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Veterinary Medicine 2015 hopefuls!

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Original post by Little Tail Chaser
Last day of lambing of 2014 :emo:

The joys of iodine :rolleyes: . My vet told me to take Norwegian Formula with me and I'm so glad he gave me that advice otherwise I think my hands would have completely crumbled by now. They are very pretty though, got orange/brown from the iodine plus red, blue and purple from Marksman and various other sprays :tongue:

Wow, all that in one week!? Sounds fantastic, I'm so glad you enjoyed it :smile: . I love wee ferrets :biggrin:

The joys of A-Levels, eh? :tongue: My first exam is in less than a month, welp. And of course I'm looking forward to it, I was looking forward to it the minute I stepped on the train to go home!

There are 340 ewes and 7 rams here :smile: Mostly Texel X and Sussex X, but we have a few Cambridge X and a couple of pedigree Sussex ones as well :smile: It's quite a little farm but at my last lambing placement I saw the beginning of lambing whereas here I caught the tail end, so it was good in that respect :smile:


Gotta love iodine, I have an amazing ability to get my whole hand covered in iodine, the farmers went to me "Its not fake tan you know" -_- Finished over a week ago and still have iodine on me and Norwegian formula stopped working on me after a bit because my hands became that rough!!!

Aww thats a nice size, last year when I went lambing they only had 100 ewes so I spent the week just talking until the last day when a couple where born, luckily I went somewhere different this year with 1400 ewes and it was closer so that was a fun 3 weeks :biggrin:
Original post by Percival Weasley
Oh good! so the myth of the interview is completely wrong then! I know a guy who applied 2012 that was asked none of the typical quesitons but more, 'what do you know about the history of rabies?' and 'what is the difference between two antibitiotics?' (i cant remember the name of the antibiotics and he hadnt heard of them before) so im guessing that waas quite rare! Thanks :biggrin: was starting to freak out!


Nah I didn't get asked anything that sciencey I just got asked the normal stuff so I quite liked it :biggrin: I found Bristol was quite sciencey though.
Original post by Tom39
Yep exactly! One last thing, if you know, how many weeks does that count for on an application? Is there a limit you can put down?


Ok, I've checked. This is for Liverpool, although I imagine that other places will have similar limits.

Veterinary practice: Maximum of 8 placements
Core husbandry: Maximum of 15 placements
Alternative husbandry: Maximum of 4 placements

That doesn't really answer your question, sorry :frown: I'll have another look in a couple of hours.
Original post by Little Tail Chaser
Ok, I've checked. This is for Liverpool, although I imagine that other places will have similar limits.

Veterinary practice: Maximum of 8 placements
Core husbandry: Maximum of 15 placements
Alternative husbandry: Maximum of 4 placements

That doesn't really answer your question, sorry :frown: I'll have another look in a couple of hours.


How many weeks would you say is a *good* number to have? I'm limited by the fact that I only seriously thought about vet med recently. I have about 7 weeks completed and a minimum of 4 weeks planned but I'm panicking that this is nowhere near enough!
Reply 2824
Original post by Little Tail Chaser
Ok, I've checked. This is for Liverpool, although I imagine that other places will have similar limits.

Veterinary practice: Maximum of 8 placements
Core husbandry: Maximum of 15 placements
Alternative husbandry: Maximum of 4 placements

That doesn't really answer your question, sorry :frown: I'll have another look in a couple of hours.


Do you think stable work counts as core husbandry? Glad lambing went well for you! :smile:
Original post by EllyAylwen
How many weeks would you say is a *good* number to have? I'm limited by the fact that I only seriously thought about vet med recently. I have about 7 weeks completed and a minimum of 4 weeks planned but I'm panicking that this is nowhere near enough!


I wouldnt really say there is a good number to have its more about variety of work experience but remember if you are just meeting the requirements that you are competing with reapplicants who may have 20/30 weeks or more so try and aim for more than the required amounts. :smile:


Original post by ABC05
Do you think stable work counts as core husbandry? Glad lambing went well for you! :smile:


Stable is counted as core as does farm, city farms, kennels, catteries, those sorts of things.
Reply 2826
Original post by Little Tail Chaser
Ok, I've checked. This is for Liverpool, although I imagine that other places will have similar limits.

Veterinary practice: Maximum of 8 placements
Core husbandry: Maximum of 15 placements
Alternative husbandry: Maximum of 4 placements

That doesn't really answer your question, sorry :frown: I'll have another look in a couple of hours.


