Celine Experiences Clinic Life to the Full!

Last week we welcomed our first work experience student. Celine Berjot is currently studying biology in her preparatory year before begining a veterinary degree in Paris.
She was able to participate in several aspects of clinic life and took an active role in helping to monitor and treat the hospitalised patients.

We were able to look at normal anatomy, putting into perspective what Celine had been reading about in her text books. She spent some time taking and recording pulse and respitation rates for animals under anaesthesia and becoming used to what normal physiological parameters look and feel like.

It was a busy week as we were even able to cover the basics of preparing patients for surgery, clipping, sterile prep, intubation and pre op injections.

Celine spent some long hours in the clinic but the highlight of her camp must be a case she was heavily involved in. At the start of the week a preganant and paralysed stray cat was brought in. She was spayed because she had no hope of being able to give birth. Celine was responsible for physiotherapy and massage of the hindlegs to help with any recovery. The decision was made to operate on the spine to try and relieve some pressure on the spinal cord. Celine was invited to scrub into the surgery and was allowed to help by irrigating the surgery site with saline.

We hope we provided Celine with an idea of what to expect when she completes her veterinary studies and maybe we will see her in the future when she is qualified and ready to develop her surgical skills!

Izabela Returns to Small Animal Surgery with Style!

 
Our latest camp attendee was Polish vet Izabela Swierczynska. She graduated 7 years ago and has been working since then in the UK with large animals . We had the pleasure of reintroducing her to small animal surgery.

She started small with cat spays and worked her way up to large dogs. She coped well under pressure with some fairly delicate uteruses which were a haemostatic challenge.

Her surgical time improved over the course of the camp but more importantly her technique was consistently safe and of a high standard.




She was also able to perform two enucleations and the majority of a 3kg splenectomy during her stay as well as assisting in a few other surgeries.
In between surgeries she also participated in a few medical cases and whatever we threw at her she met with the same positive attitude. We are sure she would make an excellent small animal vet and look forward to hearing how she develops her skills in the future.

Lilu Learns the Essentials of Preparing for a Safe Spay

After our international camp in February, March saw us a little closer to home with Lilu from Galati, Romania. She wanted to learn and develop some nursing skills to help her in her volunteer work with local charity Help Labus and Swiss Charity Susy Utzinger Siftung fur Tiershutz.

Lilu worked with Ruth Osborne to learn about preparation of the animal before surgery, intubation, care of surgical equipment, administering medication via various routes, IV catheterisation, normal physiological parameters and effects of anaesthesia, and monitoring the patient including post surgery.

Lilu was fighting a nasty cold while she was with us but soldiered on regardless and was able to prepare and care for a dog through the whole sterilisation surgery process without assistance. 

We hope to see Lilu develop her skills with experience. There is no internationally recognised nursing qualification in Romania and there is a real need for trained nurses so The Veterinary Training Camp was pleased to offer our first scholarship. We look forward to seeing Lilu in action in sterilisation campaigns in the future and look forward to helping her further her knowledge and training.

Carribean Camp!

February saw a change to the normal Veterinary Training Camp. The whole team were in the Dominican Republic for a neutering campaign on behalf of Animal Spay and NeuterInternational. In collaboration with Animal Balance and Pets Breeding Control. 

Drs Aurelian And Petrisor Stefan spent time with local vets performing and teaching surgical techniques which are particullarly applicable when working with stray dogs where a minimally invasine technique and quick complication free recovery is vital for survival on the street.

Ruth Osborne spent time with 1st year vet student Raul Morrilo And Nancy Ines Ramirez Castillo

They were learning about anaesthesia and preparation of the patient. In no time at all they were able to intubate any size dog with no assistance whether it was upside down or the correct way up. Rauls IV skills and injection technique score a 10 out of 10 and we are confident they are going to be central to future neutering campaigns in the Dominican Republic.

New Year, Old Friend

It’s the new year and the Veterinary Training Camp has already completed its first camp of 2014!

We started the year welcoming back an old friend. It was wonderful to see Elena Graebener from Germany again and this time she was able to spend a little time with both Dr Petrisor and Dr Aurelian to benefit from their slightly different teaching styles.

Her first visit was under the guidance of Dr Petrisor and she enjoyed her time here enough to come back for more! Since September she had started a new job and also done some work neutering in a shelter.

Elenas tissue handling skills have developed nicely in the last 4 months so we concentrated on building confidence as well as adding in a few other surgeries such as her first solo leg amputation and acting as assisting surgeon in some orthopaedic procedures.

We are confident she will continue to grow as she continues to perform more surgeries and we look forward to hearing how she develops with time.

Great Fun With Greek Vet Nektaria

Nektaria with one of her patients

The VTC finished the year with Greek Vet Nektaria-Lefkothea Tzourou. She is currently working in the UK and joined us to increase her surgical confidence particularly with bitch spays. As she had completed a fair amount of work spaying cats we focused on different types of dogs. Small, large, fat, skinny, deep chested, puppies, pregnant and in season all landed on her surgery table during her time with us and she was able to take everything we could throw at her! She mastered the techniques and knots that make up a safe, minimally traumatic surgery and her surgical time reduced as she became more familiar with the movements required. There were a few memorable moments during her stay including the power cut mid surgery. We concluded if Nektaria is able to operate on all of the different types of dogs found here in Romania then the relatively ‘normal’ dogs in the UK should hold no fear for her. We cannot wait to hear how she gets on putting into practice her improved skills after her experience with the VTC. We wish her all the best for the future and hope to stay in touch.

Even an unexpected powercut does not phase Nektaria

Cambridge Graduate Castrates with Ease

Deep Chested Bitch Spay Holds No Fear For Georgina

Our latest camp attendee was Georgina Hall from the UK. She graduated this year from Cambridge Vet school and wanted to perfect her surgical skills before beginning her first job.

The clinic here in Craiova has been very busy with surgeries as part of a free sterilisation campaign by Romania Animal Rescue.

Once Georgina had mastered the minimally invasive techniques under the guidance of Dr Petrisor Stefan she was able to help us work through some of the 200 surgeries for the local animals of Craiova.

Using her surgical skills on the cake she bought the team!

She was also was able to amputate a tail and perform two enucleations as well as assisting in surgeries such as intersusception repair and ulnar osteotomy.

Georginas confidence grew over her time with us and she over halved her surgical time whilst producing some very nice neat small incisions. She coped well when presented with an unexpected haemostatic problem and is going to develop into a very good surgeon.

We wish her all the best in her new job and look forward to hearing about her first post camp surgeries!