after a horrible accident where a lorry and a car seemed to have tangoed up the central reservation. The car had come off worse and the central reservation was all over the wrong side of the road. Grim.

Eventually made the visit, albeit late, to another dark bay gelding, 25y/o, for a general once over. This consisted of a mini-vetting (vet had to borrow my pink stethoscope - he worked it!); eyes, skin, heart, lungs, palpation etc. Some swelling was present over right stifle and tendon sheath of the right hind. Watching the movement he seemed to be dropping his hip more on the right hand side and at trot was visibly lame. Lameness worse to flexion, seemed to isolate to the fetlock (flexion rarely exacerbates stifle lameness). Took blood. Further appointment made.

Last, but not least two dentals. One on a gorgeous gray mare. No sedation required although she did fidget a little.Used power tools. Very good; had a feel of before and after and the difference is remarkable. Did teeth on a huge coloured 6y/o showjumper next. Sedated with Domosedan to take the edge off (he tried to rear a few times) and then did teeth with power tools. Had a few ulcers from sharp points on his teeth. Re-do in 6months. Got to have another cheeky feel. Love being out. Learning things!

A good day.

Them's my reasons and I'm sticking to them.

Blissed out cat

Because I am a sensible growed-up type of person and I value my career prospects I decided to set off for my first rotations as sleep deprived and unprepared as possible (I woke up this morning after about 4 hours kip and too much dancing next to a totally blissed out cat). It seems to be important for a vet to be able to operate on very little sleep and I felt the need to develop this skill. Them's my reasons and I'm sticking to them. Tomorrow morning at 6am I will reflect upon the decisions I made this week and probably wonder if my reasoning was sound, but that's what hindsight is there for. Week 1 is equine so I figure so intensive anatomy swotting during the vet's morning meeting might be a good plan. Fingers, paws, hooves etc. crossed.