Fantastic. So, first of all, thank you very much, everybody who's here. I'm Sylvia.

I'll be your chair for today for the whole of the stream, and, yeah, just a big thank you on behalf of the webinar vet and WikiVett for joining us. And of course, thank you to our event sponsors. So, just a few tips before we start with the first session.

If you're listening on, listening live, it's better if you're listening on tablet, laptop or desktop, not on your phone because you won't get the best quality. All of the webinars today will be recorded, so they'll be all available for 12 months, after today, and we'll have 6 live webinars and there's also another 6, pre-recorded student sessions, so make sure you go check those out as well. And don't forget to visit our goodie bag.

There's lots of great prizes there. And there there should be a link in the chat box for you to yeah, go there and then if you have any questions, just pop them into the Q&A box, and we'll be asking all of them after the, after each presentation. And it would be great if after the, after the stream you could please fill out our post event survey.

That would be really helpful. Fantastic. So, without further ado, we have our first speaker, Lucy.

Welcome, Lucy. I'll just give you a quick intro and then I'll hand over to you, OK? So, Lucy has been a purely farm animal vet.

She's, completed an internship with West Point Farm vets, after which she moved and worked at Eel Farm vets. And she's then also completed a a farm animal residency at the RVC and has gained her European diploma in bovine health management and she's now helping finally your rotation teachings and also mentoring new graduates. So thank you very much for coming and chatting to us today.

So I'll just hand over to you and yeah, we can start with our 1st 1st webinar. Great, thanks very much for that introduction, Sylvia, and welcome to everyone. I'm talking today on surviving your first weekend on call as a farmer.

So I just thought, Sylvia's giving me a bit of an introduction there, but I thought I'd just, a little bit more information. So, I studied at the Royal Bat College the whole way through, like we all do, did a fair bit of kind of farm bits in the first few years, very much went in keen on farm, but inevitably sort of. Wavered a bit in that time, wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do.

I spent a year out doing an integration at UCL. I just wasn't ready to leave London. And then throughout my clinical years of mixed practise, that was mostly just because that's where, that's where I could get placements.

But I did do two weeks in Australia, which is where these pictures are from, just pure farm animal and that really convinced me that that's what I, I wanted to do. The RBC you can track, on rotation, so we did some farm and also some pathology, . And some extras.

We didn't really have als when I was at uni, so we couldn't get involved in that, but did lots of kind of. ABS stuff and, tennis on the side. So in 2014, I graduated from the RBC, my farm experience had therefore been kind of rotation-based, mixed practise.

I'm, I'm not from a farm background to start with, but I applied to, farm internships because I just thought it's a great place to start. And I was lucky enough to get a job offer from my first, interview. So I spent a year at West Point in the internship.

These are my intern, intern crew, and they were really great for kind of helping us get through the year, so, . Yeah, kind of that support from each other was just really needed. After that, I stayed at West Point for, for a little bit longer, before moving on to Endall.

During my time at Endle, they've moved from, part of the Excel that group, so an independent to, corporate. It's been quite interesting, being kind of there for that and seeing what, what changes there are to support and within the new grad sphere as well. .

Also while I end, I went back to the RBC and started a farm residency, which I finished last summer, passed, passed in the autumn. So, I'm now a European specialist in, castle betting. But despite that day to day, I'm seeing all manner of farm animals still.

So yesterday I just saw cattle, but this week I've seen goats, sheep, and cows, and an alpaca. So very much still, still covering everything. As Sylvia said, I'm doing some teaching of the RBC rotation.

So for any of you that have been through, you'll recognise Jane and Sally in that awesome picture. For those of you, who are RBC students and still coming through, you know, that's, that's our team. So we look forward to seeing you there.

I have recently taken on a new role, so learning education and development within CVS. So, I'm kind of involved in trying to set up a bit of a wider new grad programme within, across the UK. And I'm a new graduate, buddy, we call them.

So I have 2 2nd year graduates and I have a 1st year grad starting in a couple of weeks. So, despite having now been out for 6 years, I am, I'm still very involved in, in new graduates, and I think you never really forget those first few weeks in practise. See, one of the things we discussed very early on is, your vet vehicle.

So what you might need clinically. These are some thoughts on what you need from, a variety of farm vets it's not just, not just what's coming out of my brain. And so the main thing is that you know where the stuff is in your vehicle.

This is a picture of my old van, it has racing in it, so it's great because you can kind of put some bits and certain drawers, you know where it is, . The key things that people suggested that you need would be, waterproofs. So you can just about see there one of these bigger boxes has got all my waterproofs in, and they're all clean.

