Tales from a Young Vet
Caro Handley, Jo Hardy

Tales from a Young Vet is the story of Jo Hardy’s final year of training at the Royal Veterinary College. Throughout the year Jo kept a diary charting the whirlwind of back-to-back work placements required of final year students. It was the most challenging stretch of a five-year journey, as Jo and her fellow students took what they’d learned in the classroom and put it to the test in practices, farms, zoos and state of the art animal hospitals. In every single placement they had to test their skills and tackle procedures for the first time – and they couldn’t afford to fail a single one.

Vets have to be physically tough and they need to know how to work with any animal at any time anywhere, from a well-equipped surgery to a dirty barn. It’s a huge amount of knowledge, working with patients who can’t describe how they’re feeling.

Jo had to learn to do rectal pregnancy checks on cows, to spot worms in ponies, to castrate pigs, to anaesthetize a dog with a heart murmur, to look after a pony in intensive care, to worm a monitor lizard and to put a contraceptive implant into a monkey.

And then there were the owners; the tough guy who sobbed when his dog was diagnosed with cancer, the fusspot who treated his greyhound like a child, the woman who accidentally poked her dog in the eye and the farmer who loved his cows as much as any owner loves a pet.