One week of rotations to go and it’s Easter hols, the end of final yr is drawing ever closer and the onset of the last wk brings the next stepping stone towards graduation ever closer. Once Easter is over I’ve a 3wk surgical elective to contend with and then it’s revision and hopefully vivas plus graduation. Great Scot is the quote that springs to mind and there’s a fair chance I could even end up resembling the doc after what’s gonna be one reclusive couple of months of revision!

The rest of SAP last wk was incredibly useful. I had a fair sized phobia of consultations before this rotation, not that I particularly struggle in any particular aspect of the skills required for consulting, I was very unsure of my ability to cumulate the skills. Thankfully all good though and my wks feedback basically said that I can consult really well (and also quite badly) and that my biggest problem was consistency, which is fair enough as I think once I’d discovered I could consult fine the challenge aspect diminished and so I couldn’t gather the enthusiasm to consult well when I knew everything I did was checked and the final decision isn’t mine anyway. I’m sure in practice when the responsibility for an animal’s health care is actually my own I’ll keep up the consistency of good work.
This wks rotation is exotics, one of the easiest wks, plus it’s non-assessed. Today and Fri are both off and the other 3days involve rabbits, birds and behaviour. The wk is non assessed and so passing SAP shouldn’t be an issue. Also I’ve got my feedback now from the last rotation (small animal medicine and ICU) and I managed a merit, though the comments were interesting. It stated that my strongest areas were academic/practical skills and that I was weak communicator which makes no sense as communication skills are by far my strongest area, comedy feedback really as just goes to show how much the clinicians can actually remember about each student.

Last wk a social live didn’t really exist as I gave my life to the band, practising pretty much every night. Though Fri night I did get chance for a couple of beers with JP and analytically viewing of one major chic flick…Devil Wears Prada (Hugo’s Choice).
The big event of the past wk was VetAid2 on Sat night. I organised one a yr ago with the help of Chris which was a fair success, however this years was even bigger and the night raised aprox £2k for charity. The evening’s line up went as follows:
- Doors 7
- Acoustic acts 8 (Prof Barr playing instrumental, myself playing time for heroes and lights go out in Langford, Chris and JP playing Bedouin Soundclash)
- Indecent Exposure (played 4song set).
- Blue Juice (played 40min set)
- Clinician auctions.
- Levator Ani (played 40min set)
- The Langford Stranglers (1hr set)
- Disco to the early hrs (inc. TT vs 50cent)
The clinician auctions went amazingly well and included some quality promises including a meal for 12, 6, 4 and 2 people, a bike ride, art work, cookies, fly a falcon, 4people canoeing trip, French maid house cleaning etc. Me, Dave, John, Paula and 8others won the 12person meal for £525 (£43 each) which sounds a lot but the promise is amazing…All picked up and dropped off at home, a 5course dinner cooked by 2 of the senior farm clinicians, beer and champagne for the evening and waiting services provided by the farm interns/residents…ideal! Think we’ll do it after vivas.
I was fairly stressed about the night until we’d played, the Stranglers set had gone well and everything was removed for the conference. I was then able to get incredibly drunk and dance about in the bar to the early hours, plus we had a mic and amp separate to the bar PA so karaoke was sort of possible and much comedy singing was achieved, including ranting to the likes of bat out of hell. However 50cent Vs Thomas the tank engine and the William Tell Overture win the most entertaining music prizes for the evening.

Today’s been a jobbin day, trying to get everything sorted I haven’t had time for over the past couple of weeks. Later I’m going swimming then meeting Dave, John, Pablos for dinner in Bristol to discuss summer travelling plans.
Still haven’t heard back from Liverpool interview yet.

xx

Crazy amount of time since my last blog but with fair reason, I know I always say I’ve been busy but the past 2wks have been ridiculous!..
Currently I’m in one of the consult rooms in SAP hoping I can get all I’d like to say down before I get dragged away to watch a dental…

Work wise over the past 2wks have included finishing my ICU days rotation, starting the SAP rotation and preparing for a job interview.
The ICU days rotation was quite enjoyable and though I mainly looked after one patient for the wk who had laryngeal paralysis/mega-oesophagus and a tracheostomy I felt I got a lot out of it. I also got a bit of spare time which was ideal as I was able to get some general revision done.
The past week I’ve been working in PDSA in Bristol which has been absolutely fantastic. My general fear of consults is now completely destroyed and I feel I actually had a fair clue as to what was going on with the animals I saw and what treatment to administer. Best thing about the wk was the vet responsible for our time there as he was an absolute legend. He talked things through with us, helped us come to our own conclusions concerning cases and generally provided a quality stress free atmosphere to sort out our consultation skills.
This week I’ve just started is small animal 1st opinion practice in Langford Site in the shiny new practice. I missed my first day yesterday due to an interview in Liverpool but I’ll come onto that in a min. It’s excellent that I had my PDSA week before this SAP wk as it means I’ve sorted out my consultation skills before the wk when they’re properly assessed. This wk revolves around morning and 4-6pm consults with tutorials run in the afternoon, the one today being on geriatric patients.
After this wk I finish my rotations with the exotics wk which includes Mon and Fri off (breaks I’m going to much need following the manicness of the past couple of wks and this one).
Big work related event since last entry is my interview for the internship in small animal studies at Liverpool. The interview was on Monday and I prepared pretty well for it after having spent most evenings in the library over the past 2wks. I got the train up on Sat so I didn’t have to travel the day before with plans to study in Liverpool’s library. It was quite useful having my friend Nick studying at Liverpool as I was able to crash at his place though unfortunately I’ve being trying to find time to go see him over the past couple of terms and the time I can make it up I had little time to see the dude.
The interview itself went fairly well with just basic questions on why I want the placement/what I think it involves/ can I teach etc. The hard part was the 15min written exam before hand which I hadn’t expected. This went quite terribly as I only answered 1 out of the 3 questions, though I answered the one fairly well I thought. However after speaking to others applying it seems very few people actually make much progress through the paper. After the interview a few pints in Liverpool were essential before getting the train back here to rejoin the bizarre pseudo-reality little insular world of Langford (love it really).

Main social events include (not as numerous as norm due to wrk efforts) a gig, a trip north, a band night and upcoming VetAid2…
The gig was Ash last Thursday. Myself, Sarah, Ian and his little bro went along and it was one of the best nights I’ve had in ages. They played a great selection covering all albums though unfortunately the Ash highlight of Charlotte wasn’t present as apparently she’s on solo projects.
The trip North was a weekend in Newcastle to see Rich. I always like to make it up there once a term and unfortunately couldn’t make it last so we had to ensure a quality weekend which was definitely achieved. The highlights included…
- Both Newcastle uni’s and Northumbria’s big weekly student nights out were attended where nothing especially comedy took place just the usual antics of much drunken crazy dancing fun, singing and lying around on pavements.
- A trip to the seaside in the bitter cold, including a walk round a market straight out of Bed Knobs and Broomsticks.
- A curry (always essential).
- Theatre excursion (highly cultural) to see Martin Freeman and guy out of Only Fools and Horses staring in a play about the importance of comedy and past war efforts with modern day implications.
- Quality feast and multiple film night in including The Goonies and Full Metal Jacket (definitely a contrasting combination).
Weekend before last there was a band night on the Sat which Blue Juice played in and organised, before hand though numerous people including myself played a few acoustic numbers. I got in Hard fi-tied up too tight, get cape/bright eyes song, view same jeans. Went down pretty well and rest of night was excellent fun, thought the William Tell Overture wasn’t played at the end which is always important for a quality night.

Presently the main things taking my time up are SAP, practising for this Sat coming, trying to start finals revision and generally juggling a million and one things I’m trying to sort/organise.
Sat looks to be a quality night, I’ve got 4bands lined up, a clinician promise auction, a dj set and a disco on the cards, all of which takes a fair amount of effort to ensure it doesn’t screw up on the night. Will report back next wk in regards to the level of success of the evening and the fate of the Langford music scene when I depart

Think that’s enough for now, it’s never a good idea for me to miss out blogs as the next one I right then becomes and essay. Expect to get one down Mon when the final week of rotations start, sounds scary stuff but quite looking forward to it, rotations have been awesome but I’m feeling it’s time to move on, grow up and face the music of the real world.

TTFN x

It's lunch time and I'm in the computer room surrounded by 1st years as they all get bussed into Langford on a Thursday for lectures and practicals. It's a bit weird because I can vividly remember being in their situation and looking up in awe at final years in their shirts and ties thinking I'm a million miles away from their position. But anyway I've made it this far and am now only a few vivas away from becoming MRCVS, crazy and scary but also cool as I'd quite like to have a go at the job and more importantly actually earn some money.

