[music playing] Kelly: A program at the University of Illinois
College of Veterinary Medicine is on the move.
The Shelter Medicine Program has been working to improve the care of shelter animals and
help reduce animal overpopulation for years.
The program involves a pet mobile surgical unit and travels to numerous communities to
help out shelters who don't have the resources to employ a veterinarian.
We'll learn more about this effort coming up on this episode of The Paw Report, so stay
with us.
[music playing]
Rameen: The Paw Report on WEIU is supported by Rural
King, America's farm and home store, livestock feed, farm equipment, pet supplies and more.
You can find your store and more information regarding Rural King at ruralking.com.
Rob: Dave's Decorating Center is a proud supporter
of the Paw Report on WEIU.
Dave's Decorating Center features the Mohawk Smartstrand Silk Forever Clean carpet.
Dave's Decorating Center, authorized Mohawk color center in Charleston.
Kelly: Thanks for joining us for this episode of The Paw Report.
I am your host, Kelly Goodwin, and on today's episode of The Paw Report, we are joined by
Dr. Bob Weedon from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.
He is here today to talk about a wonderful program that is happening at the University
of Illinois and, frankly, at shelters all around the area.
Thank you, Dr. Weedon, for joining us today.
Bob: Well, thank you, Kelly, for having me here.
It's nice.
I just recently retired actually in that position.
Kelly: Congratulations.
Bob: Thank you.
This will be a little bit of a walk down memory lane so to speak.
Kelly: That's right, and there's a lot of great information to talk about.
We're talking about the Shelter Medicine Program at the College of Veterinary Medicine, and
you've been the spearhead of that for several years.
Before we launch into that topic, I'd like to hear a little bit about you and your background
in veterinary medicine.
Bob: Well, I graduated from veterinary school.
I went to another Big 10 university, Purdue, and was married at the time.
My wife was transferred to Wilmington, North Carolina, so I went down there and spent 27
years and never really felt like Carolina was home.
I was a senior partner in a private practice and had been teaching at the University of
North Carolina Wilmington teaching undergraduate students.
The opportunity to come up here and have four seasons again was nice, but also to then teach
veterinary students.
Bob: I actually came here in January of 2011 as the veterinarian at Champaign County Humane
Society, where the students did their rotation through that shelter and that was the shelter
medicine rotation.
It was a half-time appointment, so the students really only interacted with me on a half-time
basis and I recognized fairly quickly that we needed to expand the training they were
getting.
I went to the university and proposed some ideas to expand and went out and got a grant
from PetSmart Charities to fund our mobile sterilization unit, so then I had a half-time
faculty appointment at the college and I was still half-time at CCHS, so we were going
on the road a couple of days a week and at CCHS a couple of days week.
The program continued to grow and eventually then I went over full-time as a faculty member
and they made shelter medicine a service area, which mean that's actually an area within
the veterinary teaching hospital and I was the service head, so that became a full-time
position.
We were then on the road five days a week and some weeks six days a week.
Kelly: What exactly is the Shelter Medicine Program at the U of I?
Bob: It is a program that we work with local shelters.
We have a mobile sterilization unit that was funded by a grant from PetSmart Charities
that is totally self-contained.
We can pull into a shelter.
If they have an electrical hookup we can use that.
If not, we have a generator on the mobile unit to power it.
We could literally pull up in your driveway and start doing surgery.
Totally self-contained and we sterilize shelter animals so that when they're adopted they
wouldn't accidentally reproduce and contribute to the pet overpopulation problem.
They're sterilized prior to adoption.
We also do sterilization on pets of low-income members of the community in order to prevent
more animals being relinquished to the shelter or perhaps having that animal being relinquished
to the shelter if she were to get pregnant or he were to have a medical problem that
could've been prevented by sterilization.
Kelly: That leads me into my next question, which you may have answered, but goals of
the program is, I'm sure, to control pet population.
Probably up there.
Bob: It is.
It is.
