Veterinary medicine study is constantly innovating, from educating students about the latest findings and discoveries of their chosen profession to pioneering new ways to serve, and advance, the human-animal bond.
The stories that follow describe breakthrough innovations underway in the UT College of Veterinary Medicine.
Skilled Emergency Care for Working Dogs
Leslie Wereszczak will never forget the moment when Crossville, Tennessee, police were told that Cain, the injured K9 officer they transported to Knoxville, couldn’t be saved.
As director of emergency and critical care at the College of Veterinary Medicine, she was on the phone with first responders trying to stabilize Cain during transit. Resuscitative efforts were made at the John and Ann Tickle Small Animal Hospital, but the dog’s complications were too severe to overcome.
Cain’s first responders expressed a wish for better training. Wereszczak remembers thinking, “We can teach that.”
In 2019, she organized the college’s first Working Dog Conference to train handlers and first responders in caring for injured K9 officers. After a hiatus, the program resumed last year and plans another session for May 2025.
To date, 220 first responders and K9 handlers have learned CPR, wound management, bandaging, IV catheter placement, and toxicology using dog mannequins and simulation models in two-day training.
“We are teaching people skills that save lives.”
-Leslie Wereszczak.
A New Discipline to Serve Animals and the People Connected to Them
Elizabeth Strand was working on her PhD in social work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, when she had a eureka moment. She was studying the link between human and animal violence while completing a graduate assistantship in the College of Veterinary Medicine. “One night, I sat straight up out of bed and said, ‘We need veterinary social work,’” she recalls.
In 2002, the idea was a groundbreaking concept that envisioned a new sub-specialty of a professionalized discipline that would bring together social work education, research, and outreach about human and animal relationships. These emotional connections include people and pets or even wildlife, veterinarians and patients, and farmers and livestock.
The College of Veterinary Medicine has since certified hundreds of human and animal health care professionals, and in 2023, the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Social Work opened the UT Center for Veterinary Social Work, with Strand as the center’s founding director.
Tailored Weight-Loss Plans for Healthier Pets
The Veterinary Obesity Center helps pets lose weight while their owners learn ways to keep them healthy through improved diets and exercise.
Luci the tabby cat and his two playmates, Umi and Manny, were overweight. After Luci injured his leg jumping off a cat tree, their veterinarian referred owner Heather Lydick to the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Veterinary Obesity Center.
Feline patient before treatment
Feline patient after treatment
After a year, the trio lost nearly half their weight and are now more playful. “The program has done its job,” Lydick says. “They play all the time now.” Luci fetches a foam ball, Manny plays fetch with himself, and Umi loves a fake mouse with a rope tail.
The center is among the few in the US run by board-certified veterinary nutritionists and is unusual in that its care is subsidized by Royal Canin. Veterinarian and clinical professor Angela Rollins notes that pet obesity mirrors human trends and emphasizes changing habits. “Making weight-loss programs easier and more effective are key goals for our center,” she says.
Treatment starts with an evaluation using a Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) scanner to measure fat mass, lean mass, and bone density for personalized plans. Lydick learned what food to feed her cats, how much, and how often.
While there was much meowing and protesting at first, the cats are healthier now, and that’s a win for all
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