Photograph

Here are some of the photos from my last few weeks:

Wildlife Aid

 

Wildlife Heritage Foundation

 

 London Zoo

 

End of Year Party

Long Time Gone (Part 3)

In the last few weeks, my dance teachers have started a beginner’s class in ballroom dancing before the lesson I go to, and my friends and I help out at. Because it’s at a lower level than what we dance at, it’s useful for bringing up the standard of my dancing when I am doing the man’s steps.

I am continuing my driving lessons and also learning the theory from my DSA beginner pack DVDs. Each weekend I go out to Chertsey (where I will have my test) with my dad to go round some of the possible test routes

There was a first for me last week at Wildlife Aid, bats! There were three baby bats (which had to be fed every hour) and one older one. The babies were pipette fed esbilac and the older one got a delicious meal of headless mealworms (still moving!).

Twice in the past few weeks I volenteered at Wildlife Heritage Foundation. The highlight of both days was feeding some of the tigers chicken legs!

Last night was my college’s 6.1 end of year party. It was lots of fun and a couple of my friends from my old school came with me but I am now very tired. It finished at 1am and by the time we had taken the night bus halfway home (it didn’t go any further) and walked the rest of the way it was about 2am when we got back to my house and 2:30 when we got to sleep. I was up early to be at Beech House Vets today so I got about 4 hours sleep!

Long Time Gone (Part 2)

I am still going to Cobham Park Veterinary Clinic every week. A number of times animals have been brought in to have x-rays for various reasons and I helped the nurses to position them and develop the films. Also, a chocolate Labrador that was believed to be pregnant had an ultrasound scan. It turned out that she was pregnant and is due to have 5 puppies later in the year.

Another Vets has also allowed me to start doing work experience with them each week. Beech House Veterinary Centre has 4 branches that the vets circulate around. I go to the main branch so there are always a few vets there at any time and plenty happening. In the weeks that I have been there I have got to see lots including;

• A number of neuterings (spays and castrations)
• A cruciate ligament repair
• Dentals on rabbits and dogs - on of the rabbits had a tooth abscess which had to be removed
• A cat and a dog which had both (at different times) been in RTAs - the cat was very lucky and other than being in shock and a few cuts was fine, but all of the dog’s front teeth had been hit and had to be removed and had some quite bad bruising
• Two ferrets having a check up
• A guinea pig with fur loss
• On of the vets, Charlie, putting air bubbles into a pig’s eye that he got from the butchers and then syringing them out again to practice for an operation to remove some fatty lumps from a dog’s iris
• A dog with swollen anal glands
• A young dog which had eaten some lead and was given lots of food and laxatives to pass it through its system
• A dogue de bourdeux puppy with a bite wound to its ear which had become infected
• A few different tumour removals
• A cat that had its tail bitten in a fight
• A kitten having its first vaccination
• A dewclaw removal because the dog kept catching them on things and in the last year had broken one of them three times

When there are no operations or consultations to watch, Ros the Head Nurse always finds things for me to do; I help out with the cleaning, have taken out IV catheters, help to restrain animals and feed patients in the kennels.

Long Time Gone (Part 1)

I know that I haven’t posted in over a month, but I have a three recap posts coming up of everything that I’ve been up to…

My mum is involved with lots of different charities including ISS UK. In May they had their annual Spring Fair, and I went along to help sell raffle tickets.

On the 15th May, it was one of my friends birthday so on my way to college I dropped off her present (a DBSK album) at her house before going to my second exam - the physics practical. In the weeks since then, I have finished all of my exams - Statistics, Physics (x2), Core 3 (Maths), Mechanics, Biology, Chemistry and Further Pure 1 (Maths).

Now that exams are over we are back at college to start next year’s work before breaking up for summer in July. Because I wanted to reduce my workload next year (I took 5 subjects at AS Level) to focus on fewer subjects I am not carrying on Physics to A2 level. In Maths (and Further Maths) we are starting the next modules; C4, M2 and FP2. We are now starting our Individual Investigations for Chemistry and mine is on urease and the hydrolysis of urea. The next unit for Biology is the two topics; ‘On the wild side’ and ‘Infection, immunity and forensics’ and to learn about taxonomy, last week, we went on a visit to London Zoo.

