Welcome - Katherine Curnow joins our team

Hi, I’m Katherine Curnow and I am the new administrator for the JMICAWE team.

I am from New Zealand and moved to Scotland in March after previously living in Italy and Sweden. I graduated from the University of Auckland with a BA/BSc Conjoint majoring in Biology and Ancient History, so as you can tell, I enjoy different perspectives and approaches to things. Back in New Zealand I was a high school teacher and dean but after five years I wanted a change, so moved back overseas!

I have worked within the Education sector for over ten years – both for private institutions and universities – and am looking forward to being involved with such a passionate and hard-working team. I am a strong supporter of animal welfare and am looking forward to gaining further knowledge from my work.

In New Zealand, our family are whippet and greyhound rescue enthusiasts – at the moment, we have in our family a whippet who came from the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011; and an ex-racing greyhound. 

Summer School is here

It's that time of year again - the annual R(D)SVS 3 weeks international summer school which focuses on the veterinary medical experience, specifically to our international partner institutions.

This year the group visiting comprised of 12 Undergraduate veterinary medical students ranging from 1^st-4^th year all coming from China Agricultural College (CAU) which Jess (Veterinary Nurse) had the pleasure of visiting with Cathy Dwyer (Director) in 2017.

Jess gave a talk about behaviours recognitions of dogs and cats and what we can do to improve their experience in the clinic through appropriate handling. Then we went in to the clinical skills lab to practice low stress handling on the models (shown in the photo on the left), we have available for student teaching, before moving on to discuss the behaviour of resident Labrador Seil and how we would remove her form her kennel safely. There was much hilarity when Seil decided to show off her agility skills and jump on the table to wait for her treat!

The student group will be moving on to spend time in the hospital for small animals (HfSA) next week and Jess will be responsible for showing them around the anaesthesia area and discussing inpatient management for two days.