I. Announcements
- Hyena colony field trip last Friday; check the facebook club site for pictures!
- Saturday, November 19th: tour of the Golden Gate Fields racetrack 7-10am

Guest speaker: PETS Referral Center Emergency Vet, Dr. Cindy Lamheart

Things you might see at an ER:
- Bite wounds
- Toxicities
- HBC (hit by car
- Excretions
- Allergic rxn
- Vomiting and diarrhea
- GI obstruction
- Urinary obstruction

Cases discussed:
- foxtails
- HBC: hemorrhage, broken bones, neurological trauma, respiratory, shock*
Tests to run:
– chemistry panel—can look at liver and kidney function

– CBC (complete blood cell count)

– X-ray (radiographs), esp. for lungs

– Ultrasound (U/S)

– Blood pressure

Steps to take: pain meds, antibiotics, clean cuts (wound care), stabilize fracture, E-collar, give O2 if trouble breathing, give blood

- X-ray demos were shown of actual cases

***Next meeting is on Tuesday, November 8th @5pm NAF

I. Announcements
- Next meeting will be Tuesday October 25th at NAF 5pm
- Wednesday October 26th, Cornell vet school is coming to talk to us at 5pm
- Hyena colony field trip on Friday October 28th at 3pm, we will take 20 people; there will be
carpools, those with active membership get priority.

Speaker: Kelly Jensen (lab animal/clinical vet on campus)
Experience in small animal med, certified in vet acupuncture, holistic med
o Vet acupuncture not an actual specialty; chi institute in FL has vet acupuncture
certification
Attended University of Illinois vet school, focused on pathology; externship at San Diego
Seaworld
Went straight into joining a practice after she graduated, no residency required in SF
o Saw exotics and small animal
Herbal medicine and food med also available
3 year residency in lab animal medicine; takes care of research animals, helps them
when they’re sick and during surgery; makes sure procedures are necessary for results of
research

Questions asked (Q&A):
What about small animal med didn’t you find fulfilling?
o Felt all the good cases got sent to the specialists; requires you to work with both
animals and people and some people are a little crazy

Were cases referred out because not adequate equipment at clinic?
o Not an emergency clinic so can’t have overnight animals; complex surgeries
required better resources

How do you know researchers are actually following protocol?
o Set of people that review protocols and communicate with labs; “post approval
monitoring” to check up on people; need very specific information on procedures
What made you decide to initially choose small animal med?
o Easiest path to take

Did you have problems treating animals that were illegal in California?
o Ferret ban in CA; she had no problem with it

Can you talk about your externship in San Diego?
o A 6 week externship to get hands on shadowing exposure in zoo and
aquatic animal med; a lot of behavioral research on animals in captivity;
necropsy=autopsy for animals—performed on a sea lion that died; did research
projects on animals such as dolphin hormones

Did you ever think about working at Sea World? And are there specialists there?
o Most who work there are zoo animal vets; didn’t think it fit her interests. Vets
do every kind of animal there, which is hard; mostly deal with birds. A lot of
pressure because you get published for what goes wrong; a lot of people to
communicate with and politics

Why did you choose to be in Berkeley?
o Can bring a fair amount of expertise and fulfill greater good interest; important to
get a year or two of general practice to make sure you like it

What experience did you have before vet school?
o Worked in small animal clinic, worked on research in college; tracked manatees
in college

How was transition from vet school to general practice
o Advised to take a break between to get you more prepared; didn’t make too much
money coming out of vet school but had salary; when looking for a job, interview
them when they’re interviewing youask a lot of questions; felt like she was ready
but still had a lot to learn

Do you have any insights on how to handle undergrad years before vet school?
o Make sure you complete prereqs but don’t have to major in sciences; major in
English or anything you want, doesn’t have to be science

Tell us more about vet acupuncture . . .
o Based on traditional Chinese medicine; disfunction=imbalance; hot vs. cold
elements and beliefs; choosing points to bring what’s out of balance back in
balance; teaches you to look at whole animals not just one area like the ear in an
ear infection (typical of western med)

How do you balance family life and your job?
o Never a good time to have kids (joke). Why this specialty appealed to her; small
animal med is not regular; lab animal med is not as spontaneous; balancing with
family is a real challenge in job interviews, ask about vacations, maternity leave,
what if kids are sick, etc; interview the interviewer. Worked part-time for a little
bit; learn time management skills

Do you have any other hobbies?
o Goes running and spends time with family.

A speaker from the Royal Veterinary College of the University of London gave a presentation about the school. The presentation can be seen here and a guide for international students can be viewed here.

