Vet Gazette

Large Animal Surgery Resident Dr. Barbara Hunter was selected as the 2014 recipient of the prestigous Robert and Clarice MacVicar Animal Health Fund Scholar Award. The award is given to a senior graduate student whose research is primarily concerned with animal health and welfare, or a veterinarian in a residency program at OSU that includes research at the masters or doctoral level.

During her residency, Hunter has workd on four different research projects. The first studied the use of IV regional limb perfusion with morphine as a way to deliver drugs locally to tissue in horses. Previously the technique was used only to deliver antibiotics. “This is the first study to look at delivery of an analgesic,” she says.

Dr. Hunter’s second project compared the facial sinus as a blood sample collection site to jugular blood in horses. “I was able to validate the facial sinus as an alternative blood sampling site for in horses so we don’t have to use their jugular veins so much. This is valuable in sick horses as their jugular veins are easily damaged.”

The third project was a retrospective study that determined the best surgical options for correcting carpal valgus in camelids. And her most recent project, her thesis research,  investigated the use of IV regional limb perfusion to deliver tiludronate to the lower limbs of horses with navicular disease. “This is a bisphosphonate drug that normalizes bone turn over; increased bone resorption is a problem with navicular disease and can lead to alot of pain,” she says.

Robert MacVicar was a past president of Oregon State University. He and his wife Clarice had a strong interest in the health and welfare of animals. As a result, they established a fund to support research at OSU that impacts animal health and welfare in its broadest sense. The award will provide Dr. Hunter a $5,000 stipend, with an additional $1,000 for research supplies and/or travel.

Last week a crowd gathered in the Magruder Hall atrium to wish Patrick Kamins ‘Happy Retirement’ after fourteen years as Student Services Coordinator at the College of Veterinary Medicine. Interim Dean Sue Tornquist thanked Patrick for his hard work and dedication.  Professor Linda Blythe recalled interviewing Patrick for the job in 2000 when she was Associate Dean: “I wanted to hire someone who cared about students,” she said.

Dr.Chuck Estill noted that he and Patrick have kept a similar pace at many Pet Day Fun Runs over the years, and expressed concern that Patrick may now have more time to train and could outrun him at Pet Day this spring.

Patrick has big plans for retirement that include sleeping late, training for more triathlons, traveling, and of course, playing with his 13 year old Great Pyrenees/Golden mix, Beau.

When Dave Meyer was nine years old, he asked his parents for a dog. “My parents said ‘okay’,” he remembers, “but you need to write a paper about the pros and cons, and pick the type of dog you want, then present it to us.” That was a little introduction to the policy side of veterinary medicine, and to his future career at OSU as a Patient Services Coordinator.

Meyer got an undergraduate degree in Art from the University of Minnesota, while working summers at an animal shelter. After graduation, he moved to Boulder, Colorado and got an associate degree from the Bel-Rea Institute of Veterinary Technology. “I got a job in a general practice,” he says, “but I really wanted to work in surgery.” Then a connection in Minnesota helped him get a position at the U of M Veterinary Teaching Hospital where he paid his dues working “25% phones, 25% surgery tech and 50% anesthesia tech,” he says.  It was a foot in the door and soon he was invited to join the anesthesia team full time.

Meyer’s wife was a DVM in the military, and in 2004, she was transferred to Baltimore, Maryland so he went to work in the Neurobioscience Department at Johns Hopkins University. “I worked in research with baboons,” he says. “It was a really fun job. The animals were taken care of very well. They had enrichment rooms where they could climb trees and find hidden food.” The baboons participated in research that helped developed new drugs. “Once a year, the doctors from Johns Hopkins hospital would talk to us about how our research was helping them and their patients; it was really rewarding,” he says.

In 2012, Meyer was working at a specialty practice in Chico, California when he got an email from the Associate Director of the the OSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Dr. Ron Mandsager. “I had previously worked with Dr. Mandsager in Minnesota and he sent me the posting of this position.”

Meyer applied, and when offered an interview, drove to Corvallis for the first time. He says he found the city “eerily like Chico. The downtown is very similar with the small boutiques. Like Chico, Corvallis has the farmers market on Wednesday and Saturday. They even have the area with fountains that shoot up where the kids play; it’s almost an exact replica. I took that as a good sign.”

Meyers wife is now a veterinary senior epidemiologist for the Center for Infectious Disease Research Policy. She is on a biowatch team monitoring bioterrorism. They have a 2.5 year old daughter named Piper. “She is the apple of my eye,” he says. They also have a nineteen year-old cat and a thirteen year-old dog.

As the Patient Services Coordinator, Meyer supervises the anesthesia techs, the surgery techs, and the surgery rehab techs, as well as doing a variety of administrative duties. He also fills in where needed in surgery and rehab. He describes himself as a goal-driven person. “I like to check things off my list,” he says. “I am fueled by that; taking something from a beginning point to a point where a situation is solved.” Although, he has only been on the job for a few months, Meyer has already checked quite a few things off his list. “Since I’ve started, the evaluation protocol has changed to an online form. I’ve been able to get in there and get everyone set up and get appraisals done. I’ve also been able to update and write Standard Operating Procedures to get ready for accreditation. Being involved from beginning to end is very rewarding. It’s been great.”

