Page 16 - Eclipse - Autumn/Winter 2023

Reviewing, integrating and extending farm

animal health knowledge in the early years:

Bringing the classroom to the cows

Beth Reilly, Izzie Faiers and Anke Hendricks

he BVetMed course is currently further cement the importance of animal they see on a farm at a dairy routine.
undergoing a new curriculum roll handling skills as a foundation for good The first part of the sheep sessions
out, with a successful delivery clinical practice.
Tnow complete for the second They were designed with a pre-clinical focused on sheep handling and tipping
for hoof examination, before moving
year of the course.
focus element, as well as a clinical on to discuss horns and disbudding in
As a new feature of the course, weeks element for all sessions, allowing multiple farmed species. The second part offered
dedicated to ‘reflection and review’ (R&R) subject strands to be interlinked and opportunities to revise common skin
activities have been introduced. In the to allow for active discussion between diseases of farm animals before allowing
summer term of 2023, a new hands-on students and educators within small students to get hands-on and experience
day at the teaching farm was implemented groups. The day was split into three sheep skin scraping on our simulators.
as part of the R&R activities. sessions to enable revision of various The third session of the day offered
topics and species to be covered.
Following substantial planning and activities under the theme of ‘making
idea development, which dates back to One part of the cattle-based session inflammation visible’. This was a lab-
2021, the farm group teaching staff, in focused on relating the students’ mobility based session, run by the dermatology
partnership with the dermatology team, scoring knowledge with cow signals, team, that directly linked to the students’
rolled out the new ‘Clinical Integration to help students improve their clinical practice of ‘sheep-side diagnostic
to Ruminant Health’ (CIRH) sessions, thinking about environment and animal sampling’ and challenged them to extend
which took place over five days at the health on a farm. The second part their knowledge of flock/herd health and
RVC’s Boltons Park Farm. provided interactive elements, involving inflammation to diagnostic microscopy.
palpation of uterine models to experience
The aim of these CIRH sessions is to The feedback on the CIRH day
allow for a smoother transition from a simulated rectal palpation, as well overwhelmingly indicated that students
pre-clinical teaching to clinical teaching, as discussions around the theory of highly valued it. They really enjoyed the
as well as providing opportunities to hormone cycles and linking them to what chance to be hands-on with the animals

Figure 2: Students enjoying the outdoor
interactive classroom while the cows
came in for milking

Figure 3: Students enjoying the outdoor
Figure 1: Student practising their skin scraping technique on our sheep simulator model. interactive classroom while the cows
came in for milking

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