No no! That's great, gives me a rough guide of what I still need!👍
Original post by beccac94
I wouldnt really say there is a good number to have its more about variety of work experience but remember if you are just meeting the requirements that you are competing with reapplicants who may have 20/30 weeks or more so try and aim for more than the required amounts. :smile:




Stable is counted as core as does farm, city farms, kennels, catteries, those sorts of things.


So what would you count as none core?
Is anyone doing an EPQ (related to vet med of course!) Its compulsory at my school and they keep asking us about it and I just have no idea what to do it on?! So was wondering if you guys have any ideas?
Their advice was not on something too common (such as animal testing) but something where experiments/research etc. has already been done but not too much ... so the most 'helpful' advice really!!
Original post by Abby_W31
So what would you count as none core?


Zoo, safari park, abattoir, llama farms those sorts of things :biggrin:
Finished lambing for 2014 :emo: . Back in December when I booked everything I was tentative about going, but I am SO SO SO glad I went. I have met some of the loveliest, kindest, funniest, most genuine people in the world and I am honoured to have been invited into their homes and businesses in order to learn about what they do. I'll forever be grateful for their patience and hospitality towards me, I honestly couldn't have asked for anything else from any of them. I feel so much more confident, having gone on little adventures by across the counties by myself (although I'm still surprised that I've managed to get on all the right trains :lol: ! ) Everyone was so supportive and I'm sad that it's over for the year :frown:

Still, back to normality now. The good ol' daily grind and all that :wink: I have no more work experience booked until July, which is when I head off to the RVC, an animal rescue centre, a LA vet and (fingered crossed) a wildlife park. Going to be a busy summer, but I wouldn't have it any other way :biggrin:

Original post by beccac94
Gotta love iodine, I have an amazing ability to get my whole hand covered in iodine, the farmers went to me "Its not fake tan you know" -_- Finished over a week ago and still have iodine on me and Norwegian formula stopped working on me after a bit because my hands became that rough!!!

Aww thats a nice size, last year when I went lambing they only had 100 ewes so I spent the week just talking until the last day when a couple where born, luckily I went somewhere different this year with 1400 ewes and it was closer so that was a fun 3 weeks :biggrin:

Great stuff isn't it :rolleyes:. How I manage to get more on me than I do on the lambs I'll never know, but at least it means that my hands are nice and clean :lol: ! Normally I like the smell of itf but when I'm eating and all I can smell is iodine it does make me feel a little sick :tongue: I think my nails are permanently going to be yellow now :tongue:

Glad you had a nice time :smile: Three weeks sounds amazing, I wish I could have gone lambing for longer but unfortunately triple chemistry tomorrow is putting a nice stop to that idea. What sort of sheep did you have on the place with 1400? And what sorts of things did they let you do?




Original post by EllyAylwen
How many weeks would you say is a *good* number to have? I'm limited by the fact that I only seriously thought about vet med recently. I have about 7 weeks completed and a minimum of 4 weeks planned but I'm panicking that this is nowhere near enough!

That's a bit of an open question I'm afraid! As Beccac94 said, variety is more important than pure quantity. Personally, I'd say that around 15+ weeks is what to aim for, but there's too many variables for me to be able to set a limit of 'good' vs 'bad' purely on number of weeks. Sheer quantity doesn't mean a lot if you've not covered all/most bases. You're probably in quite a secure position if you've done at least four weeks of vet work (preferably more though), as well as work at a stable, kennel, and farm (dairy will be best), and two or three extras such as lambing, lab work, abattoir, etc. They do take into account that not everyone can do bucketloads. Liverpool for example mention that if you have full-time work then they might be a bit lenient, and it also depends on the availability of placements depending on where you live (city folk might have more vet work whereas yokels will have probably done more farm work, for example). Plus, when it comes to interview, a lot of weeks worth of experience will be worthless if an applicant hasn't learned from them. I've heard of first-time applicants with 50+ weeks, but I've also heard of those with as few as six or seven. I'm also pretty sure that someone on here did all their work experience the summer before they applied, and they still got several offers so it is worth cramming in as such as you can after exams this year. Work experience is only one part of your application and if you have an awesome personal statement and top grades then admissions staff might give you a bit more leeway.

