The future Dr. Callie

In this episode of VetLife, Dr. Cliff Redford catches up with Callie, a former co-worker who has just started her journey in the accelerated veterinary program at the University of Bristol. They discuss Callie's experiences in the program, including her transition to the UK, the unique aspects of the veterinary curriculum, and the importance of teamwork and collaboration among students. Callie shares her excitement about practical training, cultural experiences, and the supportive learning environment at her school. The conversation highlights the challenges and rewards of pursuing a career in veterinary medicine.

First, if you haven't watched my film and live in Canada (or have one of those VPN things), you can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/oMUx3yuyznc?si=oagpg7bGnpbuyXlJ

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @drcliffworldwidevet.com and on Twitter at @drcliff_vet
Listener questions, episode suggestions, or if you have a good idea for a guest, email me at dr.redford@vet905.com
Additional information can be found at drcliff.ca

Transcript

Dr. Cliff Redford (00:01)

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of VetLife with me, Dr. Cliff. ⁓ I was away last week and I decided not to do an episode. So I hope you guys missed me. You're now gonna look back and go, yeah, there wasn't an episode. ⁓ And no big reason, I just had a lot of stuff to do. I got some really, really interesting guests coming up in the next month or so. I just got ⁓ a of a text message a few days ago about one of them. ⁓

And this one's gonna be done in person and I'm gonna be flying to Vegas to interview this person. So I'm very very excited. But before we get into all that, I am super excited to talk to my friend Callie today. Callie was a co-worker of mine. She left a couple of weeks ago, maybe a little bit longer. And she left for England to go to vet school there. So just like my friend Joanna, I think we're gonna be touching base with Callie every...

every four months or so, just to see how school is going, maybe like twice a year basically. And you know, we can all enjoy her adventures of becoming a veterinarian. On top of that, she's a competitive swimmer. She recently got into triathlons. One day she asked me, tell me about your wife's Superman race that she does. And I laughed and I said, it's not Superman, it's Ironman. And her answer was, well, that's still a superhero.

Of course one's Marvel one's DC so you know, but I'm a nerd so that matters to me I'm a comic book or was a comic book collector when I was a kid ⁓ Anyways, so stay tuned for this fun inspirational casual chat with the future dr. Cat

Dr. Cliff Redford (01:51)

welcome back to Vet Life. As promised, I got my friend, the future Dr. Callie here. How are you? I'm good. I think I've talked about you before briefly on the podcast, just when I'm doing little intros about you doing your triathloning and you getting into vet school and et cetera, et cetera, but...

Callie (01:58)

Good, how are you?

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:13)

For those who haven't gone back and listened to the past episodes, why don't you tell all of our listeners just a little bit about yourself.

Callie (02:21)

Okay, well, hello everyone. ⁓ My name is Callie. I'm currently at the University of Bristol. I just started the accelerated graduate entry program for the vet school. ⁓ I just finished a degree this past June at the University of Guelph in animal biology and I was trying to get into vet school. I applied international last year. Dr. Cliff encouraged me to and I'm so grateful for the opportunity. And it was so exciting. I'm so happy to be here. I've got...

Worked really hard to make a lot of animal connections in the industry as well, from working at the Toronto Zoo with the Wild Encounters team to volunteering and then ultimately working under Dr. Cliff. I also went to Shades of Hope with him a few times. I have some milking experience from Guelph, some research experience at Laura Dairy, if you're familiar with the area. So yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (03:16)

Good stuff. Now we can get into it, that's perfect. ⁓ So you, like you just started a week ago?

Callie (03:17)

Anything else? Anything else to add?

Okay.

Yes, this past Monday. Every other program in the school starts this week. So they've had so many fresher events and everyone in my program has had classes during the fresher events.

Dr. Cliff Redford (03:32)

Okay.

What are fresher events?