Ok work stuff over the past week has been ICU nights and the canine medicine rotation. ICU nights were 3shifts of 8pm-8am stuck in ICU. Thankfully all my nights were fine and apart from checks taking a fair time and Skeps getting bitten by an aborting cat all went well. I brought my guitar to keep entertained and Skeps got multiple Lost episodes in.
Canine medicine has so far been an incredible rotation. Time is spent taking histories, working up cases, having tutorials and looking after in patients. I currently have a chronic renal failure and a haematuria/carpal trouble case. The rotation is especially good because the clinicians actually take the time to talk through the cases and ensure we actually understand what the rationale is behind decisions ensuring we get the most out of it (and to be honest I doubt I've really gotten anywhere near the most out of any rotation as I somewhat lack the slightly keen/geeky drive required). The tutorials are most useful as a clinician spends the last half hr of each day talking through all the cases with us and if there's nothing knew to discuss conducting a talk on a subject of the 4 of ours choice.
Next week it's onto ICU days (not so ideal in anyway).

Social events over the past week have been fairly minimal mainly thanks to ICU nights though we did have one big night out on Tuesday when Dave, JP, John and me went to the nme indie tour and then me and Dave went to The Lounge. The gig was awesome as The View and The Automatic headlined and we’re all appreciating The View a lot at the mo as the album was listened to excessively in Glasgow. However the support acts weren’t quite so ideal (The horrors were comedy to watch though I especially liked the keyboardists cape). After the gig we got some drinks in (including our annual salt intake) then headed to Lounge for mad dancing and nose blowing (a recently remembered insult were one gets their nasal passages aerated by a friend/foe, not pleasant and my cousin Lemonie is to blame for it). Somehow me and Dave got left in Bristol as we got lost in Lounge and then decided to walk the 14miles back to Congresbury, obviously we failed but thankfully her majesty’s free taxis picked us up, and as the officer owned falcons he appreciated the conversation and decided to drop us off at Dave’s door…an ideal end to the evening though not sure the clothing challenged road run celebration was necessary.
Other social fun has included some games of risk and on the exercise front I’ve got a fair bit of swimming in.

Organising type stuff is fairly slack at the mo… Levator is practising hard for VetAid2, I’m playing 4acoustic songs for another band night this Sat and I’m trying to get all my songs recorded (badly) and put on cd.

Tonight I’ m relaxing and have checks at 8:00, and tomorrow I’ve a highly unusual meeting with a girl called Claire I met at Glasgow AVS.

xx

For the first time in as long as I can remember I’ve had a completely chilled out day… Got up late, read book, watched tv, played guitar, did some exercise and now I’m in the library which is where I’ve been for past hour and half thinking about doing some work. Haven’t really got any work done but the fact I’m here means the balls rolling on the revision front.

Since I last wrote work wise I’ve done pretty much nothing as I’ve started my ICU night week with the 3 days on call. Basically I worked Monday morning 3am till 11am, and then every night up till Thursday night I’m just on call and cross fingers I shouldn’t get called out. However once Thursday night is reached it’s 8pm till 8am shifts for three nights in a row. These shifts constitute living in ICU for 12hrs sleeping, watching youtube movies and hopefully playing guitar if I can smuggle it in. Obviously there is some work to be done and this consists of 12am and 4am checks which can take anything from 1-4hrs each (should only be about 1hr though unless very busy). The big disaster when on ICU nights occurs if a constant monitoring presents, when someone has to sit with an animal for the entire night (which is when the on call get brought in).
Last night myself and Skeps where very close to getting called in for an over the door check on a dog in isolation at both 12 and 4. One clinician wanted us both in to peer over the door of its kennel and clean up any excrement (something tells me our time isn’t highly valued)… Thankfully another clinician came up with the plan of: ICU night team (already in) looks over the isolation door at the dog and if it needs crap removing we get called in. Mercifully the dog refrained from crapping over night.
Once the week of ICU nights is over it’s onto dog medicine.

The main item on Pete’s social agenda over the past week was the Glasgow vetball. Myself, John and Dave drove up on Friday, I shared the driving with John which was horrendous. I only had to deal with rain driving but John got all the snow of the Midlands which severely hampered our efforts. I’ve strong memories of John talking to his Mum on the phone while the car tried to skid side ways down the motorway at about 5miles an hour. Though thankfully John ate plenty of strawbs to keep his energy levels and concentration at maximum (don’t stick them down your ear).
Friday night Sue, Sam, the 3of us and some of Sue’s house mates made it to Glasgow’s union for a few drinks which was great fun though lasted only about an hour.
Saturday the 5 of us went to a Loch which was nice. We took photos, drank some tea, went for a walk and Dave tried to drown me. My driving of John’s car was awesome though not all agreed.
Saturday night was the ball and the highlights were:
- The bag pipe impression (involving us 3 hitting a screeching cord and Claire freestyling over the top… probably one of the most horrendous noises a human could ever hear).
- Nose blowing in general especially on Claire.
- Dancing to the crazy Scottish folk music with an attractive Scottish girl who lead me though the crazy dance routines (including the Gay Gordon).
- The tackling of the giant jenka tower.
Sunday we had breakfast near Sue’s then set off on the epic journey back to Bristol stopping at DD’s on route for Sunday lunch.

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When I went to the Glasgow vetball I returned with bagpipes/ bucket smashed crabs/ candelabra/ Haggis/ drunk American man/ Chesney Hawks cd/ Gay Gordon dance routine/ coconut cake/ std/ ginger merkin/phlegm on the car/ lead lined sporran/ ability to Scottish dance/ bagpipe impression/ a DB9/ a broken leg/ the same jeans/ a muppet called Phil/ fire drill/crazy chinese man/ legend called Graham/ a back massage from the imaging team/ the archaic sign from outside the common room.
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Other social stuff this week included going out for dinner and visiting wildwalk with Sarah yesterday and hopefully tonight a load of us are heading to the pub to celebrate being single.

As far as organising stuff is concerned.
VetAid2 is sorted, just need to get the practicing in.
Levator album is making little progress though I’ve got a feeling that will have to wait till after exams.
There’s talk of us going travelling in Aug but will have to was.

Now I’m going to get another 2hrs work done before ICU rounds.

xx

It’s that time of week again where I try to cram all I’ve been up to into 30mins of rampant typing (which I admit sounds like I’m trying to glorify my super busy life but these past coupe few weeks have been crazy busy even for me)…

Work wise I’m still seeing practice in Bridgewater which I’m thoroughly enjoying (excluding the 40min drive there and back). I don’t get to do a great deal but I’m well included in all goings on i.e. I scrub into ortho cases, talk through consults and generally chip in with most tasks which nurses always appreciate. Today I got involved in a cranial cruciate ligament surgical repair on a rotty which was really useful and interesting given that it was the first time the surgeon had done the technique used and as such was being talked through every step by another partner at the practice.
I’ve only the remainder of this week at my ems rotation placement and I’m surely going to miss it next week when I get thrown back into the surgery building starting my small animal medicine rotation on ICU night duty, definitely going to be a plunge back into the Langford deep end.

Over the evenings of the past week I’ve been doing a fair bit of exercise (swimming etc) and Levator have had a few jams which have gone really well. It’s nice to be able to have a band practice without a forth coming gig looming over us and as such jams have been chilled out and we’ve able to play some oldees and generally just mess about a bit. However, we’ll have to get a set list sorted soon and proper practicing started as VetAid2 isn’t that far off.

Over the weekend I went out Friday night to Zizzis then the Lounge for Claire’s birthday which was a very contrasting night to my normal alcohol fuelled mad clubbing antics as I decided to remain sober given that I wanted to drive home home afterwards. Thankfully my fun sans alcohol experiment was a success and I had a good night, though driving home at 2am was interesting, thank god for redbull.
Saturday I got a well needed haircut avec Rich and then went to the infamous Derby Assembly Rooms in order to observe my skin and blister dance. Hannah’s been dancing for the past 15yrs (which is quite impressive given that she’s 18) and every year the school puts on a big show for all members from babies to adults (not actually babies that’s just the group name). Han dances for the seniors whom are always impressive to watch, unfortunately the same can’t be said for many of the other groups and shoddy adult tab could kill a man through boredom in less than 5mins. As always Han’s dancing was awesome, I just hope she continues when she leaves for uni.
Saturday night me, Rich and Chris (Han’s illegally stowed away boyfriend) hit some bars in Derby and got a lift back with one of Chris’s boyo friends (felt 17 again racing through the streets of Derby with some ridiculous bass cannon blowing holes in my ear drums).

Sunday was sort Pete out a job day as I set about the task of completing my cv and covering letter in order to apply for the Liverpool internship. Thankfully I recruited help in the style of Mr Borgeat, Mum, Dad and Rich (obviously Hannah and Alfred-Alfmeister were loitering in the side lines for general moral support). I almost got both of them done but unfortunately had to leave home before completion in order to make a band practice. However, alls sorted now and the plan is to get my application sent off tonight then cross fingers tightly for an interview.

