Introducing Louise Buckley to the JMICAWE team

A new face joins the Clinical Animal Behaviour MSc team

Our online MSc programme Clinical Animal Behaviour has proved so popular with students from across the world that it has been necessary to appoint a full time programme coordinator to assist Dr Amy Miele.

Meet Dr Louise Buckley, the newest recruit to our team here at JMICAWE.

 “Hello everyone! I was delighted to be offered this job as the programme focuses on many of my interests, and this means that I am in contact every day with students and staff from all over the world who also share my enthusiasm for animal behaviour and welfare.

Accepting this job was something of an academic home-coming for me as I started out here as a postgraduate student on the Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare MSc programme back in the mid-2000s. I enjoyed myself so much that I then stayed to undertake a PhD in poultry welfare, focusing on broiler breeder hunger and diet preferences. The quest for an academic job then took me back South of the border, where I joined another university and lectured in veterinary nursing and animal behaviour/welfare topics for seven years.

However, my background is more eclectic than that - I am also a registered veterinary nurse who has worked in clinical practice for 20 years, often alongside my academic studies and teaching commitments. I can often be found at the weekend working at a busy veterinary emergency clinic and supporting clients and their pets through often difficult and traumatic events. I am also heavily involved in promoting evidence-based veterinary medicine and professional development of veterinary professionals through my activities with a number of veterinary organisations, and this is a passion I hope to extend further through my involvement once again with the CAB programme and the veterinary school.”

We welcome Louise back to Edinburgh and to the JMICAWE team.

A Day in the Life of a Veterinary Nurse

This month is Vet Nursing Awareness Month, and we asked our two VNs, Hayley Walters MBE and Jess Davies, to put an article together to explain their vital role in the care and treatment of their patients.

What does the veterinary nurse actually do?!

Our day begins with making sure that all the inpatients have everything they need. Medication, food, water, access to toileting and a clean comfy bed are the basics. But staying in an, albeit caring, but unfamiliar environment can be very upsetting for many animals and so we try to not just focus on their physical needs but also their psychological. For instance, making sure that the food they have is actually what they like to eat and not just any old food! Cats usually appreciate a box to hide in to make them feel secure and dogs often enjoy a comforting cuddle session to ease their anxiety from being away from their owner. Vet nurses are trained in understanding animal behaviour and assessing pain which allows us to highlight our concerns for a patient.  If we have any particular worries, we can discuss them with the vet in charge and make sure they are attended to quickly.

Veterinary nurses are more highly trained than many people think. We have to train for up to 4 years either in college or university, complete hundreds of hours of practical work within approved training centres, be signed off as competent in many different skills, complete assignments, and pass written and practical exams before we can qualify and go on the national register of veterinary nurses. This means we are qualified to do a plethora of jobs from taking blood, bandaging, cannula placing, and X-raying to anaesthetic monitoring, consultations, physiotherapy, and minor surgery. Vets rely very heavily on veterinary nurses to help them and the relationship is certainly symbiotic!

No two days are the same. We might be teaching an owner how to inject their diabetic cat with insulin one moment and holding a dear old dog for euthanasia the next. We might be resuscitating puppies born by caesarean one day and emptying anal glands the next! The hours can be long and sometimes it can be difficult emotionally, but those things are temporary and the good times always outweigh the sad. Knowing we are doing my best to improve the lives of animals is the most rewarding job in the world and if we had to choose my career again, we would both choose veterinary nursing in a heartbeat.

Dick Vet student wins 2018 RABDF Farm Health Management Award

Many congratulations to Penny Stewart, who has been announced the winner of 2018 RABDF Farm Health Management Award.  This is a fantastic achievement by one of our final student students (and is the second year of Dick Vet success!)

In the Spring Penny took part in a UK-wide competition to produce a 15000-word essay on the subject of the DEFRA/Industry Animal Health and Welfare Strategy.  This Government Strategy encompasses the health and welfare of farmed livestock, companion and other animals, aquaculture, and game animals. The Strategy is also concerned with wildlife where our actions affect their health or welfare, or where there is a risk of wildlife transmitting disease to other animals or humans.

Penny demonstrated her knowledge of the costs of disease and the financial impact of disease on business performance; her knowledge of the impact of good nutrition on the health and welfare of farm animals, the likely impact on the quality of meat and milk being produced for human consumption; and on the importance of collaboration between farm staff and veterinary and other advisers in formulating health management plans, alongside many other important issues.