Photography

Submitted by Nazleen Mohseni, Western University

"Japanese Bonzai Tree Garden Museum, Shot on Disposable"

SAVMA PHCOC: Serving Island Dogs

By: Kelle Keyles

I am a student at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine currently doing my clinical

year at The Ohio State University. I have brought my love of the island animals and knowledge

of St. Kitts and Nevis’s severe lack of resources back stateside with me; I want to continue to

help support the animals of the island through many different facets. The first way is by sending

mostly donated supplies to St. Kitts and Nevis, having it be picked up by students or locals and

distributed to the local veterinary clinic. During my time on the island, which was almost 2 years

consecutively due to travel restrictions during COVID, I learned how the local clinic and

veterinary staff provide care to the local population. The entire clinic is run by one local woman

who is the technician and one veterinarian, with the addition of local volunteers from time to

time. It was a privilege to see first hand how they used minimal resources to cater to the local

animals in need.

My wife lived on the island with me and was hired by the first and only physical animal shelter

on the island. She worked as the foster and adoption coordinator and kennel attendant for about a

year which allowed us to take in some animals from the local clinic that were abandoned or

surrendered there. Once at the shelter we were able to get them into foster and adoptive homes.

The local animal population on St. Kitts and Nevis are severely underserved, often resulting in

owners having to surrender their pets. The stray population on the island is also very high and the

limited resources makes it difficult to control the population and get them proper medical care.

Veterinary care for small animals is already limited on the island as most of the local

veterinarians work with the agriculture department with the livestock and large animal

concerns.Since leaving the island for my clinical year at The Ohio State, I have been

brainstorming ways to continue to support the animals of St. Kitts and Nevis and help provide

them with veterinary essentials such as dog food, cat traps for spay/neutering feral cats, and

donated medications. In conjunction with sending down resources to the local veterinary clinic

on island, Ponds Veterinary Clinic, we have also been flying out puppies rescued from the streets

or abandoned at the local clinic We have partnered with a local vet student run rescue in Ohio, as

well as a Ross Alumni who works for a rescue in Pennsylvania . These are the two primary

locations our island dogs go when they come to the states. We have imported a total of 14 dogs

so far to the United States and we continue to keep contacts and options open for transporting

more dogs in the future.

I am able to continue to supply resources to the local clinic and continue to fly dogs off island

with the collaboration of Ross University Veterinary students on island. They help by

volunteering at the local clinic, picking up packages and pallets sent down, as well as fostering

and being flight buddies for dogs being flown off island. Students have been fundamental in our

ability to provide more assistance to the island while living in America. Students coordinate with

us to rescue and provide them with health care and a foster home, as well as prepare them for a

flight to one of the rescues we partner with. Students have been willing to help pick up shipments

from customs and distribute them to the local clinic and local community members in need. We

hope that with each experience they have learned that there are ways to continue to help the

island even from America that they will be inspired to do the same when they leave. St Kitts and

Nevis is a beautiful country, with some of the greatest people and they deserve to be able to

provide their animals with the best medical care. The stray animals living on the street deserve

loving homes and access to adequate medical care too. We are proud to still remain a part of the

community of students and locals that help the animals on the island and will always work

towards growing and changing for the better for them. We have since started a non-profit to

continue our support of animals and locals on the island, called Penelopes Rescue Mission.

SAVMA PHCOC: FARVets in Guatemala

By: Vivian Lee

During March of 2022, I had the immense pleasure of travelling to Santiago Atitlán,

Guatemala, a small mountain city located near Lake Atitlán, a massive volcanic crater in

Guatemala’s southwestern highlands, as part of the FARVets Program. FARVets is a non-profit

organization dedicated to planning, organizing, and implementing sterilization clinics to assist

animal welfare groups abroad. As part of this program, I worked closely with Fantasma Animal

Rescue, a local organization in Lake Atitlán that focuses on animal rescue, spay and neuter

clinics, and vaccinations. There is a historically high number of stray animals in Atitlán,

Guatemala with animals having a few familiar faces in their lives but not being provided the

proper nutrition and veterinary care needed to thrive. Many of these animals will go from

restaurant to restaurant in search of food, and at the end of the day they have no home to go

to.

