My junior and senior year I volunteered at the Pet Resource Center earning around 250 hours total. The Pet Resource Center was the county animal services but changed their name from Hillsborough County Animal Services to Pet Resource Center to give more of a positive vibe to the shelter. When volunteering I started out by just walking dogs and helping them get adopted. Then I moved to the clinic side to where I got more hands on learning about the medical aspect of how the shelter was ran. There were three sections of the clinic: intake, exam room, and surgery. Intake was where animals that were either being turned in for adoption or strays that had been caught by locals or animal officers. During intake it was determined if the animals needed to be assigned to surgery or an exam. If they were not neuter or spayed they had to be scheduled for surgery; if they were they just needed to be scheduled for an exam( which is a simple health check up). The days that I was assigned to help in intake I would help a veterinary technician:

-determine breed and age
-weigh the animal
-get their temperature
-give them shots
-check if the animal is spayed or neutered
-determine whether they needed to go to a foster home

 

When working in the exam room it is very similar to if an owner was to take their pet in for check up, the only exception being that none of the animals have actual owners yet. When assigned to the exam area I had to:

-restrain animals
-bring and put up animals
-get the animals vitals (weight, temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure)

-grooming
-microchip each animal
-clean
-scan for microchips
-fill prescriptions

 

Now to the important part of the section that’s directly related to the topic of spaying and neutering. In surgery I helped with pre-operation and post operation, majority of the surgeries were routine spay and neuters on cats and dogs. Occasionally there were other types of surgeries like amputations. When volunteering in the suregery section I had to:

-clean and pack instruments
-restrain animals
-clip toenails, shave, and scrub patients
-weigh/temp animals
-help sedate
-put back animals that are recovering

 

A big part in keeping the shelter organized by all the dogs and cats that came through everyday was by recognizing what each sign meant. On each animals cage there was a piece of paper with their picture, name and other general information like breed and weight. What was different between the papers on each cage was the color of the paper, each color meant something different:

-White: the animal still wasn’t owned by county
-Yellow: the animal needs surgery or an exam and cost more to adopt right now
-Green: the animal was ready to go that day and cost less to adopt

 

Along with different color signs they also had other signs on the cages that were more direct such as:

-caution may bite: obviously meaning the animal is very aggressive so unless experienced don’t take the animal out
-do not feed: don’t feed the animal that day usually because they were being fasted for surgery the next day
-personality signs: white boards telling about the animal’s personality and if they liked other animals
-stamps: if a dog was already adopted they would put a stamp and if however many times the dog has had a biting incident they will put a Bite stamp

 

All the signs put together would help volunteers who are working the adoption area be able to tell future owners a little bit about the dog or cat and make sure it’s a right fit for their home. This helped minimize the amount questions that needed to be answered by the medical group who were usually very busy all day trying to see as many animals as possible that day and entering all their paperwork. It also helped because while their doing surgeries they don’t have to worry about an animal being fed that was going in for surgery because if an animal eats before surgery and it’s not all the way digested this can for animals to throw up when being sedated. The surgery area is small so an animal throwing up can cause quite the delay or just make it uncomfortable to work because of the smell.

So for the most part while at the shelter I learned a lot of hands on skills for my that can help me in the future on the way to becoming a veterinarian and how much goes into an animal being processed through the shelter.