Well that’s enough I feel, now it’s off to a crappy talk in order to get money off my final year dinner (they do like to bribe us), then it’s swimming with John and then the pub to celebrate Claire’s birthday.

This weekend I’m off to Glasgow for their vetball because I can’t go to mine because I’m on ICU nights.

xx

Lots to talk about but very little time to write it down in (seems to be the general theme every time I sit down to right one of these things)…

Firstly and obviously most importantly…work type stuff.
The past week or so has involved ems at a practice in Bridgewater which is were I’ll be seeing practice for the entirety of my ems rotation, a rotation where you purely do ems and get a much needed very ideal break away from the surgery building.
Work experience is great though I won’t mention the practice name, the staff are very friendly, the practice is modern and there’s a diplomat in small animal medicine present plus a referral surgeon often visits. So all in all an interesting place to see practice, plus they don’t mind what crazy hour I rock up or decide to leave which is a practice some places I’ve been to frequently dislike (fair enough really, but if there’s nothing interesting coming in or going on I never see why students have to hang around). As far as letting me get involved with stuff they’re pretty good, I put in most catheters, have scrubbed in on a cruciate repair plus limb amputations and they’re excellent a talking through cases with me…
However the most worrying thing is that I feel like I’m being treated as more of a slightly remedial vet than the generally pretty useless student that I actually am, which is much appreciated and by the end of this ems, and a whole mass of revision, starting work in smalls has become a much less daunting prospect, in fact I’d go as far as to say I’m looking forward to it!

The other work related item at the mo is my current aspiration inspired by the Borgeat to go for an intern position, obviously I won’t get one but it’s worth a try then I can have a year in practice and try again. Current application I’m trying to sort out is for Liverpool, need to write my CV and find me some referees.

Right now fun type stuff… The weekend just gone sort of started Thurs night with a trip out with the Greek and Jim to celebrate the forth years finishing their exams. Not much worth telling but a quality night none the less. The big event of the week was over the weekend and involved my rotation group plus JP going to a bunkhouse in the Brecon Beacons for a weekend where we basically got drunk and went for a walk. The key points of the weekend include:…
- Playing Sardines, the bitch, ring of fire, risk, mysteries of old peking.
- Pole dancing involving group dances and much spinning.
- Drinking popcorn.
- Truth or dare and spin the bottle (major old school) some excellent dares were achieved including nakedness, pruning, eating risk men, Russian roulette (though Dave’s a cheat!) and some unspeakable truths.
The motto of the event was: “What happens in the barn stays in the barn and the loser gets *****”. I’ve taken the ring of fire rules with me home as a keepsake.

Last night also needs a mention before conclusion… me and Sarah went to watch get cape at the anson rooms following an awesome subway and some comedy scrabble in a very nice bar. The guy was awesome and the album is now getting large quantities of airtime while travelling the 40mins to and from ems each day.

Upcoming stuff includes some levator jams, a trip home and a night out.
Organising at the mo includes vetaid2, levators album and intern applications.

Right now I’m going to do some exercise and clean the girls toilet (not at same time), Mat decided the house is to have an out of season spring clean…great.

Back for what really constitutes the final term of Pete’s vetschooling, as this will be the last term of normal work/play etc. However the problem with this mentally is that I’m likely to let my hair down (so to speak) for an entire term with the beast of revision being adequately suppressed to be released upon the third term, though really I should get cracking for finals some time this term (maybe I’ll start about half way through, then I could gradually increase the workload instead of doing the standard month of 12hr days)…

Honestly didn’t mean to come straight back in with a revision rant, but then it’s fairly obvious what’s top concern in my head at the mo.

Ok things to talk about… Xmas/NewYrs, first week back (wrk and social), upcoming organising and good times to come…

Xmas was fantastic this year due the complete lack of exams; this was the first xmas in 6-7 years that I haven’t had any exams! And thus I obviously made the most of this fact. Skiing before xmas for a week with 26 of us from the year/vet friends/and my little bro at the Les Deux Alps was an incredible time. The accommodation/skiing/company were all quality and favoured memories include:
- The falls.
- The sauna/pool mad drunken dashes
- Bottenanna bang your shoes on the ceiling song.
- Dave’s constant sewing in order to make Loic the stuffed Robin.
- Mine and Rich’s attic room.
- The stolen barbed wire, dirty laundry, present and red ski pole.
- Last night bbq and nxt door chalet break in including custard out the tea pot on the sauna stove.
Xmas was standardly very family orientated and my presents included ski stuff, electric razor and a wallet.
New yr was spent at DD’s with a mass of vets and the night ranked very highly if not highest on my newyr rating list. Things to take note of include:
- The cat toy pics.
- Dog bowl/tea cossy on heads (the sacred relics).
- Spirits in syringes.
- Sleeping outside
- Makareena with Dave’s parent’s friends.
Apologies if writing is a bit listed in this blog but if I tried to elaborate on these nights the length of this blog could be ridiculous.

And so after a few great fun nights in Derby and a two week stretch of large animal work with Scarsdale I’ve returned to Langfordton to once again try to seamlessly fit back into this bizarre lifestyle of work/play/s/alcohol/guitars all balanced in the most appropriate measures?..
Going back to large animal ems I scarily enjoyed my past couple wks, mainly doing farm work, and for a very very short period of time I was actually thinking of considering farm work as farmers are awesome, the few ops done are great fun and I love driving around chatting and listening to music. However, on your own doing the job and the lack of op diversity has dissuaded me, so the aspirations are back to small animals and their surgery. I’ve even got round to looking into some potential intern positions, but that can be saved for future entries.
The past week work wise has revolved around anaesthesia for the final week of the 3wk rotation. It was a bit odd coming back to a rotation after a 4wk break and it’s scary how much you completely forget as the knowledge level was equivalent to when I first started, infact the anaesthesia rotation seems to have two starts which is especially problematic considering the first couple days of most rotations are by far the worst before you get settled in. However the week somehow went fine and I anaesthetised a horse, couple of cats for neutering and a dog for a femoral fracture repair.
The rotation ended Friday with the anaesthetic assessment where everyone gets given a case/question and then has 30mins to read up on the topic and present a 15min talk. The general year consensus on this morning is one of stressful nightmarish hell which was once again completely untrue as all from my group delivered a quality presentation and the team marking were relaxed and appreciating the jokes added to talks i.e. Steve’s obese dog with aspirational pneumonia (in jokes so crap not worth explaining). So for most people the rotation ended Fri though for me it continues over the weekend as I’m call, though luckily have so far escaped call in (got tonight to go yet though!).
Final note on the past rotation is that I got chatting with one of the anaesthetic clinicians in the pub who let it slip that the entire group has passed that I’ve got a merit and there’s even a few distinctions dotted about.

Enough work blurb, social stuff over the past week has been quite exciting… I returned to uni Sat night and thought before I went home I’d go to the old inn with my car full of gear and meet the mates for pint. However the subdued plan got changed upon arrival after finding John on a drunken mission with the logic that if he got blind drunk Sat night he’d sleep all day Sun ready for ICU nights Sun night. And so thanks to Baron Spencer the night turned to drinking games, hitting the old inn gong, having an egg/lettuce/beer fight at Dave’s then onto John’s for lounge trashing and tickling (the weird, slightly perverseness of that last sentence has meant it’s escaped editing)… I think things are really starting to get out of hand as these sort of antics are quickly becoming the norm for a night out, maybe at some point we should consider growing up (though definitely not yet).
Other socialising this week included some nights of 24 and Billy Connolly, couple of pub nights, a dinner for KJB’s birthday and a huge night Friday at Langford bar to celebrate many people’s January birthdays. Points worth mentioning of the night include:
- much pre bar beer and Japanese Anime with Steve and Paul.
- Naked dancing (photos on facebook horrendous).
- Finishing the night with the William Tel Overture at incredible volumes watching a drunken mob run crazy round the bar acting like possessed jockeys. I think I may have discovered a new finale song for bar nights.

General organising at the mo includes VetAid2, our CD and the rotation barn trip. VetAid2 so far has Levator and Blue juice signed up plus we’ve sorted a date, and so the next items to be scheduled are; get a PA/hire the conference room/get Stranglers on board and get the band practising. The CD mentioned is what is hopefully going to result in Levator producing an album before the end of the year as a bit of a souvenir before levator is forced apart (it’s going to be emotional).
The barn trip is going ahead this weekend and looks like it’s going to include 8/9 of my rotation group plus some friends going for a weekend to get drunk in a barn in the Brecon Beacons, what more can anybody ask for in life.

That is definitely enough Pete ranting for now, I’m off to make some dinner then round to John’s for 24 followed by the pub. Tomorrow I start my ems rotation (3 wks of small animal practice 30mins drive South from here).

