Last Day of Farm EMS

I can't believe that it's already been 2 weeks! And what a crazy fun 2 weeks it has been! I could not have been more pleased with how that placement went, I feel like I accomplished everything that I set out to do, plus I found out that I would totally be able to pass 5th year OSCEs for clinical placements, so bonus! Correctly pregnancy diagnosed a cow (within 1/2 month, I'll give myself that), so that was exciting! And we felt some freemartins, so theres that too! I guess I'm getting ahead of myself, I'm less tired and on my computer since we were in Glaasgow so I got dropped off early, which worked out quite nicely for me!
So first we went out to the east to P/D some cows on a pretty large farm. There were only 2 so it was really fast. Then we went back to the surgery to get a fancy crush to use for trimming the feet of cows. Once we got to the second farm we set everything up and did semen testing on 2 bulls, 1 that was quite infertile, everytime that happens I think I've messed up the slide somehow, and the 2nd was fine. then we went about trimming the feet of the bulls. Its quite a process, but not dissimilar to the standards for horse foot care, so it wasn't hard to follow. Then we tested some cows for endomatritis  and gave some intravaginal antibiotics. Then we rushed back to the surgery to drop off the crush (at this point we're running 1 1/2 behind) and went to the next farm to P/D some cows. This last one was in Glasgow, so I was able to get dropped off at home instead of having to take the train back, yay! So we P/D 20 cows, a few I got to feel, and 2 of them were freemartins. A freemartin (or a Jenny) is a cow that was a twin and one twin was a female and the other was a male. Because of the way blood is exchanged in foetal cows, the XY and XX cells get mixed up in the 2 foetuses, leading to masculinised female non-fertile calves and sub or non-fertile bulls. So there were 2 that didnt have a uterus. Good for future reference when I rectal a cow and there's nothing there. Then I felt a few more for comparisons, like different stages, anoestrous, etc. Then the vet did a kind of mock OSCE and asked me to P/D a cow and I got it right! Apparently after rotations 5th year there's going to be a list of 8 things and the student has to do 2 or 3 of them to pass, day 1 competency things that we are expected to know. But after these 2 weeks I've done 3 of them, so that bodes well I think. Maybe I'll make it to graduation after all!
When we were all done I got dropped off down the street from my flat and the vet had such nice things to say and I feel like he meant them, so all in all it was a terrific placement! I really want to try to come back and squeeze my way in sometime before 5th year, but we shall see!