Lauren Cabrera - Saipan Humane Society

In this episode of VetLife, Dr. Cliff Redford speaks with Lauren Cabrera, a future veterinarian from Saipan, who shares her journey from nursing to a career in veterinary medicine. They discuss the challenges of providing veterinary care on a remote island, the impact of the Saipan Humane Society, and the importance of community involvement in animal welfare. Lauren's passion for animal rescue and her plans to return to Saipan after veterinary school highlight the need for veterinary services in underserved areas.

To help support the Saipan Humane Society:

https://saipanhumanesociety.org/

Follow Lauren on Instagram at @future.island.vet and her animal rescue at @boonieflightproject

First, if you haven't watched my film and live in Canada (or have one of those VPN things), you can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/oMUx3yuyznc?si=oagpg7bGnpbuyXlJ

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @drcliffworldwidevet.com and on Twitter at @drcliff_vet
Listener questions, episode suggestions, or if you have a good idea for a guest, email me at dr.redford@vet905.com
Additional information can be found at drcliff.ca

Transcript

Dr. Cliff Redford (00:01)

Hey everyone, welcome to VetLife with Dr. Cliff. You know who I am and soon you're going to meet or learn about my guest, Ms. Lauren. Lauren is a woman who runs or is part of the board. She runs with her friends, the Saipan Humane Society. Where is Saipan? Saipan is an island. an American island. It's part of the United States of America.

but it is way down on the other side of the planet, down by the Philippines, down by Japan. So it's this beautiful exotic little island, no veterinarian, incredibly remote. They do amazing work. Veterinarians go down and volunteer. Maybe that's my next trip. We will see. ⁓ And we just had this great conversation about the work that she does along with her colleagues and the fact that Lauren is heading to veterinarian school.

in the United States this fall. ⁓ Geez, I wonder if she's going to return to her island and ⁓ finally they'll have a veterinarian. Stay tuned to find out. I know you're going to enjoy this episode of Vet Life with Dr. Cliff.

Dr. Cliff Redford (01:21)

Everyone, welcome back to Vet Life with Dr. Cliff. Lauren, how are you?

Lauren Cabrera (01:26)

I'm doing great, how are you?

Dr. Cliff Redford (01:28)

You got,

I am, I am good. You've got this gorgeous backdrop behind you. Where are you? Tell everybody where you are.

Lauren Cabrera (01:35)

I'm on Saipan. ⁓ It's part of the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. We are about, well, we're really close to Japan and the Philippines. So we're very far from the mainland US.

Dr. Cliff Redford (01:48)

Really, really far. Yeah, really out there. And you were saying for me to come there and volunteer, it's a bit of a hike.

Lauren Cabrera (01:50)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it takes like a good 26 hours and a couple connections to get here from Canada.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:06)

Okay. So that'd be the same as when I went to India. I think it'd be pretty similar. Yeah. There's, there wasn't, I think once I went to India and it was direct to New Delhi, but then we, you know, had to take a connection to, ⁓ Hyderabad. But the other times we had to do, you know, we had to do a layover in Milan. was so tough. Milan, Italy. was so, it was nice. was, it was nice. It was my daughter and I, was like eight hours. So we had just enough time to.

Lauren Cabrera (02:09)

It's similar. Yeah.

man.

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:34)

eight or nine hours, so just enough time to head into the city and get some pizza and gelato and, you know, stretch our legs. But, um, I am so excited to talk to, uh, you know, I see, I get a lot of Instagram sort of recommendations from the algorithm about, Hey, you should follow this person or you should follow this person. And, and you always talked about being a, uh, uh, what is your handle? It's like future vet or Island vet.

Lauren Cabrera (02:59)

Both, Future Island Vet.

Dr. Cliff Redford (03:01)

Future Island

Vet and I was like, this is interesting. yeah, you literally are a future island vet. You are heading to veterinary school soon.

Lauren Cabrera (03:14)

Yeah, in like two weeks.

Dr. Cliff Redford (03:18)

Two weeks? Where are you going that you're starting in July?

Lauren Cabrera (03:19)

Yeah.

Well, I'm going to University of Florida first to do some ⁓ work with their animal shelter, their shelter program. And then I'm going to do a little like visit some friends and then go to Washington state. We start mid August.

Dr. Cliff Redford (03:38)

Okay. you start a little bit earlier than us. Plus you're doing some, some sort of volunteer-ish type work. Good stuff. So this has been, this has been your dream your whole life, I imagine. ⁓

Lauren Cabrera (03:46)

Yeah, basically.

⁓ yeah, it has,

but I didn't think I was smart enough to become a veterinarian. ⁓ and so I did not. Now I'm 35 and I'm doing it. So I guess childhood dreams don't die.

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:07)

Yeah,

now what was the sort of impulse that had you try, not later on in life, but it's not straight out of high school or straight out of university like a lot of us do it?

