Cummings School alumni are helping veterinary students gain critical clinical skills while helping animals in need

The case in India was unlike any a veterinarian or veterinary student would routinely see in the United States, said Katie Holmes, V13.

The emaciated female dog was found on the side of the road with severe injuries from being struck by a car. Someone brought the dog in to All Creatures Great and Small, an animal sanctuary about a ninety-minute drive outside of New Delhi, India.

Holmes, a Boston-area small-animal veterinarian, was at the sanctuary mentoring veterinary students Alena Naimark, V22, and Alene Pohly, V22, on a service-focused trip funded by scholarships through Tufts University Veterinary Alumni Association and the school’s Summer Research Training Program.

“I saw this pink thing hanging down underneath her,” recalled Holmes of her first look at the patient. “I thought it might be her intestines, but it was her distal femur sticking out.” She explained that the dog’s thigh bone had been completely dislocated from her lower leg at the knee joint, the flesh completely torn away. On the dog’s opposite “good” side, her rear leg was wounded so deeply that bone marrow was exposed.

The stray’s dire condition made her a horrible candidate for anesthesia. But death was certain without intervention. Holmes and the students put the dog under, amputated her unsalvageable leg, flushed out her wounds, and closed her up as best they could on her other side.

Assisting Holmes with the amputation “was the most amazing thing to do, especially considering I only have a year of vet school under my belt,” Pohly said.

“Those were the first sutures the students had ever put in a live animal,” Holmes added.

Tres recovering from surgery.The dog—since named Tres by sanctuary workers—survived. Holmes shared a cellphone picture of Tres taken just five weeks after surgery. The dog’s once-skeletal frame had filled out from regular feedings, and she looked bright-eyed and happy.

“She wanted to live, you know?” said Holmes. “And we helped facilitate that.”

Since Cummings School’s international service program launched this February, six veterinary students have traveled on four trips to partner sites in India, Ecuador, and Kenya. Holmes, president of the alumni association, has used her time off to serve as the veterinarian mentor on two of them.

Teaching students and seeing animals suffering extreme conditions might seem an odd way for a veterinarian to relax. But Holmes said the travel is rejuvenating. Each service trip reaffirms her gratitude for all the privileges she enjoys in the U.S.—and makes her appreciate even more how her veterinary skills make such a difference for sick and injured animals.

“I went on that trip to India feeling so stressed out from the daily grind,” Holmes said, “and came back feeling like, ‘Oh yeah, this is why I went to veterinary school.’” It’s a feeling Holmes wants to share with as many Cummings School students as possible, regardless of their financial resources.

Read more by clicking on the link below:

Transformational Service Trips for Future Veterinarians