Due to the overpopulation of animals, many of them are susceptible to disease, injuries,

and malnutrition. During the clinic, I performed multiple wellness procedures such as physical

exams, vaccinations, dewormings, topical parasite control, and other medical procedures as

necessary as possible. In addition, I performed my first ovariohysterectomies and castrations

with veterinary supervision, as well as assist with anesthesia and the recovery of the patients.

By offering these free veterinary services, our team was able to help hundred dogs in getting

the veterinary care and attention they need to ensure that the population is left healthier and

happier. Since I have limited amount of small animal clinical experience, being able to improve

on my surgical skills in addition to animal restraint, drawing blood, giving IV medications, and

placing catheters made me significantly more confident in my abilities and will surely help my

future career as a clinician.

I was lucky enough to attend this location in Guatemala, which has more than 20 Mayan

ethnic groups and is most notably home to the Tz’utujil and Kaqchikel people. This town is rich

in Mayan culture and is known for textiles, ceramics, holistic therapies, and other handmade

crafts made by the locals. As an advanced Spanish speaker, it was an honor to be able to speak

to the local people in Spanish and help translate many of the veterinary medical terms so that

they could understand what procedures we were performing and answer any questions they

had. As a second-generation Cuban Chinese American, it was invaluable to experience their

culture and see how open they were to helping their animals and giving them a better chance

at life. Being that this was the first time I had travelled internationally since COVID, it was a very

eye-opening experience and really helped bring perspective into my life that I still take along

with me today.

One of the most important missions of this trip for me was to help educate the local

citizens and pet owners of common canine and feline health issues. This ensures that we not

only leave the animals we treated in good condition, but by making locals aware of common

health issues and the importance of veterinary care, we will indirectly help other animals in the

future. A wonderful opportunity I was given as part of FARVets was to visit a local children’s

school about a 5-minute walk from the clinic location, and we spoke to the kids about the basic

needs of animals, what the clinical signs of rabies are and what to do when they see a dog with

rabies, and what a veterinarian’s role is. Many of them were eager to learn more, ask

questions, and engage with us. I left feeling like we had made a very positive impact on the

community and sparked better relationships for the next time the program visits Santiago.

Finally, not only did I gain many skills, but also I gained a family. Although we had only

spent one week together, we spent the entirety of our long days working hard in the clinic and

learning a lot about one another. I had the pleasure of working with three incredible

veterinarians who put a lot into making it an unforgettable experience, and were extremely

patient and enthusiastic to teach us veterinary students. It really demonstrated to me what a

positive and healthy work culture is, and how much the time flies by when you are having fun.

The other Cornell veterinary students who were part of the trip, some of which whom I had

never spoken to, were so supportive, encouraging, and had a lot to teach me as well. I still hold

many of these people close to my heart, and look forward to hopefully working with them again

in the future.

I am forever grateful for my experience with FARVets and would highly recommend it to

anyone who is interested in pursuing an opportunity abroad that will change your life. I would

like to thank SAVMA’s Public Health and Community Outreach Committee (PHCOC) for

awarding me the Underserved Areas Grant to help offset the costs of this program. I would also

like to thank the following people for making my FARVets experience possible: Dr. Jesse

Navatta, Dr. Mark Fealey, Dr. Mariana Prado, Claudia Guinansaca-Aguilar, Emmy Luo, Stacy

Kaneko, Kaela Toback, Sandra Pinto, Sara Dutra, and Dr. Paul Maza.

About Vivian:

Vivian Lee (she/her) is a third-year veterinary student at Cornell University’s College of

Veterinary Medicine with a keen interest in conservation medicine and aquatics. She

has had various experiences at institutions including Mystic Aquarium, Mote Marine

Laboratory and Aquarium, Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo, University of Florida’s Tropical

Aquaculture Laboratory, and The Marine Mammal Center.

She currently serves as the SAVMA Delegate for Cornell University and the

International Exchange Officer-Elect for National SAVMA, representing veterinary

students on a national and international level. In her spare time, Vivian enjoys going on

hikes with her guide dog in-training, Siggy, as well as dancing and travelling.

