Most effective are the chlorhexidine based rinses.
Say “Aaaah”
Chlorhexidine gluconate is an antiseptic which reduces inflammation and bleeding of the gums and freshens the breath. It has no known side effects.
Chlorhexidine acetate is antibacterial, but there are some reports of staining of the teeth after prolonged usage.
Rinses may also help reduce plaque and calculus formation. They can be added to the drinking water or some come with handy applicators, enabling direct application to the mouth.
When bleeding and inflammation subside, the rinse should be stopped.
Ideally, daily brushing with cat toothpaste is the gold standard for ongoing dental care.
When you apply to vet school, there are certain boxes you have to tick: achieve the right A-Levels (or Advanced Highers), complete a number of weeks of work experience, and pass that dreaded interview.
What nobody tells you, however, is that being a vet student requires a number of other skills that seemingly have nothing to do with the veterinary profession.
Star Baker
After completing a week of EMS at a vet practice, there is the unspoken expectation that you should produce some form of teeth-rotting goodness as a thank you. Your vets would probably appreciate a box of Celebrations, but they’re going to be far more impressed if you turn out to be harbouring secret Mary Berry-esque talents.
Not only that, many clubs and societies use baked goodies to lure in new members, and some vet schools even host an anatomy themed bake off, for which the more exceptional entries often leave us questioning whether their creators are in the right profession.
Salesperson Extraordinaire
Fundraising is a common theme at vet school, whether it’s for a charity event, to reduce the ticket price of halfway ball or for a veterinary society to hold a practical session.
Getting fellow students to part with their hard-earned cash can be more difficult than you’d expect, but persuasion is a great skill to develop, especially when you may find yourself moving on to trying to entice large pharmaceutical companies to sponsor a much bigger event.
Perseverance (or rather bugging people on Facebook and through emails) can really pay off.
Catwalk Designer
Jordan (far left) and the other Glasgow Gnomes prepare for the AVS sports weekend.
Vet students are notorious for their love of fancy dress. Perhaps the results aren’t quite what you’d expect to see on the cover of Vogue, but it is astonishing what we can whip up out of nothing in five minutes flat (or perhaps three hours that may have been better dedicated to studying).
Movie characters, gnomes, circus, thrift shop, “anything but clothes”… There hasn’t been a theme that has baffled us yet.
Rally Driver
We may not all be the next Sébastien Loeb or Lewis Hamilton, but driving is a pretty important skill. Granted, not every vet student holds a licence, but those that do find it a lot easier to get to the numerous EMS placements we have to fulfil during our time at vet school.
Many of us have other attributes from being sporty or musical, to being a fluent multi-linguist or technology whizz. These may stem from trying to boost our personal statements prior to applying for vet school or could just be personality traits.
However, if you don’t enter vet school as a “well-rounded” person, you’ll certainly come out as one.
Vet school doesn’t prepare you for making a complete idiot out of yourself.
At vet school, you learn some basic clinical skills and are taught how to conduct a general clinical examination to prepare you for EMS placements in veterinary surgeries. What they don’t prepare you for is making a complete idiot out of yourself.
Before my first clinical placement I told the vets I would be working with that I had only just finished second year and had no pharmacological knowledge as of yet, non-existent surgical experience and very little understanding of small animal medicine in general.
Luckily, all the vets in the practice were very good at judging the level of my understanding and seemed to find the right balance between patience and pushing me for answers.
Things seemed to be going OK. I’d successfully taken blood samples and started to make sense of abdominal palpation. However, applying clinical skills taught at vet school isn’t necessarily straightforward – cadavers have a distinct lack of weapons in the form of claws and teeth, but I was coping with that reasonably well and taking note of the vets’ advice on particular techniques.
This was until a few days in, when I found myself working with the head vet…
In the same morning, I managed to spray penicillin all over my face while trying to administer an injection, incorrectly insert an endotracheal tube despite being 99% sure it was OK, and cover myself in guinea-pig blood while clipping nails, leaving me to wear the stained tabard for the rest of the day.
To add insult to injury, I later misread the scales and recited the incorrect weight without thinking (it didn’t occur to me that there’s no way a fully grown border collie could weigh 10kg).
Isolated, these incidents might not seem like the end of the world, but when they all happen in the same day in front of the head vet and when one of the clients involved is your neighbour, you do feel like shouting “I am a vet student – honest”, despite feeling like a complete moron.
This was, however, followed by days of mini-triumph, such as inserting an IV catheter correctly for the first time or scaling and polishing a dog’s teeth myself.
The important thing to remember is that you are inexperienced, and you just have to accept there will be days when nothing seems to go your way, get past them and carry on with your head held high – even if it is covered in yellow spots of penicillin.
The vet handed me the needle and vacuum tubes and, at the slightly bewildered look on my face, asked if I’d ever taken blood from a horse before. Upon my answer of “no”, he shrugged and said: “I’ll show you the first one, instruct you for the second, then you can do it by yourself.”
