Week 1: Bonn

We've hit the ground running here in Germany! The first week so far has been amazing and filled with a lot of new experiences. We started off our first evening in Germany with Bönsch and all you can eat schnitzel night at a brauhaus and got settled into our hotel.

The first excursion we went on was to the animal shelter. It was neat to see the similarities and differences between the U.S. shelters in Germany. This one had a lot of outdoor and interactive space for the animals. The cats had a big room entirely to themselves to climb and play. The whole second floor was full of rabbits and other small pocket pets, and they had lots of room to hop around and move. Each of us got to watch two procedures done by the shelter vet, and we also got to play with some pretty cute puppies. Later we went to the exotic animal museum and got to see what seemed like a million snakes preserved in jars, as well as live turtles, bearded dragons, and pythons.

The next day we took the bus to a place called Gut Frankenforst and the Center of Integrated Dairy Research. Two graduate students presented their projects on emissions from dairy cows and gene expression and fertility rates. We then toured the facilities and got to see all the Holstein cows, including a red Holstein, and some sheep. In the afternoon we learned some veterinary terms in German with Dr. Wasser, and went to the Hause der Geschichte (Museum of post WWII history). Dr. Wasser was our tour guide and taught us a lot of history while we viewed all of the artifacts. What impacted me the most was the section about the beginning of the Berlin Wall. They had pictures of people crying at the wall and it showed the huge discrepancies between East and West Germany.

On Wednesday we listened to a lecture from an animal homeopath. I disagreed with a lot of what she had to say, but it was good to hear the information because clients will ask about that information in the future. We then went to Beethovens birth house, which I loved. It was amazing to listen to excerpts of music from such an influential composer while standing in a place where he stood. The  museum had pieces he had written, his viola, violin, and the keyboard from the organ he played. We then went on a tour of the city led by a precious older British lady named Jane. She gave us the history of the gorgeous buildings we'd been walking by every day.

Thursday was my favorite day of the week so far. I interned at an equine clinic for the day and it was an amazing experience. Not only were the grounds and barns beautiful and the horses gorgeous, the vets were really good teachers and let us help with a lot of procedures. The day started off with surgeries, including castrating a cryptorchid horse, removing sarcoids, and removing the urachis and umbilical vessels from a three day old foal who also had enteritis. I also helped take radiographs and put a cast on a pony who broke some of his tarsal bones. The clinic served us lunch, then later in the day a horse came in with respiratory problems. The vet had the horse exercise and listened to its lungs and then measured blood gas levels.

I'm looking forward to the trip to Cologne and Brussels this weekend!