Vivian is happy to speak with everyone (pre-vet students, vet students, and current

veterinarians), and you can connect with her here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivian-

marie-lee/

SAVMA PHCOC, SAVMA Vet Gazette Submission for Covelo Clinic

Established in 2012, Covelo Clinic strives to improve animal health and welfare in

Covelo, a small town in Mendocino County that struggles with pet overpopulation and access to

veterinary care due to financial and transportation restraints. The clinic provides vaccinations,

preventatives, spay and neuter surgeries, owner education, and other veterinary care. Covelo

Clinic is completely volunteer run, with veterinarians, veterinary students, registered technicians,

and community members coming together to provide care for the animals of Covelo. Partnering

with a local nonprofit organization, Better Options for Neglected Strays (BONES) Pet Rescue,

Covelo Clinic currently conducts 2-3 field clinics each year, serving hundreds of patients in the

span of two days. Most of the clinic equipment is transported from Davis to Covelo, set up on the

first day, and taken down and packed up once the last patient has been seen. This clinic is

completely donation based. Equipment, medications, vaccines, and preventatives are all donated

or purchased with donations from UCD, SAVMA, and the Covelo community.

Every clinic, clients begin lining up 12 hours before the clinic doors are opened in order

to secure a spot for their dogs to be seen. The closest veterinarian to Covelo is over an hour away

and is close to retiring. On top of this, the median yearly income in Covelo in 2019 was 18,730

USD. Some residents of Covelo lack reliable transportation, and the closest veterinarian has

quoted over $800 for house calls, which is an unfeasible financial burden for many people in the

area. Every clinic, residents of Covelo bring cats and dogs with lacerations, embedded foxtails,

eye injuries, masses, and other medical problems that would have otherwise gone untreated. A

lack of access to preventative care combined with a high tick burden in Covelo also leads to a

high incidence of tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease and anaplasmosis in these animals.

Covelo clinic provides education about tick-borne diseases to owners as well as flea and tick

preventatives for patients in order to decrease this problem. Additionally, due to the lack of a

local veterinarian, the majority of the animals in Covelo were not sterilized prior to the

establishment of this clinic in 2012. Because of this, the Covelo community struggles with pet

overpopulation. BONES Pet Rescue has been rescuing and providing veterinary care for this

struggling pet population since 1998. BONES operates on a very limited budget and is

completely donation and volunteer based. Covelo Clinic strives to lessen the burden both by

decreasing the expansion of the pet population via spay and neuter surgeries as well as providing

BONES with medical advice and support.

Covelo Clinic could not operate without the incredible support from this community,

especially without the support from BONES Pet Rescue. On top of a core group of 16 veterinary

student clinic coordinators, our volunteer team includes roughly 5 veterinarians, 3 veterinary

technicians, 40 veterinary students, and 4 pre-veterinary undergraduates per trip. Clinic

coordinators work intimately with BONES to run the field clinics, and BONES connects the

community to the clinic through advertising and decreasing barriers to access by facilitating

transport. While clinics are running, members of BONES collaborate with clinic coordinators to

intake patients and assist with equipment (eg: oxygen tank refills), creating smooth clinic flow.

Furthermore, to ensure that veterinary students are cognizant of the community’s background

and needs, the BONES founder discusses BONES’ history and mission at the orientation prior to

every clinic. This clinic is dependent on a flourishing partnership with the community of Covelo.

Over the course of a weekend, the clinic performs approximately 100 wellness exams.

During these appointments, veterinary students gather patient histories and perform physical

exams, administer vaccines and dewormers, and for more complicated cases, run diagnostics to

better understand how to effectively treat their patients. Diagnostics performed at Covelo Clinic

include ear cytologies, fine needle aspirates, packed cell volumes, blood smears, skin scrapings,

and more! Perhaps most importantly, students gain invaluable experience communicating

directly with clients to gather patient histories, educate on disease and prevention, and conduct

post-surgical discharges. Over 100 surgeries (spays, neuters, mass removals, and amputations)

are also performed over the weekend. For surgeries, one student monitors anesthesia under the

guidance of a veterinary technician, while another acts as an assistant to the veterinarian

performing the surgery. Veterinary students gain invaluable experience placing catheters and ET

tubes, calculating and administering anesthetic drugs, and recovering patients from anesthesia,

all under the guidance of veterinary professionals. 

Covelo Clinic was established with two goals in mind: improve the health and wellbeing

of the animals in the underserved population of Covelo, and provide veterinary students with

practical experience. It is through generous donations and community support that we hope to

continue to reach these goals!