Callie (03:40)

They were like a first week event. They're really big here too. They had like helicopter rides and air hot air balloon rides for the freshers week or they rented out like a warehouse and had a huge club thing at one point but there was also like pottery and crochet things and like plants potting and I was yeah I couldn't get into much because I had classes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (03:59)

Anything.

So is fresher the term they use for first year university students?

Callie (04:09)

Yes, but all for like everyone in any degree can go. Anyone can sign up.

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:16)

Okay, but it is kind

of like a frosh week here in, and gotcha. Cool, cool, but you couldn't do it, because you, welcome to the life of being a veterinarian.

Callie (04:19)

Yes, it's the exact same thing. Yeah, I was in class. Yeah, yeah. The

five year vet program doesn't start this Monday too. It's only the accelerated one that has classes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:34)

Okay, walk me through

that. What's the accelerated program?

Callie (04:37)

So for the accelerated program in the UK, you need to have a degree, a past degree, like in the field, whether it's biology or an animal related degree. There's a lot of people in my program actually that have different backgrounds too, and just varying degrees from different places all over. There's like six people from Guelph. There's a few from the States. There's a lot from the UK as well, where the five year program.

I honestly thought it would be easier to get into out here, but just by talking to some people in it, it doesn't seem like it because they have like an A levels, which is basically after high school, they have to do the college equivalent and then do another university. think it is ⁓ to get in. So it's about the same age you're graduating from the accelerated and the regular five year vet program. And they kind of mush everything into four years, but because you have a bit more of a

Dr. Cliff Redford (05:29)

Yeah.

Callie (05:35)

background from the previous university degree then it helps out.

Dr. Cliff Redford (05:40)

Gotcha, so you graduate 2029 in the spring. Beautiful, beautiful. You need a job? You want to come back to Markham or you're going to stay in Europe, you think? Don't decide. Yeah, yeah.

Callie (05:43)

Yep. Yep.

I don't know, haven't figured it out yet. Where are the opportunities are?

I just started a weekend.

Dr. Cliff Redford (05:56)

Europe's pretty cool. So your school is obviously accredited. How does it work with graduating? Like you would write NAVLA, the North American Vet Licensing Exam, and then there must be a separate exam there for Europe, right?

Callie (06:12)

Yeah, so they have a UK exam. The schools are credited by South Africa, believe, the UK, Europe, the North America, and I think it's Germany as well. And then they have like a NAVLE leader. We met him this past week. He was doing the sheep handling practical and

He's basically the guide to studying and tests. We haven't talked much into it. I think this week was kind of just an intro in biosecurity and getting a bit hands on into the farm. But this next upcoming week, we're going to talk more about it. ⁓ Basically, in order to practice in North America, you need to write the NAVLE, which is the North American Licensing Veterinary Exam.

Depending on the province too or the state you have to do another additional test like for Ontario you need to do the College of Veterinary of Ontario licensing exam. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (07:04)

Mm-hmm.

So you're gonna be, I mean, other than writing those specific licensing exams, you're gonna have a pick of a lot of places, all through Europe, South Africa, North America. Yeah, you've got a, yeah. I hear they don't, because my buddy Alex is there, I hear they don't pay, they pay veterinarians what technicians make in North

Callie (07:19)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm Australia too is actually on the list Mm-hmm

Dr. Cliff Redford (07:37)

Though yeah,

it's a real underappreciated, or yeah, yeah, apparently it's quite a big deal, and like the veterinarian prices there are significantly lower, because people don't, I mean they love their animals, but I guess they don't just appreciate the costs associated. I don't know, I don't know how it works, but you know what, go to Australia, just to surf maybe, or to swim, or to do a triathlon or an Ironman. There you go.

Callie (07:39)

their parents.

Okay.

Yeah? Yeah?

Dr. Cliff Redford (08:06)

You and I talked a bit because again you had gone just in the last two summers from a try a try or a sprint all the way up to an Olympic distance. Have you looked into the swimming program there?