Before I retired I was full-time and we have a couple of part-time faculty members as well.
It's interesting because our focuses are a little bit different.
Dr. Loukia Agapis, now is part-time clinical instructor, is really interested in shelter
protocols and animal welfare in shelters and making the lives of animals in shelters better,
and making shelters more efficient, and preventing disease spread, and that sort of thing.
My focus has always been and probably always will be animal population control.
Bob: In addition to what I'm doing here, I'm also on the board of directors of an organization
known as The Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs, which is an international nonprofit
whose mission is to work to develop non-surgical methods to humanely control populations of
dogs and cats around the world.
My focus has always been animal population control, and as a result of that, training
veterinary students to be efficient in spay/neuter.
Whether they're working for a shelter or whether they're in private practice, efficiency is
something that translates to being able to sterilize more animals.
Bob: If you're a shelter vet and you have 30 animals to sterilize during the course
of the day, and you're efficient and you can shave 10 minutes off of each surgery, do the
math.
You'll save five hours in just that one day.
Our goal, we teach high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter techniques, and our goal is to
have fourth-year veterinary students, by the end of the two-week rotation, down to around
20 minutes on a cat spay.
There's so much variation in dog spays.
Little dogs, big dogs, fat dogs, skinny dogs, but a cat's, a cat's, a cat, and so if they
can spay a cat in 20 minutes then they're going to be very efficient.
Bob: I had a student, oh, several years ago that had just graduated and she'd had the
rotation right before she graduated.
She was a very quiet, shy individual, and she got down to 20 minutes by the end of the
rotation, went on a job interview, and I have them keep a log of their surgeries, including
the times so we can track their progress.
She took her log sheet with her on the interview, and the guy asked her about her surgical experience,
and she said, "Well, I've done 55 solo surgeries."
He was a little skeptical because at the time that was kind of atypical for a U of I grad.
This was several years ago.
Bob: She pulled out a log sheet and said, "No, Dr. Weedon had us keep a log sheet,"
and gave it to him.
He looked at it, and here's the really cool part.
Remember I said she was shy?
She looked at him and said, "Would you like to see what I can do?
I brought my scrubs."
The guy was like, "Matter of fact, we've got a cat that needs to be spayed."
She spayed the cat, took her 25 minutes, the guy offered her a job on the spot because
his current associate who had been there for two years routinely took 45 minutes to spay
a cat.
They could now do two an hour rather than one, which would generate more income for
the practice, so that's my focus.
Animal population control and student training.
But the overall focus of the program, in addition to animal population control, is working with
shelters to make the lives better for animals that are in these shelters, and make things
more efficient for the shelters so that they don't waste resources.
Kelly: You mentioned this wonderful story about this student.
It leads into my next question on exactly how the Shelter Medicine Program is integrated
into the curriculum and the learning environment at the college.
Bob: Well, most of the students who take the fourth-year rotation are there to get the
surgical experience, the spay/neuter experience because that spay/neuter is kind of a bread
and butter surgery that is very common in most private veterinary practices.
Although interestingly enough because most shelter animals now are sterilized prior to
adoption, private practice veterinarians are doing less and less spay/neuter.
However, if you can spay a dog or a cat you can also do a cystotomy to remove bladder
stones or you can do a splenectomy or you could do an intestinal foreign body because
you have the tissue handling skills to be able to do these other surgeries because you've
been developing muscle memory doing spays and neuters.
Bob: We also offer two elective courses for students.
First and second-year students we have an introductory shelter medicine elective course
where we over the guidelines ... The Association of Shelter Veterinarians several years ago
produced a document called Guidelines For Standards of Animal Care in Shelters.
We use that as a textbook and go through that.
It's a really nice overview of shelter medicine.
Then for third-year students who had bacteriology, virology, we offer an advance shelter medicine
elective course that spends more time focusing on infectious disease prevention and control,
and sterilization techniques and whatnot.
It's not a mandatory aspect of the program, but the fourth-year rotation fills up mainly
because the students want the spay/neuter experience.
