1 down, 8 to go.

And so the 1st term as a clinical vet student comes to a close. It's been good. Long, but good. There's been a lot of lectures, but they've been necessary (though some pretty boring, not pointing any fingers radiography and anaesthesia) and generally pretty interesting. I actually quite enjoyed parasitology - it seemed pretty relevant, which was really satisfying. We had a few healthy debates in animal welfare - including one on zoo animals. A surprising number seemed to be against them on welfare grounds - I couldn't help but observe that the vast majority of zoo animals are kept in much better conditions than the vast majority of farm animals. This was especially brought to my attention since working with Richard the hoof trimmer and seeing farms where a large percentage of their cows were lame with significant foot problems. Lameness is a massive problem in the dairy industry especially - it seems that the selective breeding of these animals for high milk yields, along with the massive metabolic burden put on their bodies by this level of milk production has adversely affected their foot condition. Diet also has a strong baring on lameness too. 25% of dairy cattle are treated for lameness every year, and 1% culled because of it.