Farm Vet

Hi, my name is Chrissie (Or mum sometimes calls me Moo)

I'm 14 and being a vet was one of the things I always wanted to do from when I was very little. I live in the Australian bush, near the capital and have lived there nearly all my life. We have no TV and limited internet because we get very little reception and we have a satellite dish on our roof for internet. I am home schooled as it is more and an hour's drive to the nearest school.

We have 8 in our family (Including Dad and Mum) the oldest is 22 and the youngest is 4. I am in the middle of all my siblings. Our farm is about 10 acres which is quite small in comparison with all the others around. We have about 20 sheep, 14 chooks, 3 rabbits and two dogs.

I made up my mind when I was 10 to be a vet because I have seen to many animals die. :(

I had a sheep called Poppy and she was about to lamb. We had her in the shed when she gave birth to twins. Unfortunately they were still born and it had taken hours to get them out, well that was very sad. The next day Poppy was wandering about the paddock, imagine my surprise as we found another dead lamb in the the paddock. Poppy had triplets! I was even more surprised when the next day I found yet another lamb. She had quadruplets!!! All the lambs were dead, but that was okay since we still had the mum. My older sister was in the shed looking after her when she had a heart attack and died. An autopsy revealed she had Pregnancy Toxemia which happens when they are deficient in Selenium.

So that was bad, but then my rabbit died, and quite a few of our lambs died and a few months ago our neighbors ram had to be put down because of a infected wound despite my sister's (who will be a vet in a few years) and my efforts to save him.

I will hopefully start studying in a about 2 years at Charles Stuart Uni(and study for six years :P)

Anyway gotta go,

Allons-y!