Dr. Laura Cuddy

Dr. Laura Cuddy,  a small animal surgery resident at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, was recently honored by a national professional association for her achievements in the clinical, educational and scholarly arenas.

In April, the American Association of Veterinary Clinicians, an organization of veterinary clinicians engaged in teaching and research at the professional, graduate or postgraduate level, presented Cuddy with its Resident Award, which is given annually to two residents selected from all the veterinary residents in North America.

Cuddy completed her veterinary degree from University College Dublin in 2008. She then completed a rotating internship in small animal medicine and surgery at UF in 2009. She received a Master of Science degree at UF in 2011 and is completing a concurrent residency in small animal surgery.

Her thesis research investigated the biomechanics of the canine elbow joint and the effects of ulnar osteotomy. Her research has produced two first-author publications in the journal Veterinary Surgery. Cuddy has eight additional publications that have been submitted, accepted or are in print, all derived from clinical research performed during her residency.

Among Cuddy’s previous honors are Most Outstanding Podium Presentation in the Mark A. Bloomberg Resident Research Competition at the annual Veterinary Orthopedics Society conference in 2011; the Veterinary Arthrology Advancement Association’s Resident Award in 2011; and the First Place Research Presentation at the Resident’s Forum at the American College of Veterinary Surgeons’ annual Veterinary Symposium in 2011. She also received the UF veterinary college’s Excellence in Master’s Studies Award in 2012 and the college’s Excellence in Clinical Science Research Award in 2013.

“We are very proud to say Laura is the fourth UF small animal surgery resident to receive this award in the past decade,” said Daniel Lewis, D.V.M., professor of small animal surgery and the Jerry and Lola Collins Eminent Scholar in Canine Sports Medicine and Comparative Orthopedics.

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For more information about the Small Animal Surgery Service, click here. To make an appointment, call 352-392-2235.

By Marilee Griffin

Dr. James W. Lloyd

James W. Lloyd, D.V.M., Ph.D., has been named dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida.

“I am confident that our internationally recognized veterinary college, hospitals and clinics will flourish under Dr. Lloyd’s leadership,” said David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president for health affairs at UF and UF&Shands Health System president. “He brings a wealth of expertise to our team. I look forward to working with him in continuing our tradition of excellence as the state’s only college of veterinary medicine.”

Lloyd was chosen after a nationwide search led by co-chairs Teresa A. Dolan, D.D.S., M.P.H., a professor and dean of UF’s College of Dentistry, and John P. Hayes, Ph.D., a professor and dean for research at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

“Dr. Lloyd will make an outstanding addition to the leadership team at the University of Florida,” said Hayes. “I am particularly excited by his vision to position the College of Veterinary Medicine at the forefront of efforts to link health sciences, agricultural sciences and veterinary medicine to address some of the most important issues facing our society. He brings a tremendous set of skills to the table, and we are very excited that he will be joining us at the University of Florida.”

Lloyd will officially begin his new job in July, when he will become the college’s sixth permanent dean.

“I’m thrilled with the opportunity to lead the College of Veterinary Medicine at UF,” said Lloyd. “It’s an outstanding institution with a core of exceptional faculty, staff and students. Together with the leadership team, I look forward to working with both internal and external stakeholders to build on the college’s existing strengths in research, teaching and service and to expand the college’s recognition as a respected leader in academic veterinary medicine.”

The unique opportunity to collaborate with the Health Science Center and UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is exciting, Lloyd said. He’s also looking forward to active engagement with alumni and practitioners in the Florida Veterinary Medical Association, and to working closely with Florida’s diverse animal-owning public — including pet owners, horse owners and the livestock industries.

“We look forward to working with Dean Lloyd to grow the size, scope and diversity of these programs and bring ever greater visibility to the College,” said Jack Payne, Ph.D., senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at IFAS. “IFAS is very proud of its partnership with the College of Veterinary Medicine in our joint research and Extension efforts, such as the Extension efforts in livestock, aquatic animal health, environmental toxicology, the Food Animal Reproduction and Medicine Service and the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank.”

Lloyd most recently served as the associate dean for budget, planning and institutional research at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He maintained joint appointments as a professor in the departments of large animal clinical sciences and agricultural economics at MSU, and was an adjunct professor at MSU’s Eli Broad College of Business.

He earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine from MSU in 1981 and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from MSU in 1989.