Kelly: Can you go into detail more on your outreach services and exactly how many shelters
do you partner with in Central Illinois?
Bob: There are a dozen or so shelters.
We try to stay within an hour of the university just because travel time makes for a long
day.
We go as far north as Watseka.
It's a little over an hour.
We've gone to Kankakee.
That's over an hour, but typically, we're in Coles County on at least a weekly basis,
sometimes twice a week.
They are probably our biggest shelter partner and the one where I think that we've made
the most difference.
Bob: We go to Danville.
We partner with three organizations in Vermilion County.
We go to Bloomington.
Two organizations up there we work with.
We've been talking with the DeWitt County animal control people about going to Clinton,
which would be on the western edge of our service area.
Yeah, we get around.
We're on the road every day during the week.
Kelly: Why do you believe you made the most strides in Coles County?
Bob: Because they have really changed how they do things.
If you look at their numbers ... They were one of the first shelter partners we started
working with and if you look at their numbers, Julie Deters, their director, will show you
that we ... I think we started going there in 2013.
Maybe late 2012, early 2013.
But every year since we started going their cat intake numbers have dropped and their
euthanasia numbers have dropped because not only are we doing shelter animals, mostly
dogs, for them but we have started a community cat program where we do
cats of low-income people from the community.
Bob: But we also started a barn cat program.
When we first started going there if somebody brought a cat in a trap it assumed it was
feral and unadoptable so it was euthanized.
Now the students will sterilize that cat, vaccinate it for rabies and FVRCP, and then
the cat will be placed in a barn home where it can live out its life being a mouser and
the farmer doesn't have to worry about the cat reproducing, having unwanted kittens.
It's an opportunity for these cats to live a normal life as opposed to just being summarily
euthanized because they're unadoptable.
Kelly: I want to hear more about this vet mobile on wheels.
Tell me about the inside.
How is it staffed?
We were joking about you pulling it into the parking lot here at the station, so it's a
... Bob: We could literally pull into your parking
lot and start doing surgery.
It is totally self-contained.
It was funded by a grant from PetSmart Charities back in 2013.
It took a while to get through the university bureaucracy to get it ordered and built, but
we put it in service in January of 2015.
First surgery done on the mobile unit, you'll see it ... We have a picture of it on the
mobile unit.
It was my first intern.
We have taken ... Now we're on our fifth intern veterinarian doing a shelter medicine internship.
My first intern doing the inaugural spay on January 7th of 2015 here in Coles County at
Coles County Animal Shelter.
Bob: There are two surgery tables in the aft part of the mobile unit.
It's a 32-foot gooseneck trailer pulled by a pickup truck.
There are two prep tables in the forward part and each table has its own anesthesia machine,
so while two students are doing surgery in the back, two more students can be getting
the next animals ready, so we really strive for efficiency.
As soon as one comes off the table, that table's disinfected and the next patient goes on,
and the student starts the surgery.
Bob: We schedule on a point system, but we'll do ... On a typical day, we'll do 15 to 20
spays and neuters.
If we're doing an all cat clinic, for instance, a feral cat clinic, we'll routinely do 30
sterilizations during the course of the day.
Kelly: So I would say the success rate of helping to control the pet population with
this program has been very successful.
Bob: If you look at the numbers and we do ... If you think of the mission statement
of a Land Grant university it's teaching, research, and outreach.
Our program encompasses all three.
We're training students.
We have the opportunity to collect tons of data.
I already mentioned to you that we've been collecting data on the owned animals that
we sterilize and 80% of them have never been to a veterinarian, so we're not competing
with local veterinarians because these animals aren't going to local veterinarians.
Bob: As a matter of fact, we're educating these clients that, hey, these animals need
ongoing parasite prevention, internal and external, and period re-vaccination, and give
them a list of local veterinarians to access those services to them.
That's the research component in keeping track of numbers animals we do and whatnot, and
then outreach.