Seasons Change

Prom season has started and for me that mean one thing - more work! I do some part-time work for a photographer who goes to proms and other events. In the last week I have worked at Tormead School PTA Dinner Dance, Ascot Charitable Ball and Guildford County School Prom. My job is to show people their photos, crop them, print them and collect money. It sounds like an easy job but when you have a long queue of people wanting to see their pictures and one person at the front of the queue who insists on touching the touch-screen monitor, nearly deleting all the photos taken that evening, you realise that there’s a bit more to it than there seems. At Ascot in particular, the difficulties increased as the evening went on and people had more alcohol.

This time of year at Wildlife Aid is the busiest that I’ve every seen it. Last week there were 15 pigeons, 30 ducklings, a vole, three baby rabbits, 30 baby squirrels, a duck, two baby tawny owls, over 70 fledglings and a few hedgehogs. The fledgling need to be fed every half an hour so by the time you’ve fed them all it’s time to start all over again!

I’m having driving and dancing lessons every week which are both going well. I’m getting much more confident at getting around on the road and the dancefloor. I am attemping to master all the driving maneuvers that I will be tested on and the dance moves, that I know as a woman, as a man.

I’m still going to the Cohbam Park Vet’s every week and since study leave for my exams has now started I can spend whole days there. On Monday I got to watch a bitch spay and a cocker spaniel having its ear examined and x-rays on its skull while anaesthetised, as well as the consults that day. While both of the dogs were under anaesthetic I had to measure their breathing and heart rates and check that they didn’t have a blink reflex every few minutes. I’ve also been in contact with another veterinary practice which I will hopefully also be working at soon.

My study leave has now started (as I said before) and my first exam was this afternoon, it was my Biology Practical Work Review. One down nine to go! The weather is nearly into the sort of heat that we only expect in the middle of summer. Fortunately it cools down in the evenings so we can enjoy the sun in the day but not have to have unbearable nights sleep. Most people are really enjoying the good weather but it makes it much harder to revise when you look outside and you see how nice it looks, so I was quite glad when the weatherman announced that it is going to rain on Thursday.

April Showers (cont. at the farm)

During Easter I came back from a long week on the farm in Devon which I worked on in February. This time I was helping during their lambing season so it was much busier, and so much harder work, than my week in February. The farm has about 2000 lambing ewes, all of the ewes just having single lambs were left out in the fields and those having doubles or triples were brought into the lambing sheds. After being introduced to the other people helping during lambing (including another Lucy, which was very confusing at times but nice to have another girl around) I started work straight away.

Like last time, there was the general care of the ewes (food, water, bedding, etc…) that needed to be taken care of a number of times each day and with thousands of ewes it was a lot of work! All the time we were all constantly on the look out for any ewes that were lambing or had just lambed. After any ewe had lambed we had to check that the lambs were breathing and that the ewe was licking them clean. In some cases the mothers did not show interest in their young and we would have to clear their noses of any fluid and if it still was not breathing, tickle its nose with straw or swing it while holding its back legs. After a few minutes the umbilical cord of the lambs was dipped in iodine to reduce the risk of infection and the ewe and lambs were taken into pens so that they could bond.

Sometimes the ewes couldn’t manage lambing on their own so for the sake of them and their lambs we had to intervene. My first of many experiences of this, was a difficult one; a ewe with twins, and a prolapse. The farmer, Tim, got me to find both of the lamb’s heads and front legs and before pulling them off he told me to put my finger in their mouths. “Are they both alive?” I was surprised when I put my finger in the first lamb’s mouth and I could feel its tongue moving about and then it started sucking my finger, a very surreal moment but it was definitely alive! After pulling them out (which took more strength than I expected) I had to give the ewe an injection of penicillin to prevent infection.

When it came to the lambs sucking from their mothers, some of the ewes were better at standing still than others, and some of the lambs understood what they were supposed to do better than others. The others needed a helping hand - actually two hands, although three or four would have been useful! Unfortunately some of the lambs died and some of them were rejected by their mothers. Those that were rejected were adopted onto the ewes whose lambs had died. Tim skinned the dead lambs and gave me a few anatomy lessons, before puting the skins onto the rejected lambs - most of which were then accepted by their new mothers.