In short, on paper 13 weeks is fine (provided that it's varied), but as Beccac94 mentioned, you're up against other candidates, not the minimum requirements! I'd suggest taking a look at the 2014 Vet Med Stalking Page, which lists applicants to each university alongside their grades and (usually) the experience that they had. By this time of year it should also say whether they were successful or unsuccessful with their application, so by looking at what this year's offer holders had done might give you a good idea of what you need to be competitive :smile:




Original post by ABC05
Do you think stable work counts as core husbandry? Glad lambing went well for you! :smile:


Yep, most definitely. :yep: I'd count any type of stable as core; riding school, livery, stud farm etc would all be core in my eyes :smile: I'm not sure if there's an exact definition for 'alternative husbandry', but I imagine that if you'd done more than 4 alternative placements then some could go down as core if they're ambiguous :wink:

You both have the same avatars and it's confusing my tiny brain :tongue:



Original post by Tom39
No no! That's great, gives me a rough guide of what I still need!������



No worries! :smile: I've since found what we were looking for anyway:

Vet practice: Maximum of 8 placements, no more than 4 weeks per placement for past/recent.
Core husbandry: Maximum of 15 placements, no more than 6 weeks per placement for past/recent/.
Alternative husbandry: Maximum of 4 placements, no more than 1 week per placement for past/recent.

(This is still for Liverpool, by the way, but still a good quideline in my opinion.)
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Little Tail Chaser




Great stuff isn't it :rolleyes:. How I manage to get more on me than I do on the lambs I'll never know, but at least it means that my hands are nice and clean :lol: ! Normally I like the smell of itf but when I'm eating and all I can smell is iodine it does make me feel a little sick :tongue: I think my nails are permanently going to be yellow now :tongue:

Glad you had a nice time :smile: Three weeks sounds amazing, I wish I could have gone lambing for longer but unfortunately triple chemistry tomorrow is putting a nice stop to that idea. What sort of sheep did you have on the place with 1400? And what sorts of things did they let you do?



Omg same its so annoying, I'm always worried that I might eat loads of it (I'm pretty sure I did) hahah it eventually wears off I've nearly got the last of it off but my hands are still really rough and horrible :frown:

Aww it was amazing but it was so tiring, working 12 hours a day for 21 straight days! We had blackies, texels, suffolks and a couple chev x's.

Erm so had to feed the sheep, and bottle feed any lambs that needed it, put bedding in, move sheep into pens when they had lambs, move them into big pens when they've had the lambs a few days, move sheep into the fields, lamb the ewes, drench the ewes must have drenched close to 500 ewes, castrate and dock lambs ( much have done waaay over 800 lambs!) basically if it needed doing on the farm I did it, felt like I was running the farm sometimes seen I was basically left by myself on the farm most the day when the farmers where checking on the ewes that lambed outside and checking on the cows :')
Original post by beccac94
Omg same its so annoying, I'm always worried that I might eat loads of it (I'm pretty sure I did) hahah it eventually wears off I've nearly got the last of it off but my hands are still really rough and horrible :frown:

Aww it was amazing but it was so tiring, working 12 hours a day for 21 straight days! We had blackies, texels, suffolks and a couple chev x's.

Erm so had to feed the sheep, and bottle feed any lambs that needed it, put bedding in, move sheep into pens when they had lambs, move them into big pens when they've had the lambs a few days, move sheep into the fields, lamb the ewes, drench the ewes must have drenched close to 500 ewes, castrate and dock lambs ( much have done waaay over 800 lambs!) basically if it needed doing on the farm I did it, felt like I was running the farm sometimes seen I was basically left by myself on the farm most the day when the farmers where checking on the ewes that lambed outside and checking on the cows :')


Yeah, it's hard work for sure! I was doing 6:00-22:00 to start with but as the week progressed and fewer ewes were lambing each day we managed to get a bit of a lie in. I only did nine days though, so nothing too bad although we often all fell asleep on the sofa after dinner :tongue:

Sounds like you were busy! Yesterday I was left on the farm by myself as well, luckily nothing bad happened :lol:! There were other days where he'd go of rolling and leave myself and another of the work experience people to tend to the sheep all day. Felt really responsible :biggrin:
Original post by Little Tail Chaser
Yeah, it's hard work for sure! I was doing 6:00-22:00 to start with but as the week progressed and fewer ewes were lambing each day we managed to get a bit of a lie in. I only did nine days though, so nothing too bad although we often all fell asleep on the sofa after dinner :tongue:

Sounds like you were busy! Yesterday I was left on the farm by myself as well, luckily nothing bad happened :lol:! There were other days where he'd go of rolling and leave myself and another of the work experience people to tend to the sheep all day. Felt really responsible :biggrin:


ooo thats bad, I had a 2 mile walk there every morning which didn't help with the tiredness :') hahaa same I ended up going at like 5 or 6 the last week just because none where lambing.

