University of Pennsylvania

Maddie's^® Shelter Medicine Residency Program at the University of Pennsylvania

Project Start Date: July 1, 2008
Total Funding: $133,000

The University of Pennsylvania received a grant to establish a three-year residency program in shelter medicine. The residency program will complement the Shelter Animal Medicine Program ("SAM") created by the School of Veterinary Medicine in 2006 in partnership with the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association and the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society. The Shelter Animal Medicine Program seeks to assist these agencies in achieving their goal of transforming Philadelphia into a no-kill city, in which every healthy and treatable shelter dog and cat is guaranteed a home.

The new shelter medicine residency program will teach skills relevant to major problems in animal shelters, including infectious disease management, basic principles of epidemiology, management of behavioral problems associated with the shelter environment, shelter design as it relates to the prevention and management of disease and behavioral problems, and policy and legal issues that affect shelter veterinarians. It will focus on population management and epidemiology and involve training in all core medicine disciplines, including endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology, infectious disease, nephrology, nutrition, oncology, respiratory medicine and critical care.

Residents will be expected to implement a clinical research project, prepare a paper for publication and present continuing education material for veterinarians and shelter professionals.

 

Maddie's^® Shelter Medicine Externship at the University of Pennsylvania

Project Start Date: January 1, 2008
Total Funding: $6,000

The University of Pennsylvania has received a grant to enable students at the University's School of Veterinary Medicine to work alongside a full-time veterinarian at an adoption guarantee animal shelter(s). An adoption guarantee animal shelter is an animal shelter that saves all the healthy and treatable dogs and cats under its care, with euthanasia reserved only for unhealthy & untreatable dogs and cats.

A final report from the awarded student detailing their shelter experiences will be posted upon completion.