It is obviously important to get as much experience as possible within the veterinary industry for current and prospective veterinary students alike. One organisation I came across a few years ago was the Irish Blue Cross, which is a charitable organisation for needy pet owners. At the time I was finding it difficult to find a veterinary practice that would take me on since I wasn’t in any official work placement part of my programme. The Blue Cross rely on having a large pool of volunteers to help run their fleet of three mobile clinics which go to locations across the greater Dublin area each weekday evening and after interview and training, I was ready to go. 
I’ve been lucky to be based on the Smithfield mobile clinic with a wonderful team for the last 3 years. My weekly shift has become a nice break from study and college for a couple of hours. I’ve gained a lot of key skills like animal handling and learned a lot about basic care and common diseases affecting animals. Working on the mobile clinic also gives me an opportunity to meet and chat to others in the veterinary industry as a lot of the other volunteers are vets or vet nurses in training as well.
One of the patients recently at the Irish Blue Cross
The service has been in operation since the late 1950’s and from their time spent in the community they have built up their reputation among owners who could otherwise not be able to afford veterinary services. Each week we see a variety of animals, and while most of them are dogs and cats we have also had rabbits, birds (including the odd injured pigeon or seagull), tortoises, hamsters and even a few pet rats visit us. While the mobile is not equipt to provide care above a basic and supportive level, any animal that needs further treatment or assessment is referred into The Irish Blue Cross main clinic based in Inchicore. Between the mobiles and the main clinic, upwards of 30,000 treatments, etc a year are carried out through the charity so I have definitely gotten to see my fair share of cases! I think the most insightful thing I’ve been lucky to witness is the relationship between pets and their people. Being a vet is as much about caring for animals as it is about caring for their owners when those pets are sick. Every pet has a story to tell, and I’m so thankful that I get to hear them.