Art by Dr. Arlene Brooks, Class of 1990.

Dr. Arlene Brooks veterinary career began in a conventional manner then took a turn down a road less travelled, which is an apt metaphor for a woman who spent a lot of her college years driving.

As a student living in Salem, Oregon in the 1980s, Brooks drove to and from Corvallis every week day. “I spent two and a half years driving an hour and a half to and from OSU while farming full-time . . . and then there was Pullman,” she says. At that time OSU veterinary students spent much of their second and third years at WSU in Pullman, Washington.

Like many new DVMs, Brooks began her career as an associate and then opened her own veterinary practice in a “self-remodeled, century house in Salem”. Over the years, Brooks concern for shelter animals, and close relationship with Hopes Haven shelter and the Humane Society of the Willamette Valley (HSWV), brought her more and more pro-bono work saving desperately ill rescue animals. She also assisted HSWV investigators with more than 400 cruelty cases.

The problem of homeless pets in Oregon is significant; thousands are euthanized every year. With limited space and funds, many shelters can’t affort to pay veterinarians to save pets with fractures, neurological problems, and other serious illnesses. These animals are nearly impossible to adopt out and are the first to be euthanized. “When I see these kids come through, with no decent chance in life, all I can do is help them one at a time,” says Dr. Brooks. In the past six years, she has treated hundreds of abused, gunshot, battered and starving animals through Homestead Vet Clinic’s Last Chance Club, her veterinarian home base.  She estimates her donated medical and surgical services for this period are worth more than $300,000, but they are priceless to the animals whose lives she has saved.

In 2006, Brooks relocated her practice to Turner, Oregon to focus primarily on rescue medicine. On her farm, she has six dogs (5 of them rescues), including a black shepherd who lost a leg from a bullet wound and who was her very first Last Chance Club patient.

Brooks’ website has a page full of photos of many of the animals she has helped. One of her most challenging cases lately was a double-cecal ileocolic intussception bowel resection on a Shepherd mix in shock with a 27,000 WBC. Happily, the dog survived and was adopted. She has had many similary happy endings in her career, but her favorite was the terrier puppy of a family with four little girls; she performed double FHO surgeries to save his life.

Many OSU graduates donate their time and skill to pro-bono work. For those who are thinking about doing more, she encourages them to contact their local shelters and rescue groups, and to offer reduced costs to low-income clients. “Many of my Last Chance Club cases are referrals,” she says, “because a pet is facing euthnasia when an owner cannot afford commercial prices,” she says.

Dr. Brooks estimates she has helped more than 800 dogs, but she isn’t ready to retire yet. “I’m shooting for 1,000 before I quit,” she says.  “Doesn’t it just sound marvelous?  To be able to say, ‘What did I do in my life?  I saved 1,000 dogs.’’’

Isabela Zaine, a canine research scholar at Arizona State University will be speaking at OSU on current research on dog behaviour and learning. Zaine has collaborated with canine research groups around the world and is now studying how dogs learn from humans outside of formal training. She will be speaking on Thursday, March 6, 2-3 pm in room 106 of the Oldfield Teaching Facility (corner of 35th & Campus Way).

It is that time of year again! The IVSA is seeking interested veterinarians and technicians to join us on our eighth annual trip to Ometepe Island, Nicaragua to provide veterinary care to the community of Mérida.

Ometepe, a volcano located within Lake Nicaragua, is currently home to an estimated 10,000 rural families and 41,000 dogs, in addition to countless pigs, cattle, horses and chickens. Minimal veterinary care is available for the dogs and cats that inhabit the island. The livestock on the island face poor management issues and owners have a scarce number of veterinarians to turn to for advice. In addition, due to the close living quarters and lack of good hygiene practices, zoonoses are a major concern. These risks threaten not only the health of both human and animal inhabitants of Ometepe but also the impressions of the visiting tourists who are a critical source of income for the island.

In response to this need, the student members of OSU’s International Veterinary Student Association have implemented a program for the last 7 years to supply veterinary care to the community of Mérida. Our upcoming trip August 25th-September 6th 2014 is a continuation of our efforts to serve this community and promote a more healthful environment for both humans and animals. Our vision includes community education, over-population management, wellness exams and preventive medical care for both large and small animals.  We make every effort to provide high quality medicine. However, due to variable, sometimes unpredictable conditions, flexibility and improvisation are often necessary skills for providing efficient health care to our patients. In the end, we believe improved public health practices and veterinary care will translate to better health, more economic success and greater productivity for the local people.

In addition to the contributions we hope to make to the community of Ometepe, the experience of running the clinics offers students an unparalleled opportunity to develop clinical skills and practical experience. While the trip is student organized, funded and executed, we need veterinarians to partner with us in our endeavors.

We are seeking veterinarians and technicians to supervise and educate OSU students on our trip to Nicaragua. We would be delighted to have small animal, equine, and food animal practitioners available to the community this year.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to reply to contact us at the IVSA email address: oregonivsa@gmail.com.

by Emily Toleno, OSU College of Veterinary Medicine, Class of 2016