Callie (08:17)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I have. reach out to the coach a few times. I'm waiting to hear back. The vet school has vet specific sports teams too, which is interesting because the ⁓ course load is so intense that they have, I think, practice a week and then a competition every here and there just to keep students into it. They don't have a swim team, but they do some other teams that I was looking at. So I don't know. I'm going to see if there's any other swim emails to reach out to this week. It's on my list of things.

Dr. Cliff Redford (08:47)

Now those

Those vet specific teams are the only going up against other vet teams? Yeah, okay. So in Guelph, Guelph had that too. Veterinary specific extramurals and hockey was the big one. I mean they had soccer, they had baseball, but hockey was the big one and ⁓ like at the end of each year they would have a thing called the challenge cup which is where all the different

Callie (08:56)

Yeah.

Okay.

Dr. Cliff Redford (09:20)

teams would compete based on skill level, like there was A teams and B teams, let's say, for hockey. And the winner gets, it's mostly just bragging rights. But like out of 105, students, we put together four hockey teams. Yeah, four hockey teams, even though we only had like 30 guys, and we made two hockey teams out of it.

Callie (09:39)

wow.

Dr. Cliff Redford (09:46)

Basically everybody played. I had one student, ⁓ Takeshi Kimura is his name. He was from Japan and he was coming down for third year, so second last year at Guelph. And never skated in his life and we got him to join the team. ⁓ So we just stuck him on the corner. He played wing and he did great. And it was like, you know, ⁓ it was just like the ultimate Canadian experience. ⁓ Yeah.

Callie (10:14)

Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:16)

Yeah, now you didn't

go directly to Bristol, you had a little bit of an adventure on your way there,

Callie (10:22)

Oh yes, my mom and I did as much as we could in Rome and then we went to London and seen as much as we could there too. It was fun. It was.

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:30)

Yeah, you went

to a concert in Wimbledon.

Callie (10:33)

Wembley Stadium, we went to Coldplay. Yeah, yeah, it was good. They put on a good show and it was such a big stadium. Like they fit so many people. I think it was 90,000. It's huge, bigger than any of the ones in Toronto it seemed. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:34)

Wembley Stadium. ⁓ Coldplay. Yeah, you look like you're having...

Yeah.

yeah, yeah

definitely. And I mean this is, this is, and I had talked about it, this is one of the cool things about going international is, you know, the opportunity to have these experiences and check out these other countries and these other cultures and, and, ⁓ you know, instead of, Guelph is great, but, you know, it's just the city down the street, you know. You're gonna be so close to all these different countries. I mean you could probably...

Callie (10:58)

you

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:19)

hit France on a weekend for a hundred bucks.

Callie (11:22)

yeah, I've been talking to a few classmates about it. We wanted to go to Ireland for St. Patty's. That's on the list. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:31)

my god, I was so jealous.

Callie (11:33)

Yeah, that's on one. There was another, they had a huge like social vet event yesterday and they had like little fairs of shops and different programs and clubs you can join. And one of them was a travel trip and they said it's 50 pounds. It's a vet specific one. You go to a different country. You only have to pay for your flight and you'll just do vet work there. And this year it's in Greece. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:00)

No way. ⁓

Callie (12:03)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:04)

well if you do that let me know. I'll reach out to the family. ⁓ Where in Greece is it Athens? Yeah.

Callie (12:08)

⁓ Okay, well. They didn't say yet. They don't have it all

fully planned yet, but they're planning for Greece. year was Turkey.

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:17)

Wow, that's so cool. We had,

yeah, you were there when the student Jacob came and volunteered from ⁓ Cypress. Were you there?

Callie (12:29)

No, I don't think so. I think I just left.

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:32)

you had just left. So Jacob

came and volunteered for two weeks, like shadowed me. And he's entering his third out of fifth year. He's a Toronto kid, but third out of fifth year. And he goes to vet school in Cyprus, which is the half Greek, half Turkey, Turkish island right down in between those two countries. So I told him to talk to his professors and see if they need me to come down.