Lloyd has published more than 165 journal articles, technical reports, proceedings and book chapters. He has successfully secured grant funding for veterinary education and animal health projects, as well as for his research interests, which include non-technical behaviors that contribute to veterinarians’ success, markets for veterinary medical services and financial dimensions of veterinary medical education.

In addition, Lloyd has delivered more than 330 presentations and workshops nationally and internationally, including sessions on leadership development, teaching hospital management, curriculum, academic admissions and various scientific topics at 22 of the 28 U.S. colleges/schools of veterinary medicine.

During this time, he also taught extensively in both pre-clinical and clinical courses, with an emphasis on epidemiology, food safety, herd health management, production medicine, veterinary medical career development and veterinary practice management.

Lloyd is an active member of professional veterinary organizations, including the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and VetPartners. He served on the executive committee of the Michigan Veterinary Medical Association for four years and was its president in 2010.

“Dr. Lloyd’s experience as an agricultural economist, veterinary practitioner, educator and associate dean responsible for budget, planning and institutional research have prepared him well for the leadership position as dean,” said Dolan. “I have no doubt that he will work to develop an outstanding leadership team and advance the College of Veterinary Medicine to one of the top programs in the country.”

Erik Bendl, known as World Guy, with his dog and traveling companion, Nice, following Nice’s discharge from UF’s Small Animal Hospital on March 21.

By Sarah Carey

For Erik Bendl, known as “World Guy” for his countrywide treks pushing a canvas globe to promote diabetes awareness, the world’s weight got a little lighter after his dog, Nice, underwent knee surgery at the University of Florida Small Animal Hospital on March 19. Nice, a 6-year-old blackmouth cur mix, is being discharged today.

“We think there’s a good chance Nice will make a full recovery over the next few months and be off to his long walks again,” said Caleb Hudson, D.V.M., a veterinary surgeon at UF who performed Nice’s 2 1/2-hour operation.

Bendl began walking with a mission — to promote diabetes awareness — after his mother, a former Kentucky alderman and state representative, died at 54 of complications from the disease. He has walked more than 6,000 miles in 41 states, in all kinds of weather, sharing his story and his motivational message — that diabetes doesn’t have to be a death sentence. In many cases, it can be prevented through weight loss and exercise and that people should “love themselves and take a walk.” For the past six years, Nice has walked with him, a part of his life and his mission.

Nice began limping in Florida during Bendl’s latest journey, which began in Pensacola and was to end in Tampa. After getting caught in a storm, he hunkered down in Spring Hill, where a local business owner offered shelter. Nice’s limping became worse. He saw a veterinarian in the area, who suspected a problem involving either Nice’s hip or knee joints. Bendl sought a second opinion from veterinary specialists at the University of Florida.

When Bendl arrived at UF on March 4, he wasn’t pushing the huge blue-and-green painted globe he’s usually seen with in photos. That was out in the parking lot in his weathered purple van, although he did offer to inflate the world for the staff’s amusement. With his wide smile, colorful stories and self-deprecating humor, Bendl did his best to remain positive while an orthopedic surgeon examined Nice

and performed tests. But by day’s end, Bendl’s heart was heavy.

“I didn’t expect that Nice’s problems would be this severe or this expensive to deal with,” he said.

Nice was diagnosed as having torn cranial cruciate ligaments in both knees, requiring surgery to correct the problems. Two tibial plateau leveling osteotomy surgeries performed simultaneously are more economical than operating on one leg at a time, surgeons said, but the cost still was estimated at approximately $5,000. UF was able to subsidize part of the cost through its Pet Samaritan Fund, but Bendl still had to come up with around $3,400 to cover the procedures and postoperative X-rays. The doctor recommended that the UF surgery team operate as soon as possible to have the best chance of a good outcome.

For a man with no credit and no regular income — Bendl supports himself and Nice through the support of friends, family members and strangers — the figure and the time frame were daunting.

Overwhelmed, Bendl headed back to Spring Hill to mull his options. The next morning, the 50-year-old Kentucky native was resolute — he’d do whatever he could to help his dog, relying on the resources at hand: his World Guy blog, his friends and his personal and public Facebook pages.

