Copenhagen Clinics

Tuesday- I was lucky enough live with a host within walking distance from campus.  It took me 15 minutes to get there.  I was in internal medicine.  The students pair up and each take a patient in the morning.  After that they write up their soap until the next patient gets there.  The owners are allowed to hold animals while treatment is being done.  Chemical castration, abortion injections. We learned that in Denmark at the small animal clinic the students call the doctors by their first name and do everything with the clients and patients.  But at the large animal clinic they are not allowed to talk to the clients.  It is strange the similarities and differences in each country and the US.


Wednesday- I was on the surgery service today.  There were 2 dental patients and multiple surgeries.  I first observed a routine dental on a westie.  They had a camera that was a live feed of the mouth while the student was doing the dental and that way the veterinarian could see what was going on without looking over the students shoulder.  There was a tumor that looked like a histiocytoma on the leg of a frenchie. The owners did not want to do initial cytology, so they just removed it.  The vet did not take wide margins, so if it is a mast cell tumor, hopefully it is all gone.  They had a funny looking device that looked like a tube attached to an upside down bowl near the animals face.  I asked what it was for and they said from the isoflourine escaping from the animal even though it was intubated and had a cuff.  They said it was very dangerous gas to be breathing in.  However, there were people with open toed shoes in the surgery area.  This would have been a big NO-NO at Texas A&M.  There was a ferret that needed a CT and radiographs.  They wheeled him to the CT room, intubated, without a gas machine.  They are also not "allowed" to be in the room when radiographs are taken so every animal has to be sedated.  Well the ferrets legs were not cooperating so they had to gown up.  But the gloves they used were open at the bottom, so they got the scatter radiation from the plate.  The Copenhagen hospital is in the process of getting its AVMA accreditation.  I do not understand why, because we have enough vets in the US and their standards are not the same as ours.  We got the see a few echocardiograms and a frenchie with astrongylus vasorum which is the French heartworm.  They drew for blood gasses on a Rottweiler.  He had exercise intolerance and a low pO2.  The plan is to do a bronchiogram  next.  It will be interesting to see how clinics are run in Texas vs here in Copenhagen.