Callie (12:43)

Okay.

Well, that's all.

Okay.

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:00)

They could hire me for a month and I could just teach like the art of vet medicine or something, know, client communication, who knows? ⁓ Though there's not much surfing there, so I was kind of bummed out. That's all it is these days. That's cool. So like, does, is your program like equally large animal, small animal, how does it work? Do you have to kind of pick something you're more interested in?

Callie (13:06)

Yeah.

you

It so far it seems very general. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, have certain requirements you have to do between school on, I think you were talking to Joanna about it as well at one point, like requirements and hours you have to complete on your time off. ⁓ And they used to have strict like, okay, you had to do two weeks in dairy and then two weeks in swine.

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:43)

Yes.

Callie (13:56)

But I think they've opened it up quite a bit. A lot of professors have talked about it this past week, where you can do whatever you want. ⁓ So as long as you complete the hours. It doesn't seem super specific yet. I think eventually it does like ⁓ tree branch almost into different groups that everyone can do their own thing. It seems like the clubs as well, they have like a small animal club, they have a large animal club, and then they have a zoo wildlife club.

So I think kind of getting into different niches will help facilitate that, but yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (14:31)

Yeah, yeah,

and you want to do zoo wildlife. Yeah. Yeah.

Callie (14:34)

I would like to. I'm working on it. I'm collecting

my list of names to send emails to. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (14:40)

Beautiful. That's how you gotta do it,

right? Like you gotta hustle and work hard and make these connections. like I reach out to people that I don't know, sometimes, you know, people that are TV stars or athletes or whatever. And my friends are so surprised that they agree to talk to me and that we have something in common. you know, people, if you just reach out and say, hey, I'm interested in this, that, and you know, I'd love to.

I'd love to ask you a few questions, know, that sort of thing. 99 % of the people are happy to help and to talk and at least see what that person has to say.

Callie (15:19)

Yeah.

Well, I've always kind of thought like, well, what if they don't respond? That's the worst that could happen. And then I find someone else to email. Yeah. So next time, love. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (15:28)

Yeah, yeah, who cares? yeah, it's like, you

know, it doesn't mean you're not a good person. ⁓ You know, it doesn't mean they're not a good person. Like, you know, maybe they didn't get it. Yeah, yeah, you just gotta, you just gotta, people, they overanalyze too much, they, too many what ifs, you know? And yeah, like the worst thing that could happen is nothing, so.

Callie (15:35)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, maybe they miss it or they're busy, whatever.

I'm

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (15:58)

Are you, is that embarrassing? I mean, you're maybe embarrassed, but it's just yourself. Like, so who cares? Like, yeah, yeah. Like it's such a simple thing. So I encourage anyone listening, ⁓ reach out. That's how I find so many of my volunteers and future friends and whatnot is they just reach out to me and say, hey, I dig what you do. Can I come and hang with you for a day? ⁓ And pretty much always the answer is yes.

Callie (16:00)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:27)

We see if we can figure it out So so like you did some biosecurity walk me through that. What is that?

Callie (16:28)

Yeah.

They mainly this week they gave us our scrubs and they were teaching us the proper ways to wash our hands and our boots. Yeah, it was a very beginner week but you had to do it first and then after we did that, was the first time on the barn. It was just hand washing, getting scrubbed in and scrubbed out. And then the next day we actually went in with the sheep.

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:43)

Ha ha ha

Yeah.

Yeah.

Callie (17:00)

And that was cool. They were never handled by humans before, so they were kind of freaked out and we got to tip them too. But we were, we had to do a practical exam on them afterwards. For the practical, we only had to catch them and restrain them and then show where you do a, I.M. poke. Yeah, and then, hm?

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:07)

Yeah.

Okay. Where do

you do an I am poke on a sheep?