TTFN

Only going to be a brief entry as it was only 4days since my last blog, but I better conclude this terms blogs now or I might not get another chance till after xmas...

Since I last wrote I've completed another 3days of my Anaesthesia rotation which have gone really well. I've Anaesthetised a couple of cats, a rabbit, a dog and a calf. All were relatively routine except the dog which was a major orthopaedic op involving carpus (wrist) straightening due to a premature closure of a growth plate, major cosideration for the case being pain relieve as radius/ulna are broken during the procedure. All my anaesthetics have gone fine excpet my spey yesterday which went a bit light at one point (very difficult to assess as jaw tone was constant, eyes were fixed due to ketamine and palpebral reflex was bizzare and inconsistant with other depth parameters...it's all a learning curve).
The good thing with the Anaesthesia rotation is the copious amount of time off and due to some slight swapping around I've landed myself with today and tomorrow off to get stuff sorted, however I was 1st on call last night (though some how managed to not get called out and spent the evening being cooked for by dave and watching killbill2 with Sarah).

Big things up coming before the end of term:
- xmas part in Bristol tonight.
- final year xmas dinner tomorrow (whole year plus some clinicians get drunk and eat xmas food in the langford canteen).

Term finishes Friday and my little bro is coming over in the evening to make it in time for the meal. Then Saturday a group of 26 of us are off skiing in Les Deux Alps including Rich, should be fantastic. John and I are going to get some lessons there as are standard is a bit below others attending.

Last thing to mention before coming to a close is that Alfie is getting on great at home, there's been minimal accidents so far and he seems generally fearless of everything (Mum even woke him up with the hoover other day and he just went back to sleep).

Well that will do I feel for this term, which as I always say has gone incredibly fast. The first term of every year is always fantastic but this one for many reasons has stood out from the rest, I can honestly say that this term has been by far my best at uni, an openmic2 night, my band sounding quality, a great pantomine, some new friendships made/old ones sealed, and now it's due to finish with what will no doubt be an awesome holiday. In some way i feel that this term's conclusion marks an end of a vetschool lust for fun era as when i return the shadow of finals will be looming to close for comfort and work efforts may well need to increase. However I've no exams after xmas, so for the first time in 7years I've no xmas revision to do.

Happy Christmas everyone. x

Firstly I need to add an important evening last week that I missed out…Me and Rich went to Langford Inn for my slightly delayed birthday present, much essential relaxation after a very hectic week and some bread and butter pudding (always ideal)…

Anyway currently I’m sat at home getting this rattled off before I drive back to Bristol for some xmas dinners. Essential items on the past week’s addenda include a pantomime, some films, year book, and the dreaded Anaesthesia rotation!

So work wise, I’ve completed my first week on Anaesthesia and it’s actually gone completely fine. For some reason there’s a general fear amongst the year of this rotation as some of the clinicians involved can be quite stressy, however if you don’t mind being shouted at a little and don’t take criticism to heart then it’s actually a interesting very practical based rotation. I did a bit of reading around for once before the rotation began which definitely helped a lot and so far I’ve anaesthetised two cats and a dog, one of which was a routine spey and the others non routine. The best thing about the Anaesthesia rotation is the copious amount of time off, there’s actually more days out of clinics than in, and when you’re in you’ll probably get one or two cases for the day. However, anaesthesia on call can be a bit of a nightmare as if pretty much anything takes place on Langford site your going to get called in.
Next week on Anaesthesia I’m only in Mon-Weds as I’ve swapped some of my days off, this is ideal as I can get sorted for skiing on the Thurs/Fri and there’s parties/xmas dinners on these nights.

Biggest talking point of this blog has to be the 2006 clinical review! Every year the final years put on a pantomime to run for two days at the end of first term. The standard of the night is always ridiculously high especially given that everyone should be immensely busy stressing over clinics and fretting about the ever looming shadow of finals. Our panto was called “the Lion, the Witch, and the little cupboard at the bottom of the stairs at Southwell Street”. Big parts included:
Avril, MRO, Mike, Allison: Em, Queen, DD, Adelle
Henry, Geoff: Etchelles, Big J Spence
Isllyn: Me
Aslan: Andy F
J Day: Pete M
I managed to land myself the role of narrator which I wasn’t aware of at the time of auditions. This meant I had loads of large passages of txt to memorise which was pretty time consuming.
The story for the panto I tried to organise last year by having meetings in the pub every 2wks so that whoever wanted to give some input could and that a general story board was set before the director wrote the script over the summer. I did pretty much achieve this, though the general story line didn’t deviate too much away from what Rich and I came up with a year and half ago one night in Weatherspoons (though if the director was asked now I’m sure it’d all be her ideas, not a soar point honest). Anyway the story Rich and I came up with was to have four clinicians based in Southwell street when they were young and for them to stumble through a secret entrance that transports them to the oppressed land of Langford ruled by the evil queen MJ Day who’s put a ban on fun over the land. The kids then set to restore fun and happiness back to Langford by overthrowing the queen. Character ideas included a centaur as narrator, Mr Thumlus as Mr Thomus and Avril as a goody for once as she’s always portrayed badly.
The first night mainly years 1-3 come to see it and a few 5th years who wanted to go both nights. This was last Monday and the performances by all were awesome with only a couple of very minor mistakes e.g. I forgot some lines.
The Tuesday night was fantastic and the atmosphere much improved with the addition of all the clinicians that were being played. No one made any mess-ups and the add-libbing by all was incredible. Best screw up = Henry and MRO’s mics packed up during a song so they restarted with Ian stepping on stage to do some stand up while they sorted it.
Hopefully after xmas the DVD of the panto will be on sale, don’t think it’ll make highstreet stores though.

Not sure if I mentioned in the last entry that the naked calendar has now gone on sale and that everyone’s photos are great (can’t say too much as some people are getting one as xmas presents).

Rest of the time over the past week has been spent at John’s watching films, eating mince pies and drinking mulled wine with DD, Chris, Paula and Mat. So far we’ve got through some incredible classics…
- Home alone 1
- Home alone 2
- Hook
Monday night after the panto wasn’t as uplifting as had potential for other reasons, though Thursday night definitely cheered me up after spending time with Sarah in Bristol eating subways and having a drink. Also we’ve got tickets to see Get Cape in Jan which I’m very much looking forward to.

This weekend began mid-day Fri as I skanked out of Anaesthesia in the aft picked up my Han from Yatton and made our way over to Wales to pick up our puppy Alfie! He’s a miniature Schnauzer and he’s absolutely incredible (can’t say I’m that looking forward to leaving the house in 10mins knowing that I’m not going to see him for 2wks). He’s settled in really well at home and has such a confident strong minded nature.
Last night I went on the local practices xmas social to a murder mystery evening with Kieran. Ended up getting pretty smashed for relatively little (drinking with people earning definitely the way forward). Night was mainly spent dancing with old people, eating bread, and singing lots of xmas tunes with unnecessarily crude lyrics.

Now I’m off to Bris for a rotation group and a house xmas dinner, I’m going to feel so full.

PS: Reading his dark materials trilogy (fantastic). Going to dinner tomorrow night with Sinead (should be comedy).

Lots to write about this week, though not really as far as work goes as I’ve been on FAP and EMS. Rich was over from Thurs to Mon and times been incredibly hectic with Soiree and Open Mic2…

My second farm animal rotation finishes at the end of this week before moving onto Anaesthesia for two weeks up till the end of term (this term has gone lightning fast). Last week on farm was farm animal practice which involves going out with the farm animal clinicians and being on call every night for emergencies, though it has potentially to be very busy my week was fairly relaxed and really useful on the practical front. Now I’ve moved onto EMS (extra mural studies) where you have the option to do three days of farm work off practice, I’ve opted not to as I’ve 2wks booked over xmas plus I wanted to get a lot of non-vet stuff sorted this wk. Therefore basically I’ve got the whole wk off except for a foot trimming practical yesterday and a preventative medicine talk plus farm animal hospital rounds Fri morning.
As far as Anaesthesia goes for next week I think for the first rotation yet I’m actually going to read up before starting as there’s definitely potential for rotational disaster with my currently exceptionally poor knowledge in the field. Therefore this weekend and maybe tomorrow is going to involve library time trying to get breathing systems, drug combinations/side effects, anaesthetic machine set up and anaesthesia monitoring sorted in my head.
Results back for last rotation (surgery) = merit, which means I’ve now had a merit for every rotation except farm in which I got a high pass. So results suggest I’m doing well this year but personally I’m sure I’m doing the minimum to get through these rotations, least it’s reassuring to think that clinicians feel I’m on track and after plenty revision 2nd/3rd term I’m sure vivas will be fine.

