Veterinary Medicine 2015 hopefuls!

I'm planning on doing my EPQ on inbreeding of dogs so might be asking you for some help later on... Did you watch Pedigree Dogs Exposed on BBC?

If you're going to do this please be aware of a few things:
1) some of the "facts" and statements are not entirely true, what people said was taken out of context
2) if you're planning on showing this piece of homework so can not take the same view as the BBC
3) during vet school you'll be told how important breeders are, some of them will know and understand more husbandry than we'll be trained in our entire careers.
4) whilst some breeds do carry inbred flaws (in fact most are predespositioned to a few cancers and commonly bloat) most clubs have a breeding scheme to eliminate genetic disease.
it might be better to do something like discuss the British briard club's innovation to breed out CDRM without destroying the volume of the gene pool.

Good luck,
James (UCD)

Thanks for your comments, they're very helpful I'm not going to take the BBC view at all. I realise that a lot of the content on the show is heavily biased, which is why I asked if skatealexia had watched it so we could discuss it. I'm certainly not going to base my whole project solely on Pedigree Dogs Exposed, if that's what you're thinking. The reason I'm interested in inbred traits in dogs is because my own flat coat died of splenic cancer when he was 5, so want to research more into this topic. I am against breeding, whether it's legitimate or 'back yard' breeding, simply because the UK are hugely overstocked with dogs as it is, so I don't see why we need to go breeding any more, however I'm really interested in exploring the argument to my view in further detail.


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I understand you . It will be an interesting project. I have seen it yes! I think it is vastly exaggerated with the breed problems that were shown, especially as steps are being taken to minimise the inbreeding. Real breeders care for their dogs and want the best for them. I see it on the Cavalier group I'm on at the moment (facebook). They are a breed which are pretty much most labelled as the worst inbred with problems such as syringomyelia and MVD at quite young ages, but the people on that group, they really care. It is a select few which are backyard breeders, naive owners and people who don't care about anything other than getting best in show with a broken breed (so some breeders) you have to watch out for. There are really some lovely breeders. It is an ethical topic. It would be very interesting for you to research . PM me if you want to talk at all!

Hi guys, don't really post much but have been lurking a bit ^^
Anyway, I'm looking to book a lambing placement during Easter holidays and was wondering how long you guys are doing one for if you are doing one? I'd love to do it for 2 weeks as its an amazing opportunity but what's holding me back is lack of revision for my AS exams in the summer, and I've heard that lambing is quite a demanding job so

1 week or 2 weeks guys?

I'm starting to do my volunteering for RDA through my school one day a week and was wondering if I can count this as work experience or is volunteering a separate thing?


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I'm starting to do my volunteering for RDA through my school one day a week and was wondering if I can count this as work experience or is volunteering a separate thing?


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Had a fantastic talk from a vet monday night about all the courses they offer. They showed us inside of sheep feet and unborn pickled calves (from abbatoir) 4 weeks, 6 weeks and 10 weeks. The difference was amazing. They also let us try AI on the insides of a cow which was pretty cool! Bagged myself some work experience next year hopefully!
hows everyone finding sixth form?

Just a word of advice...be careful about posting photos, or detailed descriptions of cases you see on work experience on here (or on facebook etc).

One thing we get repeatedly drummed into us at vet school is professional behaviour and that it is not appropriate to post pictures/stories on the internet. And that even discussing cases among ourselves when back from placements, that really we should be careful about not making the people/animals involved identifiable.

I realise you're not at vet school yet, but really the same thing applies. Yes, you can't see much from that picture, but once you have started discussing what was wrong with it etc, it starts to become more identifiable. For example: it is one thing saying on here, or on facebook, you got to see a GDV last night, but when you start saying you saw a GDV on a black Labrador last night, who died, and we can see you live near xx place...it starts to piece together so that someone might identify that as being them/their pet. Which is totally unfair...no one agrees when taking their animal to the vet to have photos or discussions about it on the internet.

I realise I may seem like I'm being grumpy...but just thought I'd point it out/try to explain why, as I know it is something that you may not think about when you are just excited to be seeing things on work experience.

I think it might have been better if I had mentioned that, the photo WAS used and taken with permission by the owner. The horses situation was completely different to that of your example, and I also take photos for the reason that, because I am so busy, I take photos so when I come back to it I can remember much more easily what was said to me, what happened etc. As my memory is like a sieve after a long day.

It should be stated that I respect others privacy enough that I have never, and would never, take pictures in any other work experience that I have seen, even if I were allowed I still wouldn't have. The vets and owners were okay for me to take these pictures, and with the owners permission I thought (thought wrong clearly) it would be nice to share what I had seen.

I am sorry and won't be posting anymore.

That sounds amazing! What was it exactly? Was it part of a uni open day or something? Congrats on getting some w/e!
Sixth form is hard, but better than GCSEs! Loving Biology (dissected a fish today!), Chemistry is interesting but confusing, Geog Physical is boring and hard but Geog Human is more interesting and a little easier. French is alright, all I can say is that I'm sort of looking forward to dropping it at the end of the year :/ what subjects are you doing?

I'm getting increasingly worried about uni, maybe it's because lots of people I know have just started so there's quite a lot about it all over fb/twitter etc, I'm just so worried about making friends and things like that! I know it's still a while away, but I'm such a over thinker...

Oh, and I've changed my EPQ idea- going to do it on lameness in cattle.

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