In celebration of international Pet Day, Charlotte, one of our dedicated Assistants in the Library, shares a typical 24 hours in the life of a vet nursing student at Ara.
Thursday:
Thursday is a ‘classes free day’ a.k.a no school today but work placement instead at my animal facility – Christchurch Bull Breed Rescue. I arrive at 10am for a quick brief with the manager on duty and the other volunteers, then it’s time for cleaning. And cleaning there is a lot of when you work as a vet nurse. We clean all the runs (poos, usually there is a lot of that but again it is all part of the job). We also refill water bowls, replace blankets and take the dirty ones to laundry. Afterwards, it’s exercise time. We take the dogs out for walks, play, training or a bit of all of these. Usually it is their favourite time as they get to go out and explore, sniff, roll in the grass and all sorts of fun stuff. Once they have all been exercised, it is always nice to have some cuddle time in their kennels. The more activities and interactions these dogs get, the better prepared they are for life in their forever homes.
Above: Cuddles with Sapphy and walking Bentley at Christchurch Bull Breed Rescue
Friday morning:
Wakey wakey. Three dogs lick your face as the alarm goes off. Always a cheerful way to start the day. After feed and breakfast time, I jump in the car with Bambi and Leo who, lucky for them, are coming with me today for our dog handling session. The purpose of this is to demonstrate and practice safe handling of small to large dogs for the veterinary practice. But before we head up to class, there’s a quick stop at the Library for some photos. It’s not every day we get fluffy visitors on campus. 
Above: Dogs, Bambi and Leo visit the Library
We get to see how to properly and safely handle the dogs. Safety is always key when it comes to handling live animals! We see floor and table handling as demonstrated by our tutors and students who have already done the theory part of this course. Then it is time to put our skills to the test first with the stuffed toys (we have a pretty sweet collection of them) and then with our live “guinea pigs”. Pretty fun altogether and even more so, that we get to do it with actual dogs.
Above: Best class ever!
Typical day class:
Lucky for us, one of our tutors brings her own dog Poppy every day so we pretty much have an official ‘class dog’. Our main topics this term are Anatomy, Health Care, Parasites and Diseases and some introductory classes on Vet Practice and Clinical work. We often do group exercises which is a great way to develop our team work skills. We also use Moodle and online resources quite regularly so the classes are often very interactive as well. In addition to studying dogs and cats we also have access to small animals in the campus Animal Room and it is always pretty fun to do practicals with them.
No two days are ever the same in the VN classes that’s for sure!
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