Of course, we've already mentioned that we're impacting the lives of pets in the communities
that we serve.
Kelly: Where would you like to see it go?
You mentioned you're retired, and again, congratulations.
Bob: Thank you.
Kelly: But this program is not going away.
It's going to continue to thrive and grow.
You mentioned maybe the expansion of the unit going to other places.
Other maybe research ideas or thoughts for this program?
Bob: Yeah, I've had a number of research ideas.
I was involved in my position with The Alliance for Contraceptives in Cats and Dogs we did
a field trial two years of an immunocontraceptive vaccine.
A vaccine that would contracept a female or male cat for a period of time, which would
allow us to ... If we had a colony of feral cats we can trap them and just give them an
injection rather having to knock them down and anesthetize them and surgically sterilize
them, so it'd be a lot more efficient.
Bob: One of the things that we do now with our feral cat sterilization is everybody get
vaccinated for rabies, but interestingly enough the label on the rabies vaccine says for us
in animals 12 weeks and older.
Often times we'll get feral kittens that may not be 12 weeks based on their size, and those
guys if we can get them out of that colony and in a foster home and get them socialized
they may potentially become adoptable, but not in every case.
I had plans to do a project looking at antibody response to rabies vaccine in kittens under
12 weeks of age to see if vaccinating these animals even though we can't give them a certificate
does afford them some protection.
That's a research interest of mine.
Bob: There's so many other things.
We just got a grant from a local trust out of Springfield, the Sally Vaughn Trust, to
establish a community medicine program with the goal being to provide preventative health
care services to underserved animals in communities with the overarching goal of keeping them
from being relinquished to shelters in the first place.
The story I tell is there was a shelter up in Kankakee.
These people showed up with a box full of puppies were all sick.
It turned out they had canine parvovirus.
The shelter was not equipped to treat parvo so they sent him down to the U of I emergency
service, so those seven puppies were treated at a cost of $28,000.
Most shelters don't have those kind of resources.
Bob: We could've intervened in a number of points there.
Once we get community medicine up and running, if we had vaccinated those puppies they may
not have caught parvovirus.
If we had vaccinated the mother she may have immunity to transfer temporary immunity to
the puppies so they may have not caught parvovirus.
If we had spayed the mother she never would've had the puppies in the first place.
There are a number of points where we could've intervened to prevent that from happening.
Bob: Now the students that are coming out of this program, hopefully, will have the
tools to work with shelters in their communities to say, you know what?
There's a growing body of evidence that you can effectively treat canine parvovirus on
an outpatient basis.
They don't require intensive hospitalization, which is very expensive.
You set up a foster network, people to care for these animals and give them subcutaneous
fluids so they don't get dehydrated, antibiotics because their immune system is suppressed
by the canine parvovirus, and anti-vomiting medication to get them to stop vomiting.
The results of these outpatient treatment protocols are just as effective as the inpatient
treatment.
Our students will have those tools to be able to work with shelters to prevent them from
having to expend resources that they don't have.
Kelly: I'd like for you to share with us another story as we wrap up our discussion today.
Something most memorable for you.
Maybe it was a pet or maybe it was a teaching moment with the countless vet students that
you've worked with over the years.
Bob: Gosh, there's so many.
The teaching ones are the students who get it.
Like the student who got a job because she was an efficient surgeon.
I think to me the most compelling story is here in Coles County because of lack of resources
if a dog tested positive for heartworms it was euthanized because the shelter felt that
they didn't want to saddle in a doctor with a tremendous expense.
It could be $2,000 to treat heartworms.
Bob: A study was published recently in a journal that showed there's another effective way
to treat heartworms without using the expensive medication to actually kill the adult heartworms.
It is actually a preventative that's given topically.
It has a product in it called moxidectin that is a preventative but that builds up in the
body so that if an animal has heartworms it will actually cause them to die over a period
of time.
We call the moxi-doxy protocol because using moxidectin and antibiotic, doxycycline.
