All vets undergo a five or six year course at University, before becoming fully-fledged veterinary surgeons. However, the training does not end there.
Apart from every day of work being a learning experience, we all attend evening meetings, day courses, and 2 or 3 day conferences. The topics of these reflect both the interests of the individual vets, and the needs of the practice.
This education is known as Continuing Professional Development:
CPD for short!
Vets can also study for 'certificates' or 'diplomas' in their chosen
areas. This involves presentation of case studies, research
projects, and written and oral examinations.
As in human medicine, there is a constant advance of techniques, and new drugs and equipment. Moreover there are constant changes in both farming practice and the species of animals owned by our clients, such as the current popularity of llamas and alpacas as pets.
As a practice, we strive to keep up to date with these changes, to be at
the forefront of these advances, rather than lagging several years
behind.
All of the large animal vets regularly attend evening meetings of the Lancashire and Cheshire Veterinary Association. Meeting topics in the last 12 months have included farm assurance schemes for cattle, colic in the horse, cattle abortion, team building, antibiotic resistance.