The Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre (SJDAWC) has funded the following projects looking at ways to improve pain management in animals:

Improving pain control for surgery on the front legs of dogs (Dr. Kip Lemke) (on-going)
Canadian veterinarians’ use of painkillers in cattle, pigs, and horses (Dr. Caroline Hewson) (partially funded by the Animal Welfare Foundation of Canada)
Assessment of changes in Canadian veterinarians’ use of painkillers in dogs and cats between 1994 and 2001 (C Hewson,)
Postoperative pain in dogs: Preemptive management (K Lemke, C Runyon)
Postoperative pain in dogs and cats (S Dohoo, I Dohoo)

The SJDAWC has also produced 2 posters on pain management in animals, in cooperation with the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association:
Lemke KA, Hewson CJ, Crook AD. 2008. Anaesthetic and Pain Management Protocols for Healthy...

In a series of SJDAWC-funded projects from 1995-99, Dr. Gary Conboy and colleagues showed that lungworm was an important cause of chronic coughing in dogs in Atlantic Canada, and developed a diagnostic test for the condition, which can be readily treated. This test is now part of the standard workup in dogs with chronic cough, formerly most often diagnosed as due to allergies and managed (but not cured) with long-term corticosteroids.

These projects include:
The medical importance of lungworm in Island dogs (Dr. Gary Conboy et al)
Improving the diagnosis of lungworm in dogs (Dr. Gary Conboy)
Canine lungworm in the Atlantic Provinces (Dr. Gary Conboy)
French heartworm in Newfoundland (Drs. Gary Conboy and Fred Markham)

In 2001, Dr. Conboy’s team identified the first French heartworm case in a dog in Atlantic Canada (in Newfoundland) and since then...

The overall research goal of the Comparative Orthopedic Research Laboratory (CORL) at the AVC is to promote the health of athletic animals with musculoskeletal injuries. Two SJDAWC-funded projects helped Dr. McDuffee move toward this goal. Through the project, A model for bone healing in the horse, isolation of bone cells from bone tissue was evaluated. Results from the initial study provided data that subsequently assisted Dr. McDuffee in obtaining further research funding from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) (Cell based strategy to promote bone healing).

In another SJDAWC-funded project, (Skeletal muscle as a source of bone and cartilage cells to improve healing in the horse), Dr. McDuffee’s team is investigating muscle as a donor tissue source. Muscle provides results similar to that of periosteum, but is harvested with easier techniques, has fewer problems...

Through several SJDAWC-funded research projects, Dr. Jay McClure’s research team has looked at immune function, primarily in horses. These projects include:

- Treatment of immune failure in newborn foals
- Screening tests for immune failure in newborn foals
- Effect of aging on the immune system of horses
- Improved diagnosis in equine diarrhea

The first project compared two products used in the treatment of failure of passive transfer (FPT), a common and potentially fatal condition of immune failure in foals. A further SJDAWC-funded study compared five different FPT screening tests for foals to the gold standard, radial immunodiffusion (RID), from which recommendations for optimal testing were made to veterinarians. In further work, Dr. McClure and colleagues have studied the effects of age and nutritional status on immune function in horses and foals...

Over five thousand feral cats from across PEI have been vaccinated and neutered since the start of the feral cat neutering programme (Trap, Neuter, Return – TNR) in 2001. This programme, carried out by senior veterinary students and veterinarians at AVC in conjunction with the community-based Cat Action Team (CAT), was initiated with Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre funding, with subsequent support from the Pegasus Family Foundation. Other Island veterinary clinics now take part in the programme through additional funds raised by CAT. The goals of the TNR programme are to decrease cat over-population on PEI and to improve the life of the cats. Dr. Foley and CAT have provided advice on establishing TNR programmes to several other communities in Canada.

Senior veterinary students provide consistent basic and preventative health care to incoming and resident horses at 2 horse sanctuaries on PEI— PEI Equine Retirement Society, Inc in O’Leary (since 1997) and Handibear Hills in Breadalbane (since 2004). The care of these horses includes vaccination, physical examination, dental work, and monitoring and treatment for parasites.

Senior veterinary students provide consistent basic and preventative health care to incoming and resident horses at 2 horse sanctuaries on PEI— Handibear Hills in Breadalbane (since 2004) and the PEI Equine Retirement Society, Inc in O’Leary (since 1997). The care of these horses includes vaccination, physical examination, dental work, and monitoring and treatment for parasites.

The Canine Inherited Disorders Database is a joint initiative of the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) to produce a user-friendly source of information on inherited disorders in dogs. It is intended for dog owners whose pet has been found to have an inherited condition, potential dog owners who want help in avoiding these problems when choosing a pet, veterinarians looking for current information on both well-known and more obscure genetic disorders, including diagnostic and therapeutic information, and dog breeders who are looking for suggestions on how to avoid these conditions in their lines of dogs. For more information: www.upei.ca/~cidd/intro.htm

The Chinook Project was created by Jane Magrath, Associate Professor of English, and Lisa Miller, Professor of Pathology and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at AVC, with a mandate to provide essential veterinary care to isolated communities in the Canadian Arctic. Each summer, the project responds to a request for service by taking four veterinary students in their final year of study and two AVC clinicians, along with essential equipment, to a community in Nunavut. The project visited Kimmirut (Southern Baffin) in 2006 and 2008, Cambridge Bay (Western Arctic) in 2007, and Kugluktuk (Western Arctic) in 2009.

Visit the Chinook Project website: www.upei.ca/projects/chinook/
or read about it in the UPEI Magazine:...

This program, which places veterinary students in training and counselling positions at the PEI Humane Society (PEIHS), has been in operation since 2001. The mandate of the PEIHS is to find “permanent loving homes” for the animals in its care. In the case of dogs, educating owners so that they have reasonable expectations about dog ownership, matching the right dog to the right home, and ongoing support of owners through behavioural and training issues with the dogs after adoption are extremely important.

This project has received funding for the next two years for the continuation and enhancement of the program. One AVC student trainer has been hired as the co-ordinator and is working full-time at the PEIHS during the summer. The co-ordinator will continue working on a part-time basis through the fall and winter semesters, and will be joined at that point by three other part-...