A thoroughbred racehorse, a poorly spaniel and a litter of rare piglets are among the latest patients at the Glasgow Veterinary School.

Photographer Jeff Mitchell was allowed behind the scenes at the school, one of two in Scotland, which counts author James Herriot – the pen name of vet Alf White – among its graduates.

Based near Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, the Glasgow University vet school has just celebrated its 150th anniversary and has grown to become one of the world's most respected veterinary institutions.

Mr Mitchell recently captured the huge variety of animals treated at the vet school, including 14-month-old thoroughbred Karma, who was admitted for an operation to fix a problem with her ligaments.

She was taken to a recovery stable following the major procedure at the school's Weipers Equine Hospital theatre.

The hospital is also nurturing a newborn litter of Kunekune piglets, recently born to their mother Violet in the hospital's Galloway building, with the ongoing rehabilitation of a number of dogs in the hospital's hydroptherapy pools.

The Glasgow Vet School was founded in 1862 in a classroom in Sauchiehall Lane by James McCall, who spent 50 years as principal of the college. Its roll of just 10 students gradually grew and Mr McCall moved the school to larger premises in Parliamentary Road fitted with stables, a shoeing forge and a hospital.

Veterinary care in the early days of the school was focused on horses as the animals were vital to transport and industry.

However, the growth in popularity of cats and dogs led to the opening of the Small Animal Hospital in the 1950s.

After a period in the late 1980s when it was threatened with closure, it is now one of only four in Europe to be accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The school has always had the motto "one health, one medicine" and its research links with the medical faculty have seen major breakthroughs, including the identification of cause of cancers in cattle that had major implications for the treatment of cervical cancer in women.