This truly is one of the most extraordinary times not only I, but probably most of my readers and actually most people on the globe musty be going through…. ….but to be quite honest, there are some aspects of this involuntary period of self confinement, which I am in fact enjoying ….. Yes, first and …
Author Archives: The Blue Vet
COVID 19 – a veterinary perspective
It wasn’t clear if I would be allowed to return back to my temporary placement in Abingdon and Wallingford when I returned to the UK, as in the meantime the UK management of the group I was working for, had given out the instructions, that all travellers to both Germany or France should self isolate …
Strange times and friends in higher places (part 2)
It is not easy starting to write the second installment as – although the events I wanted to write about happened just a week ago – some and possibly most of it feels already completely obsolete, with the whole world around us changing so dramatically. I feel a bit like the producers of “The Archers” …
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Strange times and friends in higher places (part 1)….
Looking back at the events of the last 2 weeks is leaving me stunned, when I see how much not only the life around me, but the world in general has changed and this will in many ways also affect the future content of this diary……but with this I will probably find myself in good …
Continue reading “Strange times and friends in higher places (part 1)….”
Back to the Roots
Driving South through Sweden and then – after travelling across the famous Öresund Bridge – passing Copenhagen and taking the long route over Sealand, Funen and then Jutland, I eventually entered home soil – Schleswig Holstein, the most Northern of the Federal States of Germany and the area where I grew up, where I went …
Due South or other things to do, if you are bored in Sweden…
As my time at a second vet clinic in Sweden is now coming to an end and I am leaving all my new friends in Kumla with a heavy heart, it is time to look back at a couple of months of – at times – hard work and long hours, treating my Nordic patients, …
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Hygiene and Infection Control
Ok, that doesn’t sound very sexy, but it was one of the reasons why I was so looking forward to working for a while in Scandinavia – I wanted to see at first hand how a far more reduced use of antibiotics in clinical practice can be achieved and how cases, where I normally would …
Night shift
Working night shifts for vets is a bit like Marmite – some colleagues love it, some loathe it……. Working through the night (or part of it) is messing up one’s internal clock and it can be very disruptive for a “normal” family life. A busy night with a lot of emergencies or critical patients can …
From Falun to Kumla
Finally it was time to leave my little cottage in the woods and the three attention seeking feline tenants. When signing up for the locum placement well before Christmas, I didn’t want to commit myself for more than a month to start with, just in case that the Nordic experience might not have turned out …
Fika
As alarming as this might sound especially to the Germanic ear, this is a very Swedish institution, the foreign traveler is introduced to shortly upon his/he arrival and this Nordic custom is one which even in our clinic in Falun is frequently enjoyed and which had its fixed place in the daily routine. No, it …