Want to feel hope for the future of shelter medicine? Join the Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Program team as we show a group of teenage 4-H students from all over Florida what we do for animals!
The students were at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine for “Exploring Veterinary Medicine Day,” and we wanted to put shelter medicine’s best paw forward. After a tour of several different departments and a series of short demonstrations and interactive lessons, we hosted the students in the new UF CVM Clinical Skills Lab.
First, Dr. Larry Garcia gave them a brief presentation on what shelter medicine is:
Next, he took them around to a number of stations. At the first, they learned to do a basic exam on his dog, Gumbeaux, by listening to his heart and feeling his pulse:
After that, they joined veterinary technician Sylvia Tucker at an enrichment station, where students made cat and dog toys out of household items:
Then they joined Rose Worobec, a UF DVM student and Maddie’s Shelter Medicine certificate student, at a station with stuffed animals that had microchips in them. The students scanned them to find the microchip:
Finally, Dr. Garcia showed them how to perform CPR on a dog mannequin:
No matter what they got out of the visit, it couldn’t be more than we did. Thanks, 4-H students; we know you’ll do great things in the future!