Glipizide is an oral blood glucose lowering drug in the sulphonylurea class. It acts by causing the beta cells in the pancreas to release insulin, and may also increase sensitivity to insulin.
A structural diagram of glipizide.
Glipizide is used to treat type II diabetes in cats along with diet, exercise and insulin therapy if necessary. It is highly effective when combined with a low carbohydrate diet.
The most common side effects reported are vomiting, diarrhoea and hypoglycaemia.
Glipizide is safe and well-tolerated by most cats, and can avoid the use of insulin altogether. However, it should not be used in cats with liver or kidney disease, as this can result in pronounced hypoglycaemia.
Having received my results for the professional exams, I can finally say that I’ve finished my first year at vet school!
Being brutally honest, the first term was a bit of a culture shock. I had focused so much on getting into vet school and being a vet that I didn’t really think about what it would be like when I actually got there.
Coming from a town on the edge of the countryside in the heart of England and moving to Glasgow was quite a change. Although the vet school is on the edge of the city in a fairly green area, it wasn’t the same as being able to cycle 10 miles on quiet country roads to the farm where my horses are kept.
I think what I found the hardest was not being able to ride. I had gone from riding my horse every day to having a lesson with the uni riding club once a week. Owning a horse is a lifestyle, and not something I wanted to give up.
While the first term was largely spent getting used to the mountainous workload, I managed to squeeze other things into my time. Many of my friends from home went to uni a year earlier than me and have told me that Fresher’s Week is the craziest uni experience. But none of them are vets, and they don’t know what AVS Sports weekend is (an annual event hosted by the Association of Veterinary Students). This year, it was held in Glasgow, so we didn’t do any traveling, but certainly experienced the madness of meeting people from every other vet school, who came in all shapes and sizes – penguins, mimes, power rangers and more.
Another annual inter-vet-school event for us is Dick Day, where Glasgow competes against Edinburgh – The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies – in various team sports. Again, this year, it was held in Glasgow. Unlike AVS, the sport on Dick Day is serious and there was a strong sense of rivalry between the schools. I was part of the vet hockey team, but unfortunately we did not defeat the Dick vets in our match.
After battling through a long term of learning at a hundred times the rate we were used to and facing the stress of the class exams, I started the second term knowing better what to expect. I threw myself into getting fit for Easter by swimming, cycling and gyming. I also took up a weekly creative writing class that was put on by the Glasgow uni English department, to rekindle my love of writing.
At Easter, I had my first taste of EMS in the form of my first time lambing. The placement was great – we got loads of hands-on experience and got involved in all aspects of lambing time. We learnt loads, and everything from those seemingly endless sheep lectures started to sink in. Although tiring, we enjoyed every bit of it.
I also spent a week in Norway doing a charity dog sledding challenge to raise money for the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance, who saved my life when I had a serious riding accident two years previously. My family and I had spent a year raising money by doing bucket collections, making Christmas decorations, selling Valentines Day cupcakes, and selling bedding plants. The challenge was fantastic – I loved working with the dogs and getting to see the beautiful Arctic landscape.
However, the day after I landed back in the UK, I was driving back to Glasgow to face revision and the end of year professional exams. I especially began to feel the pressure, because I had arranged to be abroad during the summer when resits would be scheduled (not a wise move, and not something I’d recommend).
We had exams in five subjects: anatomy, physiology, biomolecular sciences, animal husbandry and veterinary professional and clinical skills (VPCS). While I felt most of them went OK, I was almost certain I’d mucked up VPCS after the first day of practicals, having gotten flustered and putting sharps in the wrong bin (we make such idiots out of ourselves when we’re nervous).
During the first month of the summer holidays (while avoiding thinking about the inevitable doom that results would bring), I did some dairy EMS. I’d never been on a dairy farm before and found the experience extremely useful in improving handling skills and my understanding of the dairy industry. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I’d retained from the two cattle lectures we’d had so far.
Without warning, our results started to trickle in, one subject at a time… and so began the momentary relief after receiving one and then the rising anticipation for the next one. Finally, the last one came in, and by some miracle (or so it felt), I had passed all of them! All that worrying about being away for resits was extinguished, and now I could get on with preparing for the next set of EMS I had planned… six weeks in Bolivia in a wildlife sanctuary.
