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  • Food (with added equine) for thought

    (horse) burgers?
    Princess Anne has suggested that the British attitude to eating horsemeat needs to change.

    For a nation of horse lovers, the discovery of equine DNA in food products earlier this year was horrifying. It caused nationwide outrage, with many people sickened that they may have unknowingly consumed meat from the same species as their beloved pets and, in many cases, best friends.

    But are we just being a bit squeamish about the whole situation?

    During a speech at the World Horse Welfare annual conference, Princess Anne – president of both the charity and the Pony Club – suggested that the British attitude to eating horsemeat needs to change.

    With 7,000 equines at risk of abandonment and neglect this winter, could an active horsemeat industry in this country change things?

    The prices of horses have plummeted, meaning some may be worth more as meat. If the choice was between selling the animals for meat or being exposed to starvation, slaughter certainly becomes the kinder option. The Princess Royal inferred that the prospect of selling horses for meat may increase the value of the animals, helping to reduce the number of welfare cases.

    horsemeat quoteShe further claimed the issue with the horsemeat scandal was not the presence of the horse DNA, but the lack of honesty in what is going into our food. If the food were labelled correctly, would Brits be more inclined to eat products containing horsemeat?

    If the Princess Royal is willing to debate the idea, then perhaps we should rethink our attitudes towards horsemeat.

    The question is, regardless of the positive impact a meat industry may have on welfare of equines throughout the country, could Brits ever truly get over the uncomfortable thought of eating them?

    I know I couldn’t.

    As vet students, we are taught about humane slaughter of different species and meat inspection; some of us may well find ourselves working in abattoirs in the future. Are we soon going to have to learn about slaughter of horses too?

  • Harvest mites and Seasonal Canine Illness

    Harvest mites and Seasonal Canine Illness

    Dog in woods
    AHT investigations are ongoing at five UK sites: Sandringham Estate and Thetford Forest in Norfolk, Clumber Park and Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, and Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk.

    Seasonal Canine Illness (SCI) is associated with dogs that have been walked in wooded areas or parkland during the autumn months.

    SCI was first reported in 2010 and is thought to be caused by harvest mites. Cases are characterised by lethargy, vomiting, diarrhoea, pain and rapid unconsciousness.

    More than 300 cases have been reported to the Animal Health Trust (AHT) study with 16 deaths, but many more cases are likely to have gone unrecorded.

    The AHT recommend owners should spray the underside of the dog with fipronil before walks. However, treatment with fipronil pipettes, applying drops to the back of the neck, are NOT thought to be effective.

  • Wednesday afternoon stress relief?

    Balls
    Balancing sport and vet school can become a logistical nightmare.

    The opportunity to take part in sport, either competitively or recreationally, is an essential part of stress relief for all students – especially for those on intense courses such as veterinary.

    There are enough people on the course to make up teams for many sports solely from vet students and, previously, I have reviewed inter-vet school sport specifically. This is often a very feasible option, with flexible training times to fit around the busy vet school timetable and the knowledge that understanding team members won’t think less of you for missing the odd session if you have a practical you can’t miss – an attitude very different from those of the main university teams, who may leave you off the team sheet for weeks after missing one fitness session.

    But what if you are the competitive type and want a more challenging sport environment? Realistically, the vet school teams only have one or two important matches that training is geared towards, perhaps with a couple of “friendlies” against other university departments such as the medics. If you were looking to get involved in team sport on a more regular basis, you would want to join the main university teams.

    In an ideal world, this should still be feasible, since the national governing body for Higher Education sport, British University & Colleges Sport (BUCS), schedule their fixtures for Wednesday afternoons. This is a time that should be kept free for sport, according to the University Senate policy. Unfortunately, that is often not the reality. The University of Glasgow has received several complaints this year for scheduling compulsory classes on Wednesday afternoons.

    Tennis
    Image © iStockPhoto.com/DYashkin

    The second-year Glasgow vets have practical classes on Wednesdays (at varying times of the day). As part of the main university riding team, I have had to swap these sessions around to accommodate competing on Wednesdays, and have had to miss a couple that were not scheduled for any other time. Luckily, we only have four competitions throughout the year (plus the Dick Day vet competition), so this isn’t incredibly disruptive. But for those in clubs such as hockey or tennis, which have fixtures every week, suddenly balancing sport and vet school can become a logistical nightmare.

    Cambridge veterinary students do not get allocated time off for sport either.

    Another issue is specifying the time frame that is a “Wednesday afternoon”. Third-year students at Liverpool vet school generally have lectures up to 2pm on Wednesdays, after which it is often too late to make away fixtures.

    I don’t think this is an issue specific to veterinary schools, but is becoming a university-wide problem that needs to be addressed. It is essential for students to have the opportunity for sport as escapism, and this is particularly applicable for the vets of tomorrow, who are looking to enter arguably one of the most stressful professions.

