Dermatology and Dentistry RotationThis was by far the most relaxed rotation, with only two and a hal

Dermatology and Dentistry RotationThis was by far the most relaxed rotation, with only two and a half contact days during the week. Although it was nice to have a bit more spare time than usual, I found it concerning how little time is allocated to the two most common areas of general practice.On Monday we had a three hour dentistry prac where we practiced nerve blocks and dental extractions on dog cadavers. It was gory, but a really valuable learning exercise. That was it - three hours to become competent dentists!Wednesday and Thursday were spent in the dermatology clinic, working through real clinical cases, assisting with procedures and practicing diagnostics. The veterinary dermatologist has a bit of a reputation for embarrassing students, which was confirmed within the first half hour when she asked me for the dose rate of Prednisolone in front of the clients. “Errrrr… I don’t remember” was the best I could come up with. She justified the attack by saying I’ll never forget it now, and she’s probably right. For any vet students reading, it’s 0.5-1 mg/kg - stash that one away!I found dermatology surprisingly interesting, but it was evident that being a veterinary dermatologist would become repetitive pretty quickly. Of the three dog consultations I was involved in, all three had suspected allergies. After hearing the vet’s food trial spiel three times, I feel pretty confident managing an allergy case myself.On each of our patients, we practiced performing diagnostics such as otoscopic exams, sticky tape preps, superficial and deep skin scrapes, and ear cytology. I witnessed a couple of intradermal allergy tests, which I found really interesting having been through the same process myself for my cat allergy. I also saw an ear flush on a dog, and a skin biopsy procedure on a cat with severe dermatophytosis (ringworm) that had caused deep ulcerative lesions all over the body.On Thursday afternoon, a couple of the medicine interns taught us how to do skin biopsies on pig trotters. Unfortunately, someone had taken the trotters out of the freezer prematurely and they were well into the decomposition process. The smell had us all retching and gagging, so we worked quickly and finished in record time. I don’t think I’ll be eating pork for a few weeks! -- source link

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