Welcome Dr. Sarah Crain

Dr. Sarah Crain (she/her) is a new but familiar face at Henry and Lois Foster Hospital for Small Animals (FHSA) at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Crain practiced with FHSA’s Internal Medicine service while earning her master’s degree at Cummings School in 2017, and now formally joins the team as an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences.

After six years in private practice, Crain says of her return to Cummings School, “Coming back, I love the people, and I missed having time to research and teach. I love teaching, and supporting residents as they learn is so gratifying to me.”

While she always knew she would pursue a career in science and medicine, Crain started in the neuroscience field. At Oberlin College, she majored in neuroscience and biology, with minors in chemistry and history. She assisted in a neuroscience research laboratory, isolating and growing a type of neuron that was previously difficult to culture.

The summers took her in a different direction, working at a veterinary clinic in New York City. “It was a wonderful place to get my feet wet. I was not sure what I wanted to do with my career, but I knew I loved veterinary medicine.”

After graduating, Crain was a laboratory assistant in a neuroscience psychiatry lab in San Diego, California, that utilized rats as animal models to glean insights into schizophrenia. She studied the circuitry of neurons in the brain and how they are impacted by certain medications. She contributed to a number of published studies.

“It got me fired up to do science,” she says. Taking care of the rats turned out to be one of her favorite parts of the job. “When we had surgeries, I was very invested in how they were doing.”

On landing in the veterinary field, Crain reflects, “I always loved animals and realized that this is one aspect of my life that has been constant. Between that and loving medicine and science, veterinary medicine was a natural choice for me. I wanted to be with the animals.”

After two years in research, Crain started up her D.V.M. at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. She dove into her studies, served as student council president, and represented the veterinary school in the UMN graduate community. She continued to research during summers, assisting a UMN professor with preclinical trials of a medication to induce vomiting for Pfizer.

After completing her veterinary degree, Crain interned at North Carolina State University.

“At NC State, the interns are hands-on immediately, the teaching is amazing, and the support is incredible,” she says. “I also realized I wanted to specialize.”

Crain was torn between anesthesia and internal medicine. In the end, she preferred more client interaction and chose the latter.

“I want to follow the animal,” she says. “After a procedure, with internal medicine, the job is not done. You’re responsible for the next step for the pet. It was the follow-up and continuity of care that I wanted.”

She recalls a case she handled as an intern, a puppy suffering from pneumonia and placed on a ventilator. “The owners were in the hospital daily. The couple was sitting there one night, and I remember making the decision with the family to let her go. You go through stressful and emotionally trying times with people and guide them through it. Being an internist is more than just the medicine. We get to know our clients well and develop some really important relationships.”

Crain followed up her internship with a residency in small animal internal medicine back at UMN. In addition to her clinical work, she pulled research to the forefront again, taking part in two studies, the first evaluating the safety of a pancreatic procedure in cats, and the second looking at autoimmune anemia in dogs. She also wrote up case reports with her surgery resident mates. The combination of treating patients, conducting research, and training veterinary students and interns on the clinic floor was a fulfilling balance in her career.

Crain’s next four years would be at Cummings School, earning her master’s degree in life sciences. Her studies involved researching neonatal stem therapies to treat inflammatory diseases in dogs. Also working with the internal medicine team at FHSA, she again had the opportunity to teach veterinary students, interns, and now residents.

“Working with current residents as a recently graduated resident was a lot of fun,” she says. “I knew where they were in training, where the gaps were, and how I could help.”

An FHSA cardiology technician brought Crain along to volunteer at MSPCA-Angell Animal Medical Center in Methuen, and from that day on, shelter and community medicine would become mainstays of her work, performing spays, neuters, and other procedures and surgeries.

“That is one of my biggest joys, to provide care for pets who can’t otherwise get it,” she says.

Crain’s next chapter took her into private practice at Ocean State Veterinary Specialists, a high-volume clinic in Rhode Island. She started volunteering at Rhode Island Community Pet Project, providing veterinary care to low-income pet owners in Providence.

These experiences fostered a focus on the spectrum of care in her practice. “I’d like to reframe how we approach our patient populations with more personalized medicine, prioritizing treatments and how to talk to people who may not have resources. It’s not one size fits all, and a pet is family for most clients.”

Ready to incorporate teaching and research back into her work again, she returned to Cummings School this summer.

“I’m excited about being back at Tufts to teach, and we have great research going on here,” she says. Though she started in neuroscience, her research interests have veered into gastrointestinal, autoimmune, and hematologic diseases. “I’m hoping to continue to research GI diseases and other aspects of medicine that need questions answered.”

Crain is primarily on the clinic floor at FHSA, treating patients and training residents, interns, and veterinary students. She will also lecture and continue to volunteer every week at the Rhode Island Community Pet Project.

“People here are extraordinarily skilled in their areas,” she says. “I’m excited to learn from the people who are doing the research directly. I can grow professionally in ways that only a school can let you, especially with the mentorship at Tufts and wonderful clinician faculty around me.”

One of her first cases at FHSA exemplifies her approach towards medicine. A dog from a shelter came through the Emergency Room with bladder stones. He was treated at FHSA, but would need surgery, so the clinicians arranged for him to have the bladder stones removed at Luke and Lily Lerner Spay/Neuter Clinic, Cummings School’s clinic serving shelter and rescue pets. “It was wonderful, everyone could pitch in and help.”