Lauren Cabrera (04:20)

Yeah. So, well, first I had a great career in nursing. I became a nurse practitioner. My job was stable. Life was good. I traveled all the time and it was so nice. ⁓ and then I had a baby during the pandemic and couldn't find childcare, so I couldn't work. I started a dog rescue. I was living on Guam at the time. And, ⁓ then I just kind of like got sucked into.

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:44)

Okay.

Lauren Cabrera (04:50)

the animal welfare world on these islands. And everything basically snowballed to a point where I became the board president of the only animal shelter on Guam and then moved to Saipan and realized we don't have a vet and there's like a lot of animals. So I started a nonprofit clinic here called Saipan Humane Society. we see last year we saw more than 6,000 patients with

Dr. Cliff Redford (05:18)

my

goodness.

Lauren Cabrera (05:19)

visiting

vets and virtual vets helping us. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (05:25)

And

where do most of the vets come from? they mostly from the US or are closer to where you are right now?

Lauren Cabrera (05:31)

They're mostly from the US, right? We have like really, really outdated laws that require a US license, but the laws are very minimal. So mostly our vets right now are coming from Banfield Foundation because the cost is so expensive to get here. And fortunately, the foundation will cover their flights, which is a huge.

Dr. Cliff Redford (05:40)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. So not always bad things coming from a corporate clinics.

Lauren Cabrera (06:00)

Yeah, I love them because without

them, our clinic simply just would not exist. They give us lot of in-kind donations and they helped us secure a clinic space because initially we were functioning basically out of a closet at the municipal animal shelter and we'd have animals just laying in the hallway. It was crazy. There was no space for a table. So we were doing everything on the floor or out on the porch or in the back of someone's truck.

Dr. Cliff Redford (06:31)

Yeah.

Lauren Cabrera (06:31)

And that was

not sustainable.

Dr. Cliff Redford (06:33)

If, if assuming they're not doing this already, you should talk to Banfield about, they could like add a trip to Saipan to help attract young veterinarians because a lot of them are, you know, they're looking for mentorship. They're looking to make a difference and, and, and sort of make the world better for animals. Obviously they're not just looking for a regular job. And with my first volunteer trip being to Jamaica nine years ago.

Lauren Cabrera (06:56)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (07:02)

I mean, I learned a lot and I had been a vet almost for 20 years at the time, but I was, I was telling them in Jamaica at the Humane Society there, the SPCA that you guys should get new grads here to just do spays and neuters, spays and neuters, spays and neuters. And it'll be a wonderful trip for them. And they would learn my dog barks and then they, that's, he's like, who's here? That's hilarious.

Lauren Cabrera (07:17)

Mm-hmm.

Mine just ran off. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (07:30)

That's hilarious. but yeah, that would actually be a wonderful, ⁓ sort of experience for them. And I bet you it would help them sort of set them apart, ⁓ from other corporations or other job opportunities that some of these, these vet students are, ⁓ are, are going to be sort of fighting for. Are you planning, you know, after you become a vet, what is it four or five years at Washington? Four years. Are you planning on going back to Saipan?

Lauren Cabrera (07:52)

for

yeah, I'm leaving my family here because my husband is from here. So we have like a lot of family here. ⁓ So I'm leaving them here and I got, there's a thing called Witchie which basically gives you in-state tuition at certain schools if you're from certain areas. So I have that and my service payback is I have to work here for two years for every one year of support. So assuming I get four years of support, I'll.

Dr. Cliff Redford (08:00)

Okay.

Yeah, see you guys.

Lauren Cabrera (08:25)

be committed for eight years. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Cliff Redford (08:26)

You got eight years, which is fine for you anyways. Yeah,

my last volunteer trip was in January to pretty much the opposite of where you are. We went north to the Arctic circle. My daughter and my son, a technician of NI and similar, you 7,000 people in this capital community of the territory. No veterinarian. haven't had a veterinarian for about four years, but they have a clinic.

Lauren Cabrera (08:38)

my gosh.

Dr. Cliff Redford (08:55)

where there used to be a vet and the community is now looking at ⁓ grants and assisting people from Nunavut who get into vet school. We're going to help you with the costs. ⁓ and on top of that, you've got to come back. But I even just learned a couple of days ago that there are, there's a program from that territory where I think they get $50,000.

If they like, if they're not from none of it, like if I were to go there, I would get an extra 50 grand, like as a signing bonus, just to work in a remote area. ⁓ yeah, communities like yours have to do what they, got to do. Right. ⁓ yeah, yeah. And I mean, it's such a easy sell for you because you got family, you're going to get to, and I mean, you built you, you and your colleagues built this humane society, like put it all together. So.

Lauren Cabrera (09:29)

Wow.

Exactly.

Dr. Cliff Redford (09:50)

They must be so excited. They probably got a big calendar with that. They're to be Xing the days.

