Diary of a Vet Student

Today is a fantastic day, because I found my flat keys first thing in the morning. They have been missing for a week now and and I was beginning to wonder if I had infact posted them the last time I went to the post box. Alas no. there was no need to be so distressed, they were hiding in my jacket pocket - I swear I checked it twice, but I am disadvantaged because there is a fairy/ghost/wicked goblin in my room who hides all these things and then lets me find them a week later. I have never met him though.

Back to more important business. Revision is going well I hope. Unfortunately the pathologylectures keep piling in and they seem to take ages to write up. It is my most interesting subject so at least that's good. I think time is running out and the staff are trying to cram loads of subjects like CNS, ear, eye, reproductive tract, into a tiny space at the end of term. That means some mumbo jumbo lectures lasting a good hour - shock horror.

There have been some pretty good social events on lately. Last night was the vet revue. This is when each year group does a sketch and rips the biscuit (ah hem) out of the staff. Sadly my flat mates and I didn't go as we were celebrating my flat mate's birthday, so i can't report on that one. This weekend there is the rodeo. This is always totally brilliant, especially when it's sunny as its a massive charity event on the vet school grounds (they're really nice). There's dog shows and stalls and things. then in the evening there's a bit of a shin dig in the marquee. Unfortunately I can't go to that either as I'm packing off back to my home land to celebrate my mate's 21st - we went to Brownies together so I can't refuse. I wouldn't want to anyway as her mum's doing jelly and icecreaam.

We had a really good tutorial on pathology of small animals yesterday. You don't get to study things like rabbits and guinea pigs in any great detail really. I think that's quite scary because a rabbit is Britain's 3rd most popular pet. After discovering this I have decided to learn more about the little critters and I'm currently in the process of persuading Mum to buy one. The tutorial was good. It was a list of 10 cases which we looked up on the net and then gave mini presentations on to the class.

Ok someone's breathing down my neck so got to go to my parasitology revision practical. Lots of worms which i will have to draw and know something about.

Bit of a hectic morning as I lost my swimming goggles. This was a big event as you can imagine and I have worked myself into a bit of a frenzy - phew.

Anyway I'm at vetschool now and ready to do a pathology lecture. WE have 2 more weeks of pretty lectures and then about 1 week to cram for the exams. It's a bit of a tight schedule this year as I think the end of term has been slightly shortened. Nothing I can't handle I hope. I hope. I hope.

Just trying to do as much revision as possible inbetween writing up lectures. We are doing the central nervous system in pathology, which is very interesting but hard because at the end of 2nd year we didn't have enough time to cover CNS anatomy before the exams so we are having to learn as we go along a bit. We're also having a few lectures on stuff that we'll cover a bit better again in 4th year like public health and epidemiology - which is all about how diseases spread. It's hard to concentrate in those lectures when you know they're not going to be examined this term. On Monday we had a lecture on fodd processing, which seemed to have absolutely no relevance to animals at all, but I could tell you how to make a great cornish pasty. Don't ask.

H'OK then back in sunny Glasgow and actually it is sunny, which is great.

Easter was brilliant. I had a fantastic time lambing in Wales, with a really good farmer. The farm was really old fashioned and the guy knew each sheep personally. The welfare was really good and I think that's why I enjoyed it so much. It was such a different experience to the previous year, when I was on a very intensive farm.

Also went to BSAVA congress. This is the annual British Small Animal Vetreinary Association's gathering in Birmingham. It's massive, about 15000 people. I was stewarding. Such a good laugh and they pay for all your food and drink. Sweet. Also if you're not too busy, you can attend lectures which are usually really impressive because they have experts from all over the world to come and talk.

Also had a holiday at home which was very much needed, especially as now I have to haul my sorry ass into the exam season.

I think I did well in my end of term exams, so that is reassuring. We have our professional exams coming up at the end of May on everything we've done this year. At the moment we are doing central nervous system pathology and lots of revision lectures, which are actually quite useful. Of course this morning I'm bent double with a monster hangover and thus not a lot is going in. I've got a break now so the plan is to return to my pit and fight it off with a cup of tea and some anthelminthic revision.