Bendl said he’s better at telling stories and encouraging people to stay healthy than he is at asking for help. But Nice’s story, as they say, had legs. Thanks to media stories and social media, within 10 days enough funds had been collected to cover Nice’s surgery and most of his postoperative tests. Bendl said he was humbled and grateful for every donation, no matter how small, but two couples in particular stood out in their generosity.

An elderly Spring Hill couple had been in the process of closing four booths they operated at the local flea market. Instead of storing their inventory, they decided to donate it all to Bendl after reading about Nice in the local paper. The proceeds gave Bendl $560 more to put toward Nice’s care.

Another couple, owners of a tattoo store in Arkansas, had met Erik and Nice on the road and read about their plight on Bendl’s World Guy blog. They gave $500, which put him over what was needed to schedule the surgery. But more than that, Bendl said, they told him that his encouragement to “get healthy” had prompted both of them to take better care of themselves. To him, that meant the most.

Bendl and Nice will be back at UF in a few weeks for follow-up X-rays to ensure the dog’s legs are healing properly. During the three-month recuperation period, the two will lay low and take things as they come, Bendl said.

One step at a time.

Come one, come all to the UF College of Veterinary Medicine’s traditional Open House! The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the college, 2015 SW 16th Ave., in Gainesville. The college and the Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association work together to put on this wonderful, fun and education event each year for the community. And it’s all free!

Our Open House is an opportunity to learn more about the veterinary profession and what our Small and Large Animal Hospitals have to offer, engage in learning opportunities, see cool stuff and even adopt an animal from a local shelter. Come learn more about us! What a great way to spend a Saturday!

* Educational Demonstrations (Small Animal Endoscopy, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; Underwater Canine Treadmill,  (11 a.m. 1 p.m. 3 p.m.)

* Dialysis, ventilator and CPR Demonstrations (ongoing)

* Radiographs and ultrasound (ongoing)

* V.E.T.S. Disaster Team: (Starts at 10 a.m., runs every 30 minutes)

* “Tips on Getting into Vet School” lectures (11:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.)

* Tours of the Small and Large Animal Hospitals and the Shelter Medicine Clerkship area (ongoing)

* Police and Sheriff’s Office K-9 Demonstrations (Bite, Bomb Sniffing and Odor Detection):  (11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. for various activities)

* Pet Adoptions from local rescue groups (ongoing)

* Educational games and Prizes

Large Animal Hospital

* Equine Treadmill Demonstrations ( 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12 p.m., 12:30 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m.)

* Pregnant Mare Ultrasound (ongoing)

* Name a baby horse (ongoing – come by and drop the name you want of the next foal into a drawing. The name drawn at the end of the day will be given to the next foal born.)

* ECG monitoring of a horse (ongoing)

* Rumen Fluid Collection (ongoing

* Large Animal Surgery “game show” (ongoing)

* Food Animal Medicine Presentation (ongoing)

* Boon, the Breyer Horse (ongoing)

Kids can bring their torn or ripped stuffed animals and veterinary students in the Class of 2014 will repair them in our ever-popular Teddy Bear Clinic!

Food and drinks will be available for purchase. Proceeds from products sold will benefit veterinary student organizations.

In addition to our students and all from the college, the hospitals and the community who help make this event possible, we are very grateful to our sponsors for their support!
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Check out our photo gallery from last year’s Open House here.

By Sarah Carey

Dr. Alessio Vigani snuggles with Mocha Delight on Jan. 16 in the lobby of UF’s Small Animal Hospital.

Today a 6-month-old labradoodle from Tavares wrestles with her owners and runs like a normal puppy, but normal she will never be to anyone who watched her month-long struggle in intensive care at the University of Florida Small Animal Hospital, where veterinarians fought to save her from a severe tetanus infection.

Mocha Delight, or Mocha, as her owners call her, had the most severe case of tetanus ever seen or treated by UF veterinarians. When she arrived at UF on Nov. 13, no one thought she would survive.

“No one here can remember ever being able to treat and save an animal so severely affected by this type of infection,” said Dr. Alessio Vigani, a veterinary resident in emergency and critical care at UF. “When she arrived, she was in a constant state of tetany. All of her muscles displayed extreme rigidity and she was unable to eat. If you visualize a bearskin rug, that’s what she looked like; she was completely flat. That she could pull through at all is nothing short of a miracle.”

To her owner’s well, delight, the adorable puppy no one thought would survive was discharged to go home on Dec. 22. To see her now, “You’d never know anything had been wrong,” said Joan Standlee, Mocha’s breeder and original owner.

