{"id":1987,"date":"2015-12-05T10:21:46","date_gmt":"2015-12-05T00:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1987"},"modified":"2015-12-08T10:26:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T00:26:19","slug":"face-to-face-cindy-karsten-shelter-veterinarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1987","title":{"rendered":"Face to Face: Cindy Karsten, shelter veterinarian"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Cindy<\/a>It\u2019s not uncommon to miss the company of animals when travelling. But a severe case of \u201cdogsickness\u201d changed the career direction of forest scientist Cynthia (Cindy) Karsten.\r\n\r\n\u201cI went to work in Montana with the AmeriCorps program Montana Conservation Corps, travelled a lot with the job and couldn\u2019t have a dog,\u201d she said. \u201cThus I started volunteering at the local shelter\u201d.\r\n\r\n\u201cMy first impression was that it seemed broken \u2013 animals come in, if they aren\u2019t reclaimed or adopted, they\u2019re euthanised \u2013 simply because they ended up in the shelter. This sparked my interest in shelters.\u201d\r\n\r\nKarsten and her partner (now husband) moved to Alaska to work as bike guides, but she continued to be involved with homeless animals.\r\n\r\n\u201cI decided to go to vet school \u2013 so after three years we moved to Anchorage so that I could take some classes that I needed to apply to vet school.\u201d\r\n\r\nKarsten spent the next two years working at a veterinary specialist clinic while volunteering with a rescue group. In 2006, she was accepted into veterinary school in Madison, Wisconsin.\r\n\r\n\u201cI had thought that I would go to vet school and then would work in a shelter. However, Sandra Newbury, who was with UC Davis at the time, was living in Madison and working with vet students so opened my eyes to the possibilities in terms of working with shelters.\u201d\r\n\r\nFast forward almost a decade and Cindy Karsten, DVM, is one of a growing number of veterinarians specialising in Shelter Medicine. In June 2014, the American Veterinary Medical Association granted provisional recognition to the Shelter Medicine Practice specialty within the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners.\r\n\r\nKarsten\u2019s path has involved taking shelter-focused externships in the fourth year of her veterinary program, working at the Dane County Humane Society during her studies, and completing a one year combined small animal-shelter medicine internship through Colorado State University and Denver Dumb Friends League. Following that she completed a three year shelter medicine residency at UC Davis. She is currently the LazinAlive Outreach Veterinarian for the University of California – Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program (part of the Centre for Companion Animal Health t the School of Veterinary Medicine).\r\n\r\nShe is often asked why we need vets who specialise in shelter medicine.\r\n\r\n\u201cShelters face additional challenges \u2013 population management, infectious disease in a population (which is not usually an issue in a private home), limited resources including trained staff and an understanding of public policy.\u201d\r\n\r\nInfectious diseases are always a concern when dealing with a population of animals. In dogs, the main concerns are canine infectious respiratory disease syndrome (CIRDS) and parvovirus.\r\n\r\n\u201cDistemper is sadly still in some areas of the country, and heartworm is rampant in the southeast,\u201d she said. \u201cChicago (and now possibly Atlanta) just had an outbreak of H3N2 canine influenza virus \u2013 this is a different strain that we\u2019ve had before which was H3N8 and that has pretty much died out.\u201d\r\n\r\nFor cats in shelters, the most common infectious disease threats are upper respiratory tract infection, panleukopenia and ringworm.\r\n\r\nLike all vets, shelter medicine specialists solve problems, but are required to do so on a broader scale. Karsten performs consultations, but instead of examining a single animal, her patient is the shelter.\r\n\u201cA consultation can be focused, for example looking at one aspect such as population management or controlling an outbreak, or comprehensive,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nShe takes a history, which can be time consuming as it requires looking at data from previous years where this is available. Karsten is particularly interested in animal intake, outcomes and length of stay.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe start [by] talking with the shelter to get to know them. Then we usually do a 2-3 day site visit to tour the shelter and have meetings with staff and stakeholders. From there we provide recommendations and I continue to work with the shelters as they implement changes and overcome barriers.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI will do whatever I can to help,\u201d she said. \u201cI also work closely with our shelter medicine resident and our shelter medicine fellows \u2013 five to six shelter veterinarians each year who work with us on a project in their shelter.\u201d\r\n\r\nShelter management is evolving. One of the most significant changes Karsten has seen is a trend toward working from a shelter\u2019s capacity for care, rather than defining capacity as the number of housing units that a shelter has.\r\n\r\n\u201cMuch is this is from drastically changing how the shelter manages cats \u2013 either from discontinuing the intake of healthy stray cats or if the shelter does take them, returning to field either those that are not suitable for life in a home or all cats above the number that the shelter can adopt out,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nKarsten believes shelters must determine and function within their capacity for care \u2013 how many animals are they able to take care of, ensuring that all animals enjoy the five freedoms and ideally a sixth: freedom from euthanasia for animals that are neither suffering irredeemably nor dangerous.\r\n\r\n\u201cTo achieve this shelters need to actively manage their intake through proactive planning, provide humane housing for all animals (i.e. compartmentalised housing of sufficient size and enrichment to match their length of stay), support owners to allow them to keep pets in their home with affordable and accessible veterinary care, behavioural help and training, proactive return to owner programs, and return to field programs if they are going to take in cats that are not suitable to live in a home.\u201d\r\n\r\nClearly, cats are a sticking point.\r\n\r\n\u201cEach year, millions of cats lose their lives in animal shelters. An enormous amount is invested in the capture, holding, and euthanasia of these animals, and the emotional toll exacted by their death is incalculable,\u201d Karsten said.