Rectalling a box - Update

An update to my earlier post about learning rectal exams using PM uteruses in a box, here's how Glasgow do it.

Despite all the wires, it's still not a patch on using real life (well, dead) material and the joys and japes of a plastic box-cow.

Rectalling a box

Have just enjoyed a morning's rectalling. It was a fantastically laid back, yet hugely useful rotation. We started off looking at post-mortem reproductive tracts (as a crash revision course), and had a go at some bovine rectal examination through plastic boxes with holes in! This was surprisingly useful - you could lift the top off to check you were doing it right, and they even had plastic pipe vulvas! Nothing was left out... except animation I suppose. Apparently Glasgow have virtual reality rectalling systems, but I'm not sure I believe this [I later discovered this to be true - see above]. Mary's brother has just started there though, so I shall get her to enquire about this. Rich took great pleasure in reaching inside the top of the boxes and grabbing James' hand when he least expected it - "It's the fetus!" I helpfully added.

Then we had coffee, and advanced to real horses, which I rectalled (and tail bandaged sucessfully - oh yeah, I rock the horsey world now I've passed my basic horse-handling exam!), and managed to find all the useful bits that lady-horses have.

Yes, it may look like a home-for blue-tits, but this is, infact, a schematic drawing of our cow-boxes. Hand goes in top hole.

Morning

Good morning! Am up bright and early for a lecture on Cattle medicine. Our last lecture was really good and today we begin displaced abomasums(?, abomasi?) so should be interesting if I manage to stay awake. Am currently chugging tea to wake myself up. This time last year I'd have left already but in our new closer-to-the-vet-school house, I don't have to leave for another 5 minutes. Eeeexcellent.

Cattle?

Blimey - it really has been a long time since I last posted, and now I'm well over halfway through the holidays.

Mostly I've been vetting, fitting well into hand-up-cow's-backside and kitten adoring stereotypes; while also assisting in preparations for Broken-Glass-do-Edinburgh.

I seem to have fitted quite happily into the life of a large-animal vet. There's something about being outside in the open, driving around beautiful landscapes (so far I've experienced those of Cheshire and West Yorkshire) and turning up on farms. Yes, to an extent it's saddening that the opportunities are not there for huge heroics, but every decision has repercussions on a whole herd, and in most cases being a vet is a much more respected position on-farm. Almost all of my work has been with cattle, and I just love them. As animals I think they (more specifically dairy cattle) are a perfect balance between tame and wild. Tame enough to deal with (with sufficient precautions, the likes of which you should be able to, but cannot use with horses) but just that little bit wild to keep it interesting. This is then all tied in with the economics and politics of farming that fascinate me. Maybe as a London-boy I'm a little behind, but it hasn't seemed to bother most people, and I'm willing to dive in outstretched arm first. 2 years to go, lets see what happens.