The value of mentorship

Posted February 16, 2021

While the mandatory externship serves as the first real clinical immersion for many fourth year veterinary students, it can be easy for both ourselves and the people we work with to forget that we are very much still learning. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that a good clinician knows that learning takes place every day until retirement. There is a lot of pressure felt by veterinary students, who are frequently ‘type A’, self-critical personalities. Thankfully, the doctors and staff at Mildmay Veterinary Clinic were..

Practice makes…progress

Posted February 9, 2021

As mentioned earlier, veterinary medicine is not always confined to the common image of cat and dog appointments. Because I intend to practice mixed, i.e. companion animals, small ruminant animals such as sheep and large animals such as cows, I wanted to ensure some practice with large animal procedures, including ‘herd health’. This is a term used to describe the regular monitoring of production animals – often dairy cows, but certainly others as well – for calf health, growth, pregnancy, gestation stage, postpartum condition and overall...

Watch, do, teach

Posted January 28, 2021

My second week at Mildmay Veterinary Clinic (MVC) was no less exciting than the first. By Monday afternoon I was already immersed in the misfortunes of yet another species, this time an adorable caprine (goat) that was “blocked”. This is a term used to describe the inability for an animal to pee, and often occurs as a result of urolithiasis, which is a fancy term for ‘stones’. Because of the shape of their urethra (the structure bringing urine out of the body), animals such as bulls and male goats are at a higher risk of developing such obstructions, which are unfortunately quite painful. The prognosis for blocked goats depends partly on the location of the...

Variety is the spice of life

Posted January 26, 2021

Like almost everything else in 2020, OVC student externships look quite a bit different this year. With the COVID-19 pandemic delaying our final year of vet school by over three months, the anticipation for finally beginning my four-week placement at Mildmay Veterinary Clinic had plenty of time to build up. Fortunately, I had spent the two and a half months prior as an employee at this amazing mixed-animal clinic, and so I was able to jump right into things by the time mid-August rolled around.

Mildmay Veterinary Clinic (MVC) is a large (eight-doctor) mixed animal practice located in Mildmay...