Shelter Medicine Program partners in national spay/neuter training video

The Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine has partnered with the country's leading spay/neuter training center to produce a series of videos aimed at educating greater numbers of veterinary professionals about best practices in high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter surgical techniques.

The first in a planned series of the surgical training videos details procedures for performing surgery on puppies and kittens as small as 2 pounds and as young as 6 to 8 weeks of age.

"Spaying and neutering animals prior to sexual maturity prevents unintended litters and ensures numerous well-established health benefits for them," explained Brenda Griffin, D.V.M., an adjunct associate professor of shelter medicine at the University of Florida and UF's lead veterinarian in developing the new teaching tool. "In addition, performing these procedures at an early age offers the advantage of shorter surgical and recovery times."

Griffin, a board-certified internist, joined forces with two board-certified surgeons, Philip Bushby, D.V.M., of Mississippi State University, Mark Bohling, D.V.M., Ph.D., of the University of Tennessee, and Karla Brestle, D.V.M., of the Humane Alliance National Spay/Neuter Response Team. The video was filmed at the NSNRT's 13,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art surgical training center nestled in Asheville, N.C.'s Blue Ridge Mountains, where more than 23,000 sterilization surgeries are performed annually.

"Veterinarians and students already have the opportunity to participate in intensive hands-on surgical continuing education at the training center, but the new video series will make training available to veterinarians and students around the world," Griffin said. "The first video demonstrates techniques designed to improve efficiency while maximizing patient comfort and safety."

"It is technically much easier to spay a 2-pound puppy than a 75-pound adult. Students at Florida are already taught the skills illustrated in this video," said Natalie Isaza, D.V.M., the Merial clinical assistant professor of shelter medicine at UF and chief of the college's shelter medicine service. "Our goal is to make this information available to practitioners who want to learn these techniques as well."

Pediatric neutering was selected as the topic for the first training video because practitioners frequently lack confidence in the procedure and because neutering before puberty offers the best opportunity to prevent overpopulation caused by accidental litters. "We advise our students that the timing of spay-neuter surgery is very important," Griffin said. "Puppies and kittens should always be sterilized prior to adoption from animal shelters, including those as young as six weeks of age. Practitioners should routinely schedule their privately owned patients for surgery immediately following completion of the first vaccination series at approximately 4 months of age."

The video, funded by PetSmart Charities, is available for free viewing and downloading at www.humanealliance.org. A DVD also will be mailed to veterinary students at all U.S. veterinary colleges. The group plans to create additional instructional videos focusing on spaying large breed dogs, trap-neuter-return of feral cats, and novel techniques for improving surgical efficiency, anesthetic technique, patient safety and post-surgical pain prevention.