The past week has been pretty crazy out of school with a Soiree, openmic2 night, 2comedy nights, relaxation girlfriend time in front of scrubs and the musical cats…

Rich flew over Thurs night and then had to put up with panto and Levator rehearsals. Friday I went in for FAP and managed to get a 3:00pm finish so we could get over to the Marriott in Bristol to set up for the Soiree. Friday night was awesome, sound levels were quality and band performance no worries, even my two songs went well. Crowd didn’t get into it as much as last year though as the lower year’s don’t really know us but a few of our new covers went down well.
Rest of the Soiree involved the usual much dancing, drinking and general antics including the compulsory long island ice teas and flaming sambucas (spelling?) as has become customary with the big J Spence at every Soiree.
Saturday involved organising/sorting for the OpenMic2 Sat evening, PA had to be collected and set up and cars collected from Bristol. Rich kindly parked Ian’s car for him, as he couldn’t make it in, in the big city centre NCP and then promptly forgot which level he’d parked it in (Ian found it eventually with Rich’s highly useful instructions of “I think it’s on a floor above level 2”).
Saturday night couldn’t have gone better, the performance quality was amazing and I think it’s safe to say that the night was even more of a success than last year with £700ish profit made for the spey clinic. The line up for the night was as follows…
Act1
- Andy F, (chasing cars etc).
- JP, (Fratellies etc).
- Me, (Time for heroes/Hallelujah/Lights go out (mine)
- Kieran, (decemberists and album of the year)
- Me and Rich (death cab and greenday)
- MiniMat etc (horrendous spice girls dance routine)
Act 2
- Valenzia (3songs inc. 1 originial)
- Chris Q (soundclash)
- Henderson (baby can I hold you)
- Em (bic runga sway)
- Chris Q (stand up in a bear outfit)
- Ad and Miles (the Hoff!)
- Charlie et al (big band inc. trumpet/sax/keys playing grapevine and grease)
Prizes as awarded by Domingo were…
Most entertaining…The Hoff
Biggest talent …Me n Rich (not rigged)
Best overall performance…Charlie et al
After party was fairly comedy at Jocks house, Kieran had a big Irish argument and produced the random quote of the evening…”NO,..Christmas,..I Agree”.

Sunday there was a lot of sorting and clearing to do before me and Rich could relax and make our way over to Cheddar to get some Cheese and drink some cider. In the evening we watched fast show and Mighty Boosh live with Dave, Ian, John and Paul and made some mulled cider.
Monday Rich flew home early evening so before then we went over to the Garden Centre and finished watching Boosh.
Generally the past week has been crazy with practices for panto and Levator and sorting Soiree and OpenMic, thankfully Rich was around as would have been a major struggle getting everything done without his help.

This week is revolving around getting stuff sorted that’s been put on hold…xmas shopping, puppy revision etc.
Night before last had a wkd comedy curry night with the lads. I made mince vinderloo and mulled some lambrini….we got mul-led*
* As quoted from the comedy genius double D (can’t have me taking credit for his jokes).
Last night had a much needed chilled out evening with Sarah watching Cats musical in Bristol at Hipperdrome. Not really my cup of tea but entertained never the less, think I’ve had a sufficient dose of eccentricity for another year though.

Now it’s off to the bank to get some puppy money and then later Sinead is cooking me dinner. Tomorrow Xmas begins with home alone 1 and 2 and more mulled lambrini.
Xx

PS: For this Christmas season I recommend for all those festive Chavs…mulled Lambrini, and I’ve been good enough to provide you with Pete’s tried and tested patented recipe…
- Half one 1.5L bottle of Lambrini into two pans and add half a bottle of dry white wine into each.
- Place one mulled wine sachet into each and a good sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg so it turns a gravy type colour.
- Add half carton of OJ into each to make a dull urine type colour.
- Pour large quantities of sugar into both and bring slowly to the boil.
- Serve in ornate glasses and allow dirt to sediment before consumption.

Time for another weekly blog entry, though I’m gonna keep this one short (and I actually mean this for once) as I’ve panto prac in half hr…

Currently still on farm rotation and will be for another week after this. The theme of this week being farm-animal-practice (FAP) where we go out on calls the farm vets and generally have an awesome time getting in loads of practical experience. Over the three days so far I’ve sorted my surgical castration technique, gained competence at pregnancy diagnosis and scanning, dis-budded some calves and paired up some feet plus diagnosed a solar ulcer and treated a lame cow. Today I went on a repro routine visit in the morning where we did some scanning and then saw some lame cows, and then this aft we’ve just finished a sheep fertility seminar and practical, learning about examining rams for fertility soundness and performing vasectomies.
The rest of the week on FAP continues as similar, though tomorrow aft a few of us are helping teach the first years in cattle handling/examination etc.
Next week work is minimal as I’m on EMS for the week which is basically a week off with the opportunity to visit some local practices if you wish (I’m gonna opt not to as I’m not going into farm work and time is essential nxt wk for relaxation and panto rehearsals).

Social life over the last week has been eaten up by panto, soiree rehearsals and sorting the open mic night, though I did find time for a Goth n Gimp party and a visit to Wales to see some puppies…

Panto is going full steam ahead with rehearsals every night except Fri up until the panto on the 4th and 5th. As my parts quite major (timid farm vet Isllyn, spelling?, as narrator) I’m in every practice until the panto plus I’ve got two songs to sort. However I’m sorted for most of my lines and the songs are coming together well so there’s not too much to worry about.
Theme of the panto is Narnia (Lion, Witch etc). More to follow nearer the time.

Soiree is Friday and our jam last night was pretty awesome so should go fine. This will be Levator’s third and potentially last Soiree so fingers crossed will go well, though there’s still one more prac Thurs night.

Open Mic2 is on Saturday night which I’m organising. I did one last year and it was a big success so repetition hopefully a good idea. Basically night revolves around aprox 10 acts from the year/vet school/graduates(Mr Borgeat!) singing, playing guitar, dancing etc with an aim to raise some money for the final year spey clinic at the end of the year. Biggest event of the night looks currently to be DD’s and the big J Spence’s raffle, as Dave’s been all over the place on his EMS week collected prizes including 3 free meals, hair cut, £20 gift voucher, bottle wine, cheese hamper etc (literally incredible).

Last Friday was another in the fairly minimal series of this term’s house parties (Goth and Gimp), evening fun but little to say, best bit was me, John, Mat and Dave getting ready before hand (John was getting majorly jealous at the awesome quality of everyone else’s make-up and Goth accessories, John made a s**t Goth).

Rest of this week involves FAP, Soiree and OpenMic, will report on all nxt wk…

Also Rich is over Thurs to Mon so hopefully get some quality brother time in Sun and Mon i.e. visit Cheddar buy Cider and Cheese and consume vastly inappropriate quantities.

Two important recent occurances that I failed to mention in past blogs...
- Chav party eyebrow shaving. House mates plus Shep and some randomers all got bits taken out of their eyebrows to look even more authentically Chav. However Milnthorpe's large middle section, my left side and Dave's two stripes are still incredibly visible after 2wks. Quite comedy really.
- Got to have a spin in Uncle's 911 Turbo other day, like some ride at Alton Towers.
Expect nxt blog nxt wk.

After three weeks of time consuming surgery rotation I've now moved onto my second 3week block of farm greatness, this is especially ideal as the last farm rotation I completed the 3more difficult weeks leaving VPH, EMS and FAP for this1. However now that work has slackened off slightly I've got some time to get the many other events coming up sorted.

My final week on the surgery rotation was on soft tissue surgery which was surprisingly pain free after the ordeal that was orthopaedics. I got called out twice over the week and both times it wasn't at rediculous o'clock and the surgery was fairly interesting, plus I got to do most of the suturing.
Over the weekend I was on call for soft tissue which was non-eventful. I assisted in surgery friday night for a dog that had impacted its ileum with chicken feed, and other than this case I had only one other over the weekend which was a awesome little Yorkie (not a breed I generally like but this one was comedy). Other than checks my weekend revolved around eating, watching star wars and scrubs and generally relaxing with Sarah, for a weekend on call it was surprsingly good fun (which is especially important as most of the year were off in Liverpool going mental on AVS without me).
Farm rotation begins this week with VPH (veterinary public health), for this we spend our time assessing Langford abbatoir on Monday and then spend the rest of the week writing a report. We split up the report and I received the section on zoonoses which I sorted out yesterday and this morning, the exciting title of my section being (drum roll if you will)... "Two important zoonotic biological hazards involved in the processing of ovine meat for human consumption".
Other than the report this week we have to attend a seminar Weds and a preventitve medicine talk on Friday, though as Mum's not very well at home I thought I'd escape the seminar and spend some quality time at home this week with a plan to return to Langford Thurs night.

