Manchester Street Vets

Mcr Street Vet Surgery

The surgery opens from 8 - 7 every week day, however I stayed from 9 until 3 every day.

13th July - 17th July 2015

• On the first day I saw a kitten get spayed and a kitten get neutered. This was at 10am on the first day so already this surgery was a lot busier than the previous veterinary surgery I went to. At ark vets, I saw a bitch get spayed, so I was familiar with the procedure - it was quick, however not as quick as the castrate. An incision was made in the lower abdominal region where the vet would search inside the body to find two ovaries attached with two horns to a cervix. The castrate was simple, an incision was made on the balls where the testicles were bulged out. The tesicles are attached by two horns of some sort and tied. These small incisions were left to heal by themselves as no suturing was required. However, on dogs, instead of directly cutting the ball to release the testicles, an incision is made just below the balls and suturing is involved when on dogs. Another case came in, a labrador who had an ear that was filled with blood. This had happened before and was drained but had happened again. The blood vessels in the ear burst and the ear swelled with blood. The vet drained the ear by making a small hole on the inside of the ear. After draining, the vet sutured a sponge pad to the inside of the ear to remove some of the tension that the sutures would have on the ear. 
• The second day was a lot more stressful and emotional. I had never witnessed a euthanasia in practice until that day. A dog came in with breathing difficulties and unfortunately died in the practice (I did not get to see this.) A kitten also came in, which seemed like a stray kitten that primary school children brought in. It looked to have been run over, it was shaking uncontrollably and there was an extreme chance the kitten had internal bleeding. So, the vet made the decision to put the kitten to sleep as this was the best thing for te welfare of the animal as it seemed to be in a lot of pain. This was my first euthanasia I had witnessed in real life and I must say that I started to handle it better than I thought I would have. I didn't start to cry, I was just so sorry for the animal that I just wanted it to stop suffering. However, when the vet poked the needle into the vein on the arm of the kitten, the kitten squealed and I had no other choice but to go to the toilet and have a little cry. Also that day, a dog de bordeaux came in who had a small lump just beneath its pepuse. The vet removed the lump and sutured it up nice and very neat. I asked about the suturing material, he used a material that would dissolve into the skin without 3 weeks and also used non-dissolvable sutures on the outside which would need taking out in 10 days. 
• On this day, a golden retreiver went into surgery for 3 and a half hours in order to remove two fatty lumps from its side and also a very large cyst from its neck. The two fatty lumps were removed and sutured as normal. The very large cyst was removed which actually left a tiny bit of excess skin. The sutured area seemed a bit baggy to me but I think that was because such a large cyst was removed - the vet was pleased with it so we were all pleased with it. Closer to the end of the surgery, I was put in charge of listening to the heart rate of the dog and counting the amount of beats within 15 seconds and timesing by 4 to calculate bpm. I also watched the chest and counted how many breaths were done within 30 seconds to times that by 2. A dog was also castrated and an ultrasound scan was taken of a cat abdominal area to search for signs of any lumps or tumours or anything abnormal in the area. They found nothing using the ultraosund scan but there was a larger kidney than expected but the vet didn't seem too concerned about it as it was a large cat. There was also sediment that was found in the bladder so a urine test would be done to further examine if there's anything wrong.
• On the thursday, a kitten came in for a spey. However it was pregnant. I wasn't very educated about the reproductive system in animals and actually thought the embryos were not attached to the ovary horns but they were. There were 6 kittens who were removed from the kitten. The kittens were just under half way of their development. The vet kindly let me put on some gloves and let me examine and experiment on the unborn kittens. There were two sacs. I had to cut the first sac in order to get to the second sac which was yellowy in colour and quite transparent. If you opened this sac, the kitten was inside and it was so interesting to see how much it had developed. I did feel quite bad as I wish these kittens could've been born into the world but it was the owner's choice to do so. 
• Finally, friday came and not much really happened on this day. There was a few castrates and speys. A tortoiseshell kitten came in to be speyed and it was one of the cutest kittens ever, it just wanted to play all the time and I found myself always coming back to the kitten when nothing was happening in the practice to play with her. The dog de bordeaux from earlier that week came in because the sutures had fallen out, resulting in a very large wound. However, the dog had only just eaten not that long before it came in so anaesthesia was not an option. I asked why and this is because the animal could actually throw their food back up involuntarily under the anaesthetic and would mot likely result in the animal choking from its own vomit. So, 7 of us held down the dog whilst the vet stapled the wound back together. The vet couldn't just leave the wound and would have to temporarily get the wound sutured back up using a surgical stapler. This may have been quite painful for the dog but was essential to remove the risk of infection and other nasties getting into the wound. 