Callie (17:25)

in the quad or in the back of the neck they said yes and then they said

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:32)

Okay. Wow. And no worry,

there's no worry about hitting the sciatic nerve in the quad? Guess not,

Callie (17:41)

We haven't gotten that far yet maybe. Yeah, briefly. We were just poking with our fingers, not a needle yet.

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:42)

Yeah, yeah, they told you where to sh- They're probably like, don't worry about it, you just- Yeah,

yeah, I mean maybe the sciatic's probably a little bit more towards the hamstring. ⁓ Who knows? ⁓ Wow, and you got to learn how to flip them. Sort of put them on their butts, their feet forward.

Callie (18:00)

Yeah.

Yeah, flip their head back

and put them on their butts and then pull them up by their legs. And they were pretty calm once we did flip them and tip them over. They just kind of sat there comfortably.

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:12)

Yeah, maybe they realize like

they're kind of turtled now. There's nothing they can do, you know. I mean, for lack of a better term, sheep are pretty simple. And if they're nervous, they run away. But if they can't run away, they probably just go out. I don't know what to do now. You know, I don't I don't know how to I don't know how to right myself when, you know, someone's tossed me on my butt and I'm now sitting on my butt. So they're probably just.

Callie (18:17)

Yeah.

I just breathe.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:42)

overwhelmed by choices they've never had to make before. But it brought back this great memory for me because I was probably only about two years into judo, competitive judo, when I got into vet school. ⁓ Maybe three years. And I hadn't thought about it in at least a decade until you talked about ⁓ restraining sheep and then the memory of...

Callie (18:46)

Yeah. Yeah.

I text you the

photo?

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:09)

Yeah, and he sent me the photo, which

I'm gonna share with anyone who's listening to this. Maybe we'll make it the thumbnail. We'll make it the thumbnail of the episode. ⁓ But it was just that thought or that memory of, you know, I quickly did kind of this foot sweep, this hip and foot sweep to lift the sheep and to make its feet light and to sweep it out from under him and then directed him onto his butt. And everyone was like, how'd you do that? And I was trying to...

Callie (19:19)

You

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:38)

show this Judo technique which obviously you know I'm sure the professor was probably just like just just for everyone else just do it the way we show you like let's not try and learn an ancient Japanese martial art ⁓ so you can see let's just let's just go with the normal the normal way ⁓ but I passed so that's ⁓ that's good ⁓ there you go so what are your like what are your courses this year is it semester based

Callie (19:40)

Thank

Fun-forn-fro-ping sheep.

Yeah.

It's different. Even every week it's different. Last week, the first two days we did biosecurity, but then this week we have behavior for three lectures on Monday. Then the Tuesday we're doing a cell biology lecture. It's different every day and every week, but we don't have a typical semester-based exams either. Everything's pass or fail.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:29)

Yeah.

Callie (20:33)

Which I'm kind of stressed about because how hard is it to pass? But ⁓ Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:38)

Yeah, yeah. But I guess with that

is you get less, you know, at least you get less comparisons when people are like, what did you get? I got an 80. ⁓ I got a 90.

Callie (20:50)

Yeah, well, their big reason for it was ⁓ when the professor said, I've never had an employer ask me what grade I got in the class. They cared more about my attitude and my skills. So you have to have the bare minimum skills in order to pass. And if you fail, you either have to redo the year, the class, or the exam. But they are pretty like, if you fail a practical exam, they've said this, tell you what you did wrong and let you try it again in the same class.

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:02)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I mean,

you know, as far as worrying about how easy is it or how difficult is it to pass, it may be no different than when they did do marks and you needed, I'm going to assume it's similar to North America, that you needed a 50 % to pass, maybe a 60%. And so they made that the pass. I doubt that your school has made it that a passing grade is actually equivalent to an A. That's probably not the case. It's just,

Callie (21:34)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:48)

Did you pass? Plain and simple. So ⁓ I would say you have less to worry about. And to bring this full circle, what's the worst that could happen? You fail, you learn from it, and you do it again.