But in mid-November, Standlee found Mocha stiff against her cage door at the kennel where she was bred. Standlee took the dog, which had a fever of 110 degrees, to an emergency clinic and to two other veterinarians, including a neurological specialist, before bringing her to UF for treatment of muscle rigidity.

At that point, the dog had received an anti-toxin medication and penicillin injections, but UF veterinarians said these treatments are not effective once the tetanus infection has advanced to the severe stage.

Based on Mocha’s clinical signs, UF veterinarians diagnosed generalized tetanus, which is most commonly caused by the toxin spreading through the bloodstream.

Mocha, at right, with her family dog companion, Mollie, and her breeder and original owner, Joan Standlee, on Jan. 16. UF veterinary student Kyle Donnelly, at left, was one of the students who helped care for Mocha. (Photo by Maria Farias)

“We were the only ones with the facilities to be able to provide 24-hour intensive care as well as rehabilitation therapy,” said Dr. Justin Shmalberg, a clinical assistant professor who worked closely with Mocha during the rehabilitation phase of her treatment.

“She couldn’t open her mouth, so she couldn’t eat,” he said. “She received intravenous nutritional therapy and antibiotics, cooling treatments to bring down her fever and muscle relaxants to reduce spasms while the bacterial toxins worked their way through her system.”

Mocha was isolated in ICU for nearly two weeks to minimize any form of stimulation, which could lead to spasms and excruciating pain for the dog, veterinarians said.

After about 10 days, the toxins in Mocha’s body began to wear off and her muscles gradually loosened. At that point Shmalberg and a team of rehabilitation therapists began a regimen of physical therapy. For two weeks, six hours a day, veterinarians and technicians performed range of motion, ultrasound, acupuncture and even pool therapy on the young dog.

“We treated particularly sensitive spots with acupuncture,” Shmalberg said. “We did stretching exercises within the limits of what she would allow. We were just trying to assist the process. Our main concern was that her soft tissue and her muscles would ‘learn’ the abnormally flexed position, so we wanted to encourage movement as much as we could.”

Mocha’s rehabilitation treatment was as intensive as any animal has received at UF in the five years since the Small Animal Hospital began providing the service, Shmalberg said.

Tetanus is caused by a neurotoxin released by the bacterium Clostridium tetani. Spores of the bacterium can survive in the soil for years and in the body for months, and usually enter the body through minor punctures or scratches. Once in the body, the toxin spreads, causing painful muscle spasms in the neck, arm, legs and stomach.

Dr. Justin Shmalberg holds Mocha in front of the pool used for part of her rehabilitation therapy. Also gathered in the shot are other members of Mocha’s rehabilitation team. (Photo by Sarah Carey)

“While pinpointing the small break in the skin that caused Mocha’s tetanus is difficult, we think she probably acquired the infection through her umbilical stump or through small cuts in her mouth associated with teething,” Vigani said.

Dogs and cats are not regularly vaccinated to prevent tetanus because the disease is rare in those species, veterinarians say. As for Mocha, UF veterinarians say she is now fully cured and should not have any long-term consequences from the infection and intoxication.

“To us she is truly a miracle dog,” Standlee said.

By Sarah Carey

Dr. Sarah Reuss and Dr. Jim Wellehan inspect the ear of a healthy horse. (Photo by Maria Farias)

A rare, potentially fatal species of parasite never before found in North America has been identified in a Florida horse.

University of Florida veterinarians identified the parasite, called Leishmania siamensis, in the summer of 2011. This particular species of parasite previously had been found only in Thailand and parts of Europe while other species of Leishmania have been found all over the world. No Leishmania infections of any species had been previously reported in a horse native to the United States.

The UF discovery raises awareness of how widespread the parasite is and suggests a need for watchfulness regarding potential transmission to humans, the researchers said.

“We now know the parasites that cause this disease also exist here in the U.S. and that we have some insect, presumably the sandfly, that is capable of transmitting the disease,” said Sarah Reuss, V.M.D., a clinical assistant professor of large animal medicine at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, who along with UF colleagues and a private practice clinical pathologist described the findings in the September issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Our findings raise several potential avenues of further investigation, including the prevalence of this disease in horses in the U.S., a better understanding of the sandfly life cycle and the potential of this leishmaniasis species to be transmitted from animals to humans.”

