Course Number: VME 424-01 is a 10 lecture course that will meet Friday mornings from 8:00 AM to 8:50 AM PDT starting April 4 2008. For UCD veterinary students, this is a one credit PNP class. Students must attend 9 or more lectures in order to receive credit for the course. Journal articles related to the upcoming topic will be provided at least one week prior to the class meeting.

This course is open to all veterinary student enrolled in UCD’s School of Veterinary Medicine and to all members of the animal sheltering community. Please be aware that the education of students within the veterinary school is the primary objective of this class. Students at UC Davis have elected to attend, and pay for, this course out of their desire to understand some of the many issues facing animal welfare organizations. There is no certificate or college credit available for attendees from outside the vet school.

On line live attendance is open for free to anyone interested in this course. In addition each class will be recorded and available for viewing shortly after the class is held. See individual class notes for the website location of each recorded lecture. A DSL or greater connection is recommended for best viewing.

Hi All,

I'm asking for your help with a small project:

Some of you have heard me give my "Winning the Numbers Game" talk or some related diatribe on population management and the impact of crowding in shelters. In it I talk about "shelter math": the cumulative effect of crowding, infectious dose and problems with animal care that inevitably happen when a shelter gets completely overwhelmed. All too often, it adds up to devastating disease problems. Although it's a hard talk to give (and no doubt a hard one to listen to!), oddly enough I tend to feel energized and cheerful when I've said my piece. I really believe careful population management is the single most effective, cheapest, kindest way to improve shelter animal welfare and overall success in saving lives, so to me it feels like a very hopeful talk. But…I realize not everyone reacts to the information the same way. I was reminded of this by a student in my shelter medicine class who told me she loved the class but wondered how I could stand to do such depressing work day after day and still find the will to go on. I'm guessing all of you in shelter work have gotten similar questions from time to time, and each have your own reason why you find shelter work more uplifting than not.

I really gave the student's question some thought and realized that for me the answer lies in another kind of shelter math. This math is the miraculous way a relatively tiny investment in an animal can be amplified into years of life and happiness for animal, adopter and others whose lives are touched by the adoption. (I did mention that it was corny, right?). I got my first glimpse of this when I was working as a front office assistant at the Santa Cruz SPCA. I was about two months into the job when we got a note with a picture of a big black dog in a red convertible. The owner had written to say the dog had just passed away at the age of 17. He had adopted the dog from the SPCA 16 years before, and described the life of beach walks, fancy beds, romping with kids and riding around in the red convertible that dog had enjoyed from the day he was adopted. I was only 24 at the time, and it blew my mind to think of all the years I was growing up from an 8 year old kid, that dog and his family were out there somewhere enjoying each other every single day of that time. All this because some nameless group of shelter workers in 1973 had managed to find the dog, keep him safe and healthy for a few days, and connect him with his new family. I realize it's that equation that's been in my mind all these years, and that's what keeps me obsessed with shelter work. When my own first shelter dog, Stumpy, passed away a few years ago, I worked out the shelter math of our life together. It came to an impressive ratio of 7 days of shelter care to 4037 days of life together. I wrote the story of that on the first anniversary of his death, which you can read here.

So now I come to the project and my request to you. I'd like to develop a new shelter math slideshow as an antidote to my Important But Admittedly Depressing population management talk. For this, I need a picture of your shelter pet(s), the number of days the animal was in a shelter and the number of days you've had together (could be one that's still alive of course :). It would be great if the picture somehow exemplifies the joy that you and your pet have experienced together, like that picture of the black dog in the shiny red convertible. It's okay if you have to estimate days. I'd also love to hear your other examples of shelter math: how a simple program or improvement led to a bunch of lives saved. Of course we all know that spay/neuter is the ultimate happy shelter math but the invisible kittens and puppies that don't get born just don't make a compelling slide show. If you'd like to contribute, please upload your stories and pictures here. My goal is at least one from every state and at least ten countries. Birds, bunnies, lizards etc. also welcome to participate.