Some of the lambs, though were not accepted my their mothers or their mothers died and there were no other ewes to adopt them onto so they all had to be kept together. The ‘tame lambs’ had to be fed a powdered milk four times a day (7:30am, 1:00pm, 5:30pm and 11:00pm). Most of them drank from a bucket with teats around the edge but a few had to be bottle fed.

After the ewes and lambs had been left to bond for a bit the lambs were ringed (docked and castrated) and they were put into bigger pens with other ewes and lambs to get used to finding each other in groups before they were taken out to the fields. I got to ring all of the tame lambs (there were about 50).

By the end of the week things were calming down a bit and Tim asked if I would be alright on my own for the morning as he needed to go out. I agreed as not much was happening. What I didn’t realise was that I was the only one left on the farm (other than Tim’s 13 year old niece). I was in charge. As predicted, not much happened in the morning so when Tim came back for lunch and asked if I would be okay for the rest of the day, since so little had happened in the morning I expected the same for the afternoon; what could happen? Quite a lot actually! While everyone was gone there were three ewes with prolapses, one lamb being born with only one leg coming forward, two born not breathing, as well as a handful of other lambs born that needed to be moved into pens. But I was in charge, the only one there. The only person who could put the prolapses back in and put harnesses on the ewes. The only person to deliver the lambs and make them all start breathing again. When all the other workers came back to the farm it all became more surreal, I was telling everyone else, including Tim, what to do!

On top of all all the work on the farm - when we finished I became nanny to Tim and his wife’s 7 month old son, Thomas. Andrea (Tim’s wife) cooked each evening for all the workers - not such an easy task when you have a baby to entertain, so that was my job.

By day a farm worker, by night a nanny - it’s no wonder I came back so exhausted!

April Showers

At the beginning of April my Easter holidays started with me spending a week lambing at the farm in Devon which I had got work experience at in February. I was working very long hours; waking early and working without breaks until dinner and then going back again! I will write more about this week in my next post…

Each week I am still spending an evening a week at the vets and in the second week of holidays, as well as relaxing from my very busy week on the farm, I spent a day there. Consultations that I have seen include; a dog that two days previously had a stroke and now had a head tilt and was walking in circles, a Labrador whose ear was swelling with blood and had to be drained and a cat that had got into a fight with another cat (and lost). I also saw a bitch spay being carried out while Becki (the vet nurse) drew pictures of what was happening at the different stages.

Since I am now 17, I have started having driving lessons once a week. At first I was nervous about being on the road withother drivers but now I’m getting more confident as I get more used to what I have to do, what other people do and my car (a second-hand ford fiesta).

Wildlife Aid is getting much busier now with squirrels, fox cubs, hedgehogs, pigeons, parakeets, ducklings as well as much more…

After Easter it was back to college, we’re getting much busier now too as exams are looming. Despite the extra pressure revising for exams put on us all I’m still really enjoying college. However, I didn’t have such a good time on the way to college on Tuesday. My mum was driving me in and when we were almost there the muscles in my abdomen tightened and it quickly got very painful. My mum started heading towards the doctors because she could see that I was in a lot of pain. I’m not one to make a big drama out of pain so when I said ‘yes’ to her calling an ambulance so got very worried. By the time the paramedic arrived the pain was so intense I was nearly passing out. He did a few tests and the all seemed normal and after about 15 minutes of him being there it began to ease off. My doctor thinks that I had a renal colic (which apparently is the most painful sensation humans can feel - and I agree; it was easily the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced) but is not sure what caused it. I had to have a starved blood test the next morning and since then I’ve felt completely normal. I got my results today and everything there was normal which is good but slightly frustrating as we still don’t know why it happened.

Before Easter

Although Easter itself is over - my Easter holiday hasn’t even started yet! Although when it does start it’s not going to be much of a rest. The first week I am going back to the farm that I did work experience on in February to help with lambing and the second week is going to be spent doing college work and revising for

In the last few weeks at my work experience at Cobham Park Vets, amongst other things, I’ve seen; a cat which broke a tooth in a fight and was back the next week with a second missing for the same reason, a spaniel which had been hit by a car but luckily seemed relatively unharmed, and a very old rabbit which unfortunately had a tumour and had to be put down.