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection spread through the bites of infected sandflies. The disease shows up most commonly in two forms: cutaneous, which causes sores on the skin, is self-healing; and visceral, the most severe form, which affects the entire body and is almost always fatal if left untreated. After malaria, leishmaniasis is the leading parasitic cause of death in humans. The disease has been found in four continents and is considered to be endemic in 88 countries, including 16 developed nations, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO estimates the worldwide prevalence at 12 million cases, with about 350 million people at risk of infection and about 60,000 people dying from the disease each year. Leishmaniasis is rare in people in the U.S.

“It really hasn’t been a disease that has affected Americans, but there are really good data with climate change models that predict sandfly ranges will expand, making this disease much more of a threat because of global warming,” said co-author James Wellehan Jr., D.V.M., Ph.D., a veterinarian from the UF research team, who confirmed the presence of the disease in the Florida horse by analyzing the genes of the parasite.

The visceral form of leishmaniasis is endemic in foxhounds in the U.S, associated with a different species of Leishmania. But aside from some regional transmission in the Southwest, most of the cases of skin infection due to leishmaniasis in the U.S. are believed to have occurred in animals brought in from countries where the disease is common, or in people who had recently spent time in those countries.

“Thousands of people serving in the U.S. military have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with cutaneous or visceral leishmaniasis,” said Christine Petersen, D.V.M., Ph.D., an associate professor of veterinary pathology at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and an expert on Leishmania transmission, immune responses and veterinary disease, who was not involved in the study. “In a few cases, these individuals have brought dogs back with them that also have leishmaniasis.”

The horse diagnosed at UF had no history of travel outside of the eastern U.S. The pregnant 10-year-old Morgan mare was treated as an outpatient at the University of Florida Large Animal Hospital for sores inside her left ear. A biopsy done in the field had suggested that the rare parasite was present when organisms that looked like the protozoa were seen within the inflammatory cells in that tissue. Further tissue samples and genetic analysis were used to identify the species of the disease-causing organism at UF.

Often, leishmaniasis of the skin will resolve without medical treatment. But the mare’s sores worsened over time — a development the veterinarians attributed to the pregnancy.

“Many of the horses in other countries that have been diagnosed with leishmaniasis were pregnant, so we think perhaps these horses have pregnancy-altered immune systems and are therefore more vulnerable to the disease,” Reuss said.

The drug used to treat horses with the disease in other parts of the world isn’t readily available in the U.S., and surgery wasn’t an option because the sores were inside the horse’s ear. After treatment with anti-fungal drugs, the sores eventually regressed. Horses housed at home with the affected horse did not show any signs of illness. Though the disease needs the sandfly as a carrier and does not pass directly among horses or between horses and humans, veterinary experts say the discovery of the new parasitic species in the U.S. is cause for increased vigilance.

“As a disease of animals capable of being transmitted to humans, leishmaniasis requires more attention to ensure we do not have vector-borne transmission within larger areas of the country,” Petersen said.

Dr. Alessio Vigani with Jackie during a recheck appointment on Oct. 30, 2012.

By Sarah Carey

A dog bitten by a rattlesnake is now home with her owners and doing well after becoming the first patient at the University of Florida Small Animal Hospital to receive treatment in a new hyperbaric oxygen chamber, one of only a small number in the country being used in veterinary medicine.

The 1-year-old Siberian husky/Standard poodle mixed breed dog, named Jackie, was given a clean bill of health during a recheck appointment on Oct. 30, 11 days after her initial arrival at UF.

Her owners, Joe and Jan Smith of Clermont, Fla., found their beloved pet lying on a bloody floor near a water bowl filled with bloody red fluid on Oct. 18. Jackie had played outside earlier with other family dogs inside the family’s small, fenced yard but seemed fine when she came indoors.

After finding her collapsed a short time later, the Smiths rushed Jackie to the Leesburg Veterinary Emergency Clinic, where veterinarians told them Jackie had been bitten by a rattlesnake.

Jackie with her owner, Jan Smith, soon after they arrived for a recheck appointment at UF’s Small Animal Hospital on Oct. 30, 2012.

“They told us she had less than a 40 percent chance at survival,” Jan Smith said. “We wanted to do everything we could for her. She deserved a chance and we told them to go ahead with the antivenom therapy.”