I. Announcements

a. Committees (fundraising and social) were supposed to meet after Tuesday’s meeting, but we ran out of time so committees should be meeting next week

b. Bowling Night! Next, Thursday Sept. 22nd @ 9:30pm we will carpool over to the Albany bowling alley and have some fun getting to know our fellow members.

i. It will be $4 for each member and pizza will be provided

ii. Keep an eye out for a carpooling Googledoc

c. T-Shirt designs are due Oct. 25th. This gives those that are interested a little bit over a month to come up with a design; all designs must have “Cal Pre-Vet Club” somewhere on it.

d. 2 Vet experience 101 handouts passed around: one was on the local vet clinics and the other was a list of specialties in vet med

II. Vet Experience 101

a. Speaker #1: Our very own club member Calla talked about her experience with OLAC (Office of Laboratory Animal Care)

i. This is offered through the URAP program (Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program), which you can apply for online

ii. Offered once a semester and is a great opportunity for lab animal experience, especially if you’ve only worked with large animals. The office looks at health reports for lab animals on campus such as Rhesus monkeys, mice, rats, moles, hyenas, and reptiles

iii. Through the program you also create your own research project, such as the effects of anesthesia on Rhesus monkeys; the goal of the office is to make sure all of the animals are taken care of and that they are handled properly

b. Speaker #2: Sharon Liu, CAL alumni with a LOT of experience in various fields: research, an internship at the Oakland Zoo and Berkeley Humane Society, works at PETS Referral Center, volunteered at Marine World, and traveled abroad doing research.

i. Research-she worked in the Bentley lab while at Berkeley, which studied neuroendocrinology; to get started on research contact professors and peers

ii. Internships-went abroad to Taiwan and Costa Rica

1. Went abroad through the EAP program to Costa Rica-a tropical biology and conservation program; offers classes such as Spanish and ecology, do a new research project every 2 weeks (i.e. visual signaling in fireflies); a quarter program, not a semester. It was cheaper to go there than to stay in Berkeley because only a quarter program

2. Oakland Zoo internship: doesn’t pay, big time commitment but gets you connections to other internships

a. Program is over the summer (2-3 days/wk); pretty much act as the zookeeperàcleaning, feeding, learn about the diets and care of animals; heighten observational skills

iii. Marine Mammal Center volunteer (Marin, CA)- a rescue/rehabilitation center for marine life; a lot of zoo keeping work; however there are many requirements in order to start working thereàmust take classes on marine mammals, talk to kids on education, work retail, and work in animal crew before doing zookeeping work. As a volunteer, you can take blood samples, rotate with doctors, and see surgeries

iv. Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue Center volunteer (Oakland)

1. A very grassroots, nonprofit program that rescues urban creatures such as raccoons, squirrels, wild birds, etc. Not nearly as many “hoops” to jump through to work there unlike Marine Mammal Center

v. 3 Ring-Ranch (Hawaii)- a month long internship; pay for airfare but room and board paid for

1. An exotic animal sanctuary; connection to UC Berkeley; they take pre-vets from Berkeley and vet students from Davis and pair them upàllamas, zebras, cockatoos, swans, tortoises, etc. All rescued species; offers a lot of hands on experience (i.e. participating in bat wing surgery)

Important PVC Dates:
Sept. 13th: Vet Experience 101-meeting will be focused on how/where to get a wide
variety of experience and exposure in Berkeley, not just small animal.
Sept. 27th: A speaker from the Royal Vet College will come talk to the club
Oct. 11th: Small Animal Vet 101-pros & cons of small animal medicine
Oct. 25th: TBA
November: Poultry veterinarian will speak to the club; poultry medicine and food
medicine are in high demand for vets!
*Speaker: UC Davis Vet School board of admissions Yasmin Williams will go into
detail on the application process

Fall Semester Field Trips
Lindsay Wildlife (Walnut Creek)-live museum of animals/injured wildlife
Golden Gate Fields tour-equine medicine (early October)
**Also, starting this semester, there will be 2 committees: the Social committee and
the Fundraising committee. Each committee will be led by a PVC officer and every
member may join one of the committees.

• Social: 1 social event per semester

• Fundraising: 1 fundraising event per semester

Outreach: Let’s go out and share with others what our club is about!

• Youth Impact (volunteer group): discuss animal rights and proper animal care

1st Social Event: Bowling night in mid-September (keep an eye out for the date)
Active Membership:
Benefits: Preference in field trips; ability to vote/run for officer positions at the
end of the year.
*To be active you must come to 2 meetings and attend 1 fundraiser per
semester.
T-Shirt Contest: For those of you with an artistic side, please feel free to submit a t-
shirt design for our club! If you would like to see last year’s club shirt, we will have it at
the next meeting as an example.