Shelter Medicine Service

About the Service

The mission of the Hoerlein Spay/Neuter Program is to provide high quality reproductive surgical services and preventive care to dogs and cats from partnering animal shelters, while providing training to our senior veterinary students. These partnering shelters have made a significant commitment to maintaining a high standard of care and support our college’s academic programs.

What We Do

On this service, veterinary students gain valuable experience performing private practice style spays and neuters on dogs and cats. Students perform a physical exam, complete pre-anesthetic lab testing, induce and monitor anesthesia, and perform surgeries using common techniques. Students are also exposed to high quality, high volume techniques used in most shelters. They are also introduced to the Guidelines for Standards of Animal Care in Animal Shelters and concepts to help manage the health and well-being of a shelter population. Patients are tested for common and/or potentially zoonotic diseases, such as, heartworms, rickettsial diseases, FeLV and FIV, and intestinal parasites. Patients are treated for intestinal parasites and external parasites when indicated.

We also help provide care for the hospital’s Good Samaritan patients and consult with area shelters as needed.

The Shelter Medicine rotation is comprised of two veterinarians and one technician who are dedicated to providing the best service to our partnering shelter patients and the best available education to our senior veterinary students.

This service is made possible through generous gifts from donors linked to our partnering shelters and is not available to the general public.

Meet the Team

Veterinary Support Staff

Jamie Johnson