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!

First Spay, First Spayathon for Dr Cristina!

Last week The Veterinary Training Camp was joined by Dr Cristina Petre from Ploiesti, Romania. She spent 5 intensive days learning and perfecting sterilisation skills that she will take back to her home town where she can continue her work with the local stray dogs. Her training was sponsored by Romania Animal Rescue. Her minimally invasive techniques, small incisions and rapid recoveries will make a huge difference to the animals of Ploiesti.

On her last day we were able to take her into the field! We took part in a spayathon organised by Swiss Group Einzatz Fur Tiere and Romania Animal Rescue. We have every confidence in time she will be able to organise such projects for her local community.

This is what Dr Christina had to say about her experiance with the VTC

The Veterinary Training Camp has provided an unique experience for me, made possible through Dr. Aurelian Stefan's guidance. Although I was a little nervous at first, Dr. A gave me confidence and helped me do my best. The air was peaceful and nice during the five days of training.

 

Elena Masters the Basics of a Perfect Spay

Last week we welcomed Elena Graebener from Germany. She spent 5 days under the guidance of Dr Petrisor Stefan concentrating on the basic techniques that make up a sterilisation surgery. These can be applied to most soft tissue surgeries.

Elena had participated in a volunteer sterilisation programme before but this was the first time she was able to learn techniques and then perfect them with one to one help.

Her confidence grew over the 5 days. Her ligature technique was excellent so she could feel completely secure her surgeries would have no problems once they left her table. She operated on a range of dogs and cats, pre pubescent, deep chested, in heat, pregnant as well as your average medium sized dog. We hope she has collection of techniques that will help her through any surgery.

Elena was also able to participate in a few other aspects of clinic life. Her first full day with us ended in a late night surgery to remove a retained urachus in a Yorkshire terrier. There were also more routine surgeries, orthopaedic surgeries and medical cases such as babesia and parvo.

We hope her time in Craiova was not too exhausting and look forward to hearing how she is getting on in her clinic in Germany.

Neurologist becomes Neuter Vet

 

This week we were pleased to welcome vet, Katherine Simpson from the UK to the Veterinary Training Camp. She graduated in 2010 and has since gained a great deal of experience in the field of neurology through an internship. We also welcomed back a past student, Claudia Dessaux who spent a week with us in July last year. Claudia spent 3 days at our clinic in Craiova, Romania and we were pleased to see how well she has developed in the past year.

The first surgery Katherine was involved in was a flank spay in a nice lean dog. She was introduced to the knots that you can rely on for a successful surgery. After this Katherine found a variety of dogs and cats on the operating table in front of her. Whether they were young, deep chested, fat, pregnant, in season or slim she perfected the basic techniques that lead to a minimally invasive, efficient surgery. She was also able to apply what she has learnt in surgeries such as enucleation and tail amputation.

After a week in training we are pleased that Katherine will be staying a few weeks longer with us to experience life in a busy Romanian Veterinary clinic. She will certainly get to practice what she has learnt with the Veterinary Training camp and we look forward to sharing experiences with some medical cases.

Transylvanian Tavi Tries VTC Trusted Techniques

This week we welcomed Dr Octavian Pop from Bistrita in Romania. It was a busy week as the local rescue group trying to conduct as many street dog neuterings as possible before the cold weather starts in Romania.  

Dr Octavian was able to get to grips with a range of sterilisations, from small bitches, to prepubescent females and dogs in heat. He even fitted in a few males. This week we were based at a busy clinic in Craiova so there was also the opportunity to see a few interesting cases in  between all of the surgeries.  

Perfect intradermal sutures by Dr Octavian

Dr Aurelian was pleased with Dr Octavians progress over the week. His enthusiasm and attention to detail lead to a quick development of surgical skills even if in the process his hands became sore from practising knots and sutures. We were also able to add to his anaesthesia knowledge which will hopefully assist him in conducting neutering projects in his home town for stray dogs. 

We would like to thank Romania Animal Rescue (www.romaniaanimalrescue.com) for sponsoring Dr Octavian and look forward to following his progress developing neutering projects in his hometown of Bistrita. Donations towards the safe sterilisation of street dogs and education of the public on the importance of this can be made via the Romania Animal Rescue website.

Our Local Student Shines in First Surgery

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This week we welcome our first Veterinary student to the Camp. Romanian Claudia Dessaux is in her 4th year at Bucharest University. We were delighted to guide her through her first canine ovariohysterectomy. Despite some understandable first time nerves she did very well. Dr Petrisor Stefan is pleased with the progress of our new trainee. She has developed her tissue handling skills in a short space of time and is really putting into practice what she has been taught so far.