University courses to become a veterinary surgeon are usually available in few cities.

This column was literally ‘this week with the vet’ for two promising veterinary students who accompanied me every day as I went about my work.

Both students are in their final years of vet school: one studying at a university in the UK, the other is in France. Both bring with them interesting and varied perspectives of their experiences so far as veterinary students.

Every morning, they were ‘treated’ to a farm visit and it was on such a visit that we were called out to attend to a rabbit farm.

It happened to be a farm I had never visited and the farmer had already warned me over the phone that the road to it was not an easy one. He was not wrong.

A long, narrow and winding country lane was the only access to and from his farm. Having met him at the junction to this lane, we followed him by car along a tortuous and bumpy route with the car barely scraping past the high rubble walls that flanked either side of the lane.

At odd intervals, we got a glimpse of farmland through breaks in the rubble walls until we finally breached the country lane into the farmyard with a pack of dogs barking excitedly and the farmer waiting for us in amusement at our much slower ingress.

The medical aspect of our visit to the rabbit farm involved explaining the medical and health procedures of vaccinating the rabbits against myxomatosis and viral haemorrhagic disease (VHD), both of which cause intense suffering to rabbits if they contract these deadly diseases.

Having completed our work, we were treated to the generous hospitality for which the farming community is renowned: purple-staining figs, freshly cut off the tree with their milky sap still oozing and which we ate peel and all according to country tradition, a long drink of cold water and a beautiful rosy watermelon to take away with us.

I know that as students, the route to get to the farm as well as discussing the medical case and sharing a laugh over figs and cold water will remain one of those formative memories that is as important to them as the lessons in veterinary practice they are hungrily acquiring.

Looking back at the cases to which they were given exposure, the week had presented a selection of widely differing cases: a vet student’s dream.

Naturally, cases for companion pets dominated, and the students found themselves observing and assisting with cases ranging from the cat that couldn’t give birth, to the dog with a severe skin condition, the beautiful Rex rabbit with an unusual fungal condition and the canary that had suddenly become very poorly.

From the human perspective, the students faced cases which were painful for pet owners, such as the case which involved malignant tumours with a very poor prognosis.

But they also encountered cases where the joy of newborns could be shared, as with the owners who needed advice regarding their puppy’s feeding, grooming, preventive care and discipline.

At the end of the week, I asked the students to remind me of the various cases they had seen and what had struck them overall.

It was almost déjà vu when they told me they had privately remarked upon the contrasting destinies of both pet owners and pets of the same species: from the all-consuming love of a single pet owner for his cat, to the cat lover who had 13 cats at home and cared for myriad strays as well; from the farmer who loved his dogs both as companions and working animals, to the professional dog breeders who treated their charges with all the love and care of a single-dog owner. The students were impressed by how all these similar yet contrasting scenarios gave rise to so many situations needing the attention of a vet.

I sincerely hope that the students I had with me enjoyed the week as much as I did and that some of the things they saw will serve them well later on in life

University courses to become a veterinary surgeon are usually available in few cities, even for large countries such as the UK or Italy. Because of this and because the profession ranks as one of the most popular, it makes it one of those university courses that are most difficult to enter.

I am told by the UK student that there are a large number of students from the US studying at his university, while the French student said the number of female vet students strongly outnumber their male counterparts because girls had performed much better in the national entrance examinations.

There are some universities which request students spend time seeing practice even before the very first application for first year. This is to make sure that they know what they are going in for.

Whichever the stage, all veterinary students need to see practice as a core part of their studies in order to be as well-prepared as possible for the day when they suddenly become qualified veterinarians and are expected to know everything under the sun about all manner of species in the animal kingdom.

My students will soon end their summer practice and start their preparatory work for the next academic year. So I asked one of them for some views on the veterinary profession.

“When they first enter vet school, most students are unaware of all the roles they will perform years later. Vets can use their skills in many different fields: small animals, exotic pets, as well as wild animals. In particular, the veterinary care of farm animals is carried out by the veterinary profession as a guarantee of quality and security of an essential part of the human food chain. The public health role of the vet, as well as the potential to work in medical research, human and animal diseases and new medicine are often unknown.”

I sincerely hope that the students I had with me enjoyed the week as much as I did and that some of the things they saw will serve them well later on in life, just like it did me when I was seeing practice many years ago.

thisweekwiththevet@gmail.com

Dr Martin Debattista is a veterinary surgeon.