Our training's objective for you is to enable you to properly handle birds or reptiles and to assure you're able to safely collect specimen material for further testing as well as apply medications.
In regard to "exotic" pets, however, a basic knowledge of the husbandry and physiological needs of the various species plays a particularly important role, since the majority of animals that require medical attention exhibit illnesses due to improper husbandry and feeding.
Therefore we put special emphasis on this area (anamnesis) and also teach you the basic needs of the most important bird and reptile species.
The propaedeutic teaching is divided into several sections:
Lecture
This course consists of a total of four hours of propaedeutic lecture, divided into two classroom hours at the beginning of the 5th semester (FS) and two teaching units made available as online lectures. The online lecture allows you to view important explanations before the practical exercises and, if necessary, before the examination at your convenience and, if necessary, repeatedly; it is permanently available to you.
Practical exercises
The exercises take place on Thursday afternoons in the winter semester. In total, you will be with us in the clinic twice in the 5th FS. You will be assigned to either an early group (13:00 - 15:15) or a late group (15:30 - 17:45) or to reptile or bird. Group assignments will be posted in our office and also posted on Moodle.
You will spend a total of six teaching hours with us in the exercises.
This exam is conducted as an interdisciplinary exam with the participation of all clinics.
In the exam, you will complete a multiple choice exam as well as a so-called OSCE test (Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation): The latter test is designed to require you to demonstrate practical skills, which will be evaluated as objectively as possible using a point system. To make it easier for you to practice the tasks, we have made our OSCE tasks available for download under Exam Propaedeutics ("Prüfung Propädeutik", german language only).
Basically, you will be given a general task as well as two further tasks concerning the handling of birds and reptiles.
In the general task you are supposed to assess present husbandry parameters in relation to the presented animal as well as to recognize the species and, if applicable, the sex. Since there are many species of birds and reptiles, we will limit ourselves here to the most common ones (a corresponding species list is also available for download for your own use). If you need information material on these species, please contact us.
The two special tasks are short instructions that you demonstrate to us practically as a corresponding exercise (usually on a dead animal or a phantom). You can see the evaluation from the sheets. Basically, the most important steps must be performed correctly (3 points), so that additional points can be awarded for non-essential but useful steps.
The tasks are structured so that they can be completed in the time available without rushing.
Good luck!