Callie (21:55)

I hope so. It's not in game season yet, so...

Yeah, well they even said if you fail the final exams in June, you can come back and rewrite them in July. So there's a lot of learning opportunities, which is great, but I would prefer to not and work and make money, but...

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:11)

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that's...

Of course, of course and I

mean the reality is is it was really hard for you to get in there So they're going to within reason help you stay You know You've invested a lot of time and now a lot of money to Become a veterinarian and they're gonna be investing a lot of time in you as well So there's it doesn't benefit them and it doesn't benefit the vet industry at all if

Callie (22:27)

Mm.

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:49)

You know, we have a bunch of vet students that are only halfway through and then are forced out. know, like, clearly, clearly these students, 99.9 % of the time, should, they have what's needed to become veterinarians. You know, yours is a very good school. you know, we need veterinarians and we need people that are passionate. So, it actually probably makes a lot of sense. And you're right, I've never asked anybody that I've hired.

Callie (22:54)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:18)

what their grades were. I just, are you licensed? Are you easy to work with? Do you care about animals? Are you gonna be able to communicate to clients? ⁓ Are you nice to the team? Et cetera, ⁓ et Attitude you can't teach, but skills you can. ⁓ So, ⁓ yeah, I think ⁓ it probably sounds pretty wise what your school's doing.

Callie (23:20)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

They seem very supportive too and just the way okay if you fail you will have an opportunity to do it again and will tell you what you did wrong to improve. It feels kind of reassuring almost that there's somebody there who will help if all else fails.

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:51)

Right, right.

Yeah, yeah, and again, you

had to work your ass off to get there. Like, you know, you did your bachelor's degree, you did a ton of industry-specific work, a ton of volunteer, ⁓ you know, your resume is probably through the roof. ⁓ So if you do struggle with a course or with a test, ⁓ you certainly have the commitment to try hard the second time. ⁓

Callie (24:02)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:27)

I can't, you know, like, I remember it was first year university, or first year vet school, so I can't remember if it was, you know, when I got into vet school it was five years. It was a pre-vet year and then four years. But the pre-vet year was part of the program. ⁓ It's just we were kind of all playing catch up in that pre-vet year so that all the students were going into first, second, third, fourth year with the same basic foundation, right?

Callie (24:43)

Thank

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:58)

and it was microbiology, Dr. John Prescott. So I don't remember if it was first year vet school or the pre-vet year, but did I, I don't think I failed the midterm and it was only midterm and final, that's it, right? And it was probably like midterms worth 40%, finals worth 60%, something like that. But I don't think I failed the midterm, but I think I got like 56 % or something.

I did not do well. And it was not due to lack of intelligence or lack of commitment or whatever. I studied hard. I just didn't study the right things. so Dr. Prescott brought me into his office and we went through everything. And you know, he got the sense from me that I still obviously really wanted to do well and I was taking it very seriously.

Callie (25:39)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:53)

It wasn't like I was going, I don't care about germs, I don't believe on them, you can't see them, they don't exist. That wasn't the case. ⁓ And he ended up like a month before the final, ⁓ he offered to, he gave me like a bunch of practice tests, which I would do on my own time and then bring back to him and we discussed the answers. ⁓ And it allowed me to do very, very well on the final. ⁓ Because at wealth,

Callie (25:57)

Thank

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:22)

You had 50 % was a pass, but you had to have a 60 % average in 60 % of your courses in order to go. So you had to pass everything and then you had to have 60 % of an average, or 60 % above or above in 60 % of your courses to keep going. So he didn't want me to be, he didn't want his class or his course to be one of the ones that was under 60%.

