Trusty Paws is a student-led initiative to set up a veterinary clinic for the dogs of the homeless and vulnerable in Liverpool
Welcome to the spring 2018 University of Liverpool Veterinary Alumni Association (ULVAA) e-newsletter. If we didn’t see you at an alumni event last year, we’d love to see you at one this year, so please join us on Saturday 10 November for our Alumni Weekend! Building on the success of last year’s event, this year we will be based in Liverpool at the Liner Hotel. The weekend will feature small and large animal CPD and practice-relevant research talks, and will also feature the Barrie Edwards Memorial Lecture, to be given by Professor Derek Knottenbelt. Derek is one of this year’s recipients of the RCVS Inspiration Awards. We’re also very proud that Professor Peter Clegg and Dr Ebony Escalona (BVSc 2009) have also received RCVS honours this year.
This year, the Association has already supported a number of student events. These have included talks on wellbeing, a first aid training day, the Student Equine Veterinary Association Congress, and the first BSAVA Liverpool Student Conference. You can read about the BSAVA Liverpool Student Conference in this edition. These events have all been organised by the students, for the students, and it is heartening how many alumni gave up their time to give talks and support these events.
Giving back is a particular theme in this newsletter. Trusty Paws is a student-led initiative to set up a veterinary clinic for the dogs of the homeless and vulnerable in Liverpool. We’re very proud of the students for setting up this project and giving back to the community in this way.
I’m proud to be a University of Liverpool graduate so I believe that supporting the University and the current veterinary undergraduates is important. Did you know that just by using the diagnostic services provided by the University you are supporting undergraduate teaching? Liverpool Veterinary Parasitology Diagnostics (LVPD) is a specialist diagnostic service at the University and in this newsletter you can read about all the exciting projects they have been involved in over the last year.
Henry Ford (BVSc 1943), former Dean of the Veterinary Faculty and first chairman of ULVAA, set up the Valerie Ford Travel Award Fund with friends and family in memory of Valerie, his wife, when she died in 1984. Numerous students past and present have benefitted from this award so it is important we preserve the history of how it was instigated.
The University of Liverpool was founded in 1881 thanks to the generous donations and support of the people of Liverpool. Alumni continue to make invaluable contributions to support the University. These contributions can take many forms including volunteering: for example this year we are helping Liverpool University Veterinary Society hold a careers fair. If you are interested in supporting the work of the Association please get in touch: alumni@liverpool.ac.uk.
Finally a big thank you to those alumni that have supported events this year, thanks to those that have contributed articles to the newsletter and thanks to the Alumni Relations Team at the University, who ensure all the Association’s activities run smoothly.
Nicola Beesley
BVSc 2009, MSc 2009, PhD 2016
ULVAA Communications Officer
New conference prepares vet students for working life
The BSAVA Liverpool Student Conference committee. Back row, Lauren Witter, Rachel Turner, Charlotte Rutter, Jane Paddison and Becky Sedman. Front row, Chris McKay and Steph Gowing.
The University of Liverpool Veterinary Alumni Association is one of the sponsors for an innovative new student-led initiative to help Liverpool veterinary students prepare for their first year in work.
An innovative new student-led initiative to help veterinary students prepare for their first year in work has launched at the University of Liverpool.
The first BSAVA Liverpool Student Conference, which took place on 6-7 January at the University’s Institute of Veterinary Science, featured a diverse programme of over 30 different teaching sessions including hands-on practicals, group discussion workshops, and seminars focused on small animal medicine and professional life. Specialists within numerous clinical disciplines taught nearly 100 students throughout the event, and clinical topics ranged from emergency critical care to dealing with sensitive issues such as palliative care and suspected abuse.
Dr Thomas Maddox, RCVS and European Specialist in Small Animal Diagnostic Imaging, teaching ultrasonography to final year students.
This first event of its kind was organised by a team of Liverpool veterinary students co-led by the Institute’s BSAVA student representatives Chris McKay and Steph Gowing.
