Veterinarians and students come to aid of Iowa animal shelter

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Contact: Brian Graves 612-624-6228

Veterinarians and students come to aid of Iowa animal shelter

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (July 7, 2008) – Losing your home and belongings in a flood can be devastating, but having to abandon your pets because you can’t take them with you or no longer can afford to care for them can make the pain unbearable. It can also overload animal shelters. To help ease the pain of flood victims—human and animal alike—the University of Minnesota Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) deployed two teams of veterinarians and students to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to help staff a temporary shelter for animals displaced by recent floods.

In response to a request from Dr. David Schmitt, Iowa’s state veterinarian, Dr. Larissa Minicucci, program director and assistant professor in veterinary population medicine at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, deployed the first team of three veterinarians June 27 to July 1 to help Iowa’s response team.

“Our mission was to provide some assistance to the core group working in Cedar Rapids and to provide continuous care of the animals,” noted Minicucci. “They were interested in a team that could provide continuous care, and by going through the University, they were able to find a team that could commit a longer period of time. We can respond rapidly by sending emergency veterinary crews when they’re requested by Minnesota or other states. It’s nice as a faculty member to be able to get out and provide that service.”

A second team consisting of two veterinarians and two veterinary students led by Dr. Roberto Novo, associate professor in small animal surgery, left June 30 and is expected to return July 3. MRC officials and shelter administrators are currently reviewing the need to send more assistance.

After the town’s existing animal shelter was destroyed due to flooding, a large makeshift shelter was created in Kirkwood Community College, where nearly 650 animals have been cared for. Most animals are companion animals such as dogs and cats, but some are exotic animals such as birds, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, and lizards. These animals were either abandoned during the disaster or are in temporary housing until their owners can recover them.

“For me, it’s humbling to see a disaster like that first-hand,” said Minicucci, adding that she was particularly impressed by the way the local community came together to quickly establish a makeshift animal shelter in light of losing the only one the town had.

“Just seeing such a system that functioned as well as it did — just being part of being the animal care team, since I think that during disasters, animals are often forgotten — was humbling,” she added. “People were comforted knowing their animals had a place to go.”

According to Minicucci, the team had three main responsibilities: conduct intakes on new animals arriving at the facility, which consisted of performing basic physical exams, identifying information, taking photos of the animals, micro-chipping animals for identification purposes, and providing preventive medicines such as vaccines and anti-parasite medications; administer daily medications; and monitor for infectious diseases, which can be a concern when large numbers of animals are housed together in a closely contained area for the first time.

“Our team felt really good about the care we were able to provide. We were fortunate that it was set up at a community college so there was actually a clinic on site. There were lots of donations. The animal housing, supplies, and equipment available allowed us to provide excellent care even in the disaster setting,” said Minicucci.

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The College of Veterinary Medicine improves the health and well-being of animals and people by providing high-quality veterinary training, conducting leading-edge research, and delivering innovative veterinary services.

Additional Information:

The Veterinary Medical Center (VMC) is the most advanced referral care center for animals in Minnesota and is the onlyfull-service veterinary hospital in the upper Midwest that offers emergency services and intensive care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It has over 50 years experience in clinical care, education, and knowledge advancement and sees more than 45,000 cases each year, one of the largest caseloads in the country.

Due to advanced technologies, the VMC has board-certified specialists in just about every area that a human medical center does. The center has the most powerful MRI system in a veterinary hospital in the world to provide the best possible diagnostic services. It is one of the only veterinary hospitals in the Upper Midwest to offer state-of-the-art radiation therapy to animals with cancer and one of the few veterinary hospitals in the nation to offer elbow, knee, and hip replacement surgery.

The VMC has a Large Animal Hospital that treats about 3,000 cows, pigs, alpacas, llamas, and zoo animals each year, and a new Equine Center to provide care for horses. The U of M is also the home of The Raptor Center, which treats approximately 800 eagles, hawks, owls, and falcons and reaches more than 150,000 people each year through public education programs and events.

For more information about the College of Veterinary Medicine, visit www.cvm.umn.edu