We just spent a very cool week in Hannover. It's another city that doesn't really attract tourists, so it was interesting to see, although the majority of our "sight-seeing" was at TiHo, the vet school located there.

Small animal clinics are what I know best, so I took away a lot from that. They already have a Tesla 3 MRI, which TAMU is only just putting in, I think. I also thought it was very cool that they have a completely separate area for cats and dogs- waiting area, treatment area, ICU, everything.

The equine clinic was really neat. They have an extensive track system to move horses in and out of anesthesia/prep, surgery, and the recovery room. The coolest part was the lameness track, though, which was built for its acoustics- to actually hear the changes in gait when a horse is lame. And they have a mobile endoscope unit which allows the veterinarians to actually view the larynx while the horse is exercising...pretty much amazing.

We also got to visit a teaching farm they have just outside of the city where the students are expected to spend 2 weeks living and working with all sorts of animals- cattle, swine, chickens, turkeys, ducks. They learn a lot about the animal welfare laws and how they affect the raising of livestock. But the biggest emphasis is on working with the animals- the German vet schools don't require students to have any experience in the veterinary industry or with animals before they enter vet school, so many of them come into with no knowledge of how to even behave or interact with animals, especially food animals.

The cattle clinic was, well, a cattle clinic. The thing I noticed most was that they had no squeeze chutes anywhere. Germans raise a lot more dairy cattle than beef cattle, and I guess with them used to being handle, it's less of a problem for the veterinarians to examine them with only a halter on. We did get some hands-on experience at the repro clinc, however, practicing epidurals and ultrasound.

Our last experience wasn't at TiHo, however. It was at an old farm where a retired vet had amassed an amazing amount of historical memorabilia, from old veterinary tools that aren't used anymore to preserved specimens to war propaganda. He also had a working water wheel from the old mill that was attached to the farm, and you could see how the entire thing worked, from the water being diverted to the wheel to the grinding of the grain to the collecting of it.

Our last night there, we were invited to a huge party that the students throw every semester in the cattle clinic. Yes, the clinic. It was mildly insane to say the least. I've heard that the Dutch like to party, but they'll have to really go all out to match what these Hannover students put on!

So finally, at the end of the week, we ended up in Norderney, a small island off the coast of Germany in the North Sea. Which is extremely cold, by the way. And we got to walk in it barefoot on out "watwanderung" or "water walk." Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and made the walk interesting despite our freezing toes and the tide coming in around our ankles (really, I didn't even notice the water level rising!). The scenery on the island is just gorgeous. It's hilly from the dunes and just...wild, is really the only way I could describe it. But everything's low- there's very few tall, deep-rooted trees that grow in the sand on the island. Simply stunning.