Blog

Welcome to my blog! This is the space where I share about my thoughts on veterinary work & life as a vet – especially in the field of humane dog population management, rabies control and veterinary skills development in India.
I am old-school in the way that I prefer blog-type of writing over short social media messages. This to me is a better way to process and express my thoughts.

Spectrum of Care – How to redefine gold standard in veterinary medicine?

At the beginning of the year – (end of Jan still counts as beginning of the year, right?) we are often faced with a question like:

What was your biggest takeaway or learning from the previous year?
What did you learn in the previous year that you want to take with you to the new year?

I have seen questions like that coming up multiple times on my social media feeds as well as in the new planner-cum-journal I got for myself.  When it comes to my profession, I have a clear answer to that question:

Spectrum of Care and its application in veterinary medicine.

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Happy New Year – Are You Ready to Get Off the Starting Line?

For over 15 years through my work with WVS, I have been involved in programs that focus on guiding and coaching veterinarians in India in basic surgical and anesthesia skills. My goal has never been to make them the world’s best neurosurgeons (as if I would be even qualified for that!!!) but to get them off the starting line—to instill in them the belief that they can perform surgery and, with consistent effort, continue to improve. With a foundation in surgery, anesthesia, and analgesia, a world of possibilities in clinical veterinary medicine opens up.

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Happy New Year – Are You Ready to Get Off the Starting Line?

Happy New Year – Are You Ready to Get Off the Starting Line? BY ILONA OTTER | JANUARY 23, 2025 I follow an influencer on Instagram who inspires thousands of home cooks eager to learn new recipes and refine their cooking skills. Recently, she has been promoting her bread-making workshops, focusing on a single, simple bread dough recipe that helps people get off the starting line in their baking journey. I love this concept—getting off the starting line. Not to reach a specific

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Owned dogs – why it matters to spay them?

Owned dogs – why it matters to spay them? BY ILONA OTTER | December 05, 2024 According to a publication by Smith et al (2019); The Effectiveness of Dog Population Management: A Systematic Review  dogs around the world have one of two ownership states – either they are owned or they are unowned. Very simple. Very clear. Only two categories. No need to talk about semi-owned or quasi-pets or anything that makes the matter sound more complicated than it is. A domestic dog

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What is in a name – Access to veterinary care?

A study by Purdue University (US) scientists published in January 2024  reviewed the existing literature concerning access to veterinary care, in order to understand how “access to veterinary care” has been defined in the literature, map a broad list of potential barriers that may influence access to veterinary care, and identify how access to care impacts the welfare of animals, both companion as well as livestock species.

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What is in a name – Access to veterinary care?

What is in a name – Access to veterinary care? BY ILONA OTTER | OCTOBER 22, 2024 A study by Purdue University (US) scientists published in January 2024  reviewed the existing literature concerning access to veterinary care, in order to understand how “access to veterinary care” has been defined in the literature, map a broad list of potential barriers that may influence access to veterinary care, and identify how access to care impacts the welfare of animals, both companion as well as livestock

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Outreach adventures to spay/neuter clinics

Outreach adventures to spay/neuter clinics BY ILONA OTTER | October 6, 2024 When most of your work is with your laptop in the office; writing reports, going through accounts, planning projects and budgets and addressing staff recruitment needs, there is nothing better than a little adventure in the form of a field work trip. Over the last couple of years with the WVS India team, I have been focusing on developing the concept of owned dog spay/neuter campaign clinics as way of complementing

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Outreach adventures to spay/neuter clinics

When most of your work is with your laptop in the office; writing reports, going through accounts, planning projects and budgets and addressing staff recruitment needs, there is nothing better than a little adventure in the form of a field work trip.

Over the last couple of years with the WVS India team, I have been focusing on developing the concept of owned dog spay/neuter campaign clinics as way of complementing the traditional, shelter-based and stray-dog focused ABC program approach. The reasons why we have taken this approach are multiple and some of them have been explored in my previous posts.

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Just keep spaying – CATS!!!!

The suffering of abandoned kittens and puppies seems so unnecessary when we have a good solution to prevent unwanted pregnancies and unwanted puppies and kittens. Surgical sterilisation continues to be the best and most recommended and life-long solution for population control in cats. And by the fact that such appeals for help as just this one from Sushmita are so common, it is clear that there is huge need for cat owners to be able to have better access to spay/neuter surgery services.

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Investing To Your Veterinary Identity

Twenty years ago, as I was getting ready to start my life as a veterinarian, a big part of the process was to plan what instruments, equipment, medicine and materials to buy, and from where to order them. Among my friends we would compare lists and supplier details and consider how much equine work and how much cattle and how much small animal practice we were likely to be seeing in our first jobs. Medicine and equipment supplier companies arranged specific events for the graduating batch of students to get them to know the industry representatives and from where to order what.

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