This week: Student mishaps
Some vets end up in fairly routine careers. Some, like myself, end up in small-animal practice, while others end up in laboratories, teaching, large-animal practice, abattoir work and government service. All are fairly specialised, meaning I would be fairly out of my league if someone presented me with a horse to cure.
But we vets all have the same beginnings. We were all students and were taught to be jacks of all trades; not until we graduate and start our first jobs do we pick a speciality.
So even your most urban veterinarians have had farm experience during their student training. It is this clash between urban and rural lifestyles that sets us up for some fairly hilarious situations.
During the final two years of my course at the University of Melbourne we were stationed at a rather unsocial locale call Werribee, 50km from central Melbourne. We spent the final two years of our studies there because its location allowed us to be exposed to large animals, such as cattle, sheep and horses. We had rotations that moved us among all the different species of domesticated animals such as canines and felines, bovine, ovine, porcine, avian and equine.
The one that I always dreaded was the equine rotation. Don't get me wrong. I like horses and I think they are a magnificent animal, grand, intelligent and loyal, but let's face it, they can also be unruly, bad-tempered and unpredictable to the uninitiated.