Funded Projects

Project Duration: July 15, 2004 – July 14, 2006 Total Funding: $500,000

Maddie's^® Shelter Medicine Program at Auburn University aimed to improve the quality of life for shelter pets, decrease shelter deaths, increase adoptions, create a pool of veterinarians to practice in this emerging field and bring an awareness of shelter issues to private practitioners outside of the shelter industry. Program components included student training, continuing education and research.

Accomplishments:

Maddie's^® Shelter Medicine Training

• Provided didactic coursework for freshmen, sophomore, and junior veterinary students through eight core classes.
  
  
• Maintained a core clinical shelter medicine rotation for all senior veterinary students. The rotation included weekly trips to the Muscogee Humane Society to provide learning opportunities for students and on-site consultations for shelter staff.
  
  
• Established Maddie's^® Shelter Medicine Rotation, an intensive, two-week elective clinical rotation for seniors wanting to enhance their surgical skills.
  
  
• Offered an elective on feral cat trap-neuter-return programs and an elective on shelter cat and dog behavior.
  
  
• Added a mandatory freshman feline laboratory on the examination, humane handling and restraint of shelter cats.
  
  
• Provided Maddie's^® Special Problems Course for pre-veterinary undergrads to enable students to study real life shelter medical situations.
  
  
• Created opportunities for Maddie's^® Summer Fellows to assist with research projects.
  
  

Continuing Education

• Established Auburn University Maddie's^® Shelter Medicine website.
  
  
• Promoted shelter medicine at a campus lecture series for veterinary interns.
  
  
• Responded to over a thousand emails and phone calls on shelter medicine topics from shelter managers, veterinarians and students.
  
  
• Presented shelter medicine lectures and seminars online and at nearly two dozen regional and national animal welfare and veterinary conferences.
  
  

Research

• Collected paired serum samples from shelter dogs with respiratory disease for inclusion in a study of canine influenza in shelter dogs.
  
  
• Conducted a survey of medical care provided by Alabama animal shelters.
  
  
• Embarked on a project to determine the effectiveness of specific drugs on coccidiosis and diarrhea in shelter puppies and kittens.
  
  
• Researched methods to prevent ringworm in shelter cats.
  
  

"I feel like I got everything I expected out of this rotation. I gained some confidence in surgery, feel more educated as to what goes on at shelters, learned the importance of spay/neuter and adoption programs and was exposed to the pros and cons of different shelter models."

"Before this rotation, I had not planned on helping shelters.... These two weeks have changed my mind and motivated me to make a difference in my county."

"I hope to work in a practice that is active in shelter medicine and client education about shelters. I hope I am able to promote shelters to clients. Otherwise I don't think I can work in a practice that ignores shelter needs."

"This rotation definitely enables the veterinary student to walk in (shelter staff's) shoes and I think this is important. It would be easy to isolate yourself in private practice and ignore the problem of overpopulation, but the experience at Muscogee leaves a lasting impression."