⁓ I ended up never having a single class that was under 60%. I did quite well. But it was an eye-opener and I was very grateful for his assistance. So it's gonna be the same with you guys. The professors aren't there to screw you over and to laugh. Ha ha, look, only X number of them passed. ⁓ Look at the stress I'm causing. That's not the case. They wanna make good veterinarians. ⁓

Callie (26:50)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Even the students

too, there's a lot of teamwork and there's no competition anymore trying to get into vet school. Everybody's in vet school now and a lot of people are working together to like we have a lot of group assignments. Case based learning is a big thing at this school. ⁓ They give a case and then based on what you've learned and over the course of the semester or the past few weeks, they'll you have to try and solve the case.

Dr. Cliff Redford (27:27)

Yeah.

Right.

Callie (27:45)

So this week we've kind of just started a beginner project with what makes an animal an animal, it's called. And everyone's assigned, every group's assigned a different animal and we just have to go overall, like what terms do you use for the breed and sex and what are the management practices and things like that. But it's kind of just a starter of getting used to talking and teamwork, which is essential in the veterinary industry.

Dr. Cliff Redford (27:45)

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and I mean that's probably another benefit of the pass fail situation is, you know, if your classmate passes and you pass, there's no competition because they're not, you know, I guess to the point where the culture becomes we don't care what your mark is. I don't care necessarily what my mark is. I did well, I understand it. So if I can help my classmate, Callie, do well and understand it, she's gonna help me as well and we're gonna have a good time out of it. ⁓

Callie (28:14)

Hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:40)

Whereas there was definitely competition back in the day, back in the 90s when I was in vet school, because there were marks associated and there were, even at the end of the year, were awards. At the end of the entire five-year program, there was a small animal medicine award, or large animal medicine award, and they were based on marks. And I'm sure some of it had to do with...

Callie (28:45)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:07)

the reputation that student had with marks in the previous years. ⁓ You know, that's gonna make a difference. So, yeah, it sounds like you guys, your school has the right frame of mind, which is that. So many reasons it's good that you're going there.

Callie (29:21)

Mm.

Yeah, it's so interesting

too. Like it's not the whole culture is different. One of my roommates is in the med school and then another is in the law school and then another's in psych. Like there's so many professional degrees in one place, which is so interesting too to just have so many different minds in one area where back in Ontario there's the OVC, the vet school is just in Guelph and there's no other like professional degrees you're getting from there.

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:35)

Wow.

Yeah.

Callie (29:56)

and PhDs, and then the law school is in a different place. So it's really interesting. It's different.

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:57)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah,

mean, OVC, although it's a part of University of Guelph, it's off in the corner. And you know, you gotta cross whatever it is, Gordon Street or Stone Road, to get to it. And if you're not going to OVC, there's really, you don't have any other students there. You know, it's not like the other part of main campus where you've got the histories and some of the arts intermingling, you know, where it's just one classroom beside the other.

Callie (30:07)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:32)

Guelph is kind of a bit of an island for sure. OVC is a bit of an island as far as in the University of Guelph. So are you in like a dorm? Like how does it work?

Callie (30:43)

Yeah, I'm in a flat it's called I've gotten in trouble a few times for saying roommates flatmates here Yes ⁓ There's six people total in my flat and we have two bathrooms. It's not too bad Yeah, not terrible. The rooms are a decent size, too ⁓ So yeah, I think this year I'm gonna do accommodation and then next year. I'm gonna try and find a place the ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:49)

Flap me. Flap me. Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Callie (31:08)

Main campus is different from the VET campus though and it's like a 45 minute bus from the main campus to the VET campus. Yeah. But the VET campus is almost like in the middle of nowhere. So a lot of students will get a place in the city center in Bristol and then take the bus out even in their second, third and fourth years just because there's more around. So.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:16)

No.

Right, Yeah. You're all jumping

on the bus together smelling like manure or formaldehyde or whatever. At least your hands are clean and your boots are clean. You know how to do that. That's so exciting. ⁓ That's amazing. I I've said it many times, I'm very proud and very excited for you. ⁓ Bo's here to say hi. my goodness.