And so I have passed first year. It’s been hard work and no doubt second year will be harder, but vet school hasn’t defeated me yet!
The increasing number of veterinary graduates has had “little impact” on job prospects, survey claims.
No doubt spurred on by a survey carried out by the Institute of Employment Studies (on behalf of the RCVS), this last week has seen an interesting focus on the availability of jobs within the veterinary profession.
Curiously enough, the survey seems to show that the increasing number of graduates over the past few years has had “little impact” on job prospects. In fact, it shows that an average of 94% of graduates seeking a role in clinical practice found work within six months.
Surprisingly, this figure did not change significantly over the five years under consideration, despite UK graduate numbers increasing by around a quarter in the same period. It did take them slightly longer to secure a post, but they still got there!
Mind you, the situation changes rather dramatically if you want to work with horses. Results of a second survey revealed by (who else?) BEVA suggests there may be up to five times as many graduates wanting to work in equine practice as there are jobs available.
Overall, however, results of the RCVS survey may slightly allay the fears of current vet students and recent graduates. But you can’t help but wonder what the situation will be like for those looking for employment when Surrey lets its first cohort loose on the veterinary job market.
Plus, with the BVA citing rumours of even more new veterinary schools on the horizon, the future of veterinary employment does start to look a lot less certain.
Robots mean that dairy farmers’ working hours are much better – no early morning or late night milking.
When I organised to do some dairy EMS, the farmer told me he doesn’t work at “ridiculously early hours” because he has milking robots. It sounded incredibly sci-fi and I didn’t really know what to expect, but when he first showed me around the farm and explained how they work, I was extremely impressed.
The robot recognises each individual by an electronic tag, which is strapped around one leg and also acts as a pedometer. Everything is completely automated – there isn’t even any need for manual attachment of the cows teats; the robots not only have built in lasers which are used to locate them, but also remember the rough position of them for each cow. The robots are programmed to milk the desired amount for each cow. The cows are free to come to the robots for milking whenever they want, but if they return too soon to be milked again, the robot will allow them to pass through without being milked.
The robots dramatically reduce the incidence of mastitis, since the clusters are much more hygienic for the cows than those in a parlour. They’re automatically washed in between each cow, in addition to the teats themselves being cleaned both before and after milking. The number of foot problems is reduced since there is no queueing to get into a parlour. There is less strain on the udder because the cows are not limited to specific times for milking. Milking is also much more efficient, since each quarter of the udder is treated individually, so no teat is under or over-milked.
When a cow calves, the robot is programmed to begin milking her, in small amounts to start with. For the first couple of milkings, the robot sends the milk to a separate tank, so the colostrum can be given to the newborn calf.
Lots of data is provided by the robot. The pedometer gives a minute-by-minute recording of activity level, which can be used to see when the cow is bulling, and so indicates when to AI the cow. The robot itself also conducts a basic analysis of the milk produced by each cow, which gives an immediate indication of quality and can provide an early warning for conditions such as mastitis, even before clinical signs appear.
Will there be a major shift towards robotic milking in the future?
There’s also obvious advantages for the farmer. Working hours are much better – no early morning or late night milking. Such a decrease in the labour needs means that there’s much money to be saved that would be spent employing staff.
However, all of this comes at a cost. The big question is whether the huge initial cost for a robot outweighs the time and money they save the farmer. The robots are computerised so a steep learning curve would need to be undertaken to get used to the technology, which isn’t something that all farmers would be prepared to do.
Of course, the sceptics will also be asking “what if it goes wrong?” After all, computers aren’t flawless.
The farmer I’ve been working with has two robots, and says that they do have occasional faults, but he always has the second one as a back up to be used while the other is being repaired. The technicians are on call 24/7, so the robots usually get fixed quickly. He said that, only once, both robots went down due to a fault with the computer system. It was brief, but while the repair was going on, the old milking parlour was used.
