We are on the train to Berlin to catch our flight to Kopenhagen. Prague was absolutely gorgeous! Although we had some cooler weather, which was nice, and rain the weekend still worked out well. We toured the Prague Castle Saturday morning. It was really cool but not what I was expecting. It was the first castle I had ever been to, so I really had no standards for what to expect. Its amazing to think the construction started in the 10th century. We walked out to the Charles Bridge that night for everyone to see. And the site was beautiful all lit up at night. Had to have a few selfies with everyone on the bridge :) Sunday was much more relaxing. We took a free city tour and our guide, John Paul, was really good. He took us to a great little place for a food break as well and had some Czech beer and beef goulash. The tour started in Old Town Square, went to New Town and St. Wenceslas Square, the to Josefov (wheee we heard a story of Jewish lady who was at the concentration camp outside Prague and volunteered herself for Auschwitz when her husband was to be sent there. She died in a gas chamber a couple weeks upon arrival and her husband survived the camp because he was being used for labor), and ended in the park on the river talking about Charles bridge, the castle, and post WWII Prague. All in all it was amazing! And I now have many more places I want to come back and see.
Copenhagen
Well it was a super early morning to fly to Denmark. However, totally made up with having all the meals taken care of today and visiting the large and small animal hospital. It was interesting to learn some of the regulations for small animal and how they pretty much just euthanize the majority of cases instead of doing everything possible that is more common in the states. I thought it was different to hear how peoples' family members kind of give them a hard time to try to prolong the pet's life instead of just putting it down, which ends up being what happens because of the other people.
Koge/Naevstad
For my clinic rotation, I was out in the countryside of Denmark. It was absolutely beautiful! The clinic itself was a small animal and horse clinic that was recently bought by a larger corporation, Evidensa. Tuesday at the clinic, we had a tour and then stayed in the surgery area. The first one I saw was a spay on a dog done by laparoscopy and they only took the ovaries. They had a second one after that. There was a dog that came in for a normal check up and on palpation had a mass in the abdomen. It was a splenic mass the size of an orange, which led to my first time seeing a splenectomy. The sterile standards were very different from ours, in that they don't normally do aseptic preparation. It is still a sterile prep but not extensive. After the spleen, there was a tumor removal from a dog's side near L4. It was something I also hadn't ever seen before because usually I'm only there to see the aspirate taken, not follow up. They also removed a tumor from the lip of another dog. There was a cat spay, without anesthesia, only sedation, and they only took the ovaries out. The incision was no more than 1 cm in length. It was crazy! They also tattooed the cats ears before the surgery started. To end the day, Brenna and I sat in on a puppy consultation with 5 German shepards. They were 7-8 weeks old and were from a breeder. There was one male puppy that ended up staying because he had a heart murmur which was audible on auscultation and could be felt while holding him. That evening, we went home with a staff member who showed us around Koge. The town center was gorgeous! We had dinner that her husband cooked, which was delicious, and they took us to the beach for some ice cream. Even at 40 degrees out with wind blowing off the water, that ice cream was delicious! I had Daim ice cream, which is some salted caramel and chocolate candy.
The next day was more surgeries. A lot of dental work was done. Tons of extractions and what looked like a root canal was performed on a German Shepard, who's lower right canine had been ground down to pulp exposure. The German Shepard puppy from the day before had stayed overnight and we got to help hold him for ultrasound and echo of the heart. It looked like it could have been Tetrology of Fallot but there was no overriding aorta that could be seen. You could see pulmonic stenosis. Based on this diagnosis and clinical signs, the puppy was euthanized and had an autopsy that we helped with. Final diagnosis was patent foramen ovale, pulmonic stenosis, right ventricular hypertrophy from pressure overload, and left ventricular dilation from volume overload. Very strange case that will be most likely a once in a lifetime experience. I also got to watch and entropion surgery! I was really excited because I enjoy ophthalmology and we don't get a lot of exposure to it.
Copenhagen
The last day, we all ended in Copenhagen. We had a city tour, but the guide was very soft spoken so it was a little difficult to hear. Then it was Tivoli time! Had a blast going through the park and riding rides. It was very cool to see and to ride the oldest ride! The night before my host took us to see the Little Mermaid. She really was little. The area around was nice and it would have been nice to spend a little time there too. Guess there are things I'll have to do when I come back.
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