This study was really nice because they're put on 30 days of doxycycline, topical monthly
moxidectin, and within a month all dogs were free of microfilaria, the baby heartworms
in the blood.
By 10 months all dogs were free of adult heartworms.
Bob: You don't have to restrict the activity because you're not giving a shot that kills
85% of the heartworms in a short period of time so the dog can't go out and run because
those worms could embolize and cause a pulmonary embolism.
You don't have the expense of using this product, melarsomine, the injectable for the adults,
so shelters are now, if they have a heartworm positive dog, using this protocol.
It's saved the lives of countless dogs here in Coles County and with our other shelter
partners.
One of our students adopted a dog that was heartworm positive and that dog is now free
of heartworms.
Kelly: Wonderful story.
What a great way to end a discussion today on the Shelter Program at the University of
Illinois.
Dr. Weedon, recently retired, thank you so much for joining us today, and I look forward
to hearing more about the program in research and outreach in years to come.
Bob: Good.
Thank you for having me, and I'll be around so if you have any other questions let me
know.
Kelly: Excellent, and if you have questions out there you're more than welcome to call
the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching College or the teaching hospital up at the
U of I.
They're always gracious and very nice about talking to any of you out there that may have
questions.
In the meantime, that's it for this edition of The Paw Report.
We'll be back after this with The Paw Report Extra.
If you're a veterinarian, trainer, groomer, specialist, rescue organization, or shelter
that would like to partner with the Paw Report by providing expert guests for the show, please
contact us by emailing weiu@weiu.net, or call 217-581-5956.
If you have a topic you'd like to see on the show or questions for our experts, contact
us with those, too.
[music] Kelly: All pets need to be taking care of,
but what happens when the owner becomes homeless and money is tight?
There's a volunteer effort, a pop-up clinic to lend a helping hand for animals in those
situations.
Joel Hillan reports.
John: ... of trouble before it happens if we can and if they already have a problem
we're going to treat it as well as we can.
Joel: Dr. John Geller is Director of The Street Dog Coalition, a Fort Collins based nonprofit
that helps provide care for pets of the homeless.
John: People living on the street and near homeless folks have very little opportunity
to get veterinary care, if any at all.
John: Do you see how her kneecap just kind of slides back and forth?
Joel: In addition to an examination, each pet is given a rabies vaccine and a voucher
for the pet to be spayed or neutered.
Mike: Pets need care no matter who their owners are and what the resources are.
Joel: Mike Topper is President of the American Veterinary Association.
He and over 5,000 other veterinarians and technicians are in Denver for a convention.
They saw this as the perfect opportunity to not only highlight the work of Dr. Geller
but join in the volunteer effort and perhaps create similar programs in their cities.
Octavia: Who's a good boy?
Joel: Helping people like Octavia Montoya.
She purchased Cash just three weeks ago.
She knew he needed to see a veterinarian.
Octavia: It was really pulling on me like, "What do I do?
What did I get myself into?"
This was a blessing to see this.
I saw it a couple of days ago on Facebook, so it was perfect timing.
Joel: Octavia was chronically homeless in her 20s and things were finally getting better
when she says she was recently hit with a roadblock.
Octavia: I'm going through some tough stuff in my life right now and having him to take
care of it gives me a reason to not just go off the deep end.
Joel: Cash gives her new hope and comfort.
Octavia: I just hope that not only having him would help me, but I want to help him
feel safe.
Joel: Safe and healthy.
Rob: Dave's Decorating Center is a proud supporter
of the Paw Report on WEIU.
Dave's Decorating Center features the Mohawk Smartstrand Silk Forever Clean carpet.
Dave's Decorating Center, authorized Mohawk color center in Charleston.
Rameen: The Paw Report on WEIU is supported by Rural
King, America's farm and home store, livestock feed, farm equipment, pet supplies and more.
You can find your store and more information regarding Rural King at ruralking.com.
Additional support for The Paw Report on WEIU, is brought to you by viewers like you.
Thank you.
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