Established in 2012, Covelo Clinic strives to improve animal health and welfare inCovelo, a small town in Mendocino County that struggles with pet overpopulation and access toveterinary care due to financial and transportation restraints. The clinic provides vaccinations,preventatives, spay and neuter surgeries, owner education, and other veterinary care. CoveloClinic is completely volunteer run, with veterinarians, veterinary students, registered technicians,and community members coming together to provide care for the animals of Covelo. Partneringwith a local nonprofit organization, Better Options for Neglected Strays (BONES) Pet Rescue,Covelo Clinic currently conducts 2-3 field clinics each year, serving hundreds of patients in thespan of two days. Most of the clinic equipment is transported from Davis to Covelo, set up on thefirst day, and taken down and packed up once the last patient has been seen. This clinic iscompletely donation based. Equipment, medications, vaccines, and preventatives are all donatedor purchased with donations from UCD, SAVMA, and the Covelo community.Every clinic, clients begin lining up 12 hours before the clinic doors are opened in orderto secure a spot for their dogs to be seen. The closest veterinarian to Covelo is over an hour awayand is close to retiring. On top of this, the median yearly income in Covelo in 2019 was 18,730USD. Some residents of Covelo lack reliable transportation, and the closest veterinarian hasquoted over $800 for house calls, which is an unfeasible financial burden for many people in thearea. Every clinic, residents of Covelo bring cats and dogs with lacerations, embedded foxtails,eye injuries, masses, and other medical problems that would have otherwise gone untreated. Alack of access to preventative care combined with a high tick burden in Covelo also leads to ahigh incidence of tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease and anaplasmosis in these animals.Covelo clinic provides education about tick-borne diseases to owners as well as flea and tickpreventatives for patients in order to decrease this problem. Additionally, due to the lack of alocal veterinarian, the majority of the animals in Covelo were not sterilized prior to theestablishment of this clinic in 2012. Because of this, the Covelo community struggles with petoverpopulation. BONES Pet Rescue has been rescuing and providing veterinary care for thisstruggling pet population since 1998. BONES operates on a very limited budget and iscompletely donation and volunteer based. Covelo Clinic strives to lessen the burden both by decreasing the expansion of the pet population via spay and neuter surgeries as well as providingBONES with medical advice and support.Covelo Clinic could not operate without the incredible support from this community,especially without the support from BONES Pet Rescue. On top of a core group of 16 veterinarystudent clinic coordinators, our volunteer team includes roughly 5 veterinarians, 3 veterinarytechnicians, 40 veterinary students, and 4 pre-veterinary undergraduates per trip. Cliniccoordinators work intimately with BONES to run the field clinics, and BONES connects thecommunity to the clinic through advertising and decreasing barriers to access by facilitatingtransport. While clinics are running, members of BONES collaborate with clinic coordinators tointake patients and assist with equipment (eg: oxygen tank refills), creating smooth clinic flow.Furthermore, to ensure that veterinary students are cognizant of the community’s backgroundand needs, the BONES founder discusses BONES’ history and mission at the orientation prior toevery clinic. This clinic is dependent on a flourishing partnership with the community of Covelo.Over the course of a weekend, the clinic performs approximately 100 wellness exams.During these appointments, veterinary students gather patient histories and perform physicalexams, administer vaccines and dewormers, and for more complicated cases, run diagnostics tobetter understand how to effectively treat their patients. Diagnostics performed at Covelo Clinicinclude ear cytologies, fine needle aspirates, packed cell volumes, blood smears, skin scrapings,and more! Perhaps most importantly, students gain invaluable experience communicatingdirectly with clients to gather patient histories, educate on disease and prevention, and conductpost-surgical discharges. Over 100 surgeries (spays, neuters, mass removals, and amputations)are also performed over the weekend. For surgeries, one student monitors anesthesia under theguidance of a veterinary technician, while another acts as an assistant to the veterinarianperforming the surgery. Veterinary students gain invaluable experience placing catheters and ETtubes, calculating and administering anesthetic drugs, and recovering patients from anesthesia,all under the guidance of veterinary professionals. Covelo Clinic was established with two goals in mind: improve the health and wellbeingof the animals in the underserved population of Covelo, and provide veterinary students with practical experience. It is through generous donations and community support that we hope tocontinue to reach these goals!

DEI Highlight Series

As this summer vacation comes to an end, we are excited to continue our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Highlight Series, by introducing you all to the work of the National Association for Black Veterinarians (NABV). Driven by their mission to “ADVOCATE, provide SUPPORT, and cultivate an inclusive COMMUNITY for blacks in veterinary medicine…,” the NABV Conference held at The Ohio State University this past June was a physical manifestation of just that! 

