Auscultating : Dogathon 2015

It happened in 2016 this time round due to a rabies outbreak last year, leading to a ban in dog activities by our dean in September.

However, the spirit still remains and the crowd we had this year was rowdier than ever!

Being my 5th year in Dogathon, I've finally jumped out the force labor bandwagon and get into skilled labor this year instead.

Medieval called this year with our furry friends, for the theme revolving all elements to make Dogathon 2015 a success; bravo to all decor, promotional leaflets, videos as well games!

Being the skilled labor, I volunteered in the Physical Examination booth for the event in the earliest slot. Plenty of people do not understand why I had to wake up at 5.30 am in that morning to help out; because I had to attend the shift for dog race participants come at 6 am!

I had to pair with a 5th year senior for her to guide me through the PE since she was the experienced one, but I basically work well with all DVM 5s so the whole day was a breeze~What we do as volunteers there basically is to check on the basic health of the dogs participating Dogathon to see if they are fit with criteria such as:

- not severely infested with tick
- puppies unvaccinated completely
- bitches on heat
- overly uncooperative dogs.

It was really fun being the PE labor because I get to see a lot of different owners and dogs, communicating with them as well as practicing history taking. While I need to be extremely careful to not make any suggestions to the owners as I am yet a licensed vet, I enjoyed the whole process despite the sweat and a dog bite from a 30kg German Shepard Dog.

This year, I even had the chance to help out in performing the PE for Malaysia's Fire Fighting Squad dogs, for they are the sweetest dogs around! They were Cockerspaniels and Labradors trained in UK to scent out flammables like kerosene when they work with their partners in missions. I didn't realize I was being filmed, despite that my senior managed to mask my face.

I only had till 10.30 am around the event bec

ause I had to attend cases in the Large Animal Ward under my ruminant rotation, but it was good enough for me to make a good stroll to meet people I know.

The event is a noble and fun one, hopefully it doesn't stop after this year's!