Day 2

0900: I arrive at the agreed time. RM not in yet.

0915: I have a supervisor!

1600: A bit of a waste of a day, today. Spent all day around the vet school and vet farm and we're no further on in the project!

The sheep from yesterday which we thought might have scrapie does have scrapie. And to make matters worse, the slurry tank at the farm has developed a dangerous-looking bulge at the base on one side. Also, some of the piglets up at the farm that I'll be studying have a Streptococcal meningitis, which is common enough in pigs, and are quite dehydrated. The farmer's looking for a treatment - the best way to rehydrate them is per rectum using a cow milk fever treatment tube.

We talk about the project (again), then spend an hour running about the vet school chasing up one of the tubes to treat the piglets with. I meet some of the Postgraduates working at the vet school, and one of next years lecturers, JT, whom RM describes as 'Tigger - he bounces about all over the place'! We finally find a tube, then RM has to go up to the vet farm to do some more talking.

I still don't know why I had to go, as this was part of RM's job and nothing to do with my project, but I was told to wander around. I got bored and wet and cold after an hour and went and sat in the car for the second, while RM sat in a nice, warm building and talked to the farm manager about scrapie sheep and bulging slurry tanks.

I think we're actually going to go up to the pig farm tomorrow. I'll get to do something at last!