Page 3 - RVC Clinical Connections - Summer 2025

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Records before records began Nevertheless, we are all standing on the
he oft-used statement ‘since shoulders of giants – lifted up by the dedication
records began’, in relation to and vision of those who went before us.
T weather, can raise more questions We see that very clearly in our centre page
than answers. Long before the Met article about the development of ophthalmology
Office was established in 1854, the at the RVC. The pioneering work of Professor
Central England Temperature series, Peter Bedford, who spent four decades here,
“the longest-running instrumental created the foundations that enables our
temperature record in the world”, existed, current excellent team of ophthalmologists
having started in 1659. However, given (often working alongside our exotics and equine
that ancient societies were at least as specialists) to do the incredible things they do,
dependent on weather as we are, this for a broad range of species. The success
Anglocentric potted history is only part of such cases is enabled by considerable
of the picture. Prehistoric communities may not have had skill, knowledge, research and training – and by ever-evolving
the instruments to uniformly record temperatures but that technology.
doesn’t mean weather patterns were unmonitored. Similarly, the case we have on the front page, of Milo, the kitten
What does this have to do with veterinary medicine? Actually, whose life was saved by surgery for a liver shunt, would not
there are parallels between ancient meteorology and rudimentary have been possible without considerable expertise coupled with
veterinary practice. The emergence of the veterinary profession advanced technology. As is the case with Norman on page 4, in
is usually traced to Bourgelat, who established the first veterinary which abdominal CT on his third admission related a recurrent set
college, in Lyon in 1761. However, there is some evidence of of symptoms to a tiny but problematic foreign body.
Neolithic people performing veterinary procedures, for example The equine article on page 8, about the benefits to our patients
a trepanned cow skull has been dated to 3400-3000 BC. That’s of a harmonic scalpel is yet another example of how clinical
recent compared to the 900 impressive depictions of animals expertise and advanced technology are enabling more efficacious
in the Grotte de Lascaux in France, created between 17,000 to treatment, often with faster recovery time. The harmonic scalpel
22,000 years ago, and even older cave art in Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, has already helped a range of patients, including several horses
depicting at least 13 species. with melanomas. The technology has applications beyond equine
We can’t say what, if any, veterinary procedures those oncology, and the article includes the case of a horse with guttural
prehistoric societies performed but we can say that concern for pouch mycosis.
and dependency on members of our own species and others is The evolution of patient care, however, isn’t just about
very ancient – even if sophisticated medical technology and the technology. It is also about how information and skills are shared
ability to widely disseminate knowledge were absent. with younger and future generations – and how institutions
In more recent times, public awareness of what we are organise themselves amid contextual changes. In the interview
capable of as veterinary professionals was popularised through on page 5, Katharine Nelson, our Director of General Practice,
the work of James Alfred Wight, disseminated as his James points out that the increasing emphasis on general practice for
Herriot stories, with 80 million books sold in 36 languages. But veterinary students is a significant policy step that the RVC is
even with those stories being within living memory, much of the embracing. Regardless of clinical advances, the contextualised
clinical work described in this edition of Clinical Connections has care led by our general practitioners, and shared with our
become possible since that time. That is not due to any absence students, is the cornerstone of our ability to provide the best
of aptitude, motivation or compassion – it is because technology, quality of clinical care to all veterinary patients and their owners.
technical knowhow and underlying research hadn’t evolved to the
required point. Amanda Boag, Vice Principal (Clinical Services)

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