Small animal vetting, buffalo dairying and the vet students: shared times in Laos

By Arjuna Shumon Govindasamy and Jenny Liu
Edited by Isabel MacPhillamy and Peter Windsor

Arjuna and Jenny are both final year Veterinary students from the University of Sydney, who travelled to Laos in November 2018 to participate in professional practice rotations with the MLR team. For 3 weeks they assisted staff of the Department of Livestock and Fisheries team, the local SK veterinary clinic, and the Laos Buffalo Dairy.

Our first week in Laos involved seeing small animal practice at the local SK veterinary clinic, currently the only one in Luang Prabang and the surrounding northern provinces (most vet practices in Laos are located in Vientiane Capital). Here we predominantly performed routine health checks and vaccinations for locally owned companion animals, and assisted with a variety of medical cases, mainly presenting with gastrointestinal signs including lethargy, inappetence, vomiting and diarrhoea. Although vaccination and routine health care such as parasite control is being used by some owners, in most cases these practices were lacking. Working at the clinic provided us with the opportunity to discuss cases with owners and educate them on the importance of what we may consider routine health and management concepts in Australia. We were also fortunate to assist with several surgical cases whilst at the practice, such as routine desexing.