Callie (31:36)

Yeah, with all of our scrubs and...

Yup, yup.

⁓ thank you, Cliff. Hi, Beau.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:56)

Hey buddy,

big man. I think he's like, it's time to go running. It is soon. Stay. Now he's gonna chew on my hand. ⁓ What's, you got anything big planned? He's gonna knock over the stand here. You got anything big planned for the next couple of months or is it just school, school, school or you're hoping to join some clubs? What's going on there?

Callie (32:19)

We're taking it day by day, week by week, see what happens. There was a huge vet freshers thing yesterday and they had a bunch of ice breakers and one of them was they divided us into a group of 10 different teams and one person from the team had to hold a pint, like a plastic pint cup. And then everyone else, there was one person pouring milk into each person's from the rest of the team.

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:25)

Uh-huh.

Mm-hmm.

Callie (32:48)

And then the person with the milk in their mouth had to run and spit it into the plastic cup and then run back until someone fills the pint. A team fills the pint first. And it was, and then after they said, okay, somebody asked to drink it from each team. It was, yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (33:04)

⁓

what if you're vegan?

Callie (33:09)

They had oat milk. They did have oat milk on them. They planned for it. Yeah. Yeah. huh. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (33:11)

I was gonna say there had to be some vegans there or lactose intolerant or something

that's hilarious. I wonder when the first time that became an issue. They didn't know how to handle it. my goodness.

Callie (33:25)

Yeah. ⁓ there was a few people

who puked after because they had beers open at the pub before and it was so gross. Yeah. My team won and then we didn't drink the we did not drink the milk after. Yeah. yeah, we did win. We filled the pipe first. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (33:33)

⁓ no! Did you win? Did your team win? ⁓

but you did win.

Beautiful, beautiful. It's from your breath control

from being a high-level swimmer. Who knows? Congratulations. Well, it's good that your memories in the first week or so of vet school primarily revolve around get-togethers and icebreakers and ⁓ thoughts and sheep. Some things that are not too serious but will live on in your memory forever, that's for sure.

Callie (33:50)

yeah. Thank you.

Yeah.

good starter but I don't think I'm drinking milk again. Nope.

Dr. Cliff Redford (34:16)

⁓ Yeah,

that's a common thing. Yeah, wait till you get to dairy farms. You're be like, ⁓ no!

Callie (34:23)

We did, we were actually milking this week.

Yeah, that was another practical too. Next week's horses. No, we're handling horses, another practical.

Dr. Cliff Redford (34:30)

You can go to male courses.

Beautiful, I love it. I love it. Do

you have any experience with horses?

Callie (34:41)

did volunteer at an equine facility up in Guelph for a semester. I basically helped muck stalls and then we walked, turned in and turned out the horses. Yeah, a bit, enough. Been around them to know what I'm doing. Yeah, I know where to stay, where I'm comfortable. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (34:52)

Okay, so enough. Enough. Yeah, you know which is the dangerous end. Which end the poop's, yeah, that's right. Which end the poop comes out of. Awesome,

I'm so excited for you. Let's chit chat, you know, every six months or so, or every four months, and get a catch up. That's what I've been doing with Joanna, and people love it. They love hearing the progression of what it's like to become a veterinarian.

Callie (35:21)

Talk!

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:22)

for sure.

Callie (35:23)

Yeah, sounds good, fun!

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:25)

Awesome. Thank very much. Enjoy the evening. is Sunday evening where you are right now. ⁓ Sunday afternoon here. ⁓ It is sunny for us, probably pretty rainy for you guys because that's the weather out there.

Callie (35:37)

It actually hasn't rained in past two days. Yes, but it poured for all week.

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:39)

What?

There you go there you go

um Excellent. Thank you very very much. Let's talk again. Okay

Callie (35:47)

Thank you Cliff, it was nice talking to you again. Bye!