And then you can't quite see in this picture, but, we also have a washing line with more waterproofs on. The ones in bold are the ones that were kind of picked up multiple times by, by our vets, that I asked, so. And the key ones are head torch.

You will always get called to things in the middle of the night. Farms will not have bothered, to re put lights into their barn if the lights have gone, and tracks their headlights are great, but they never are in quite the right place when you need them. So, .

A head torch is, is a really good, good one to have. And investing early and a good head torch. It might sound a bit boring, but something like getting a head torch for a graduation present, means you'll get a really good head torch and you'll be ready to go for that first, that first nighttime call.

And holders and ropes, farm ropes are notoriously dodgy, and, and being able to get a hold on an animal just makes them hopefully a bit safer. And again, farm halters probably are falling apart or holding a gate together, so have your own, have a variety of different lengths of rope and different thicknesses of holters. I'm A fluid pump, so a way to get stomach fluids into this is a stomach pump.

Into a sick animal, I just have a cow one, but, you know, if you think you're gonna be in a small ruminant work, then your practise would have a variety of sizes on that. And certainly it's a really easy way to treat an animal. So food pumps are good.

Lube, you just can't have enough leave. More lube is, is the answer to basically all your problems. So, if in doubt, put some more bottles of lube into the vehicle and you'll be grand.

And sterile surgery kits and scalpel blades. And that's one that basically, any time you use a kit, you put another one in. As a new grad, you're not gonna be doing surgery by yourself.

And so it's easy to You know, just use your more experienced, your support vets and stuff, but I would say really important early on to start using your own, your own bits and bobs because then you'll work out what's working. If you happen to not have any of this, you'll still have your mentor on hand to sort you out. But it means that, yeah, you're responsible for your own, your own stuff.

Scalpel blades are also important. My one of my colleagues in my first job ended up having to make his incision with a the razor blade that he normally would use to, cut into the cow, or to, to clip the cow. So he, you know, ended up having to do that, which obviously is.

Not ideal. So, some basic, basic bits there. And then, sedation is, is your friend.

So we can get quite scared about sedating things, but, it makes everything safer for both you and the animals, so. Is the way forward. There's a variety of other things on that list, some more obvious than others, some of it actually being quite pessimistic, so they were saying things like cheese wire for, ostomies, euthanasia medication, good clamps when things start bleeding, .

But I think probably one of the main things to note on this is that no one has said antibiotics are a key clinical essential. Yeah, you're gonna have them in your, in your, van or your car, but they're not, they're not the be all and end all, . Yeah, that's some basics.

This is my van from another angle, see it's maybe some slight mayhem going on, I use carving ropes to hold everything up at home and have plenty of spare water down, down the sides, . And I even have a coat rack because part of your key non-clinical essentials would be plenty of spare clothes and warm hats. Yes, you'll start in the summer, but it's amazing how cold it can get at night up on the hills somewhere on a farm.

. So these were our top tips from, from the vets that I asked. So they said, have keys that you can grab them somewhere quickly in the middle of the night. Nothing worse than trying to get out of the house at 2 in the morning and, not knowing how you're gonna even drive to the farm.

Snacks, chocolate, a cup to have coffee in, some sort of good music to keep you awake, and motivated on the rage, and be on the road for a lot of hours. Some sort of medicine cheat sheets, your practise might make these for you. I ended up writing one on the side of my, on, on the back door of my van, so when I opened it up, I had it there, .

A diary That way that when you get the call, you can quickly write it right who you're going to in, and then afterwards you can write down your farmer name, the farm that you're at, and a brief call summary, and then it means that if they then phone back, you've got that reference somewhere, you know, if you're having a really busy weekend, you'll forget Mr. Smith from Mr. Blogs.

So that is gonna make you look a lot more professional and make you feel more comfortable with what you're dealing with. A positive mental attitude, it's got to be a good one. And deep breaths.

So they're your kind of your non-clinical essentials. My van, this van is by no means a perfect setup, but it's worked for me for a while, and, and you're just, you know, you'll get used to working out what works for you. So these are some more examples.

The picture on the left is my first, my first. Car, and that was an estate car. You see, actually I probably had a lot less kit in that than I did in the van, .

I got away with it, so that's probably a good thing, but yeah. Think about what you need. Think about what you need to access easier as well.

So here you can see, the drawer that's open is syringes and needles. The drawer below that was my, medications, and then behind that drawer was the stuff that I didn't use as regularly, . So, you know, what do you need access to easily and regularly?

