Anesthesiologist brings homegrown empathy to OVC research, clinic
BY ANDREW VOWLES
It's been more than a year since Prof. Alex Valverde, Clinical Studies, lost his mini-schnauzer, KC, to cancer. And it's been more than two years since Kelly, one of his two Dobermans, succumbed to a clutch of ailments, including a crippling case of arthritis. Seated in his office in the Ontario Veterinary College, Valverde discusses their cases with the kind of clinical detachment you might expect from a seasoned veterinarian and anesthesiologist.
Ask about the animals' final moments, however, and a mental shift from professional to pet owner occurs, signalled by the tears appearing in his eyes. Both times, he had asked to attend when the dogs were put to sleep. Not only that, I asked them: Let me do it. I have to tell them it's OK. I feel like I would be abandoning them.'
That kind of homegrown empathy now guides him during operations as one of six practitioners on rotation in OVC's Veterinary Teaching Hospital. And it informs his research into various anesthetic drugs used in pain management as a recently arrived faculty member at his alma mater.
Valverde came to U of G in September from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. Before moving to the United States in 2001, he had spent nine years in his home country of Costa Rica, running his own referral veterinary clinic in San Jose. There, he'd been instrumental in introducing a program intended to tackle a key animal welfare problem that still afflicts the entire country.
The McKee Project aims to cut down the number of street animals mostly dogs, estimated to number hundreds of thousands that roam unattended around the capital and other towns. Poisoning was the official, but ineffectual, government policy in a country lacking suitable shelters.
Valverde helped plan and launch the project after an American client who had brought several street dogs to his clinic suggested trying to get money and help from the United States. As a member of the board of directors of Costa Rica's college of veterinarians, which then represented about 750 practitioners across the country, Valverde was in a good position to help find a humane solution that didn't involve killing the animals.
I said, Let's do something useful. Let's spay and neuter every animal out there and find homes for them.'
That's the goal of the program, begun just as he was preparing to hand over his clinic and head for academia in Florida. The program has since brought about 10 anesthetic machines from the United States that have been placed in selected clinics for the McKee Project and for other routine practice procedures.
Making that kind of impact had been Valverde's goal when he returned home to Costa Rica after earning a D.V.Sc. in anesthesiology from U of G in 1990. One of the first things he had noticed about Canada when he arrived here 20 years ago was the lack of street animals.
When I came to Canada, I realized lots of things I had not been aware of, including just how much money and attention Canadians lavish on their pets. Returning to Costa Rica, where he'd completed his DVM, he felt obligated to share what he'd learned in and outside of the classroom.
I wanted to give something back. I wanted to transmit my knowledge there.
He ran a small-animal and equine clinic in San Jose with two other practitioners and their staff. Through the country's college of veterinarians, he also orchestrated continuing education opportunities, including bringing in experts from North America. Among the U of G faculty who visited Costa Rica during that period were clinical studies professors Doris Dyson, Mark Hurtig, Howard Dobson, Karol Mathews, Paul Woods and Henry Staempfli.
Dyson had been Valverde's supervisor during his studies here. They had investigated epidural use of opioids such as morphine in surgery for dogs, research whose findings are now used routinely for pain management in clinics throughout North America.
Back at Guelph, he's continuing his studies of epidural anesthetics, including the potency of inhaled anesthetics and cardiovascular studies. In the teaching hospital, he has already participated in his share of operations, including serving as anesthesiologist during an unusual procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat in a Clydesdale horse from Texas.
He allows that surgery in Florida with its preponderance of zoos and private animal collections often held more surprises. There, the clientele included big cats from tigers to panthers and even an alligator or two. Still, Valverde says he doesn't mind the more standard domestic fare here in Guelph.
He's also brought along a part of Costa Rica in the form of his late Doberman's offspring. Astor, 9, also wound up on the operating table in Florida about 18 months ago to treat a prolapsed disk that affected the dog's balance and co-ordination. Valverde scrubbed for that operation as well.
He says Astor has taken to his new Guelph home, although even a Canadian winter hasn't yet cured the animal of its aversion to living indoors. He likes to be in the garage he just loves it there.
