Dr. Sheldon Yessenow, a 1977 graduate of The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine and owner of the Oronoque Animal Hospital in Trumbull CT, was named Veterinarian of the Year for his service with Veterinary Medical Assistance Team during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York. He commented: "We spent several days at the New Orleans Airport assisting people with pets as they were evacuated from the flooded areas. I was later placed at the country's largest ever animal shelter as the hospital director for the Lamar-Dixon facility. Our team was featured on the PBS/National Geographic special.
The New York Times
Thursday, November 1, 2007
MYJOB; I See Your Pets as Your Children
By SHELDON Z. YESSENOW, D.V.M. Published: February 7, 2001
I was always interested in animals. I remember coming home on the school bus one day and noticing an injured squirrel on the side of the road. I hooked a wagon to the back of my bike and rode over to where I had seen the squirrel. Although I found a mother squirrel dead, one of the babies was still alive so I picked it up, brought it home, put it in an incubator, nursed it back to health until it bit me, and I let it go.
In veterinary school, they brought in a pediatrician to lecture to us. He told us that veterinary medicine and pediatric medicine are pretty much the same. Some people think about their animals as though they were their kids.
We deal with a lot of emotional, psychological and personal issues outside of the pets' physical problems. There are people who come to us with hopelessly ill pets who want to do everything they can to help, regardless of the cost. On the other hand, you might be involved with people whose pets have very treatable conditions and who don't want to spend any time or money whatsoever. It's hard to know.
One lady called me to say she that ran over her cat in the driveway. She said that the cat's head was flat but she wanted to bring it in for me to try to save. I told her that the cat was dead and she said, "How do you know?" I said, "You told me that the head was flat." I told her to put a small mirror next to the cat's nose, and that's when she finally admitted that it must be dead, because there were no breath marks on the mirror.
The shopping center "Where my animal hospital is located has a New England clapboard style of architecture. One morning when I arrived at work, to my astonishment, there were two stone lion statues on either side of my front door. These surely weighed four or five hundred pounds each, the type that you would see at the gates of a palace. I asked myself, "What are these things doing here?" I found out that my landlord did it as a thoughtful gesture. In very short order, my clients started to complain to me that their pets were fearful of the lions.
I called the landlord and said, "I don't want to look a gift lion in the mouth," but told him that my patients were afraid to come into my animal hospital because of the lions. I suggested that he take them over to the pizza place -- it's called Kings Pizza.
I wanted to work on animals, not people. In human medicine, you need to specialize, but in veterinary medicine you could be a generalist and do obstetrics, dermatology, dentistry, neurology, internal medicine. I do everything from orthopedic surgery to trimming toenails. One time, this dog went into the woods to tangle with a porcupine. With the pet under anesthesia, it took me an hour and half to take out all the quills.
Written with Bobbi P. Markowitz
Above, Dr. Yessenow, with technician Amy Breton, examines a cat rescued from the flood waters of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Yessenow was deployed with his team to the disaster area for 3 weeks following the storm as a member of VMAT. (Veterinary Medical Assistance Team) To learn more about VMAT, go to http://www.vmat.org. Dr. Yessenow joined VMAT after volunteering to assist the search and rescue dogs at the World Trade Center in September, and October, 2001.
Firefighters pride themselves on being lifesavers. But without proper equipment, doing their job is difficult.
One piece of equipment the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Association is encouraging clinics to donate to fire departments is animal oxygen masks.
Veterinarian Sheldon Yessenow said, The quicker you can react and provide oxygen to the patient, just like with humans, it is the same benefit that animals will receive from this mask.
Countryside Veterinary Clinic and Shoreline Animal Emergency clinic all teamed up to give three masks to the Shelton Fire Department.
Lt. Paul Wilson said, I think it's awesome. For years, we've been providing EMS for just our neighbors and it's about time that we actually had equipment to help our family members."
And by family members, he means pets. My dog is my son, he said.
It's the same story for a lot of people and the likelihood that a firefighter will encounter a pet at a fire scene is high
.
Approximately 58 percent of homes have pets and some have more than one.
Now, they'll be even more protected.
"We treat it as if it is an actual family member, Wilson said. We go in, we conduct our search and rescue just as if we were looking for a child or husband or wife."