Quite short on the work front this week (makes a change) as time has been directed elsewhere. Curerently I'm sat in the bedroom above the gargage at home awating a lift from Mother to get a much needed haircut (not sure why we don't call this room the study but never mind).
Time at home has, and plans to be spent:
- getting some quality son time in for the parents.
- shopping for ski wear (early xmas present of a white ski jacket, I'm gonna be invisible).
- buying 21st birthday presents for little brothers.
- doing VPH work.
- watching Borat again with little sister (probably tonight, I think Sarah is also watching it again in Bristol to).
- getting things sorted for the open mic night (wk on Sat).
- Learning lines for the panto.
Big news at home at the moment is the massively increased likelihood of us getting a puppy. There's been talk for a long time but recent occurances have changed Mother's mind. The choice looks to be a Miniature Schnauzer, hoping to get one some time before Xmas, hunt for puppies is about to begin...nice.

This blog was supposed to be posted yesterday but the cinema side-tracted me. Now it's lunch time ish Thurs and I'm due to go back to Bris in a couple of hours to make a panto rehearsal and band practice. The Soiree is now only a week away and so practices are being stepped up, though the last few have gone fine...set list this year is...
- Franz, this fire.
- Razorlight, in the morning.
- Chilis, other side.
- Ians new song.
- My new song.
- Libertines, can't stand me now.
- Franz, Matinee.
- Vet life.
- Brim full of asha (always comedy).

That's enough for now me thinks. Upcoming time probably going to be spent learning lines, sorting open mic and practicing for panto and Soiree. Going to be a busy week (though not with work...is nice)

Chinkoui, Yashamash etc...

On soft tissue surgery now and though I expected crazy busy madness the week so far has been excellent. I picked up a fairly time consuming case at the beginning of the week that needed PEG feeding though thankfully this went home yesterday and I’ve picked up a new case today with aspergillosis. This week’s work revolves around case management, watching ops, neutering and writing a set of assessed discharge notes. As my case went home yesterday and it was also my day-off I spent the morning writing my discharge notes, which means that the only extra piece of work for the week is ticked off. I had a neutering day on Monday during which I got a bitch spey under the belt and so now the rest of the week I’m checking and watching surgery.
On call this week is not ideal though, I was on Monday night and got called out for a cat rta and I’ve still got Friday and the whole weekend to go. However the surgery Monday night was rel. interesting as there were bladder complications plus I was able to suture up.
Being on call this weekend is far from great as it’s AVS and as everyone wants to go whose able to, so swapping isn’t possible. This is especially frustrating as I was well up for dressing up as Where’s Wally (my suggestion)…not bitter honestly.
Other work related stuff necessary for inclusion is my week on imaging just gone. This week was fantastic, time was spent taking radiographs, watching ultrasound and eating copious quantities of cake (for some reason on imaging it is compulsory to bring in food, so on the Friday my rotation went a little over the top and brought in a banoffee pie, marble cake, mars bar cake, mince pies and I found a mass of reduced pork pies in Budgens which went down a treat). Assessment on imaging however isn’t by quality of cake provided, you have to take numerous assessed radiographs and comment on them, plus every morning we each get a radiograph to assess with a different theme each day i.e. thorax, head/spine, abdomen etc.
Current level of achievement in my surgery rotation stands at pass/merit in orth and merit in imaging, so potential merit is at stake depending on quality of work in soft tissue surgery.
Following this week the next rotation commences and so I start Monday over in farm with my first week on veterinary public health, obviously this is a vitally important topic and so I look forward to the famous slightly slack week that it entails.

Think that covers most current work related issues so vital social type stuff for inclusion includes one big night out in Bristol, a chav party, some tekken, star wars and the cinema.
Big night out Bristol was Halloween night, it was only me, Dave, John and Amy but the night was incredible. We started at the Tap for special exhibition cider drinking games, then made it onto the epi, mbargo and finally the lizard lounge. Don’t think there’s anything to crazy to remark about it was just a fantastic night, Sarah joined us all in mbargo, though I’m sure my level of drunkenness failed to impress… Worth mentioning stuff: Lost John for good while as he took strangers for tequilas, Dave+Amy got thrown out lounge for falling over, I got thrown out mbargo for dancing on tables and also out of lounge for the same thing, John broke Sarah’s shoe by energetic dancing and John managed to achieve great levels of drunkenness by supplying anyone who would except them tequila slammers. Imaging day after was interesting, Dave used 65mA.
Other massive night was Friday just gone…our 2nd Chav Party, this year’s theme Chav Rave. Modesty aside our party was incredible, things to note for the night…
- Jim’s old chip fat wagon had been supped up by most of the house. Modifications included a spoiler made of shelves, air-intake made from the side of a bin, shiny new tin-foil alloys, Kenwood logo, blacked out painted inside windows, blue underneath neon light, black flames down the sides and a new coat of white emulsion all over (it was blue), the end result was as you can imaging completely awesome!
- Rave was achieved; I got a PA from the union which provided ridiculous volumes for the party. Also miniMat brought 100s of glow sticks and these plus an industrial strength strobe managed to turn what was our lounge into a full blown rave.
- Many illnesses occurred though; I think John emptying dirty Greek spirits into the punch didn’t help.
- White chairs got burnt, flames interesing.
- Next day house utter mess, cleaning took large task force most of the day/aft.
Other social stuff included playing some tekken at Dave’s, watching much star wars with Sarah (secretly she loves it!), and paying visits to the cinema (new Borat film utterly incredible, don’t think either me or Sarah stopped laughing through the whole thing).

Upcoming stuff includes… open mic organisation, band practices for the Soiree (which are currently going really well) and learning my lines for the panto.

Tonight I’m cooking for Sarah and then it’s episode I to look forward to.

xx

New rotation now and life over the past week or so has been crazy hectic, though thankfully the pressure has eased off now and I've finally found some time to make an entry...

The current rotation is surgery, which consists of a week of orthopaedics, a week of soft tissue surgery and one on imaging. Last week I had the Ortho week which was hell on earth, I felt overworked with little if any respect paid to Pete's vital out of vetschool life. Final year work is quite enjoyable and I definately much prefer the all practical approach to vetlife, but when workload goes so massively beyond 8-6 that i can't fit in all the other things I like to squeeze into life it's not dificult to feel some course resentment. However (moan over), the actual work for the week was interesting, I had a couple of good cases to look after and on my neutering day was able to achieve a rabbit spey and castrate. The assessment for Ortho is based on case care and a referral letter, hopefully my case care will be fine to pass, and as for the referral letter I based mine on a shoulder lameness case which I actually found interesting.
This week work is based in the imaging department taking x-rays, watching US and gerenerally trying to come to grips with the role of diagnostic imaging in the vetworld. Work is now 9-5 and I've loved the extra time today needed to sort out many Pete organisation type things (probably shouldn't talk in the 3rd person so much, oh well).
To pass imagaing I've x-rays to assess every day, a day is spent on US and I have to be ticked off for taking a suitable chest and abdo x-ray.
Mark recieved this week for the last 3wk rotation of Small Animal Medicine 2 = Merit. Can't complain.

Other than work social life has been put on hold last week due to Ortho and illness (managed to contract myself a sub-lethal strain of what I'm told is metro-manflu, was bedridden for Tues though this was better than a day of megastress work). Last week I did have a great night with Sarah on Weds, cooked some food, watched a film (much needed de-stress).
Over the weekend I caught up on some much needed sleep and spent time with Sarah at a house party, watching films, walking dogs and calving pumpkins (noticed the error on read through but thought too comical to edit). One very enjoyable weekend!

Other organisational type efforts....
Band practices going awesome! New covers sound good, and our songs coming along well, Andy will hopefully be joinging us more regularly over nxt few wks for a crucial bass imput.
OpenMic2 is set and I'm trying to get people signed up.
Panto rehearsals all good, had one tonight. I've got so many lines to learn though it's not funny.

Upcoming important stuff...
Xmas ski trip needs sorting and paying for (26 of us including Rich are off to France the week before Xmas, can't wait!).
Nxt wk in uni it's onto soft tissue surgery, which is potentially interesting and not too heavy on the workload depending on case input at the time.

Tonight I've got stuff sorted had a chat to the Mother and generally got my life back on track to sail through the next week. I'm not sure whether I wish for a quieter life or not, becuase I don't think I'd know what to do with myself if I wasn't constantly busy.

Right now it's enough typing and off to Dave's/John's for food and family guy.
TTFN xx

Back into the swing of things now and I feel much more settled, so now I'm into the general routine of vetlife the blogs will follow their standard once weekly pattern, allowing many no doubt highly interested people a quick climpse through the window of the life of a final year vet (at one point that was scary terminology but now I feel I've spent enough time here, though it's still highly enjoyable I definately am sensing that time should be soon drawing to a close on this life chapter)... not entirely sure where that rather overly emotive blurb came from but then I tend to just type as I think with these things.

And so...over the past week things to mention include work, london, Mat's birthday, a drink, my birthday, organising and upcoming events...