Two weeks ago everyone taking chemistry at college got the Open Book Paper which was on fission and fusion. Since it was Easter, we had a four day weekend which meant that I could get quite a bit of it done before my birthday. Since I’m now 17 I have started driving, slowly at first! My car’s a blue Fiesta and behind the wheel I feel an odd mixture of fear and excitement.

Two days before my birthday I went to see Kelly Clarkson in concert, with one of my friends from my old school. The concert was at Hammersmith Apollo and although we didn’t have great seats (I was away when the tickets came out), we had so much fun! The beginning was really dramatic and set up like the cover of her 3rd album ‘My December’.

As we get into spring, Wildlife Aid is getting busier. Last week, as well as copious numbers of pigeons, there was; a squirrel, a blind hedgehog, a tawny owl, a duckling, four young rabbits, a parakeet, a pheasant and three fox cubs. The hedgehog (which also had wounds on either side of its head) spends its whole time walking in circles which is really sad to see. The fox cubs which ranged from 4 to 10 weeks old where much more enjoyable to watch!

 

Finnally, in my Biology lesson today, a pigeon flew into the window, stopping my teacher mid-global warming related-sentence. I was one of the only people in the class not to burst into laughter - after working at wildlife aid I now understand how many birds are so badly hurt by similar accidents.

It’s A Feel Good Thing

At the end of this week I got my results from the January AS modules; 5 A’s, one for each module! I am really pleased and now I can relax!

Yesterday I went to Rockfest, an annual concert held at my old school. It was great fun to catch up with some of my friends and see others of them performing. This morning was the last of the Maths Masterclasses at Greenwich, and it was based on the history of the maths and mathmaticians from Greenwich. This evening, as usual, I am going to Wilflife Aid and tomorrow I am meeting up with a friend to go to the cinema.

It’s A Hard-Knock Life

Over my half term I spent a week working on a farm in Devon, it was very hard, tiring work and from the first day of my week on the farm I was thrown straight in at the deep end. Straight after arriving there I was taken down a road to a gate into a field of cows. Tim, the farmer, told me that he was going to into the field and round then up and told me to stand in the middle of the road on one side of the fence to make sure they all went the right way. “And make sure that none of them get past you.” When I asked how I alone, in the middle of a road, was supposed to stop a herd of cows from running straight past me, he replied: “Ask them nicely!” Not exactly the kind of advice I was hoping for.

Most of the animals on the farm were, in fact sheep, not cows, any by the end of the week I became much more competent at shepherding sheep up country lanes, around fields and in and out of pens. I found that the farm dogs were invaluable in this and it was amazing that after only a couple of days they took commands from me as well as any of the men who had been working on the farm with the dogs for years.

Jim and Andrea (the farmer and his wife) who I was staying with, had a 5 month old baby boy, Thomas. When the work on the farm was done for the day I took up the role of baby-sitter to him while Andrea cooked dinner and did other jobs around the house. Luckily, he seemed to like me so we didn’t have any problems!

Back at the farm there were babies of a different kind. None of the ewes were due to start lambing until mid-March but overnight two gave birth, each to twins. The puzzling part was that the lambs were not premature and Jim was very confused as how one of the rams could have got to them early! Unfortunately both of the ewes were quite old and neither were producing enough milk so it was my job to feed all four of the lambs three times a day. Jim explained that while bottle feeding can be easier, he tube feeds any lambs in similar circumstances because it is quicker and - unlike with a bottle - they do not get used to it so they will still go to their mothers. Tube feeding pigeons at Wildlife Aid was a good preparation for it as it was basically the same concept - but at Wildlife Aid there are two of you for one pigeon but it was just me, and lambs are much bigger and stronger than pigeons!

I also spent a lot of time looking for the lambs as one in particular became a very good escape artist and ended up under hay bales, stuck in between them and at one point in other pen after squeezing through the fence. Other highlights from the week included; feeding sheep from the back of a quadbike, learning about aging sheep and trimming their feet and drinking green water [probably shouldn't be counted as a highlight but an 'experience'!]. The week despite putting me off wanting to be a farmer, only added to how much I want to become a vet and made me consider more becoming a rural one. It was very tiring a hard work but also very rewarding, interesting and enjoyable.