This room in the middle is my surgery box. It's, pretty much immediately post doing the surgery. So again, it's not the most beautiful thing.

I didn't want to organise my everything out and have you think, oh, it always looks like that. But spare su suture material, we're farm investing here, so yes, we're still on catch up, . Surgery kits in the middle.

There's, some custom wool, an entire box of scalpel blades. Yeah, Blue spray, obviously the other essential of the farm, but, so plenty, plenty there. And if you sort things into boxes, then it means when you know you're doing a surgery, you can just take out that surgery box and provided that you've spent a couple of minutes organising it after a call or at the end of the day.

You know that everything that you're gonna need for that surgery is in that box. Yes, you might have to put in your local anaesthetic or your pain relief or your antibiotic. But you know that there's enough syringes in there, there's needles that you're gonna need, and there's all the kit that you actually need to do the surgery itself.

So you might want to put some clippers in there as well. Clippers are definitely another essential clippers and head torch, best graduation presents ever. So, yeah, that, that would be my kind of big bit of advice would be.

Having a surgery kit and then if you go back to this one, this green box here is my reproduction box, so I'm doing a fertility visit. Everything I need is in there, so fertility, drugs, se applicator, lube, and, and my gloves, so. You know, lots of boxes, more boxes are your friend.

This is an example of a truck, so . For trucks, your big problem comes that your tailgate kind of blocks your ability to get to things, and if you are 5'3 like me, you're gonna struggle to get in the side, reach around things. So, there are companies that will make, provide things to make it easier.

For example, Gearmate do these draws, . And practises will pay for things like that. So if you are lucky enough to get a truck in your first job, then tell me where you're working and I'll come join you.

But, also. Yeah, they should be making it as easy as possible. You're going into this vehicle multiple times a day, and the last thing you need is to be getting a bad back just simply from getting, kind of getting hold of those drugs before you've even got started.

So, this is my kind of my drug, drug draw, and kind of in terms of central farm vet medications, fluids are important. Large bags of hypertonic for, the toxic cows, glycol for ketones and oral fluid sachets so that you can pop those in your fluid pump, . In terms of anaesthetics and non-steroidal, so we're gonna have adrenicine.

I have 4 bottles of non-steroidals in there and 3 of steroids, so, you know, I like my pain relief. Sedation, if you're using ketamine, then that needs to be kept securely, and ideally just picked up from the practise. And you're gonna have a way of euthanizing things as well.

In terms of carvings, sanburol and oxytocin are there, so this is, I think they are in the far end of this drawer. For the slightly more weird and wonderfuls, B1 is pretty important at certain times of the year, and I see enough mangy alpacas that, I always carry next to a parasite aside with me as well now. And then only then would I bother coming to the antibiotics.

So intramammary is pretty key, some sort of long acting amoxicillin, maybe a amoxic TMPS. And Moxyt, and that should that would see you through most things, . Yeah.

So, we're just going to put up a poll now, just to get an idea of what's worrying you most about being on call. So, I think you just need to scroll, you can scroll down to see, there's one option that's just not visible. Well, scroll down, and if you just take a moment to, .

Try and work out what on that, what that pole is maybe the thing that worries you most about being on call. So, are you worried about missing, missing a call because you're gonna sleep, sleep through the call, or are you worried about the phone not working, getting lost on the way to farms if you're somewhere new, maybe that's kind of gonna be a scary thing. What about how you're gonna cope with no sleep or food.

Maybe worried about the kind of the outcomes of your, of your calls. So, what it all goes wrong when a patient dies. What about running out of, of kits, of fuel, that the farmer doesn't think you know what you're doing, or call where you genuinely where you don't know what to do, not having anyone to call for help, or multiple calls all coming in at once.

So hopefully you've all had a chance to have an answer to that now, so we'll have a look at the results. Great. So, We're not worried about getting lost, that's always good.

So the kind of the ones that come out on top for worries are the farmer thinking you don't know what you're doing. And not having anyone to call for help, which I think are both pretty valid concerns early on, . Yeah, early on.

So that's really interesting. It's great to know kind of what you guys are are worrying about. So, we'll just close that poll and, we'll move on to some top tips from, the farmers.

Yeah. So, first of all, who are you gonna call? So completely, we're worried about not knowing who to call.