I think the first day was the only day I had someone always on the farm with me, after that they just left me and as soon as the farmers disappeared all the ewes would give birth and all the problem ones would arrive :unimpressed:
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Percival Weasley
Is anyone doing an EPQ (related to vet med of course!) Its compulsory at my school and they keep asking us about it and I just have no idea what to do it on?! So was wondering if you guys have any ideas?
Their advice was not on something too common (such as animal testing) but something where experiments/research etc. has already been done but not too much ... so the most 'helpful' advice really!!


What interests you in the field of veterinary medicine? Have you seen any diseases or cases on placement that you'd like to read more into? Or you could look at topical issues which are in the news e.g. badger culling and bTB, kosher/halal slaughter perhaps.

Anyway, I better get back to writing my dissertation/revising for y 3rd year exams.
Original post by beccac94
Zoo, safari park, abattoir, llama farms those sorts of things :biggrin:


Better sort some of that out then!
Original post by SilverstarDJ
What interests you in the field of veterinary medicine? Have you seen any diseases or cases on placement that you'd like to read more into? Or you could look at topical issues which are in the news e.g. badger culling and bTB, kosher/halal slaughter perhaps.

Well, i was thinking something like 'how to make dog owners more responsible' because at sa vets, i was surprised at the number cases caused by dogs not been given vaccinations/ worm + flea treatment and at rescue centre, lost pets werent uncommon despite chipping being so cheap. (though i think i read chipping was coming compulsory in 2016 so its a start!) but you could also look at agressive dogs (...should puppy classes be compulsory??) and injury rates and linking this to different dog breeds and also why there are so many abandoned pets
But i also really liked the idea of 'do pets feel affection for their owners' which kinda stems from watching hydrotherapy at a vets which is greatly centred around the owner-pet relationship and then adding in a vet. And it would also be quite dependant on the type of pet.
I have a meeting with the guy in our school in charge of EPQ so hopefully that will help but i dont think these would be long enough and think the second will be quite common. So wondered what you think?!
Good luck on your exams ... im sure you will be smashing! :biggrin: xxx
Original post by Abby_W31
Better sort some of that out then!


The none core are the icing on the cake basically, concentrate on the core first of all such as lambing, dairy farm, stables cattery, kennels, large animal vets and small animal vets and aim for more than the minimum 10 weeks.
Once you have a fair amount in these areas then I'd look into doing the non-core stuff :biggrin:
Reply 2838
My family had to go to a wedding on one of the days, leaving us young people in charge :biggrin: Pretty daunting but luckily it was a fairly quiet day!
Original post by Percival Weasley
Well, i was thinking something like 'how to make dog owners more responsible' because at sa vets, i was surprised at the number cases caused by dogs not been given vaccinations/ worm + flea treatment and at rescue centre, lost pets werent uncommon despite chipping being so cheap. (though i think i read chipping was coming compulsory in 2016 so its a start!) but you could also look at agressive dogs (...should puppy classes be compulsory??) and injury rates and linking this to different dog breeds and also why there are so many abandoned pets
But i also really liked the idea of 'do pets feel affection for their owners' which kinda stems from watching hydrotherapy at a vets which is greatly centred around the owner-pet relationship and then adding in a vet. And it would also be quite dependant on the type of pet.
I have a meeting with the guy in our school in charge of EPQ so hopefully that will help but i dont think these would be long enough and think the second will be quite common. So wondered what you think?!
Good luck on your exams ... im sure you will be smashing! :biggrin: xxx


I think the first suggestion would be complicated. A lot of dog owners are aware of the problems that are caused by not keeping up to date with preventative treatment, and still choose not to keep up to date anyway. For many, it is also a cost issue- vaccinations etc, flea treatment do not come cheap. There is also the argument that we can over-vaccinate or cause autoimmune disease through vaccination. Others use natural products for flea and worming instead. I think that it would be hard to 'make pet owners more responsible' as I've learned for some, pets just aren't their priority.
The second suggestion- dangerous dogs and puppy classes. Puppy classes are expensive as they are, a lot of them require a solid commitment that a lot of people wouldnt be willing to give. In addition, that training needs to be upkept. It would be very hard to police. I also think that breed tendancies and dogs in general which may be trained anyway, can show aggression. Aggression is very hard to understand and manage as it isn't ever simple. I would steer away from that one too.
I think your do pets feel affection would be a good one to do, you may also find a few papers about mentation and feeling out there.
Just my thoughts.

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