Work wise the past week has seen the closing of a cat medicine rotation and the commencing of a week of pathology and opthamology.
Cat medicine week was time consuming (which I always resent) though fairly useful. I had some interesting cases to work up and got to iron out a few of my slight practical issues. The cat week is assessed on answers to questions, practical skills, a physical examination (cat), and a case report. The report took me most of Sunday night which after being busy on call all day wasn't ideal.
This week has so far been ideal, minimal hours and intersing work (ish). Monday we received a slide for us to interpret and conduct a talk on for Thursday, I'm fairly sure mine is a mast cell tumour but could quite easily be mistaken. Tuesday was spent on clinical pathology and today was opthamology. I now feel fairly confeident in doing an opthalmic examination, which is nice.

That's enough work (was lots in the last blog), next rotation is surgery so no doubt they'll be lots more to talk about there.

Saturday me, John, Dave, Paul, Jim, Kieran, Laura plus Dad, Rich and Han all went to london for the day to watch Spamalot for mine and Dad's birthday, it was a highly comedy performance enjoyed lots by all. After we went for a meal then to Soho for drinks.
Mat's birthday was Thursday, Laura cooked food and there was a mas pub attendance (we got him a record box). Yesterday was my birthday, had a pretty good day, unfortunately had to get my pathology slide sorted which meant 3hrs of my birhtday was spent in the pathology barn which is never ideal. Though the evening was cool, we had takeaway then went pub. The house got me some drum kit shaped cuff links.

Night before last I went out to Bris for a first date type drink with a girl called Sarah. Had a great night and hopefully will see her again tonight at the guillemots.

Gerneral organisation is slightly reduced as our house party is pretty sorted including PA booked, I'm now only acting in the panto (playing a Welsh cattle vet) and Open Mic 2 is well underway.

Upcoming fun includes band tonight, jam plus panto rehearsal tomorrow and drinks Bris Fri.

Avid fans and readers will no doubt be joyed to see that the Scales vetblog has not come to an end, though the finale is now certainly in site given that I’ll be sitting my final finals in June and by this time nxt yr should theoretically be busting out some real life hardcore vetwork and may even be earning my very own money…

It’s been many months since my last entry at the end of 4th yr and obviously there are ridiculously large amounts of general Pete life that could be included, though due to constant time constraints only vitals are possible.
Important points to mention I feel: Summer (hols/ems etc), the 5th yr, 1st wk, ongoing org, upcoming events…

Summer was fantastic in places and highly monotonous in others. 2months out of the three I spent doing compulsory work experience all over the country and in the other month I managed to get away for 3w in Greece and spent 1w with friends plus working.
Work experience was pretty good and definitely useful for the majority of the time. It got quite tiresome towards the end of summer as I think there’s only a certain amount of standing and watching a person can take before wanting to get much more hands on. Though to be fair all the places I went to were awesome at getting students involved but still there’s only so much they can let you do before we manage to stretch the practice day length significantly. Some of the best experience was with my good friend Kieran, as consults and operational issues were addressed plus out of hours socialisation was quite ideal, including a comedy night in Marlow and a viewing of the band Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly.
Other than ems the summer holiday was excellent. The family spent 3w in Greece which was ideal. We had a villa for the five of us in Crete for 2w and then me, Rich and Han went off islanding to Santorini and on to Athens to fly home. I’ve wanted to do a little bit of travelling with the bro/sis for a long time and the experience definitely lived up to expectations. Santorini was by far our favourite place, island was beautiful, though Athens was pretty dam filthy.
The other week I skanked off I spent working at the vetsim conference (always an enjoyable view days) and camping in Penzance with friends. Most comedy events were the tent sick incident or the stolen Weatherspoons chair.

Right, next point to address, the big bad 5th year…
The year really started before summer with two of our three week rotations. These now continue until the end of next term. The year is spilt into groups of 11/12 and each group rotates around 3w blocks in the following areas…
Anaesthesia, Surgery, First Opinion Practice, Equine, Small animal medicine 1 and 2 (including Dermatology, ICU, Pathology, Cat medicine and Dog medicine) and Farm 1 and 2 (including farm hospital, farm practice, ems, abattoir, preventative medicine, and reproduction)… may have missed some areas but I’m sure the jist is achieved.
Currently I’m on SAM2, I had Derm last wk and this wk I’m on Cat medicine. Derm was an easy/useful and fun wk, we saw cases Tues to Thurs and had to produce a report on a fictional case we were each given. I think my case was lethal acrodermatitis in an English bull terrier, but only results next wk will tell.
Cat medicine is slightly less ideal, lots of cases hard work and more stress.
Basically the 5th yr is a hands on practical based year were hopefully we’ll gain some of the clinical skills required once we reach the big bad outside world (that I think is the idea anyway).
Personally I find I spend too much of my time trying to survive the 5th yr than actually getting on with some good learning, but that’s probably my slightly lazy attitude to the whole ordeal. What I mean is my efforts go into making sure clinicians can’t pick faults with what I’m doing and making it through one rotation to the next (I’m sure I’m not the only one). However without realising it no doubt some quality vet info must be seeping into my head when I’m surrounded by the whole thing every day.

Enough vet jabbering the 1st wk bck needs considering… Basically other than getting on with some quality derm wrk the 1st wk has been one ongoing greatness of alcohol fuelled nights, including the fresher’s party, a Langford bar night and a house party. All nights were amazing. The party was fairly lame on the pre-clinical front but 4th/5th yrs made up for the lack of enthusiasm shown and generally went pretty crazy, I also got slapped by a big dark dude but that’s another story (don’t worry family face isn’t to damaged). The bar night involved the stranglers playing for a clinicians leaving do, generally a good night though no specific stories except for John, Dave, me, Ian, Paula and Aniket getting half naked, covered in flour and dancing on a kitchen work surface till the early hours of the morning. Important props included tea towel, spatula, rolling pin, dog bowl, mop bucket and an England flag. Me and Dave got hurt by breaking 3 spatulas, never good.
Over the weekend the main event was the treasure hunt which due to last years madness was supposed to get band. Thankfully the current organisers did a wicked job and fun was had by all freshers and older years involved. Me and Milnthorpe took a team round and they were all absolute legends, the fish was kissed, the games were won, the carrots were sucked and the elephant walk was accomplished.
Not much to say about the party Sat night except comedy moustaches and much dancing, John was an absolute legend as somehow he managed to solely revive a dying party.

Back to school Monday and it was a major shell shock, I’ve spent yesterday and today trying to restore some kind of organisation to my life.
Things Pete is currently trying to organise…
- Soiree, levator’s last 1st term performance, will be awesome (can’t way to play to the school as final years).
- Panto music, I’ve landed myself the role of music coordinator for the panto i.e. get some kind of a band together.
- Spamalot, group of us are off to see the theatre production of monty python and the holy grail for mine and my dad’s birthday, this Saturday (birthdays other days).
- Open Mic, organisation of the 2nd is in the pipe line.

Other big upcoming events include Mat’s birthday, my birthday, and the gillemots (spelling?) with John. Plus I’m off for a drink with Sinead tomorrow and we’re jamming Sunday.

Tonight it’s off to the freshers pub crawl, I’m going as a breakdancer, will have to bust out some crazy big moves. Pauls made me an awesome ketoblaster thing.

Sorry last bit all rushed, have to get moving to go now and give my diarrhoea cat a klean prep.

Speak soon, it’s good to be back. x

The end of term was a week last Friday and now I’ve finally managed to find some time to get this end of year blog done. Stuff essential for inclusion in this final 4th year entry include; whatever I can now remember about the last week of term, current ems involvements and plans for the summer…

The last week of term wasn’t especially exciting as time was still heavily taken up by the equine rotation, though there were a couple of parties and also some end of term essential organisations.
End of term parties consisted of a little gathering at the vet nurses on Wednesday to celebrate Elle’s 21st and a footballers/footballer’s wives party at the girls house to celebrate the last day of term. For this final party my little sis Hannah and her boyfriend came over to experience an infamous vet party first hand. To be fair the girl’s party was pretty tame but I think most people had gone home, no doubt getting away from Langford was the majority’s priority. Comedy antics at the pty were minimal though there was some quality pole dancing by numerous guests (obviously myself included).
As far as end of term general organisation goes…
The panto is pretty much solely in the hands of Honor as I’ve taken a major step back, though no doubt I’ll be involved in the final production. Reason for the step back are time constraints and some slight group friction.
The spay clinic team has been sorted and consists of Me, Mat, Jim, Laura, Kate and Em. The idea is to raise as much money as possible next year to get loads of the year away to somewhere exotic that requires free veterinary neutering. Hopefully I’ll be able to sort out some musical events to get some cash together, other thoughts include themed bar nights, an end of term fete, sponsored events…etc
Levator Ani are currently on hold till we can get our selves in gear for the Soiree next term, though it’s yet to be confirmed that we’re actually playing. No doubt will all get sorted and practices will commence when next term starts.
The final year calendar has been sorted and the theme for our year is tv shows. It looks like I’m going to be present in a couple of months, once in supermarket sweep with the house plus Kate, again in a stars in their eyes type one for Levator and Blue Juice and also with the majority of the year’s male constituents in match of the day (for all those who play 5 a side in the EDC).