Fourth-year veterinary student Chris said: “This first event has been incredibly successful with outstanding feedback from delegates, speakers, and exhibitors. One of our main objectives was to provide exceptional hands-on training to help students confidently and successfully perform essential clinical skills, and we certainly achieved this. In order to maximise the learning experience for each student we organised fun, interactive sessions using the very best educational resources possible, including teaching from specialists in various clinical fields and the highest quality equipment for practicals.
“I’m very grateful for the huge amount of time and effort that each committee member has invested into creating this event, as well as the phenomenal teaching from the Institute’s clinicians and external speakers too. We are thrilled with our achievement and we are excited to see what will be featured at this conference in future.”
Olivia Anthony, a fifth year veterinary student who attended the conference, said: “It has been one of my favourite weekends at vet school and I’ve learnt very valuable things for my first job!”
Professor Susan Dawson speaking at the conference.
Head of Institute Professor Susan Dawson, who gave the closing talk at the conference, added: “I am delighted that our students have taken the time and initiative to organise this event which I hope will be the first of many. It is always easy to have ideas but it is great to see the ideas coming to fruition due to the hard work and leadership of Chris and Steph. Colleagues from the profession supported the students as sponsors and speakers and I was very proud to see this engagement with our students.”
The Institute of Veterinary Science is ranked fifth in the world for Veterinary Science in the 2017 QS World University Subject Rankings. For more information please visit www.liverpool.ac.uk/veterinary-science.
Lending a helping paw
Lending a helping “paw”: students set up veterinary clinic for the dogs of the homeless and vulnerable
The Trusty Paws Clinic in Liverpool was set up by veterinary students from the University of Liverpool and was inspired by similar clinics in Nottingham, Glasgow and London. Many of the homeless and vulnerable in Liverpool have dogs but there is no accessible veterinary care for them.
All treatment at the monthly clinics is carried out by vet students under the supervision of a qualified vet. Freya Townsend, one of the team of students at the Liverpool Trusty Paws Clinic, explains why the students were so keen to set up such a clinic: “The relationship between a dog and its owner can be very special, especially when you’re vulnerable or living on the streets.
“However, looking after your pets in these circumstances can be very difficult – a lot of homeless people don’t qualify for care from the major animal charities. The clinics help keep the dogs healthy and provide the people with some friendly interaction and a chance for a chat.”
Setting up the clinic has required a lot of time and dedication from the students involved. A fundraising campaign was launched that included the Yorkshire Three Peak Challenge; in which 86 vet students climbed 2,388 feet and walked 23 miles in a bid to help reach their fundraising target of £5,000. The students smashed their target and raised more than £6,000 through a combination of crowdfunding and sponsored events.
This money was used to fund the initial start-up as the students needed everything to run a basic veterinary clinic from vaccine fridges and weigh scales to microchips and disinfectants. All the hard work paid off and the first clinic was run on 2 December 2017. The first patients included a Collie-cross for a first vaccination and a Mastiff with a recurrent urinary tract infection.
Now Trusty Paws will be refining how the clinics are run and planning how to work with more charities, hostels and organisations. All this will ensure that the clinics are as successful and sustainable as possible, and, of course, they are also planning some more fundraising activities!
If you would like to donate to Trusty Paws you can do so via their website: www.thetrustypawsclinic.co.uk/help-us.
Impactful research informing clinical practice
Liverpool Veterinary Parasitology Diagnostics (LVPD) is a specialist diagnostic service based at the Institute of Veterinary Science offering laboratory tests for UK endemic and exotic veterinary parasitic diseases to support veterinary patient care, education and research.
It was another productive year in 2017 for LVPD and one which further highlighted the importance of emerging exotic parasitic diseases in the UK. Following on from reporting the first case of canine ocular thelaziosis in the UK in 2016, LVPD published their full findings for this and two subsequent cases in the Vet Record, generating widespread national press coverage. In addition, Dr John Graham-Brown (BVSc 2010) reported a case of human thelaziosis in The Lancet.