    We’ve all seen the suicide figures, and we need to be able to give ourselves the best chance at dealing with stress now, in order to apply it to a working environment later in life.

  • Vet school sports

    rugby
    The rivalry between Glasgow and Edinburgh was as fierce as ever.

    Vet students have their own little community, not only within their own university but also across the eight vet schools throughout the UK.

    We’re all members of the Association of Veterinary Students (AVS) and through this, take part in an annual sports weekend, hosted by a different university each year.

    In addition to this, Glasgow and Edinburgh (The Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies) have their own inter-vet-school sports competition, “Dick Day”.

    Both events take place in November.

    Over the last few years, AVS Sports Weekend has strayed from actually involving much sport. So when the Glasgow students rocked up in Liverpool this year (dressed as the cast from Michael Jackson’s Thriller), we were all taken aback by the number of matches that had been organised and the variety of sport available… quite a contrast from the mere hint at some hungover rugby last year.

    Nevertheless, we at least managed to scrape together a team for the mixed netball. Needless to say, we didn’t fare too well and finished seventh out of the eight vet schools overall.

    Unsurprisingly, Liverpool won overall, putting the students from other vet schools to shame, most of whom were too busy ceilidh dancing or getting started on the pub crawl to concentrate on sport.

    Equestrian team
    Dick Day 2013: the equestrian team, men’s football and men’s rugby team pulled through to give us some victory.

    Dick Day, however, was another matter; the rivalry between Glasgow and Edinburgh was as fierce as ever and the sport was taken seriously.

    We didn’t make a great start, losing the netball, mixed hockey, ladies football, ladies rugby and volleyball. However, it wasn’t all bad news – the equestrian team, men’s football and men’s rugby team pulled through to give us some victory.

    Although we lost to Edinburgh overall, spirits were still high by the end of the day, since it was only the second time we’d beaten Edinburgh in the rugby on their home turf in 150 years.

    There are few other courses that provide the opportunity to enjoy some competitive sport and social events with students from other universities in the way that we do. At AVS I saw several friends from other schools, and it was great to have a brief catch-up before resuming the inter-vet-school banter with the other Glasgow vets.

    These events are just another reason to add to the list of why being a vet student in the UK is so incredible.

  • Thromboembolism in cats

    Blood clot
    Blood clot © iStockphoto.com/Robocop

    Thromboembolism is a severe uncommon complicating condition in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in cats. It can cause acute pain and various clinical signs, such as loss of function of the hind limbs (most commonly, although other organs or limbs can be affected).

    Although treatment to break down or remove the clot is available, the high treatment costs of the procedure, death during administration of the drugs and high recurrence rate of thromboembolism dissuades many from therapy.

    With supportive care, about 40-50% of patients with thromboembolic disease will break down clots on their own and regain limb function over time. However, despite the best medical efforts to prevent their reoccurrence, a cat that has survived a thromboembolic event has a significant risk of developing another over the following weeks to months.

  • Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in cats – prognosis

    The prognosis of a cat with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is highly variable. Some cats may develop only mild hypertrophy and suffer little compromise of heart function, while others progress to more severe disease.

    Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
    Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by BruceBlaus
    [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
    HCM may worsen quickly over a period of months, or it may progress slowly over several years. Its severity may not change for many years and then suddenly worsen. Some cats with HCM die very suddenly, even though they had no clinical signs of heart disease. It is the most common cause for spontaneous death in indoor cats.

    A cat with mild to moderate disease may enjoy an essentially normal life for a number of years. However, the prognosis is much more guarded once the cat has more severe disease.

    The risk of developing congestive heart failure is proportional to disease severity, which is often classified by measuring wall thicknesses and left atrial size. Although congestive heart failure can be treated medically, severe heart failure may become difficult to manage over time as the disease progresses.

    The prognosis for a cat with heart failure, unfortunately, is guarded to poor. On average, survival for cats with HCM and heart failure is 12-18 months after diagnosis.

  • Kennel cough – treatment and prognosis

    Kennel cough is an infection of the upper respiratory tract of the dog, and can be caused by a variety of different viruses and pathogens. Canine parainfluenza, adenovirus, coronavirus, distemper and some bacterial infections such as Bordetella bronchiseptica are all implicated.

    kennel-coughSurprisingly, kennel cough is one of the few canine conditions that is a zoonosis.

    Many dogs can get over kennel cough without any treatment. However, the longer the dog is affected by the disease, the more compromised the dog’s immune system will become, and the worse it will affect the dog.

    While antibiotics can be given to tackle the bacterial component of the condition, the mixed nature of the infection means it will still be days or weeks before the viral infection subsides.

    Cough suppressants and humidifiers may also be used to help to lessen the coughing itself, and so reduce the pain and inflammation that can accompany the cough. Kennel cough can be serious in dogs with a compromised immune system, and careful monitoring of the condition is required to ensure the infection does not progress to the lower respiratory tract and potentially cause pneumonia or other complications.

