Children dressed in Halloween costumes explored Colorado Mountain College’s small animal hospital during the annual veterinary technician program open house last weekend.

Staff and students at CMC Spring Valley in Glenwood Springs introduced program animals — which range from bearded dragons to cows — to visitors. 

Hands-on experience with animals is one of the main reasons Riley Shushunov, a CMC vet tech second-year student, was attracted to the program. 

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“It’s really interactive. It’s fun,” Shushunov said at the open house on Saturday. “I don’t think you get a lot of this at any other vet type place. To be able to have all this hands-on work with all these different animals, especially when we’re going to work in a field where we have to work with all these different animals, it’s really great to get all this experience.”

Since it was established in 1968 as one of the nation’s first vet tech programs, CMC’s Associate of Applied Science in Veterinary program has come a long way — in part because of Dr. Henry Kagerer and Dr. Stuart “Randy” Vanderhurst, who were honored by the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association for their contributions to CMC in September. 

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Kagerer and Vanderhurst, who was honored posthumously, were awarded the CVMA Distinguished Service Award for their part in establishing CMC’s state-of-the-art training facility and integrating shelter medicine into the program’s curriculum. 

Now considered one of the nation’s top veterinary technician programs, CMC utilizes a six-stall equine teaching barn, a modern livestock handling facility and a surgical suite and dental, x-ray and laboratory areas. The school’s 2,600-square-foot small animal hospital, which includes kennel and treatment areas, was created to mirror a working veterinary hospital and provide on-the-job training. 

“With the lectures and sitting in class, the animals add more to that,” Ari Peters, a CMC vet tech student who enrolled in the program in 2021, said. “So, if you’re not sure how to handle an animal or for example, intubation, being able to give the animal some oxygen while they’re under surgery, that may be hard to explain in a classroom type setting. So, being in the hospital and learning all that, it’s definitely awesome.”

CMC is helping address the nation’s significant shortage of veterinarians, which is “having a significant impact on access to healthcare for animals and the wellbeing of the veterinary healthcare team,” according to the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges. 

“There’s a nationwide shortage of veterinarians and veterinary technicians, so we’re pumping them out as fast as we can to help with that shortage,” Animal Facility Manager Amy McLaren said. “When our students graduate, they go out with wide base knowledge and hands on skills of multiple species. So they’re very well rounded and ready to go right into the work field.”

Veterinary technicians provide nursing support, perform diagnostic procedures, act as patient advocates and assist in anesthesia and surgery.

CMC has over 100 resident animals at the 220-acre facility, including cows, goats, sheep, rats, snakes, guinea pigs, lizards and even a golden eagle named Cheyenne. The resident animals help students learn how to administer prescribed drugs to patients, perform patient assessments on a variety of animal species and care for exotic animals. 

“I think we have a unique situation with our animals and our facility to really give the students more hands-on experience than most other schools can give because of our situation here with so much acreage, so many resident animals,” said Dr. Gretchen Lamb, professor of veterinary technology. 

Students take palpitations and practice safe restraint methods and medication administration on Stanley, a non-resident volunteer dog who greeted visitors with Lamb in the small animal hospital on Saturday.

“I think there are CMC trained vet techs at every single practice in the valley, to my knowledge at least, and all over the region and really all over the world,” Lamb said. “We’ve got a vet tech student over in France who’s working at a university in Lyon.”

CMC’s low student to teacher ratio keeps most class sizes small and the community tight-knit. 

“I think this program has been a really amazing one for me as a professional to see our students grow through their education and then go out and be successful in the world,” she added. “We still hear from them and I love doing that.”