JBSA-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
The U.S. Army Animal Care Specialist, 68T, advanced individual training course at the U.S. Army Medical Department Center & School at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston is one of the most demanding within Army medicine. 68Ts are responsible for the prevention and control of diseases transmitted from animal to man, as well as the comprehensive care for government-owned animals.
A lot is packed into this 11-week course. During the final part of the course, 68T students need hands-on time with animals needing veterinary care.
However, resources were limited at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston. The Department of Defense Military Working Dog Veterinary Service at JBSA- Lackland provides the highest level of veterinary care for military working dogs, and specialty referral care for working dogs of other federal government agencies.
Students go to JBSA-Lackland for training, but the opportunity for time with animals is limited. Additionally, since they are still learning, the students can slow down treatment at the clinic.
The JBSA-Lackland clinic provides care to the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP working dogs, but availability is limited. The CBP uses dogs for border security, drug interdiction and explosive detection.
Just like humans, dental disease and medical problems can take these working dogs off duty. Obtaining veterinary care is expensive, and along the border, sometimes non-existent.
Seeing the need for both training and animal care, the U.S. Army Medical Department Center & School, or AMEDDC&S, Animal Health Branch partnered with the CBP to provide training opportunities for Soldiers while also providing veterinary care for the CBP working dogs.
This mutually beneficial program provides Soldiers have the opportunity for training with working animals while helping the CBP save money on veterinary care.
In January 2015, AMEDDC&S Animal Health Branch began receiving the first CBP working dogs and incorporated their care into the 68T training. The last two weeks of the course are practical application, where they work on real patients, not simulation. The program with the CBP dogs takes the students from the beginning to end process, the same as in an Army veterinary treatment facility.
“Students have to receive the patient from the handlers, talk and interact with the handler, take vitals, insert a catheter, draw blood fecal samples and run tests,” said Lt. Col. Shawn Owens, Animal Health Branch chief.
AMEDDC&S gives the dogs medical exams, dental cleaning and extraction, spay and neutering, and preventive gastropexy surgery, a procedure where the stomach is attached to the right abdominal wall. This adhesion prevents twisting of the stomach during bloat – referred to as gastric dilatation-volvulus or GDV – which can be deadly.
Barrel chested working dogs are predisposed to this condition. Bringing the CBP dogs directly to AMEDDC&S provides students with two days of surgical rotation, where before the program they only received half a day.
The program also provides students the opportunity to perform dental care on working dogs.
“These are high-energy animals and they release that energy through biting and different activities,” Owens said. “The dog’s dental disease can sometimes be profound and require extractions, broken teeth, root canals, in addition to routine cleaning.”
The services AMEDDC&S provides the CBP is very costly when contracted privately.
“The program is saving tax dollars because we’re training Soldiers at the same time providing services to another federal agency,” Owens said. “The training still has to happen and the CBP needs veterinary services, so why not make this a win-win? This allows us to give students the best training available, as these are real working dogs. You can’t model that.”
Pvt. Audie Farley joined the U.S. Army because he likes animals and wanted to become a veterinary technician. Like many young enlistees, he thought the duties of a 68T involved caring for dogs and cats. Now at the end of his training, Farley understand his new job is much more involved.
“We have to learn how to do everything,” Farley said. “We learn dental cleaning, lab work, X-Rays, vaccinations, administering medicine, anesthesia, taking blood and emergency care. We also assist during surgery. It’s like I tell other students, you only do one job on only one species, while we all of your jobs combined and on different species. It’s amazingly hard, yet I really enjoyed training and working with animals.”
The benefits of this partnership are more than just cost savings and training. “The defense of our nation is desperately relies upon animal use,” Owens said. “One border patrol dog we worked on several months ago averages more than 220 interdictions a month. In that dog’s life span, that is an enormous impact on national security.”