Feral Cat Alliance Megaclinic

By: Jennifer Stecher

Iowa State Univeristy, Class of 2012

Iowa State University Feral Cat Alliance (FCA) is a volunteer, veterinary student organization under the supervision of ISU College of Veterinary Medicine faculty and staff that is dedicated to serving central Iowa communities by humanely controlling the feral cat population.  Our mission is to humanely reduce the feral cat population by using a trap, neuter, and return program (TNR).  TNR programs allow feral cat colonies to be humanely trapped by their caretakers and transported to our ISU facility to be surgically sterilized, vaccinated, receive a topical dewormer, and become ear tipped.  Afterwards, the cats are returned to their caretakers to be released back into the wild (their territory).   

FCA holds monthly clinics and an annual Megaclinic at ISU College of Veterinary Medicine.  On Saturday, September 18, 2010, FCA held their annual Megaclinic.  Over one hundred ISU veterinary students, eleven ISU/local veterinarians and several ISU staff worked to surgically sterilize, vaccinate and deworm one hundred feral cats.

With the help of SAVMA ELC Grant, FCA was able to fund this endeavor to surgically sterilize feral cats and provide education to the local community and veterinary students about the behavior, medical risks, infectious disease risks, and overpopulation issues of feral cats.   Feral cat overpopulation is a huge issue in the central Iowa community and FCA’s monthly clinics and the annual Megaclinic attempt to reduce these numbers through our spaying and neutering efforts.  It was approximated that at the Megaclinic, we prevented about 90-110 pregnancies and 450-500 kittens from being born this year alone.  This was a great accomplishment for the Feral Cat Alliance and Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine.  

Travel, Research, Good Friends, and Good Times!

By: Jane Na

Michigan State University, Class of 2012

(Editor's note: applications for 2012 are due at the beginning of Februrary, so keep an eye out next year!)

The Fundamentals of Veterinary Science Summer School at the University of Cambridge made my last free summer of veterinary school absolutely unforgettable.  The program was amazing!  It was a chance of a life-time to be able to carry out research at a world reknowned institution in England!  It was also a chance to meet other veterinary students from around the world and learn about different countries, cultures, customs, and talk about our lab work but also travel and have fun.

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Living the 2+2 Program Reality

By: Jennafer Glaesemann

Iowa State Univeristy by-way-of University of Nebraska, Class of 2012

Consider 25 students, approximately 30 faculty and staff members, 2 classrooms and 3 teaching laboratories, and 3 student organizations... and then 120 students, approximately 500 faculty and staff members, over 565,000 square feet in the largest academic building of its respective university, and 33 student organizations.  Then consider being separated by 223 miles and approximately 3.5 hours, depending on construction, road conditions, and the foot on the accelerator.  When the new kids on the block enter the playground of one of the oldest public veterinary schools in the nation, these two groups are thrown together in a maelstrom guaranteed to produce sparks.  Those sparks have instigated an innovative educational design that is spreading like wildfire in the veterinary education field as institutions struggle to balance resource constraints with societal demands for increased numbers of veterinarians.

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Challenges from the International Arena: Running a Clinic in Nicaragua

By: Laura Niman

Oregon State University, Class of 2014

Four years ago the Oregon State University’s IVSA chapter was invited by community leaders to the Nicaraguan community of Merida to develop an annual veterinary service trip. Merida is located on the island of Ometepe, which is home to an estimated 10,000 families and countless dogs, cats, pigs, cows, horses and chickens.  As the people of Ometepe rely on their animals for food, transportation, and work, the suboptimal condition of these animals directly impacts the people and their livelihood.  Companion animals also suffer from malnourishment and diseases, many of which are transmissible to their human families.  From a single veterinarian and 8 students who participated in the first clinic in 2007, the project has grown substantially to include 8 veterinarians, 24 veterinary students, and 2 pre-veterinary students in 2010.

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A Penny for an Idea

By: Alicia Agnew

Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Class of 2013

A penny for my thoughts you say,

I think they’re worth much more.

For ideas have been the start of wars,

The middle of nations, and often,

The end of someone’s existence.

Ideas are powerful, Ideas are bright,

And some have led souls to the light.

Ideas follow no laws of mankind

But instead jump around inside of our minds.

What are they made of? Can they be seen?

Or are they some sort of fancy solar beam?

They come and they go and they flit around

But like to stay just out of grasp

When you’re fumbling for an answer fast.

They morph with the times or hide in old books,

And some die young while still unheard.

They’re stuffed into our mind’s crannies and nooks

As we file away the new ones we’ve learned.

So if you need my idea, you’ll pay quite a lot

For they’re worth millions, and dollars at that.