I wrote about lambing in Donegal with a lovely family before but this time I returned with some classmates to see large animal practice in Carndonagh in the height of the lambing season.
The practice we went to was quite busy – which is exactly what you want as a vet student, allowing us to jump right in and help with the cases as they arrived. A lot of the cases we seen were malpresented lambs (this can be due to a number of reasons, such as the lamb not being in the right position e.g. backwards, upside-down or sideways or factors relating to the ewe such as a narrow reproductive tract for the size of the lamb) which the ewe was not able to pass by herself and obviously the farmers (who are a lot more experienced than us students) had already tried to assist, so it was interesting to see how these cases could be managed from the veterinary side. Some of the ewes just needed the experience of the vets while others needed a caesarian section operation.
Aside from the lambs we also got to try our skills at scanning cattle to determine if they were pregnant or not, as well as assisting with some cattle caesarian sections and call outs to farms.
Since we were there for 2 weeks, we made the most of the weekend and went on a road trip to Antrim to see the Giants Causeway and the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (and a beach or two along the way).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDS7ulBP8Rl/?taken-by=pumpkinpops
The view on the way to work each morning