The first thing I'd say is these are some really useful resources to have in your phone or written down in that diary that you're going to write down your farmer information. So the Neuro Compendium, there's an app, and I still reference it probably at least once a week to check doses or things like that. The APHA if you're a farmer, people phone you about all sorts of weird and wonderfuls, but also.

We're all terrified about things like finding, a native verbal disease, have the APH here number in the phone, and that will reassure you that you won't need it. And then Bet life and BDS for if, if you're struggling or if things are going wrong, we see. So you get, you get your call, we have an answering service.

So our call comes from an answering service. So the first thing that you need to do is phone the farmer. The answering service might tell you that it's definitely a visit, but they've got the wrong bit of information.

So, phone the farmer before you set off. To make sure that he doesn't want you and B to know what you're dealing with, so get a bit of a basic history, . And then it means that you can then find someone else on the way there and talk to what you think you might think you might be facing.

Also, it's a good chance to just check that if you've got a postcode, it's the right postcode. Give the farmer an ETA so that, you know, they're not standing staring at the cow for half an hour waiting for you to arrive. Just reassure them, gives you a chance to introduce them before you get to the farm.

And yeah, reassures you and them. Always call your backup, so you're never gonna be your first weekend on call. Probably feel your first few months on call, you're never gonna be alone.

And I very much reiterate to all our new grabs that I want to know where they're going, even if it is just for 6 ft down the road. I want to know where they are. I can have a chat with them on the way there so they can talk to me about what they're gonna do.

And if we think it's something that's gonna need me to join, either I'll go with them straight away, or we'll say, OK, well, you have a look at it for a quarter of an hour, and then I'll join you afterwards. If your backup hasn't gone to the pool with you, then give them a bell on your way home. It's just, it's just good for security to know that you're, you're safe, you're, off the farm, and let them know when you got home as well.

Like I said, we do a lot of driving, I'm a bit in the middle of the night. In the middle of the night you're backup may just appreciate a text to let them know that you've got home rather than phoning them at 3 a.m., but they want to know and they care.

And if they have joined you, I would still give them a bell on the way home just to discuss how it went, . And like I say, you're never gonna be alone. Your mentor might be different to your backup, so your mentor might might only work part time or might not do weekends on call.

So they'll still be available to talk to you, but they might just not be available in the middle of the night, for example. But if you've had a bad experience at a call, then I would chat to them as soon as possible, the next day. And finally, make the most of your friends, use WhatsApp groups, .

Friends generally, that are friends that are doing farm work, they're ideal. One of, colleagues from mine in Sylvia's year found anthrax in his first like 6 weeks, 6 months in practise, and sent a photo of that to the WhatsApp group being like, guys, Is this anthrax? We were like, that's anthrax, so, you know, that was quite a big one, but just having them there to know that you're all kind of in it together is, is helpful.

And if you are lucky enough to be in some sort of new grad programme, then colleagues on your new grad programme, you'll probably have a WhatsApp group to talk things through there. And again, it's just a proof you're all kind of in it together. And sometimes you might just need, need a bit of a event after a call, give them a bell on the way home, get out of your system before you get through the door.

So these are some top tips, again from farmers and farmers. So first of all, just reiterating what I said, your backup would expect you to ring for help. And all the rest of these crates are very similar on that front, so.

You, you need to call. If you need to call, then you need to call. Don't be afraid to call.

Even experienced vets, we have two vets on call, every weekend for my team. And if I get a really difficult calving or I think I'm gonna have a Caesar from hell. Yes, I had to remind myself to do it, but I will probably phone my, my other vet uncle, and we'll do it together.

Vetting together is really fun and something that farm vets don't get to do that much of because we're always out on the road by ourselves, so. Genuinely we enjoy your more experienced team members. Enjoy going and helping you do things.

It's not a mission of failure. The farmer is not going to think that you don't know what you're doing. And actually there's a whole load of stuff that farmers, Probably you're worried that they've seen it a million times before.

And maybe they have, but there's a load of stuff in there that you can do better than they can. So, they don't mind you for the help. If you're really worried that they're going to judge you, tell them you need to go get something else from the car, give your backup a call on the way to the car, .

Or send the farmer off to get a bucket of water or something that's gonna take them a while. Warm water, send them off to get some warm water and that will give you so much time because they probably have to boil a kettle about 3 times to give you enough water. Make sure your phone is ready to go with your colleague's numbers.

And as I said already, check your directions. These are probably our, our big two, so even experienced vet's call for backup, don't apologise to the vet you're phoning or the farmer. Just say this situation will be easier if I have another pair of hands, or someone else just looking at, looking at the situation, and we can then make a decision and treat your animal in the best way possible.

