Vet Times

Tag: Cattle

  • Friends or food?

    Friends or food?

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    The relationship between vets and animals is an odd one. When I tell people the course I study, 90% of them ask me if I’m vegetarian; when I say no, all of them ask me why not – and, to be perfectly candid, I never really know what to tell them. As a professional in…

  • VN Times calendar competition

    VN Times calendar competition

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    This competition is now closed for entries Public voting on shortlisted entries begins on 02 October, 2018   Whether much-loved pets, grazing livestock or weird and wonderful wildlife, little gives many people more pleasure than seeing animals out and about in the great outdoors. So, we’ve decided on the theme of “Out and About” for…

  • The only way is ethics part 1: meat

    The only way is ethics part 1: meat

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    I had expected the smell, of course, although it was worse than I imagined. What I hadn’t expected was the speed of it all – the sheer mechanisation of the destruction. We had already visited the sheep and pig sections of the massive abattoir – myself and a small huddle of veterinary students on a…

  • Anal glands: the tax bill of canine anatomy

    Anal glands: the tax bill of canine anatomy

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    Considering the massive variety of day-to-day tasks we perform as vets (social worker, diagnostician, surgeon, diplomat and so on), it’s strange the first thing people always think of when they hear we’re vets – other than to tell us how much money we earn, evidence on our payslips to the contrary – is to fixate…

  • Testing times: reliving the exam nightmare

    Testing times: reliving the exam nightmare

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    Remind me why I’m doing this? I swore I’d never put myself through it again. Amid the bittersweet feelings at the end of my veterinary degree – sadness I’d never pass time in quite the same way with many of my fellow students again, nervousness about a suddenly unplanned future (I’d known exactly what I…

  • Occupational hazards

    Occupational hazards

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    Before I started vet school, I attended a workshop for aspiring vets where students shared anecdotes about the various occupational ailments they had experienced or witnessed over the years. Despite having to defer the start my veterinary degree due to a horse-related incident, I got through university largely unscathed by veterinary-related disease. I contracted a…

  • What to do when on call

    What to do when on call

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    When you’re on call during the week, by the time you’ve got home (if you get straight home without being called), eaten and vegged out in front of the TV, you do not have much time to be bored before heading to bed. However, weekends on call have a lot more time to fill between…

  • Getting the most out of EMS placements

    Getting the most out of EMS placements

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    A few weeks ago, I finished my last final year rotation, and I’m days away from finishing my last ever EMS placement – where has the time gone?! Everybody warned us final year would fly by, but this is ridiculous. Surely it can’t be almost a year since I sat in one of the small…

  • Stunning at slaughter

    Stunning at slaughter

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    I’m going to get straight to the point: this is not a religious post. It’s not a post about politics, or freedom of expression, either. It is a post about animal welfare. I prelude with this simple statement because there is a dark tide of intolerance spreading across the world, and I have no desire…

  • The consequences of making a mistake

    The consequences of making a mistake

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    Fertility work makes up a large proportion of cattle veterinary work in the UK and, after spending a month on the farm rotation at university, I can appreciate the importance of getting it right – and how hard it can be. Experienced large animal vets make it look easy – they scan the uterus and…