Volunteer vet helps conduct study on Saipan’s dogs

Dr. Kris Anderson draws a blood sample from a pet dog as Dr. Whitney Collins holds her steady during the clinic last Wednesday at the Saipan Mayor’s Animal Shelter in As Perdido. (LEIGH GASES)

Dr. Kris Anderson is conducting a study on Saipan’s dogs to find out whether they have diseases that are not tested for in the clinics.

Currently, dogs brought into the clinic are tested for heartworms, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, and Lyme disease—the last three of which are from ticks, the first one from mosquitoes.

Anderson is a volunteer vet at the animal clinic being conducted by the Saipan Humane Society at the Saipan Mayor’s Animal Shelter in As Perdido.

In their clinic last Wednesday, Anderson showed this reporter what she did as she collected and analyzed blood from someone’s pet dog. As of Wednesday, they have tested about 150 dogs so far.

Anderson has 450 test kits from Texas A&M University and plans on using them all. She is collecting ticks, blood, and feces, and will give it to Texas A&M for them to check when the clinic is over. So far, she has collected specimens from the shelter dogs and the dogs brought in by owners to the clinic.

A student at Texas A&M, Maureen Kelly will conduct this as her PhD project.

No such study has been done in the CNMI before and Anderson said she can’t wait to know what could be found out more about Saipan’s dogs. “It’s going to be this search to see what’s there. I have no idea what we’re going to find, but it’s going to be interesting. The more we know, the better we can treat these dogs. …I like what we’re doing here and I’m super excited.”

Anderson did say that the study could take months.

According to Lauren Cabrera, Saipan Humane Society founder, it is important to do a few things to keep your pet as healthy as possible: vaccinate, deworm, spay/neuter, flea/tick prevention to protect from disease carried by fleas and ticks, and heartworm testing and prevention.

“Heartworms are actual worms that grow inside the heart and can give your dog heart failure over the years. It is easy to test for and prevent. We are seeing a lot of heartworm positive dogs. Heartworm testing and prevention (or treatment) is very important, and something we can offer through SHS,” she said. “Different tick diseases can cause many problems in dogs also, and we can protect against this by keeping dogs on preventative medicine like Bravecto, which kills ticks.”

“Other illnesses we are exploring include leptospirosis. This can be prevented by a leptospirosis vaccine, which we have available. The vaccines we have available also protect against other important illnesses such as parvovirus, which we have seen many cases of already in the last month and is almost always deadly to puppies if not aggressively treated with supportive care.”

The clinic will last until Wednesday, June 14. Their schedule is now full, but you can check out their website www.saipanhumanesociety.org/ and request a future spay/neuter service or other service.