Veterinarians treated Jackie overnight with two vials of antivenom, then recommended that the Smiths take Jackie to UF for continued treatment the next morning.

“When Jackie arrived, she was in shock and experiencing dangerously low blood pressure and accelerated heart rate,” said Dr. Alessio Vigani, a resident in emergency and critical care medicine at UF. “We provided fluid therapy and administered two vials of antivenom immediately after she arrived.”

Three more vials were given over the next 24 hours as Jackie, who had been bitten multiple times near her muzzle, struggled to survive. Within 12 hours, the tissue around Jackie’s bite wounds started turning black and had a copious bloody discharge. At that point, UF veterinarians decided that she would be a candidate for hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

“We thought Jackie might benefit from the treatment, as snakebite wounds are associated with tissue death,” said Dr. Justin Shmalberg, a clinical assistant professor of integrative medicine at UF. “Such damage generally requires extensive surgery and additional hospitalization, which adds a large amount to the bill and to the animal’s time here.”

The treatment is provided inside of a tube-shaped container known as a hyperbaric chamber, through which animals receive highly pressurized, 100 percent oxygen delivered to tissue that wouldn’t receive it otherwise. Shmalberg and UF veterinary technician Wendy Davies recently received extensive training in the safety protocols associated with the use of the hyperbaric chamber, which was installed at UF in mid-October.

Jackie is shown inside the UF Small Animal Hospital’s new hyperbaric chamber on Oct. 22, during the last of three treatments she received while a patient.

Over the next three days, Jackie received three treatments, each lasting about an hour. Although they were optimistic the treatments would help Jackie, UF veterinarians were nonetheless surprised by what they saw.

“After the first two treatments, there was an impressive improvement of the swelling, discharge and discoloration of the area,” Vigani said. “It was totally unexpected. The area that 24 hours before, we had no doubt would have required surgery, after the second treatment was almost completely healed.”

Although hyperbaric oxygen therapy is available and used worldwide in human medicine, with many scientific publications reporting beneficial effects for human diseases and in animal models, its use in veterinary medicine is relatively new, occurring primarily during the past decade.

Hyperbaric chamber technology is now being used by a small number of veterinary practices and an even smaller number of academic institutions to treat conditions that include non-healing wounds, particularly external wounds where there are concerns about blood supply. Crush and burn injuries and trauma injuries, such as might be caused by animals being hit by cars, being in dog fights or being bit by a snake.

Internal injuries with extensive tissue damage, such as pancreatitis, spinal cord and brain injury, are also likely to respond favorably to the treatment, veterinarians say.

Dr. Justin Shmalberg helps Jackie out of the hyperbaric chamber on Oct. 22.

Animals that receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy typically feel no discomfort, other than perhaps feeling some anxiety at being in a confined space, Shmalberg said.

“To a dog, it’s like diving down into water, with increased pressure around the body,” he said. “Anyone who has free-dived deeply knows that you need to be able to clear your ears. After that, most animals tend to fall asleep.”

He said veterinarians are still learning how often to treat animals, but that in general hyperbaric oxygen treatment tends to be performed once or twice a day, with about four hours between treatments to allow time for the animal to recover from the increased pressure in the environment.

“We are always looking for new and emerging ways to treat different conditions, such as non-healing wounds,” Shmalberg said. “While we are excited to have this new tool available, we also feel a responsibility to advance our scientific knowledge of how the technique is best used in animals.”

Such information will help veterinary practices refine the circumstances in which hyperbaric oxygen therapy will help to alleviate a patient’s symptoms, he added.

As for Jackie, her owners are ecstatic that the dog they call “a treasure to our family” is still with them.

“We are completely overwhelmed with joy that Dr. Vigani and the staff at the UF Small Animal Hospital were able to save Jackie’s life,” Jan Smith said. “Not only did they save her life, but they saved her from having surgery on her skin from the immense swelling. As I am typing this, Jackie has her paws on my chair and is licking my face and I’m smiling through my tears.”

UF’s first total knee replacement surgery in dog successful

Dr. Justin Shmalberg, chief of the integrative medicine service, examines Mica, a 9-year-old Labrador retriever, during a check-up visit to UF’s Small Animal Hospital on Oct. 12. Mica received rehabilitation therapy following total knee replacement surgery in February. (Photo by Maria Farias)

Nearly eight months after undergoing total knee replacement surgery at the University of Florida Small Animal Hospital, a 9-year-old yellow Labrador retriever named Mica is racing through fields four days a week, sniffing out ducks in blinds and swimming while she trains for her master hunting title. It was the first time the procedure has been performed at UF.

