Vet Gazette

Dr. Kirk Miller supervises fourth-year students on surgery rotation at the Oregon Humane Society.

The Oregon Humane Society (OHS) recently celebrated the 500th student to complete a rotation at their Animal Medical Learning Center in Portland. As luck would have it recent grad Alexis Johnson just happened to be the milestone. “It was an awesome experience,” she said of her OHS rotation. “I got a lot of hands on experience working with patients and seeing the kinds of cases I’ll see when I’m in a general practice.”

OHS has a one-of-a-kind partnership with Oregon State University (OSU) College of Veterinary Medicine where all fourth-year veterinary students are required to complete a three-week primary care rotation at the OHS hospital. As part of their rotation, and under the supervision of OHS/OSU veterinarians, students perform about 65 surgeries, more than they do in four years of veterinary school. They also help diagnose cases, observe behavior assessments, work with OHS foster parents who are caring for ill pets, and more.

“The students are a valuable resource for shelter pets and become an important addition to the shelter’s medical team,” said Dr. Kirk Miller. Dr. Miller, an OSU clinical instructor, is the nation’s only university faculty member assigned full-time to a shelter-based teaching hospital. Dr. Miller instructs up to five students at a time during their rotation. Dormitories above the hospital provide housing for students.

The medical center, which is attached directly to the OHS shelter, performed more than 12,000 surgeries last year. The hospital’s 22-person medical team provides life-saving medical care to shelter pets and is a major reason OHS has a near-zero euthanasia rate for pets arriving at the shelter in need of medical care a typical owner would provide.

“These students are not only a great part of our medical team, they also get to see how a modern shelter functions,” said Dr. Kris Otteman, OHS Director of Shelter Medicine. “We know the students leave here better prepared for practice and ready to serve as advocates for shelter animals.”

The Willamette Valley Animal Hospital Scholarship is presented to Stephanie Reeder, Marejka Shaevitz, Michelle Janik, Ashley Fadden, Leif Goranson, and Mallory Powers by hospital owners Dr. Sheri Morris and John Maddigan.

At the 2014 OSU College of Veterinary Medicine Student Awards Ceremony, some of the best and brightest veterinary students in the country were presented with scholarships. More than $260,000 in scholarships were awarded making a significant impact on reducing the debt faced by these students.

Thank you to all our friends and donors for making this possible!

List of student recipients.

Student and faculty Awards Ceremony Photos.

Faculty Research Associate Jennifer Duringer and Dr. Morrie Craig congratulate Persia Neumann on her ‘Best Poster’ award.

As a student majoring in Animal Science in the OSU Honors College, Persia Neumann has had a diverse and challenging undergraduate experience so far. The Honors College encourages curiosity and creativity, and offers small, interactive classes taught by the university’s top professors. It also requires students to work on a research project in pursuit of a senior thesis.

Now finishing her third year, Neumann has been working in the Endophyte Testing Laboratory on the team of CVM Toxicology Professor Dr. Morrie Craig. On the surface, her job there might sound pretty mundane: she takes samples of cattle urine. Of course, there is more to it than that and Neumann is passionate about her work. “We took urine samples from cattle that were fed grass infected by a toxin-producing fungus, Mycotoxin lolitrem B. Then we essentially “pulled out” the toxin and the metabolic breakdown products using extraction techniques and ran the toxin remnants through a mass spectrometer. This showed us the concentrations of the toxin that were present in each cow’s urine,” she says. One goal of the project is to gain insight into the metabolism of Mycotoxin lolitrem B. Another goal is to use the data to compare different extraction techniques.

In addition to research, the OSU Endophyte Testing Laboratory  provides testing of pasture grasses for the presence of Mycotoxin lolitrem B to help livestock owners prevent outbreaks of a neuromuscular disease called Ryegrass Staggers.

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The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is encouraging members who have graduated from vet school within the past 15 years, to join its Future Leaders program.

The AVMA Future Leaders program, sponsored by Zoetis Animal Health, seeks to develop the strengths and talents of veterinarians to benefit the profession and society through leadership in organized veterinary medicine. To develop those skills, participants complete 360-degree assessments and follow short- and long-term goals, while also fostering individual relationships with prominent veterinarians in the field and participating in leadership lectures.

In addition, each class of Future Leaders works together to strengthen their teambuilding and project-management skills and to develop resources for AVMA members to utilize.

The AVMA has a new video highlighting its Future Leaders program and featuring the 10 members of the 2013-2014 AVMA Future Leaders program discussing what it means to be a leader and asking veterinarians to “help make history and push our profession into the future it deserves.”

To learn more about the Future Leaders program, visit https://www.avma.org/members/futureleaders/pages/default.aspx.

Client Advocate Tammy Barr learns
about Internal Medicine processes from Certified Veterinary Technician Elisha Ramage.

Clients waiting in the lobby of the small animal hospital now have a friend to help them understand hospital processes and communicate about the medical issues facing their pets.

Tammy Barr, the new Client Advocate, will be working on Mondays and Fridays, the busiest days of the week, to enhance client service at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital.  Barr’s goal is to ensure clients have the best experience possible. She will also be researching client satisfaction levels and assisting with the implementation of a grateful patient program.

Barr received her Bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University and dedicated 30 years to OSU in the customer service & information technology fields.  For the past several years, she has been an active surgery volunteer at Heartland Humane Society.

Every summer, students in the College of Veterinary Medicine volunteer their time to travel to across the U.S. with the Humane Society’s Rural Area Veterinary Service. This year they will be traveling to the Turtle Mountain and Cheyenne River Indian reservations in North and South Dakota.  Many people on these reservations are elderly, unemployed, and live without running water. Two-thirds of the population survives on less than one-third of the American average income. Their livestock and companion animals have no local veterinary service.

For two weeks in July, OSU students will help at a temporary clinic offering free spay/neuter and wellness care to over 1,000 animals on these reservations.  The team will also treat animals with pre-existing conditions such as wound care, injuries, parvovirus and distemper.  You can make a difference in the lives of these animals and their people by helping to pay for travel and supplies: https://www.crowdrise.com/teamturtlemtncheyenneriver/fundraiser/jenniferkelsey.