There's no charge to the client for the spay. Additionally, they can get any vaccines they need, like rabies and distemper, a heartworm test, and a microchip at a low cost. It’s heavily supervised and extraordinarily safe. It's a win-win in terms of helping the community by providing these services for no charge, and they're helping us in training our veterinary students by bringing the dogs.
Lerner Clinic Offering Free Dog Spays Through February
More students, faculty, and OR space ups the capacity for spay surgeries
Luke and Lily Lerner Clinic is built upon partnerships with shelters, rescues, and community members who bring pets in need to the clinic for neuters, spays, and primary care surgery. While serving the community, students at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University gain critical surgical skills at Lerner Clinic. A key component of that training is the Junior Spay Lab. This year, with the larger class size, Lerner Clinic has increased availability for dog spay surgeries.
Members of the community can book a spay for their dog at Lerner Clinic here. Free dog spay surgeries are available to any member of the community with a female dog weighing between 10 and 80 pounds and between the ages of four months and eight years.
“There's no charge to the client for the spay. Additionally, they can get any vaccines they need, like rabies and distemper, a heartworm test, and a microchip at a low cost,” says Dr. Laurence Sawyer (she/her), V99, director of Lerner Clinic and assistant teaching professor in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences at Cummings School. “It’s heavily supervised and extraordinarily safe. It's a win-win in terms of helping the community by providing these services for no charge, and they're helping us in training our veterinary students by bringing the dogs.”
All third-year Cummings School students complete the Junior Spay Lab at Lerner Clinic, performing four spays, two as the anesthesiologist and two as the surgeon. It is their first live surgical experience, closely overseen by Cummings School faculty, with one instructor to every two to three students.
“The faculty are checking every single step of the way,” says Sawyer. “We are there to ensure the animals are safe, everything is going well, and the students are getting as much as they can out of the learning opportunity.”
Lerner Clinic added a third faculty member and opened a second operating room (OR) for this year’s Junior Spay Lab. Cummings School class sizes have increased from 100 to 130 students, with the current third-year class especially large at 150 students. In previous years, students performed 200 dog spays over the course of the lab—this year, there will be 300 spays.
Dr. Mary-Kate Clough, V21, assistant clinical professor in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, joined the Lerner Clinic faculty team in September. Sawyer, Clough, and Dr. Yuki Nakayama, V14, assistant clinical professor in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, together train the students with the assistance of the dedicated veterinary technicians and staff at Lerner Clinic.
“Mary-Kate brings a high level of surgical experience, as well as that perspective of helping animals in shelter situations and working with both large and small animals. That's a unique perspective, and we're super happy to have her,” says Sawyer. “The addition of that third faculty member allows us to expand our programming. The fact that Mary-Kate is so experienced, she can hit the ground running and bring so much to the education of our students and helping our patients.”
After graduating from Cummings School, Clough completed a combined shelter medicine and community medicine internship program at MSPCA Nevins Farm and MSPCA Angell at Nashoba Community Veterinary Clinic. After the one-year internship, she stayed on as a shelter veterinarian at MSPCA Nevins Farm and later became the shelter’s lead veterinarian.
Training at Lerner Clinic is woven throughout Cummings School’s curriculum, giving students exposure, experience, and skills to prepare for clinics.
“Lerner Clinic is a supportive environment,” says Sawyer. “We're trying to foster their level of confidence and help them with that transition from sim [simulation] models to live patients. It is a steep learning curve, and every dog is very different in terms of their anatomy, so you have to be able to adjust on the fly. They come in knowing their basic skills, so they can really focus on the live animal aspect.”
To enhance the learning experience, Sawyer and Nakayama instituted a number of changes to the Spay Lab, which runs from late August through mid-February each year. They lowered the student-to-instructor ratio to provide more individualized attention and feedback delivery throughout each procedure. Nakayama developed discrete modules on each step of the procedure with videos of Sawyer performing those steps. After each spay, students write a reflection on how they feel the surgery went.
“They can use that as a springboard as they go forward,” says Sawyer. “We comment on how they can improve their skills, what they did well, and on their growth mindset. Are they coming prepared to learn and to engage with that feedback so then they can really succeed in clinics? That's the ultimate goal. It's about putting all their classroom and laboratory learning to use and being able to thrive and succeed in a busy clinical environment.”
They also focus on students’ communication skills with their surgical partners, doctors, and staff, and students practice presenting cases.
“This is a place where it really comes together,” says Sawyer. “It's a milestone experience that builds their confidence and also helps us identify those students who might need a little bit more help in order to succeed in clinics.”
Lerner Clinic faculty begin surgical training with students during their second-year Clinical Skills labs. Fourth-year veterinary students participate in high-volume surgery days, dentistry weeks, and primary care procedures through elective rotations at Lerner Clinic.
With Clough added to the team, Sawyer plans to increase Lerner Clinic’s programming in other ways to benefit patients and students in training, potentially expanding dentistry services and adding more volume surgery days.
Lerner Clinic works closely with rescues, shelters, and animal control officers throughout New England to treat and ready animals for adoption. Rescued animals must be spayed or neutered, receive rabies and DHPP vaccines, be tested and treated (if needed) for heartworm disease, and have a microchip implanted before adoption—all services Lerner Clinic provides. Community members with low-income qualifications, such as a SNAP or WIC card, and other pet owners referred by their primary care veterinarians, may bring their pets to Lerner Clinic for low-cost surgical care.
Department:
Lerner Spay/Neuter Clinic