Having started at 8am on my first morning, he had me taking blood samples from broodmares used to produce top class racehorses by 8:05 – not something I would expect to be allowed to do as a second year vet student anywhere in England.
I spent the rest of that morning with Neils, the vet, driving to different yards and observing while he performed rectal ultrasound scans on mares, assessed an ongoing case of RAO (Recurrent Airway Obstruction) and extracted a tooth from a very old and very hairy pony, alternating between being utterly flummoxed by his exchange of German conversion with clients and him then explaining things to me in perfect English. I then returned to the stud yard I was based at (between Hannover and Hamburg) to groom, feed and bring in the mares.
Although I was technically supposed to be on pre-clinical EMS at the stud, Neils was eager for me to learn from him, in addition to the more husbandry-based experience I was gaining from being on the yard. Some days were spent entirely on the yard, and others were spent partially with him, gaining bonus clinical experience. Neils was a “one-man-band”, running a mobile equine practice by himself – an alien concept, compared to the practice based vets that are the norm at home.
About halfway through my first week, I spent an entire day with Neils and, having watched him scan (via rectum) more mares than I could count, he decided there were a few safe candidates for me to try my hand on (or, rather, arm in). After a few minutes of fumbling around, I managed to orientate myself and understood far more clearly what the grey and black mush on the ultrasound screen represented.
We then went on to x-ray a horse with a fractured radius and I assisted in applying its Robert Jones bandage. I took a few more blood samples and we called at other horses to drop off medication, vaccinate, assess lameness and rasp some teeth.
I felt like I’d had a taste of what it would be like to be a qualified vet – not from the practical and clinical things I got to see and do that day, but from the 14 hour day, having had nothing but a Creme Egg to eat and not stopping for breath…
However, arriving back to the yard that evening just after the arrival of a new foal made it worth every second. Between them, Neils and the yard manager explained everything that was done and needed to be done just after a foaling; we examined the afterbirth to ensure none had been retained, assisted the foal while it began to suckle and kept an eye on both the mare and foal for the next few hours.
The end of my two weeks in Germany came around all too soon and was quite sorry to have to leave. I was taken aback by their hands-on attitude and desire for me to get as much out of my placement as possible, and not just be another pair of hands for mucking out.
The generosity I experienced from everyone I worked with is something I’m extremely grateful for, and will never forget.
Yorkie’s retained deciduous or baby fangs, circled in red. Both lower permanent fangs did not grow right underneath the baby fangs. Photo by Socknye [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.A common abnormality in canine dentition is retention of deciduous teeth.
This occurs when the permanent tooth bud does not grow immediately beneath the deciduous tooth, and therefore does not cause the roots of the deciduous tooth to be resorbed.
A retained tooth can cause the permanent tooth to erupt in an abnormal position or cause other types of problems, such as crowding, which may lead to debris accumulation between the teeth and greater plaque stagnation.
In these cases, the retained tooth should be extracted.
The teeth of a domestic chinchilla, by Salix [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons.Chinchillas have 20 teeth from birth – 4 incisors and 16 molars.
Teeth are open-rooted and, therefore, grow continuously, about 2-3 inches per year.
The chinchilla should be provided with good quality hay, wood blocks or pumice stones to gnaw on and encourage tooth wear.
The incisors are separated from the molars by a diastema.
The teeth are covered by a hard layer of enamel made up of calcium, iron, phosphorous and other trace minerals.
The normal tooth colour is dark yellow/orange – pale teeth are a sign of calcium deficiency.
With pre-exam stress in full swing for most of us, we welcomed a break in the form of the Glasgow Vet School Rodeo last weekend. The annual charity event took place for the 53rd time this year.
Poster for the 53rd Glasgow Vet School Rodeo
Traditionally (from what I can gather), it used to be somewhat like a country show, with stock showing, sheep herding and the like. Now, it’s more of a family day out with many displays and stalls of different natures, though all loosely animal-related.
Entertainment throughout the day included displays such as falconry, duck herding and dog sledding. There was have-a-go dog agility and dog showing for the public to enter their pets into. For the children, there were pony rides, bouncy castles, laser quest and a climbing wall. Of course, there was a marquee full of craft stalls and all sorts of different tombola and raffle stands supporting various animal related charities.
The proceeds from the entry tickets and the main raffle went towards four key charities: The Riding for the Disabled Association, Canine Partners, The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA) and The Vet Fund (James Herriot Scholarship Fund). In addition to these, many other animal and breed-specific charities had their own stalls.
It is a vet school tradition that first years “volunteer” on the day. My friend and I spent the morning helping out on the “small animal” stand – there were a selection of small furries including rabbits, hamsters, mice and guinea pigs available for the public (mainly children) to handle. Our role was to help get the animals out of their cages and make sure there were no escapees. Other than my small disagreement with a rat (it sank its teeth into my finger in response to being picked up), we enjoyed our time chatting to people and brushing up on our handling skills.
In true Glasgow style, the day ended with a ceilidh – a great day and evening was had by all of us at the vet school!
