Tales from a cohort of vet students….

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The image is the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine (phot credit to Sue Myers Smith) but just imagine a case study where you – as a vet student – are part of that group being investigated for a disease incident.

I present a real (2015) case for your consideration: Pneumonia, cause unknown – South Korea (03): (SO) VET STUDENTS [Sourced from PROMED [Date: Sat 31 Oct 2015] Source: South Korea Ministry of Health]

The Korea Center for Disease Control & Prevention [KCDC] (director, Yang Byung Guk) said as of 31 Oct 2015, a total of 44 cases are currently being investigated, and there are confirmed pneumonia radiological patterns in 41 cases who are identified as suspected patients. They are distributed in 7 hospitals receiving treatment.
* Suspected patients: people who visited Konkuk University Animal Life Sciences Building after 8 Oct 2015 with fever of 37.5 C [99 F] and chest x-ray findings of pneumonia.
* The remaining 3 are being monitored at home (currently they have mild symptoms; if there are any unusual symptoms, they will take chest x-rays).
The 41 suspected cases show fever, muscle pain, and mild pneumonia symptoms; and respiratory symptoms show relatively rare pneumonia findings that there are no severe cases.

Hmmm a cluster hey! Well what do you know – a cluster of vet students….

You have to wonder what they were exposed to? When they were exposed was it one lucky class room full over in a one day session – or was exposure shown to have occurred over a week – or between 8-31 October?

What exactly are they housing in the ‘Konkuk University Animal Life Sciences Building’? {ed. are they doing testing for influenza virus? and in which case who exactly are they targeting?]

Is it just a vet school hospital with a sick dog as a patient with an unknown fever and respiratory disease? and if so what tests are they doing on this dog? What are they looking for in the cohort of 44 students? Whats come up negative and whats come up positive?

Aren’t we a lucky bunch that not only can we diagnose animal disease that occasionally (and maybe more often than we realise) we can also share it?

Who are your veterinary heroes?

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James Herriot

James Herriot

Who inspires you in the vet world? (and have you thought about why they do?)

When I decided to become a vet I was reading texts on equine exercise physiology like they were penny-spend romance novels … I couldn’t get enough of fast and slow twitch muscle fibrils, the amazing ATP and its counterpart ATP~ase, the scintillating process of using long slow track work to increase glycogen usage and train muscles to use as energy the nasty by-product (lactic acid) of a sprint. I was virtually glowing with information (and driving my horse course lecturers insane with questions above and beyond what they had decided they would know an teach in the 12 month course).  To meet Professor Rose and (now) Prof Hodgson when I was accepted to Sydney University was just the bees-knees! To me they held nearly a celebrity status. I wanted to know what they knew, I wanted to forge new scientific knowledge and I admit – I may have held onto a short lived dream of being the first female race trainer to win the Melbourne Cup (thanks for nothing Sheila Laxon 😉 ).

However what sealed the ‘becoming a vet’ deal with me was the first outbreak of Hendra virus that occurred as I  was finishing up my 3 year equine science degree. What was this fascinating and devastating unknown disease that held the attention of the horse owners across the country, cutting directly through the barriers of the many and varied parts of the newly named ‘horse industry’ (albeit in its primitive state). From pony clubbers to the thoroughbred elite the news held us all amazed, shocked and terrified as the scientists started to give us new information. I wanted to know who these scientists were and how I could help, I wanted to be them – working on unraveling such important and cutting edge answers.  I REALLY wanted to find out answers and be part of a solution, this fired me up and drove me – my passion for knowledge saw me hurdle the fear of applying for a second (rather large) degree and getting stuck into vet school. For me I liked the idea of finding answers to something so big and dangerous, it was different to my Melbourne Cup dream of ‘being famous’  – it was doing work that mattered, of  using science to find hidden answers. Now those who know me know I actually don’t work in a lab – or nor have I won any horse races (yet!) – but I am happy in my career and excited about my future in it.

So what drives you? Is it the same thing today that inspired you to become a vet? or have you, like me, grown and changed with experience and are finding that different things are driving you now? Who were your Childhood heroes – was James Herriot one? Did you do vet ‘because of’ James Herriot?’ I remember nearly all the first year vet class raising their hand in answer to that one. What is it about these people that caught our attention and inspired us? What is it about us that made us so taken by them and the work that they do. Did your dreams become your reality and then have they they shifted with experience and as more doors opened?