International Veterinary Experience Scholarship

As a first-generation college student from a small town in northeast Wisconsin, I never imagined that I would get accepted into vet school, let alone have the opportunity to travel abroad and work with zoo species. Growing up and even during undergrad, my small town and the surrounding area was home to small animal practitioners and a few equine and bovine clinics. Zoo vets were miles and miles away. My comfort level in veterinary medicine was originally with small animals and horses, but in my journey to get into veterinary school, I also shadowed a large animal vet. Little did I know that that large animal vet would travel to a zoo and its satellite locations to evaluate their animals, introducing me to the possibility of working with wildlife and zoo species. This was something that I never thought would be possible without being a zoo vet, but it made me realize that I, too, can work with zoo species and wildlife as a general practitioner. 

It was this prior exposure to zoo medicine during undergrad that inspired me to apply to be one of the vet students to travel abroad to the Belize Zoo. Fortunately, my application was accepted. In the fall of 2023, I studied abroad for 10 days at the Belize Zoo with a team consisting of a board-certified zoo vet, a zoo medicine resident, a zoo CVT, and 7 of my classmates. While in Belize, our primary job was to perform physical exams on animals at the zoo to assess their health. These animals were either due for their annual exams or perhaps a zoo keeper had concerns about a particular animal. Our physical exams were facilitated by sedation in order to keep ourselves and the animal safe. Once sedated, the animals were then brought back to the veterinary clinic where they were weighed and then evaluated, or they had their exams performed in a holding area next to their exhibits. The latter were typically larger, like the tapirs.  

Having limited access to resources, including supplies and medications, and only being able to bring so much into the country challenged me to become resourceful and problem solve. We also had limited access to controlled sedatives and had to use them wisely based on the amount available and the risks of certain drugs in specific species. This is especially important because our evaluation of the animals relied so heavily on sedation to facilitate our exams. The other challenge regarding pharmacology is that many of these animals do not have any research data on them regarding how they are affected by specific drugs or even what is normal versus abnormal regarding their physical exam and blood work findings. Performing research using textbooks and the zoo’s online database was essential to get a baseline for what to expect for each species and of course, extrapolation from what is known in domestic cats, dogs, and other more common veterinary species played a significant role in our medical decisions. 

While I expanded on my problem-solving capabilities, I also gained a lot of hands-on experience. I became much more comfortable with anesthesia, and I was able to practice placing IV catheters, drawing blood, administering subcutaneous fluids, and performing ultrasound-guided cystocentesis. My lab skills were also tested as I analyzed blood smears, urinalyses, skin scrapes, fecal flotations, and much more. It was truly a rewarding experience to take care of the animals and be responsible for all of their care from start to finish.

One of the most important things I gained from this experience was cultural awareness and a broader understanding of an animal’s place in its ecosystem. Many times when people see a gorgeous jaguar, they just see the animal. They don’t see how that animal coexists within its environment and how it interacts with the local people. It takes talking to the locals and experiencing the wild of Belize to understand how everything fits together in the bigger picture. Just talking to the zoo keepers and staff at the zoo, I learned so much about the Belizean way of life, their economy, and public perceptions of various species. Going to town, I saw how many locals lived, how they relied on raising livestock for food, and how they have far less compared to the US. This helped me understand why a jaguar that hunts a village’s chickens is going to be targeted by the locals. This creates a point of conflict where the villagers try to kill the jaguar and the jaguar has to be relocated to the zoo before the villagers become successful in their efforts.  

The zoo keepers would also tell us the local legends and myths of various animals. For example, to see a barn owl flying over your home is an omen of death. It is these perceptions that also leads to animosity towards these species from the locals, which is how some animals end up injured and at the zoo. While this doesn’t directly affect my role as a veterinarian caring for the animals at the zoo (I am just taking care of their health, right?), it has broader implications in that it helps me understand why the animals are here at the zoo and why they have the injuries they do. 

In addition, I spent time hiking the trails surrounding where I stayed at the Tropical Education Center to better understand the habitat the locals and wildlife live in. The ecosystem is not as fruitful as one would expect in a tropical location. The ecosystem is harsh, which is why human development and agriculture is expanding, but this is also why the animals need more space to find the food they need. It is all intricately intertwined, bringing man and animal close together in a way not suitable for coexistence. 

As you may have noticed, I learned a lot and my perspective has been broadened immensely. While I do not have an interest in pursuing a residency in zoo medicine, I want to become involved in wildlife or zoo medicine in some way even as I pursue small animal general practice. I want to travel and volunteer to provide care to animals at zoos or wildlife rehabilitation centers, and I want to get involved with wildlife research projects so that I can continue to learn about the intricacies between human, animal, and environment. 

My trip to Belize was more than I could have imagined. I am immensely grateful to Dr. Shawna Hawkins for providing this unique opportunity to veterinary students at the UW Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, and I hope the SVM will continue to allow her to enlighten students as I have been. 

Until my next international veterinary adventure, 

Kayla Bloede
Class of 2024 DVM Candidate
UW Madison School of Veterinary Medicine