“She loves being back to work,” said Mica’s owner, Kathleen Hornsby, of Archer, Fla. Mica has also competed in conformation, holds a companion dog obedience title and was trained for tracking. “A younger dog not as thoroughly schooled as Mica might have had a harder time remembering everything, but a lot of the work these dogs do is instinctive. She just went right back to it, even the blind retrieves.”

UF’s veterinary surgeons performed the procedure Feb. 22 with the help of Matthew Allen, D.V.M., an Ohio State University veterinary surgeon with expertise in canine knee replacements. On Oct. 10, Mica received her latest clean bill of health during a check-up at UF.

“Total knee replacement is a new treatment option for dogs with severe osteoarthritis,” said Stan Kim, D.V.M., an assistant professor of small animal surgery at UF. “Due to the equipment and surgical expertise required, the procedure can only be performed at a small number of institutions in North America. We now have the ability at UF to restore excellent function to dog’s knees that are affected by a variety of disorders.”

The two-hour procedure involves completely replacing the surface of the stifle, or knee joint, with an implant that mimics the normal anatomy of the knee. Kim and Antonio Pozzi, D.V.M., an assistant professor of small animal surgery, performed the procedure with Allen.

Kathleen Hornsby is shown with Mica and Dr. Stan Kim in the Small Animal Surgery treatment area of the UF Small Animal Hospital during a recheck appointment on Oct. 12. (Photo by Maria Farias)

“These implants took years to develop and are largely based on human total knee replacement systems,” Kim said.

In Mica’s case, her problems actually began when she was a 3-month-old puppy, racing around in the yard with her mother.

“Her mom raced over her, right on top of her left knee,” Hornsby said. “She screamed and hollered and limped for awhile and had surgery, but the veterinarians said back then that her knee would never be 100 percent normal, and she’d probably have arthritis in it.”

Mica’s owners treated her arthritis with medication, and the dog never limped when working, Hornsby said, adding, “When retrieving was on her mind, she didn’t even think about it.”

But in the past year-and-a-half, the limping grew worse. When Hornsby brought Mica to UF, surgeons said both her anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments were severely damaged, and the cartilage in her knee was completely worn away. This meant that the procedures UF veterinary surgeons typically use for an isolated anterior cruciate ligament injury would not work.

“They told us the only alternative was a total knee replacement,” Hornsby said.

UF veterinarians had never performed the surgery before, so they brought in Allen to assist and train them how to do the procedure.

Although humans have benefited from knee replacement technology for years, it has only been used in dogs with knee problems since 2007. Approximately 30 dogs per year have received the procedure since then, The New York Times reported in January 2011.

Total knee replacement is expensive, costing around $5,000, but Kim said UF is currently offering about a $1,000 discount — the cost of the implants, which are being provided free of charge — to owners of all dogs qualified to receive the procedure.

Mica is back at work and pursuing her master hunter title. (Photo courtesy of Kathleen Hornsby)

In the months following Mica’s surgery, she didn’t require retraining in her hunting abilities, just extensive physical therapy to build up her strength. Underwater treadmill therapy, stretching and bending twice a day and mile-long walks on a lead were part of the dog’s healing process.

UF veterinarians wouldn’t allow Mica to go off-lead for months after the procedure, saying the twisting and turning the dog might do if unsupervised could put unwanted stress on the knee prosthesis. But Hornsby said Mica ran her first post-surgery hunt test in August, and another one a month later with no leg problems.

Mica’s progress has exceeded veterinarians’ expectations, Kim said. Now, UF veterinarians will continue to monitor her annually to make sure she is doing well. During Mica’s check-ups, veterinarians use a weight-bearing machine known as a force plate to objectively measure how well she is using her leg.

“The most recent evaluation showed that her affected hind leg is gradually approaching the level of her normal hind leg,” Kim said.

The UF Small Animal Hospital is currently seeking dogs for a clinical study on total knee replacement. Dogs with severe osteoarthritis of the knee may be eligible.

Anyone seeking further information about the study, visit the website here or contact  Kim or Pozzi at 352-392-2235.