The milking robot is certainly a very clever piece of kit. Robots have slowly become more popular over the last few years as the machinery has become more reliable. But will there be a major shift towards robotic milking in the future? Will the younger generations of farmers be more inclined to use robots in order to maintain a lifestyle with better working hours? I think that robots are the next step in the evolution of dairy farming, but it’s impossible to tell how long it’ll take for them to be used by the vast majority.
There are three basic causes for diabetes insipidus (DI): a defect in antidiuretic hormone (ADH); a defect in the kidney’s response to ADH; or psychogenic polydipsia.
The diagnosis of DI can be challenging. Tests include:
blood and urine tests – complete panels to rule out diabetes mellitus, kidney and liver disease
a water deprivation test and/or a modified water deprivation test to determine if the symptoms are caused by psychogenic polydipsia, a defect in ADH, or a defect in the kidney’s response to ADH (the animal must be properly hydrated, hospitalised, and screened for kidney disease prior to doing a water deprivation test)
Large and giant breeds, including great Danes, Labrador retrievers, Newfoundlands, rottweilers, Bernese mountain dogs, English setters and old English sheepdogs are predisposed to OCD.
OCD is a cartilage problem that affects young large and giant breed dogs. It is due to several factors including genetics, trauma, rapid growth and nutrition.
The owner of any large breed puppy should be warned about the risks of OCD and advised on how to minimise development of the condition. Puppies should not be exercised on hard surfaces or allowed to jump or run downstairs until they are skeletally mature.
They should be fed on large breed puppy food, which has the correct calcium/phosphorous ratio to promote correct development of cartilage and bone.
Is calculating tax returns your idea of hell? Image: Darren Shaw.
As students, we need all the extra cash we can get, and often a part time job will help considerably with rent, bills etc. But what about self employment?
It may seem like a scary proposal: how would I be able to run my own business while studying? What do I need to get started? What would I do? Will I have time? Are students even allowed to do that?
The answer is yes, you can be self employed while studying!
I recently registered as self employed for freelance writing. It’s something that I enjoy doing, which means it doesn’t even feel like I’m working. I also feel that it would be almost impossible to fit in a “real” part-time job around university, particularly because the veterinary course has so much contact time, and it would be very difficult to find fixed working hours that would accommodate that. The freedom and flexibility are definitely major positives of being self-employed.
But writing isn’t the only option; there are lots of things that you could do and make a bit of spare cash from. There are a few self-employed students out there, you just might not be aware of it.
Could baking be your way of earning a few extra pounds? Image (and chocolate button cake) by Rebecca Hubbard.
I know of people at Glasgow and other universities who earn money from a variety of sources. One of my high-school friends makes teddies from different fabrics by hand and sells them via her Facebook page. Another student makes very high quality professional-looking cakes for occasions in her spare time.
As an employee, you get paid every month and generally won’t get taxed because a part-time job would mean you don’t come anywhere near the earnings threshold. If you did get taxed accidentally, filling out a simple form (or having a word with your employer) would ensure a tax rebate. So getting your hands on your hard-earned cash and keeping hold of it is fairly straightforward.
Self employment, on the other hand, involves a much more proactive process. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been learning the jargon, trying to get my head around National Insurance contributions and making a start on my tax return. It’s all very new and while it seems like a headache at the minute, once I get into the swing of things, I’m sure I’ll get the paperwork done in no time.
All in all, the extra paperwork is completely worth being able to do what I love, when I want, while getting paid for it.
For some time now, the badger cull debate has been ongoing, and finally, despite continuing setbacks from the RSPCA and other supporters of “Team Badger”, such as iconic Brian May, things seem to be moving.
Brian May filming for the BBC’s The One Show for an anti-badger culling campaign. By Norbie (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia CommonsWith a well-loved famous figure heading the “against” argument for the cull, the public are easily led to believe that this argument must be the right one. Unfortunately, however, the naivety of these “townies” obscures their view of the bigger picture.
Since the proposal of the cull, badgers have become something of a national mascot, with the public claiming that they are an irreplaceable element of the British countryside; part of the wildlife we simply cannot afford to lose. This is all very well, but before the proposal of the cull, were they seen as anything more than roadkill that could easily write off your car? And I wonder that if it were found that rats or pigeons were carrying a disease such as TB, would there be equal public outcry?