Abattoir

Tabley Brook Farm

6th July 2015

• Saw sheep, cows and pigs slaughtered.
• Sheep: 

SAA

2015

-5 days
-They only had cats and rabbits
-Cleaned each pen
-Gave greens to the rabbits at 3:15
Learnt the basics of cleaning animal pens and the importance of hygiene in between entering pens
-Also went in the cat quarantine - it is important that germs are not passed on especially in case if one cat has cat flu
-Kittens in the back had cat flu so were kept in the back room and I cleaned their area a few times - they were later moved in quarantine. In quarantine, you must wear a plastic apron and plastic gloves in between each pen.
-Learnt abit more about the charity and how it works in regards with animals
-Socialised with the cats:)

Peter Fenton Equine

Peter Fenton Equine Vet

20th July-24th July 2015

8:30am - 5:30ish

• On day one, there were a few vaccinations against flu and tetanus, there was a horse that was micro chipped, there was a horse that had a bent leg so the vet advised the owner that it would probably be best for the horse if it was put down for its welfare. There was also a horse that had  a foot disease that worsened with the location of the horse - the horse was located in the hills and was walking on the cobblestone every day and was exercised a lot every day. So, the vet advised the possibility of moving yards/stables in order to keep the horse for as long as possible. 
• On day two, there were 2 vaccinations for flu and tetanus. There was a pony and a donkey that had been rescued by the owner. I was told a bit more about grass sickness disease and how it isn't that common in horses. It is derived from eating from an area where there is bacteria within the soil. The horse ends up losing a lot of weight and in more cases of grass sickness, the horse almost definitely ends up dying as it is very difficult to recover from as weight is lost within a short period of time. Was told about shoes for horses - it is advised that you get shoes for your horse as it can be less painful for the horse. Shoes can be made from steel, aluminium, plastic but steel is best as it can melt when heated whereas aluminium has to be hammered into shape. X-rays were done onsite at another yard, because it had a lame leg. The vet watched it walk/trot and thus decided to take some x-rays to take a better look at the foot and hoof inside, and nothing abnormal was found. At another yard, one horse had a wound on its leg and did have a bandage on it but the vet took it off. Shetland passport was done and the vet also did an examination of another shetland to check that nothing was particularly wrong with it physically for breeding etc.
• On day three, there were a few tetanus vaccinations. Poo samples were taken from some horses at one yard, one of the horses hadn't done a poo all morning so after a lot of waiting, the vet decided to go up the horse's back end but the horse was tensing so much that the vet couldn't go any further. She said it wasn't worth the risk of damaging down there as it was only a poo sample and could be taken later that day. 
• On day four, myself and another vet student did worm egg counts in 3 poo samples. We grabbed 6-8g of each sample of poo. We placed this in a thick plastic test tube with salt water and some crystals which help break down the poo. A filter was then placed at the top and a smaller test tube was placed on the other end. We tilted it upside down so that the liquid poo was filter into the smaller test tube to remove any solid parts. A syringe was then used to extract the liquid poo from the smaller test tube and was put onto squares to see under a microscope. Under the microscope, there were circular shapes which were air bubbles which you wouldn't count but there were oval shaped things which were the eggs. We then counted these and made a tally chart.
• On the last day, there was mostly vaccinations for flu and tetanus. There was some microchipping of fowls. There was an appointment for the vet to examine the hooves of a donkey and one of the hooves has a crack in it. There was also an appointment to look at a puncture - looking wound on a horse. It actually wasn't a wound, more like a dent in the skin but hadn't actually punctured through the full thickness of the skin. There was some swelling but it wasn't too bad, it just looked like another horse kicked him. 

Ark Vets

1 week

29th June - 4th July 2015

• Saw a german spitz bitch get spayed - thought the ovaries were bigger than what I expected them to be.
• There was a jack russell terrier who previously had surgery to remove its spleen as it had a tumour on there (I didn't see the surgical procedure). It started to recover well at first but then started to show signs of depression, lameness, fatigue, slow response. It was given oxyglobin but seemed to react badly to that. Given lots of fluids but the owners still tried to continue to keep him alive for a few more days to see if he will recover. Unfortunately, results got back from the lab and the cancer had actually spread throughout the dog and the dog was euthanised. I didn't get to see the euthanasia as this would be extremely traumatic for the owners and I did not feel that it was my place to interfere. R.I.P
• A female staffordshire bull terrier came in who had just been in a fight with two other male staffs at Studholme kennels. The staffy was badly bruised and bitten. The dog was shaved and diluted iodine was put on the wounds to help prevent severe infections although would sting when the dog woke up from its sedation.  None of the wounds were stitched up, I did ask the vet why not but she explained that the wounds might actually be better off to heal on their own. Once the dog woke from its sedation, there was no appointments at this point in the practice so I went to sit with the dog who was in utter pain from stings and bruises. I stayed with it and comforted her. 
• A stray staffy came in and the dog warden was phoned and hopefully rehomed by the time I am writing this as it was such an adorable loving dog. I personally wanted to name it Lola but the vet nurses ended up calling it Bella. 
• I saw many events where blood was taken from the animal. For some animals the vets shaved the arm or on the side of the chest to find a vein to extract the blood. However, I found that for show dogs, vets tend to avoid shaving the arm or chest of these dogs. 
• Before this week of my experience, I had never seen temperature being recorded of an animal. The temperature is recorded from the anus which is to give a more accurate reading of body temperature. 
• A kitten came in and received a vaccination and a microchip.