ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 21, 1996 TAG: 9611210022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
THE PRACTICE NOT ONLY helps the future veterinarians learn, but also makes adopting one of the sheltered pooches less expensive.
Eight Roanoke Valley SPCA dogs Wednesday helped veterinary students practice the most common procedure they'll ever do when they go into practice: spaying a female dog.
Working in teams of three, the third-year students at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in Blacksburg removed the uterus of each dog during a final exam lab that closed a semester for the students, but opened up new opportunity for the dogs.
"You can't imagine how fast a spayed or neutered animal goes out of here," said Al Alexander, SPCA director.
The school expects to spay as many as 120 shelter animals a year, saving people who adopt the animals the $65 to $100 cost of spaying.
For several years, the vet school tried to run the program statewide. It divided the state into four quadrants and went to a different quadrant each year to get shelter dogs for the student training. The dogs were returned to the areas for adoption.
The program became a logistical nightmare when the school had to work with distant areas, officials said.
The next effort to get animals for student practice was even less attractive, said a vet school spokesman. For a time, the school took animals scheduled to be killed by New River area pounds, used them for student training, and then the school killed the animals.
"This way students get to learn, dogs get operated on and get a home," said Dr. Jessie Webster, president of the Roanoke Valley Veterinary Association, which lobbied for Roanoke to get the program.
The students taking the exam have participated in similar surgery three to five times before. After the surgery, they stay with the dogs until the animals wake up.
After the students give the dogs a final check this morning, the animals will return to their cages and wait for owners.
The new program makes the exam a pleasant experience, said Dr. Peter Shires, one of the school's five small-animal surgeons. He was in charge of Wednesday's lab.
"We're pleased to work with nice dogs," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL\Staff. 1. Third-year students at theby CNBVirginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine work in
teams of three on dogs from the Roanoke Valley SPCA. 2. A comforting
hug from Terry Higgins (below) helps one of the patients prepare for
the surgery. color.