Colorado State University has a shelter internship program, a shelter fellowship, and a number of student opportunities in local shelters. The programs are run in partnership with our Community Practice service at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The Center for Companion Animal Studies interacts with these programs in many ways.

 

Our center co-sponsors the shelter fellowship program with Nestle-Purina PetCare. Recently, a collaborative study between Nestle Purina PetCare and the center showed that administration of the Probiotic FortiFlora Lessened Diarrhea in Cats housed in a shelter. The veterinary student on that project, Shawn Bybee, received the outstanding poster award from the Comparative Gastroenterology Society for that work.

 

The shelter internship is co-sponsored by the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science's Dean's office and our center, partially using funds donated by Merck Animal Health.

 

Colorado State University provides funds to spay or neuter 750 shelter dogs and cats each year. Nestle Purina PetCare and the Center for Companion Animal Studies partnered to fund a remodeling of the Larimer Humane Society surgery suite to allow us to bring a team of surgeons and students to the shelter on Mondays to spay and neuter these animals. Jorgenson Laboratories donated two anesthesia machines to our center to help support this program.

 

We have worked extensively with donations of test kits from IDEXX Laboratories and HESKA Corporation. We use these kits to teach veterinary students during their Community Practice rotation how to incorporate rapid bedside diagnostic kits into their general practices. Currently, we are studying causes of infectious canine cough syndrome with donations from Merck Animal Health, Camp Bow Wow, and our center.

Our first shelter resident, Dr. Miranda Spindel, is now a lead veterinarian for the ASPCA.  Dr. Spindel started a program to save shelter animals that were in need of advanced surgeries beyond the budget of participating shelters which is now called our Saving Animals in Shelters by Teaching (SAST) Program (see below).  The initial work in this area led to a paper in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education.

 

In the SAST program, the Veterinary Teaching Hospital allows us to perform a number of different surgeries at a fraction of the normal cost because we are teaching young veterinarians (with veterinary student assistance) common procedures. The animals are then adopted by the participating shelters. To date, we have saved more than 60 lives with this program.