Thanks!
Kate

p.s. This just in: there will be a slightly fabulous prize for the highest shelter math ratio for the winning dog, cat and rabbit.  And another slightly fabulous prize for the weirdest shelter math story :-)

Doris Day, in memory of her son, Terry Melcher, and to honor the professionals at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, has designated The Doris Day Animal Foundation to contribute a $75,000 grant to establish an endowed veterinary scholarship in shelter medicine, a specialty area of study, at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine.

This first "Doris Day and Terry Melcher Scholarship" was created with funds donated to the non-profit Doris Day Animal Foundation, including a special memorial fund established in 2004 when Melcher passed away. The endowed scholarship will be awarded annually, in perpetuity, to outstanding veterinary students working to improve the welfare of homeless animals.

"I am so grateful to the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine for the care and attention to my animals over the years. The veterinarians and staff are miracle workers, and I'm delighted that our gift will help train future veterinarians," said Doris Day. "I am also enthusiastic about the school's Koret Shelter Medicine Program and its efforts to improve the health of animals in shelters waiting for new loving homes."

The Koret Shelter Medicine Program is dedicated to advancing shelter medicine as a veterinary specialty through research, specialty training and education, and the performance of veterinary service in animal shelters. Veterinary students studying shelter medicine learn how to enhance the quality of life of animals in shelters through improvements in veterinary preventive medicine and management of disease.

The first Doris Day and Terry Melcher Scholarship was presented in May to senior veterinary student, Christi Payne from Palo Alto, who is presently an intern at the Sonoma Humane Society.

"Christi is an outstanding example of the many new veterinarians with the ambition to solve the problem of homeless pets," says Dr. Kate Hurley, Director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program. "This new scholarship validates their work and provides tangible encouragement for them to take on these community veterinary health issues in their careers."

Melcher, a singer and songwriter, died of melanoma in 2004. He had helped run the Doris Day Animal Foundation, established in 1998 to aid animals and the people who care for them. The foundation pioneered the landmark event Spay Day USA, which annually coordinates low-cost spay and neuter procedures for dogs and cats.

Over the years, Melcher and his mother often traveled together to the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at UC Davis seeking care for sick animals. The teaching hospital was recently named in honor of William R. Pritchard, dean emeritus of the School of Veterinary Medicine. After Melcher's death, friends and members of the Doris Day Animal Foundation donated money in his memory to be used to improve the welfare of animals.

The Koret Shelter Medicine Program has identified an outbreak of severe hemorrhagic pneumonia among shelter dogs caused by an unusually virulent strain of Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus. Shelter staff estimated as many as a thousand dogs may have been affected over a period of a little over a year. Disease was characterized by rapid onset of difficult breathing, lethargy and death, with bleeding evident from the nose and mouth shortly after death. The bacteria was not susceptible to doxycycline, the antibiotic most commonly used in the affected shelter. Dominance of a bacteria only infrequently detected in healthy household dogs indicates that environmental conditions in combination with stress and possibly other as yet unknown microbial agents provided a setting for rapid invasion into densely populated and highly susceptible hosts. One contributing factor may have been use of the same cages for newly admitted dogs awaiting processing and dogs awaiting euthanasia, leading to heavy contamination and rapid exposure.

Measures recommended to control the outbreak included:

• Immediate removal and strict isolation or euthanasia of symptomatic animals
• Improved cleaning and disinfection, including discontinuing use of mops and buckets (replaced with hose end applicators), and thorough drying of kennels after cleaning
• Vaccination of all dogs on intake for DHPP and Bordetella to control contributing infections
• Change of policy to such that pro-active euthanasia decisions were made to prevent overcrowding, rather than awaiting illness to determine euthanasia candidates when intake exceeded adoptions and reclaims
• Although the staff went through a couple of very hard weeks, the outbreak was completely resolved by implementation of these measures. Ideally, shelters should put these measures into place before disaster strikes; more information on these and many other topics available on our website under the shelter health portal.

If you shelter is experiencing an outbreak of unusual disease, please see our consultation and diagnostic services at http://www.sheltermedicine.com/services/diagnostic.shtml#top2