As far as work is concerned over the last week of term the priority was to make it through equine unscathed and to not have to repeat due to any last minute mistakes. Thankfully all went well and after collecting my results today I somehow managed to come away with a merit in the rotation, comments were: enthusiastic and pro-active (was pleased to see hyperactive wasn’t to follow).
Final thoughts on the equine rotation are… A tiring three weeks were the majority of the time I felt like I was treading around egg shells just to keep the working environment friendly. However I’ve learnt masses both medically and practically, and most important I think I now have a fair grasp on the overall veterinary perspective of equine work, I now feel I could go back to my notes and my brain would slot the info into the appropriate areas of equine work, now that it has a vague idea what it entails.
The next rotation when I return is small animal medicine2, which after a whole summer of small animal work should hopefully go fine.

Last but most important section, my summer…
In all other summers of vetschool I’ve achieved great mind broadening excursions to some amazing places, and though this summer has a definite holiday perk there’s no way it’s going to stand up to past experiences. The reason for this is 11wks of ems eclipsing my summer; I’ve just completed a wk at my foster practice in Derby which was good due mainly to the fact that it’s nice to be away from uni and not being constantly assessed. At the end of the week I joined the practice in a 5a side football competition and though Scarsdale FC weren’t the most pedally gifted (I’m such a geek) we did ace our last game and certainly were strong contenders for the sportsmanship award. After 5a side there was free food on behalf of a drug company, and then I went off to meet the lads in Derby for a big Blue note (indie club) session. Highlight of the night has to be that I’m in touch with a vet I met on the social after a shameful super sleazy manoeuvre involving a phone number and napkin type item.
Further ems this summer includes 2wks in Bristol doing CAS wks (being a slave check monkey), 2wks with big K down south learning from the master, 3wks in Derby at multiple small practices and 2wks near Bristol doing small also.
In the small amount of time I have available off I’ve got half a week sorted camping down Devon with the old 6th form mates, and I’m doing my three day stint at Vetsim, so will no doubt see some avid fans there. However the big trip of the summer this year is Greece with the family for three weeks. All five of us are spending 2wks in an apartment in Crete and then Rich, Han and I are off island hopping for a week, with stops at Santorini and Athens, should be fantastic.

Well I feel that’s enough I for the final 4th year entry, next time I write I’ll officially be in final year, though technically that started with the first rotation 7wks ago, plus everyone in foster refers to me as final year which still causes a twinch of anxiety every time I hear it, I know finals are far too ridiculously close for comfort. However on the bright side I’ve already sat all my written exams plus I’ve got a whole year of practical work to get this vet lark filed appropriately in my head before I start revising for the 7end of year vivas that decide if you’re going to make a safe vet of appropriate ability.
So now it’s gin up and soldier on for what has potential to be an interesting, fulfilling, sunshine involved and always alcohol fuelled summer.
TTFN xx

It’s Sunday night and I’m sat infront of the footy relaxing, something I’ve been unable to do for a fair while as life recently has been hectic to say the least. Since I last wrote I’ve made it through 2/3 of my equine rotation, driven to Suffolk twice, and attended a multitude of nights out/partys etc…

Last weekend Rich came over Friday to attend a couple of partys and generally relax as life’s been pretty stressful for the guy recently. Friday night I took him over to a 5th yr house party which was a good laugh despite the lack of people, features of the night included Ian’s multiple Vindaloo recitals, Rich and Paul’s Crouch and Becks dancing, Ian’s telling off and the crappy paddling pool.
The peach of the term’s social events took place Saturday with the Jock’s football/slipslide party. The partying started at 2:00pm with the England kick off and finished at roughly 4:00am after much carnage and drinking associated destruction. The guys had sorted out a few TVs for the match, constructed an entire outdoor bar, made a fire, sorted a bbq and generally turned the house into an ideal pty venue. However the highlight of the day was the huge plastic sheet in the garden covered with fairy liquid, wall paper paste, soap-suds and water. This was used for a multitude of party games including football, late night half naked sliding and general sliding antics, Rich even attempted some crazy frontflip slide.

The past week has been incredibly busy and stressful. I had both Monday and Tuesday off uni to drive over to Suffolk for my Granddad’s funeral, which went as well as it could go and was appropriately respectful for the old gentleman. Myself, Rich and my cousin Neil all made speeches which we managed to deliver ok.
After arriving home Tuesday night it was back to the grindstone as equine work continued for the rest of the week.

The equine rotation has gone really well so far, this I feel has had nothing to do with my equine knowledge but my group gelling together well and opposing the potential super awkward clinician force as a team. I’ve had two cases so far, one lameness case and another hyperlipaemic horse. Can’t say anymore than that, but all’s gone well and hopefully I’ll pick up another case this week. We have to get numerous things ticked off on equine of which I’ve now sorted them all out but my referral letter which I’ll get nailed on Tuesday. Tasks so far completed include and iv injection, clinical exam, radiograph taking, a talk on epistaxis (nose bleeds) and a reproductive practical. Fingers crossed I’ll have equine ticked off this time next week, which is a massive bonus before the summer as it’s definitely one of the harder rotations with a lot of on-call.

Another great night out definitely worth a mention was on Thursday when me, Tom and Nick gate crashed the girls night out. Nothing especially comedy to mention apart from Tom and I’s love heart distributions which got some fairly amusing responses.

This weekend has been Mum’s 50th birthday party back over in Suffolk again (so another 9hr round trip). The close family all came over to Nanna’s for a bbq and general booze up. The whole family had a much needed good time and I spent most of the day playing the unexpectedly aggressive game that is croquet.

Upcoming stuff includes much equine work and on call duties, a pub crawl on Weds and Hannah plus boyfriend coming over for a house party n Friday. I also need to sort out a panto meeting plus we’ve started the ball rolling on spay clinic organisation for when we qualify, will explain at a later date.

The most important thing to have happened since I last made an entry is the sad passing away of my Grandfather. I debated whether to include this in an entry but as I like this blog to accurately reflect on my life it would be insulting to Granddad not to, plus I hope to keep all these entries when I finish as a reminder to myself of everything important that has taken place during each week at Vetschool from yrs 2-5. All my family is currently in Suffolk where the Scales family originated, and I’ll be driving over once the date of the funeral is set. My upcoming rotation next week is equine and though it has a reputation for giving students a tough time I’m sure they’ll be completely amenable as far is giving me the necessary days off is concerned.

The goings on in Langford over the past week are relatively non-eventful apart from completing my first rotation and consuming immense amounts of bbq food.
The farm animal rotation I’ve just completed was ended by a week of bovine/ovine reproduction. For this we had to produce two reports and present group answers to 17questions taking into consideration many aspects of fertility work and cattle health. The reports were on the fertility performance of a local farm and on the fertility capacity of a semen sample. Other than reports we had 2tutorials and 1practical. The 1st tutorial went over our Interherd fertility report and the other was on a day book scenario, taking into consideration which calls are emergencies and how each call should be dealt with. Highlight of the 2nd tutorial is that we got to do it outside in the sun, much to the displeasure of all passes by stuck in CAS buildings all day. The practical for repro was on pregnancy diagnosis and ultrasound scanning in cows, this practical was definitely the highlight of the academic side of the week as I finally feel slightly competent in regards to rectal pregnancy diagnosing cattle (a big achievement for someone who on every PD practical last year ended up waving my hand around for a bit giving up and going home).

To celebrate the end of my first rotation I joined in with the bbq at the bell house and then had a few drinks at the Old Inn in order to wish Andy a happy birthday. After the pub a few of us went back to the bell house to check on the progress of the hot-tub plan. Basically the guys had been over to asda and purchased a 25quid good size paddling pool, filled it with hotwater by connecting a hose to the kitchen hot tap and putting in half a bottle of lynx shower gel for bubbles. The results where pretty impressive, as temperature was bath quality and there was room for the 8of us that stayed in there drinking beer till early morning.
Yesterday I went over to the jocks to watch the match, and now feel that learning the Crouch dance is going to be an essential skill for the upcoming month. Then in the evening I had a bbq here, not very eventful though many people came over for a pleasant evening.

Today I’m going to get some food shopping done, play some EDC football, and get ready for starting equine tomorrow by attending 8o’clock checks. Currently there’s no news on panto, hopefully they’ll be a meeting next week, and band is still on hold, probably till starting jams next term for the Soiree.