In a summer project funded by the Wellcome Trust and supported by LVPD, Jennifer Palfreyman (Liverpool BVSc undergraduate) used ecological niche modelling via Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction (GARP) to establish the distribution of Phortica verigata (vector for Thelazia callipaeda) in the UK and the likelihood of T. callipaeda becoming endemic. Additionally, UK distribution of P. variegata was investigated further through field observation. Results will be published in 2018, with further work planned for this summer.
Working in conjunction with LVPD, Dr Alison Howell (BVSc 2006) completed work on an Animal Welfare Foundation funded project The impact and prevalence of liver fluke in UK horses and results will be published this year.
Finally, after 19 years of dedicated service, Dr Jackie Barber, retired from her role as clinical advisor for LVPD in December 2017. Jackie played a crucial part in the creation of the service in conjunction with Professor the Lord Trees. LVPD would like to thank her for all the help and support she’s given to clients and the service over the years, and we wish her all the very best for the future.
The primary role of LVPD is to provide veterinary parasitology diagnostics to the University of Liverpool’s veterinary teaching hospitals, first opinion practices, farms and pathology service, and to support the delivery of the BVSc programme. By choosing to use LVPD for your parasitology diagnostics you will be supporting the training of the veterinary surgeons of the future.
For further information on LVPD and the services available, visit: www.liverpool.ac.uk/lvpd.
Professor Henry Ford and the Valerie Ford Travel Awards
1943 Veterinary Students, Henry Ford 3rd row back 5th from left
Professor Edwin John Hill Ford MRCVS (BVSc 1943) was a Yorkshireman and graduated from the University of Liverpool in 1943. He was known to many of his friends as Henry. This nickname was given to him early in his school life because when he answered to his surname with wit they immediately said “Ah, Henry I assume”.
Henry had a lifelong interest in sheep and used to keep a small flock in a field in the village of Willaston, and in 1955 he received an MVSc from Liverpool for his work on Johne’s disease in sheep. He became well known for the measurement of enzyme activity as an indicator of liver damage in sheep and cattle.
He returned to Liverpool in 1964 as a lecturer in the Department of Clinical Studies and from 1976 to 1980 he was Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science. Outside of work he had a keen interest in canals and railways and enjoyed travelling the country to explore disused railways and canals.
Henry and his wife Valerie took a special interest in overseas postgraduate students, particularly those whose wives and families found themselves in a strange land with different customs, climate and culture. Henry supervised a number of PhD students from Chile and Sudan in the hope they would return home and occupy positions of influence
Jane and Anne, Henry and Valerie’s children, told us: “Mum and Dad were keen to help in the welfare of overseas post graduates students and their families. We both remember Mum and Dad hosting many post graduates students at our house”.
The Valerie Ford Travel Award was set up by the friends and family of Mrs Ford after her death in 1984 to enable undergraduates to visit different countries, so that they could study the veterinary problems and experience the way of life.
This travel award still exists and has enabled students to undertake a number of interesting projects. In recent years students have been funded to travel to Fiji to undertake a prevalence study into canine transmissible venereal tumours, to complete an externship at an equine hospital in Kentucky, to enrol in a summer dairy institute course at Cornell, to work with SPANA and working equids, and finally to investigate the welfare problems of working camels.
As an Alumni Association, it is important that we help to preserve the history of veterinary education at Liverpool. Professor Ford and the University of Liverpool Veterinary Alumni Association are well entwined - it was Henry’s drive that led to the formation of the Association and he himself edited the first edition of the Alumni Newsletter!
We’d love to hear your favourite memories of your veterinary days at Liverpool; maybe you have a memorable lecturer, a photo with your class friends or work from your student days that you’d like to share. You can add them to our veterinary alumni association Facebook page or email: alumni@liverpool.ac.uk. You can also read our archive of veterinary newsletters.
In Memoriam
We regret to announce the names of the following alumni who have passed away. You can leave a message of condolence on the alumni website here: www.liverpool.ac.uk/in-memoriam.
David Bowen MRCVS (BVSc 1952)
Andras Fabry MRCVS (BVSc 1962)
Raymond Newcomb MRCVS (BVSc 1962)
Peter Robinson MRCVS (BVSc 1944)
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