And as long as you're in a supportive practise, you'll not be alone. It can be really scary to be in a practise that, that isn't supporting you and you've just spent 5 years at uni and you don't really know what to do next. And you've been there 5 weeks and you just think it's not for you, but.

I would say probably making the move sooner to somewhere that's more supportive is gonna be better than. I'm staying. So, find supportive practise, talk again, talk to your, your peers about what's good about their practise, about what they noticed on interview and .

That will hopefully reassure you. Other top tips, you will hear your on call phone ring, so don't check it every 5 minutes. Farmers are useless at carving cows, and if you make a Caesar call, your backup will always back you up on that decision.

So. Caesar is never the wrong answer. Make sure you know how to use your carving jack.

If you can't find the vein, don't worry. Sedation is your friend. And sometimes it really is as simple as just a mild mastitis.

I'm Just some more bits so don't rush to each call, know how to dispense drugs. The head torch comes back into play again, and spare clothing, warm clothes, and snacks and food are important as well. And just generally looking after yourself, so eat, sleep, drink, we, and shower occasionally.

As the SGD would say, find your tribe, talk through the difficult things. This, let your colleagues cook you dinner. This was New Year's Day.

Me and Jan, who's sitting opposite me, were on call, and Alfonso very kindly cooked us a lot of food. And when you're not at a cool, eat the food, watch a film, walk the dog, catch up on admin, look after yourself. It's really important.

And looking after yourself is also a question of having some perspective. So will it matter next week, next month, next year? It's easy for me to say that sitting here, and I know in the moment it's difficult, but, yeah, think about that.

So we're gonna talk a bit about the art of triage, but I always I'm good at rambling on about the things they really care about. So, I'm glad I spent more time on the support. But when you're thinking about triaging things, if you have multiple calls coming in, and this wasn't something that you guys were worried about, and then having a systematic approach is gonna be better.

Thinking about the species and what's happening, is it an acute situation? You're gonna prioritise things like bleeding, prolapses and hiplock carvings. Can you send another vet to that call?

And that will help communicate with the clients, tell them what you're dealing with already. They will be sympathetic. They know that their mildly sick cow is not a priority over a calving, and be realistic about what you can achieve.

So clearly the cow in the middle of the screen is a much bigger emergency and it comes with a down cow than the same cow after I treated it, but a cow that sat upright eating and drinking and looking vaguely bright. And so you think about that kind of thing. So we can do another pole quickly.

So, which of the following would you say is most urgent? So you have sheep vaginal prolapse, cow uterine prolapse, lambing, a cut milk vein, a down cow down on its side, or an off colour alpaca. So if you just quickly make a decision on that.

Yeah, so cut milk pain definitely pretty important. Down cow on its side, yeah, important as well, . I'd probably say the you try and pray apps was more important than, than that, but yeah, completely, you make a decision.

And we'll just do it again, but which is least important. So the same set of questions, as a poll, but which one is the least urgent of that. And we'll have a look at what you think for that.

You've already seen the questions, so hopefully. That should be easy enough. The off-color alpaca, yeah, definitely, .

I would say something that's lambing is always going to be an urgent situation. It's still something that's giving birth. Yes, it's a sheep, but it is, you know, those lambs need to come out and you need to get there in a timely manner to make sure that those lambs come out alive and that she, that sheep is healthy.

I'm in a sheep vaginal prolapse, yeah, that is, that's not urgent. I'm So yeah, I would say this is our most to least urgent, so cut milk vein, uterine prolapse. The lambing and the lateral recumbent cow are probably similar, and in terms of the down cow, I'd be recommending things for the farmer to do to make her look better.

So initially sitting her up and keeping her upright will immediately help her. And if he has any kind of calcium, getting some calcium under the skin until I can get there. And cheap vaginal prolapse is least important, and the off-color alpaca would definitely warrant a chat.

Is that an alpaca that's completely down and unable to stand up, or is it wandering around feeling a bit sad, and they're very different situation. The common from emergencies, like we've just discussed there, birthing things is the main one, but we do plenty of other things. So we've got down cows, we've got stitch ups.

This was a shearing injury that someone who blew sprayed, clearly that wasn't going to do the job. This is the same leg after I dealt with it. This is the off colour alpaca that actually had a PCV of 6 and needed a fairly urgent blood transfusion.

So. Communication is key. Thank you all for listening.

I saw that there's maybe a bit happening in the chat, so it'd be interesting to see if there's any questions coming out of that.