The RSPCA claims that culling is not the solution to the problem of TB in cattle. Again, it’s difficult for the sheltered public to consider the possibility that the most well known animal charity in the country could have gotten it wrong. The truth is, the cull would never have been suggested if there were no need for it. We are not a nation of bloodthirsty, mindless killers, but we are a nation that believes in doing what’s right for our animals.
Defra claims there is scientific evidence for an increased incidence of bovine TB in areas where the badger population is high. In areas where, 10 years ago, TB was unheard of, since an increase in badger numbers, the disease is now rife among cattle. This effects both the beef and the dairy industry considerably, and cannot be allowed to continue to do so. It essential that we halt the increasing incidence of bovine TB, and currently, our key method of control would be to, indeed, pursue the badger cull.
Thanks to increased publicity, such as this ‘anti-cull’ poster from the RSPCA, badgers have become something of a national mascot.
For many farmers, badgers are seen as pests in a similar way to foxes. In addition to carrying TB, they destroy land and have been known to steal stock, such as chickens. I doubt there are many farmers that are opposed to the cull.
One of the most significant arguments against the cull is that vaccination could be used as an alternative. However, vaccination would be considerably more expensive and time consuming, not mention less effective than the cull. While possible, this alternative is simply not plausible.
There is a proposed public march in London on June 1 to protest the badger cull. It would be interesting to see what proportion of people turn out to wave their banners. Will there be many people that see the TB problem on a day-to-day basis, such as vets and farmers, or will the protesters predominantly comprise those who like to think of badgers as cute and cuddly, but have an involvement in the dairy industry that extends only as far as buying milk from the local supermarket?
As a vet student, I believe it is important to have an opinion and take a moral standing on issues such as this. On more than one occasion, I have found myself quizzed about my view on the cull, based on my course of study. We need to be prepared and be able to respond to public interrogation with calmly reasoned arguments. After all, we will be the face of the veterinary profession before we know it.
The animal should be prepared for the study by being starved for a minimum of 24 hours. Drinking during this period is allowed.
Any excuse for a poor pun…
If the study is to include the large intestine, it is important the large bowel has been evacuated prior to the study.
A barium concentration of 80-100% W/W is used. The volume to be administered should be 6ml/kg-12ml/kg BW. The high dose/kg is recommended for cats and small dogs, while the low dose/kg is recommended for large dogs.
Administration
You can administer the solution into the cheek pouch of the patient using a 50ml syringe with a catheter tip, and allow the patient to swallow it in its own time. It is important to not extend the animal’s neck, or to administer the liquid at a rate that is too great for it to be able to drink comfortably.
Make sure you give the patient an opportunity to stop drinking and take a breath. If the oesophagus is not to be included in the study, or if you are administering the contrast material to a cat that is fractious, then an oesophageal tube may be used to administer the barium.
If sedation is required, acetylpromazine is a useful sedative, as it doesn’t significantly alter gastrointestinal function. The use of atropine, ketamine, and barbiturates will depress gastrointestinal motility, and are not recommended in dogs. Ketamine/diazepam is useful for feline sedation.
The Doctor’s TARDIS. Based on an image by Sceptre at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-2.5], from Wikimedia CommonsTwo years on from the Royal College reporting a huge drop in voting figures, we at Vetsonline were pleased to hear that this year’s RCVS council and VN council elections have seen the biggest turnout for 10 years.
Results showed 4,661 vets (18.8% of the profession) casting their vote – not to mention the fantastic 1,329 veterinary nurses (12.5%) who voted, which is almost double the number who took part in 2012 and is officially the highest turnout ever.
Such a remarkable result is no doubt particularly welcome at a time when the RCVS is going through a very public period of considerable change, and one can’t help but assume this renewed interest in the college and its elected representatives is a result of that change rather than despite it.
RCVS registrarGordon Hockey said he was unable to pinpoint reasons for the increased interest, but hopes it is because vets and nurses are “feeling more engaged with the college”, aided by extra communications activities undertaken this year, such as the online hustings event.
Whatever the reasons, if the college continues along its intended path of improvement and transparency,imagine what voter turnout could be like in 2014.