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe know euthanasia of healthy cats can be replaced with programs that are more humane and effective for cats and communities alike. Shelters are hungry for this change.\u201d\r\n\r\nKarsten mentions the Million Cat Challenge, a North American shelter-based program that shelters can voluntarily participate in.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe aim is to save the lives of 1 million cats in North America [between 2014 and 2019]. The core strategy will be five key initiatives that will offer every shelter practical choices to reduce euthanasia and increase live outcomes for shelter cats.\u201d\r\n\r\nThese are:\r\n1. Providing alternative to intake \u2013 to keep cats in the home or community when admission to a shelter is not the best choice.\r\n2. Managed admission \u2013 intake of cats is scheduled to match the shelter\u2019s ability to assure humane care and safe movement through the system to an appropriate outcome.\r\n3. Capacity for care: Match the number of cats cared for at any one time with the capacity required to assure the Five Freedoms for all shelter cats.\r\n4. Removing barriers to adoption: Expand the pool of adopters by addressing factors such as cost, process, or location.\r\n5. Return to field: Desex, vaccinate, and return healthy un-owned shelter cats to the location of origin as an alternative to euthanasia.\r\n\r\n\u201cNot every initiative will make sense for every shelter, and there is no need to embrace all five initiatives to participate,\u201d Karsten said.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe \u201cMillion\u201d of the Million Cat Challenge will be based on aggregate numerical reduction in euthanasia and increase in lives saved by the participating shelters\u201d.\r\n\r\nThe release of cats back into the community will be controversial to some, but the plan is based on the observation that removal +\/- euthanasia could increase the numbers of new cats moving into an area if the resources continue to be there.\r\nInevitably, working in shelters, Karsten has fostered and adopted more than her fair share of charges. She has a soft spot for small dogs.\r\n\u201cWe live with Milly \u2013 an ancient long haired Chihuahua mix who I adopted during my internship as a hospice dog \u2013 she was having seizures at the shelter, and they aged her at about nine or ten at the time. She was going to be euthanised. I just couldn\u2019t bear that her last day would be at the shelter after she\u2019d been there almost 6 months so I decided to take her home to live out whatever time she had left\u201d.\r\nThat was over four years ago.\r\n\r\nIn her free time, Karsten rescues small dogs from Fresno who fly to Minneapolis where there is a shortage of small dogs for adoption. She works with a rescue group who does this every six weeks. To date they have saved over 700 dogs. This is how she met Neil and Hailey.\r\n\r\n\u201cBoth were shy and so we fostered them, but just couldn\u2019t put them up for adoption. Neil is really truly the best dog in the world and Hailey has become his best friend. We also have Rodger \u2013 a toothless older Chihuahua who is not very bright but provides lots of entertainment and comic relief. I met him when I was visiting a local shelter last fall and in a moment of weakness said I\u2019d take him home\u201d.\r\nBut it\u2019s not all about small dogs. There\u2019s also Mi\u2019ja – a 20kg collie mix.\r\n\r\n\u201cShe showed up at a clinic that I was working at in Mexico during vet school eight years ago. She\u2019s been extremely healthy until recently when she developed thrombocytopenia \u2013 found on pre-dental bloodwork – but we can\u2019t seem to get it back to normal. She loves challenging her mom with medicine!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWe have one cat, Blue \u2013 he showed up at a friend of a friend\u2019s house about 9 years ago \u2013 we\u2019d been thinking about getting a cat and so said we\u2019d try him at our house to see how he did with all of the dogs.\u00a0 He fit in swimmingly immediately so he stayed. I\u2019m pretty sure he thinks he\u2019s a dog\u201d.\r\n\r\nKarsten is optimistic about the future of shelter medicine.\r\n\r\n\u201cSo many things are done because that is the way we\u2019ve always done them, but once you dispel myths about how shelters work, once you understand the concept of capacity for care and work within it, you can make changes.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnne Fawcett<\/strong>\r\nPictures Cindy Karsten<\/em>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not uncommon to miss the company of animals when travelling. But a severe case of \u201cdogsickness\u201d changed the career direction of forest scientist Cynthia (Cindy) Karsten. \u201cI went to work in Montana with the AmeriCorps program Montana Conservation Corps, travelled a lot with the job and couldn\u2019t have a dog,\u201d she said. \u201cThus I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[30,1540,1667,78,201,519],"class_list":["post-1987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-anne-fawcett","tag-biography","tag-cindy-karsten","tag-face-to-face","tag-features-2","tag-shelters"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":67,"name":"Features","slug":"features","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":68,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":63,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":67,"category_count":63,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Features","category_nicename":"features","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"It\u2019s not uncommon to miss the company of animals when travelling. But a severe case of \u201cdogsickness\u201d changed the career direction of forest scientist Cynthia (Cindy) Karsten. \u201cI went to work in Montana with the AmeriCorps program Montana Conservation Corps, travelled a lot with the job and couldn\u2019t have a dog,\u201d she said. \u201cThus I started volunteering at the local..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"67":{"name":"Features","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=67"}},"tags_names":{"30":{"name":"Anne Fawcett","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=anne-fawcett"},"1540":{"name":"biography","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=biography"},"1667":{"name":"Cindy Karsten","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=cindy-karsten"},"78":{"name":"Face to Face","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=face-to-face"},"201":{"name":"features","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=features-2"},"519":{"name":"shelters","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=shelters"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1987"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1990,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions\/1990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}