Tales from a Young Vet: Part 2 of 3: Mad cows, crazy kittens, and all creatures big and small

Tales from a Young Vet: Part 2 of 3: Mad cows, crazy kittens, and all creatures big and small
Jo Hardy

Caro Handley

Tales from a Young Vet can either be read as a full-length ebook or in 3 serialised ebook-only parts.This is PART 2 of 3.The funny, touching and entertaining story of how Jo Hardy, the star of BBC2’s Young Vets, gets to grips with animals big and small, friendly and not-at-all-happy, on the road to becoming a fully qualified vet.‘Stand well clear. Keep your eyes on them. Oh, and make sure you have insurance.’Not the most comforting words of wisdom, but probably the most useful for a trainee vet, Jo would say. From well-equipped surgeries to windswept hills and ramshackle barns, Jo has to be able to diagnose and treat any animal, at any time of the day or night. It’s not quite as easy as James Herriot made it seem.Jo’s final year of training saw her race from rectal examinations of cows to spine surgery on a Great Dane, and from treating an eventing horse with a heart problem to inserting a contraceptive implant into a monkey.And then there were the owners – the tough guy who sobbed when his cat was diagnosed with cancer, the woman who was convinced her dog was embarrassed by its stomach upset, and the farmer who loved his cows as much as anyone loves their pets.Gruelling days of animal treatments and visits combined with long nights of study and revision made Jo’s final year of training the most demanding and rewarding year of her life. Her book tells of the highs and lows, the pets that stole her heart, and the lifelong friends that she made – with two legs and four.

Copyright (#u99b2b7ac-7a19-522a-a41c-c3f8cbc4bdb9)

Certain details in this book, including names, places and dates, have been changed.

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First published by HarperElement 2015

FIRST EDITION

© Jo Hardy and Caro Handley 2015

A catalogue record of this book is

available from the British Library

Cover images © Sarah Tanat-Jones (animal illustrations); Johnny Ring (photograph)

Cover layout © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

Jo Hardy asserts the moral right to be

identified as the author of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780008142483

Ebook Edition © November 2015 ISBN: 9780008154318

Version: 2015-09-24

Contents

Cover (#ua48baf77-ca22-55e5-9cf5-b14aacfc1f82)

Title Page (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#ulink_8aab0741-1390-521e-b31b-c951081b0845)

Chapter Seven: Fly on the Wall (#ulink_08e607f9-6ba1-5e10-bd46-fe5e1d729e0b)

Chapter Eight: We Saved a Life (#ulink_a9bb2b76-d6a1-5cc2-aa3f-5324b7d0efa9)

Chapter Nine: Into the Wild (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten: Between Two Worlds (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven: The Kitten who Thought She Was a Parrot (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve: Mad Cows and Doris the Goat (#litres_trial_promo)

Moving Memoirs eNewsletter (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Fly on the Wall (#u99b2b7ac-7a19-522a-a41c-c3f8cbc4bdb9)

Two weeks in the Dorset sunshine seemed an inviting prospect. After a week of nights at the equine hospital it felt like an age since I’d seen daylight, so I was looking forward to being out in the fields working with farm animals.

Along with two other vet students, Alice and Danielle, I was staying in an adorable picture-postcard cottage in a pretty picture-postcard village with the distinctly un-picturesque name of Shittington – not that it bothered any of the local people, who were a lovely bunch.

The three of us were there to study farm animal population, which meant doing the rounds with the local farm vets. This was a little like the work we were doing in Wales, checking out the health of local herds, but this time we were allowed to do a lot more of the actual procedures; it was more hands-on and less to do with writing reports and adding up statistics, and my hope was that it would give my farm skills a real boost.

We spent the next two weeks taking blood from calves to assess how much immunity had passed on from the mother, and vaccinating calves and cows against BVD (Bovine Viral Diarrhoea) and IBR (Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis, a virus that affects the airways and fertility). Both are nasty viruses that can spread fast. As we’d already learned in Wales, the priority for farmers these days is to keep the herd healthy, so they’re always on the watch for anything that might cause real problems.

In between vaccinations and taking blood samples I had fun learning how to use a pregnancy scanner and how to trim cows’ hooves. The scanner is a sausage-shaped probe that you hold in your hand and insert into the cow rectally. It relays pictures back to a screen and gives a more detailed diagnosis of pregnancy than simply using your hand.

As for hoof-trimming, it’s a bit like cutting your nails but a lot harder work! A cow’s toes are covered by a thick coating of keratin, the same stuff our nails are made of, and like nails they keep growing. Cows need this trim one or twice a year, and the idea is to create a perfectly shaped hoof so that they can walk comfortably; we used hoof nippers and hoof knives to do this. I enjoyed shaping their hooves to make them nice and even, trimming off loose edges that could trap dirt, all the while checking for ulcers and spraying antibiotics if there were any signs of infections. The cows were, for the most part, very patient while we worked and I liked to think they appreciated the effort. The trimmings aren’t just thrown away afterwards, they are kept and used to make the foam in fire extinguishers, among other things.

On the last day of the first week, while we were doing our thing down on the farm, I bumped into Isobel, the producer of Young Vets, who was scouting for filming locations for when Grace came to do her farm elective in a couple of months’ time. She came to watch us at work, and we spent an hour or so chatting and explaining what we were attempting to do with the hooves of the cows. In return she told us a bit more about Young Vets and how it was all going. She explained that, contrary to what we all thought, it wasn’t reality TV or a fly-on-the-wall programme, it was an observational documentary. Right, I thought, so there’s a difference? Weren’t they pretty much the same thing? I decided I’d better keep my thoughts to myself.

That night I dashed off to Kent for the weekend to go to Abi’s birthday party. She’d just finished her first year as a teacher and she was in the mood to celebrate. We had a great night out and danced till one in the morning, so I arrived back in Dorset a little tired on Sunday evening.

After another week with the cows in the glorious Dorset countryside I headed back home to catch up with my family, before starting a fortnight’s work experience with a sports horse veterinary practice that provided veterinary services for the local racecourse.

This was heady stuff; the idea of working with highly strung racehorses fascinated me. They are mostly hot-blooded thoroughbreds – tall, slim, athletic and handsome – but because of the exertion they are put under they have a high accident rate and a lot of health problems.

The first race I attended was on a Tuesday evening, which meant working a long day as I had started at eight that morning when we visited a number of local stables. I really didn’t care, though, because I was so excited and couldn’t wait to see behind the scenes.