    Generally though, the condition can be resolved within a few weeks, and most dogs make a full recovery.

  • A vet school storm on the horizon

    Following last year’s announcement that the University of Surrey is to open a new veterinary school (taking in the first cohort of students in autumn 2014), it would appear that the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) is now jumping on the bandwagon.

    These proposals have indeed kicked up quite a storm in the veterinary world.

    There seems to be little positive attitude towards this news, with many of us panicking about academic standards, graduate prospects and EMS availability.

    With neither of these being Russell Group universities, it has to be questioned whether the academic standards will be comparable to the current UK vet schools.

    It is notoriously difficult to get into vet school, but will the two new universities have lower entry requirements? If so, this would be providing a back up option for many applicants and, as a result, decrease the currently high standard of veterinary students. If the graduates are indeed less knowledgable, or have less well-developed clinical skills, would this encourage the employment of poorer quality vets in second-rate practices?

    Evidently, more veterinary graduates would mean more competition for jobs, hence pushing down the salaries that graduates would be willing for work for.

    It has been suggested that the restricted number of graduates being able to go directly into clinical practice would mean that more veterinary students would be encouraged to take a different career route (research or veterinary education, for example). But if the aim is not to produce veterinary professionals, why not instead increase the intake on veterinary biosciences courses for those more interested in research?

    I also think it unfair to expect new graduates to begin teaching at vet schools immediately, even if that is what they’re interested in doing. Their credibility and respect from their students would be dramatically reduced if they’ve not actually had any experience in practice and can’t give clinical case examples to the possible vets of the future.

    Another concern is the availability for EMS opportunities. With an increased number of students throughout the UK as a whole, it will become increasingly difficult for students to gain clinical EMS placements. To further the competition, Surrey will not be opening its own teaching hospital as such, and it is expected that final year rotations will instead take place in veterinary practices in the surrounding area, reducing their availability for students from other universities to undertake EMS.

    Could this be the future employment opportunity for UK veterinary graduates?

    Of course, there are a lot of “ifs” and “buts” here, and potentially the two new vet schools could produce better graduates than the rest of the UK – but this would still increase the competition for graduate jobs and EMS placements.

    In my opinion, the main concern is not the repercussions of opening these two vet schools themselves, but the catastrophic effects that would result from further universities following suit.

    With little legislation able to dictate requirements for opening a new vet school, the prospect of having as many veterinary education institutions as medical ones could soon become a reality. Before we know it, we could be inundated with veterinary graduates, some of questionable quality, and the next generation of veterinary professionals will be fighting tooth and nail for a severely underpaid job.

  • Use of hydrogen peroxide to flush abscesses

    Hydrogen peroxide
    A 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide is commonly used as a wound antiseptic.

    Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is such a strong oxidiser it is highly reactive.

    Due to its weak disinfectant and antiseptic properties, hydrogen peroxide as a 3% solution was often used to treat cat fight abscesses. However, it has fallen out of favour because it is thought to slow healing by affecting tissue growth through several possible factors.

    Only a very minute concentration of H2O2 can induce healing, and only if not repeatedly applied.

    Surgical use can lead to gas embolism formation.

  • “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”

    “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”

    All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
    All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy All work and no play makes Jack a…

    After a summer of EMS, traveling and very little academic work, the time finally came for me to come back down to earth.

    Having been back in Glasgow for about a month now, I think I’ve just about settled into the second-year routine. After a week of scavenging freebies and signing up to every club under the sun at the fresher’s fayres, I managed to just about fit in everything that I want to do this year around vet school.

    During the day, we’re back to lectures and practicals on everything from farm animal nutrition to parasitology, respiratory system anatomy to learning where to put ECG electrodes on a dog.

    I have to say that, so far, second year has been more interesting than first year was. Whether this is because of the course content, a different outlook on my part, or simply the fact that I now know the drill, I couldn’t say. But I certainly seem to have gained more passion for the subjects we’re studying at the minute.

    Glasgow University Guardian
    Glasgow University Guardian

    But it’s not all about studying. This year, I’ve taken on a lot more outside of vet school than I did before. Having this time made it on to the university riding team, I have training every week with my teammates at the local stables, and also hope to start doing a bit of polo. I’ve also gotten involved with Glasgow University Guardian, the student newspaper, in order to do some writing and editing, as well as to learn what goes on behind the scenes when producing a publication.

    Every Easter, Glasgow vet school hosts a big charity event called the Rodeo, and it is the responsibility of the second years (with some acquired help from the freshers) to organise it. A group of my friends and classmates have formed this year’s committee, with me taking on the role of secretary and helping out with advertising the event. Hopefully it won’t be too stressful and we will work together to pull off the best Rodeo so far!

    So it looks like I’m in for a busy year, but it should make being a vet student all the more exciting.