Dr. Stara Robertson, DACLAM (NABV Executive Board, President, left), Darius Statham (NABV Executive Board, Student Representative and Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine ‘23, right), and Brittany Carter-Stewart (NABV Executive Board, Student Representative and The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine ‘23, center) walk us through what this Conference is and why it is so important. 

Motivation, and Impact: 

Lack of representation is still a persistent issue in the profession. Recent statistics revealed that the demographic makeup of black professionals within veterinary medicine has decreased to 1.5% and has constantly fluctuated between this 1-2% range for decades. One of our goals is to create a pipeline to help correct this. This conference allows for the black community, and allies, from all stages and areas of veterinary medicine to congregate under one roof to network and build more interpersonal connections with one another.  With the NABV conference, we wanted to create a safe space to network, socialize, and learn. We hoped to facilitate students having access to mentorship and summer jobs/internship opportunities.

Scope of the conference: 

There were about 100-150 attendees total. We had 40-45 speakers including 3 panel discussions and our two keynote speakers; Tim Wise and Dr. James Moore. We also hosted an outreach activity at a local shelter as our conference lab. Hotel lodging was probably the main unexpected challenge we faced with planning this conference. We underestimated the total number of attendees and essentially ran out of space. We had to do some research on neighboring hotels and were able to accommodate our participants. 

Adding in Action to Allyship:  

Challenges that have been historically prevalent within this profession and many others include microaggressions, prejudice, or blatant racism. There have already been so many discussions covering this over the years, so I promise to not get onto my soapbox about it. However, I do encourage people seeking information to educate themselves with the resources still available on several different platforms. I also have noticed more individuals seeking insight and/or education from their black colleagues. Even though this is greatly appreciated, one must also consider the amount of time and energy that is required to educate and facilitate change for those within the black community.

 Allyship becomes a key component by serving as a buffer for all of this whether that is speaking up, educating, or providing spaces for belonging. There are some instances where individuals outside of the black community truly cannot understand our perspectives due to the cultural disconnect. In these situations, an ally outside of the black community may have a more relatable take on the exact same point that is more palatable. True allyship also includes being able to identify and speak up against microaggressions and prejudices when they notice them; regardless of whether that person is present or not. Regarding creating a sense of belonging, this can be accomplished by setting a welcoming and inviting tone in a given space. This involves not asking assumptive, stereotypical questions or bombarding someone with conversations on race. Just take time to truly get to know someone for who they are as an individual, not their race. This shows that you’re intentional about creating a genuine bond with a person, and not just reaching out because of obligation or guilt.

My recommendation is always to be an active participant with events hosted by the NABV. The best way to keep up with current events is to join this organization as an ally. If you are a student enrolled in an institution with an established student NABV chapter, we encourage you to join those organizations as well. This is an all-inclusive organization for individuals that would like to support our mission and goals for the upliftment of the black community. Even if you simply want to learn and gain more understanding about what is happening and why organizations like these are crucial, becoming a member shows that you at least want to support and opens up that safe space for dialogue with your colleagues.

Looking to the Future: 

In the future we hope to create more student chapters at pre-veterinary and veterinary school level. We would like to expand our network of sponsors to provide more scholarships for our students. Currently, we are working to provide more mentorship opportunities for individuals interested in pursuing careers within the field. We also plan to have more events for our members throughout the year and more outreach activities for community engagement.

Resources: 

A few resources that we currently have available include NABV directory listed on our website https://nabv.bausper.com/, the BlackDVMNetwork, and the Tuskegee Alumni Association. We always encourage those within the black veterinarian community to reach out to one another for networking purposes and to build a genuine rapport with one another. For prospective students interested in more information, we recommend reaching out to animal science departments and other established veterinary organizations for more insight. Also, feel free to reach out to members of the executive board either individually or at info@NABVonline.org any time if you have any questions or concerns.

Special Thanks: 

We would like to thank the entire executive board for helping to organize this amazing conference. There was a lot of time and thought that went into planning every aspect of this event, so we want each of you to know how much you are appreciated for the hard work. We also want to send a special shoutout to each and every one of our sponsors for this event. None of this would have been possible without your contributions, and we lookforward to seeing you all again next year!