Learning outcomes

This course finalizes the bachelor curriculum in physiology, considering the entire organism as a whole, in various conditions such as: the equine athlete, the anorexic cat, the dog during pre-surgical fasting, the heat shock, or the high performance dairy cow.

 

 

Goals

Learning activities aim the student to :

  • Understand and describe homeostasis mechanisms.
  • Transfer their knowledge to common cases, and describe the homeostasis adaptation to various conditions (ie heat shock)
  • Describe and understand vitamins and mineral metabolism including responses to deficiency or excess.
  • Understand and describe equine specificities regarding athletic activities.
  • Explain the mechanisms activated with exercise.
  • Describe the training-related changes and the parameters to assess athletic capacities in horses
  • Describe and understand the mechanisms stimulated when animal are fasted or anorexic
  • Understand and describe mechanisms of adaptation to extra-uterine life in neonate
  • Sensitise students to the day-one skills in veterinary medicine through writing a portfolio

Learning activities aim to link physiological concepts and body systems, and to get the full picture of physiologic responses to various conditions.

 

 

Content

This course completes your previous physiology knowledge (cellular, cardio-vascular, respiratory, digestive, endocrine, reproductive, urinary), and focuses on homeostasis and physiological mechanisms occurring in targeted-purpose animals. Each topic is considered by linking knowledge and understanding of all systems, and introduces you to, amongst others, sport horse specificities, reaction to fasting, or anorexia (a common cause of consultation in vet medicine).Theorical aspects are associated to practical and to future clinical practise, in order to stimulate your long-lasting learning. 

Students will also have the opportunity to document their skills through writing of a portfolio, focused on the development of Day-One skills in veterinary medicine.

 

Table of contents

The courses in French includes the following topics:

Homeostasis

Water balance

Acide-base balance

Electrolytes

Heat comfort

 

Vitamines et elements

Functions et balance

. of liposoluble vitamins

. of hydrosoluble vitamins

. of major and minors elements

 

The equine athlete

Muscle activity and energy

Response to exercise

Improvement with training

Assessment of the equine athlete capacities

 

Anorexia and fasting

Metabolic response to fasting

Specificities

Anorexia and inflammation

 

Adaptation to extra-uterine life

Major features of the intra-uterine life

Adaptation to extra-uterine life

Features of the neonate (J0-J28)

 

Portfolio

Sensitization to Day-One competences

Writing session

Exercices

Activities (called, in French, travaux dirigés et travaux pratiques) include clinical cases stimulating reminiscence of learning and transferring them to professional situations, but also to discover the methods to assess the sport capacities (respiratory and cardio-vascular tests).

Activities will also be the opportunity for you to exercise your soft skills, organization, communication, presentation (oral, written), as well as animal handling and clinical exam. The development of these Day-One competence skills for vet will be documented in a personal portfolio.

 

Assessment method

Assessment, at the end of the learning period, is done for all teaching activities and for all learning outcomes (knowledge, understanding, transfer, and practice).

The written exam aims to evaluate your ability to describe mechanisms properly, to transfer your knowledge to practical activities, to summarize knowledge in text and schema, but also to perform part of clinical exam, to give interpretation of clinical tests (and motivate your answer).

Quality of the portfolio on day-one competences will be assessed at the end of the semester and included in the final evaluation.

 

Sources, references and any support material

Fundamental knowledge in chemistry, physics, biology, anatomy, splanchnology, histology as well as biochemistry and previous physiology lectures (Physiology I, II, and III) are required to understand and build the knowledge and practice of the Integrated physiology lecture.

Pedagogical contents are provided by the teaching team on the Webcampus platform. This may include (and not limited to) : slides, videos, audio. This ensures you, as a vet student, have access to the main content of the course.

References for further reading may be provided by the teaching team. A list of reference textbook of physiology is provided as example, below:

Sjaastad, O. V., Sand, O., & Hove, K. (2010). Physiology of domestic animals. Scan. Vet. Press.

Klein, T. B. G. (2012). Cunningham's textbook of veterinary physiology-E-book. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Those books are available upon request at the library.

 

Language of instruction

Français
Training Study programme Block Credits Mandatory
Bachelier en médecine vétérinaire Standard 0 6
Bachelier en médecine vétérinaire Standard 3 6