Lauren Cabrera (09:55)

Yeah, it's crazy. It's definitely like, we're very invested here, you know, we have very deep roots here from the family side and starting the clinic and yeah, I just can't imagine being anywhere else.

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:06)

Mm.

Tell me a little bit about Saipan, how many people live there?

Lauren Cabrera (10:14)

We have 45,000 people-ish. And then there's two smaller populated islands that are part of the Northern Marianas that have like 2,000 people-ish. But on Saipan, with no consistent access to spay neuter for a long time, we have like, last time they did a dog population count was in 2014, there's 21,000 dogs. And yeah, it's like a crazy.

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:17)

Okay.

Right.

Lauren Cabrera (10:42)

ratio compared to other places of people to dogs. pet ownership is different here, kind of probably like similar to what you've seen traveling, you know, like there are some people who keep their dogs inside and treat them like babies, but majority of the dogs are free roaming, ⁓ may or may not have a collar, may or may not have an owner. Sometimes we just, you know, we don't know. yeah. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:45)

Mm-hmm.

Lauren Cabrera (11:10)

It's been really hard to control the population, but it's really important because too many dogs, not enough homes, they're not made to live on the streets and they don't do well here most of the time.

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:24)

Yeah. I mean, the slightest injury probably gets ⁓ maggots in it or it gets infections or you probably have other even more exotic parasites that can screw worms, things like that. I think mango worm was another one that I had seen years and years ago, something of that nature. ⁓ But I mean, the weather is so warm that these animals can survive long enough to breed. And that's an issue we don't have. Like we, we have.

A few strays, ⁓ certainly a lot more cats, ⁓ here in, I'm in Toronto, but even, you know, sort of outskirts of, of Toronto, we don't really have dogs running around. ⁓ it's just, it's cold. And the second somebody sees a puppy, they scoop it up. So, ⁓ it's a totally different, ⁓ totally different environment. Mind you, my rescue dog, who was the one that was barking, Bo, he's seven months old and we got him from a callowat when he was a puppy.

Lauren Cabrera (12:10)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:24)

and he was even more north of a Cali that he came from his mother was a, like a pet, a corgi shepherd cross, but his father was a wild rez dog that was just running around the reservation and, living in minus 40 winters and. know, ⁓ yeah, yeah. Super, super cool. And that's, that's pretty much Fahrenheit or Celsius. I think it's the same. think that's when they meet is approximately minus 40. ⁓ so basically very, very.

Lauren Cabrera (12:42)

gosh.

That's my nightmare.

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:53)

very very cold

yes it's chilly what's the weather like there i it's tropical all year round

Lauren Cabrera (12:59)

Yeah, it's rainy season right now, as you can tell. Like, it's just beautiful. Yeah. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:03)

Yeah, what it it's beautiful. regardless it's

there's clouds, but it's still a bright and bright and sun. There he is. But no, but no surfing. understand.

Lauren Cabrera (13:15)

Yeah, we don't really have surfing. It's like half the island is protected by a reef and it's really flat and the other half is really rocky. And it's actually a historical area. A lot of the rocky, scary part that you can't surf because during World War II, a lot of people ⁓ jumped off those cliffs. yeah, there's some really interesting, complicated history here. It's kind of.

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:25)

Mm.

Yeah.

How does an Island like that become part of the U S.

Lauren Cabrera (13:49)

That's a good question. Well, you know, like many islands, it's gone through different hands over time. during World War II, Japan occupied the island and then the US took it. we actually launched ⁓ the plane with the atomic bombs took off from Tinian, one of the smaller populated islands.

that we can actually see from, it's like a five minute plane ride from here. Yeah, so there is a lot of interesting history. ⁓ And that's probably why the US hangs onto these islands. Like Guam nearby is very much a military base, but also it's Guam and the local people are still there. And here, thank goodness, we're not very built up and it's still very like.

Dr. Cliff Redford (14:20)

wow.

Lauren Cabrera (14:42)

Only locals can own land and it's very protected in certain ways, but there's always like the worry, you know?

Dr. Cliff Redford (14:49)

Yeah, yeah, that the US is going to sort of take a stronger hold of it. So are you, I mean, I'm fascinated by the politics of this. Are you guys, like, do you vote? Are you considered a part of a certain state? Like, how does it work?

Lauren Cabrera (15:06)

We are, so there's territories and commonwealths. I am not a super clear on the difference actually, but like Puerto Rico and Guam are territories. We're a commonwealth. Either way, we can't vote Guam or here for like presidency. We have our governor, have, we have somebody in Congress representing us. And yeah, we have our own like, you know, our government kind of models.

Dr. Cliff Redford (15:22)

Right, Or a senator or anything like that.

Lauren Cabrera (15:35)

the government of a state. have like the legislature and a governor and a mayor. But yeah, it's interesting. It's small. So, you know, if I was working stateside, I've like written a law here and passed it. And stateside, I probably would not be doing that. But here, it's so small. It's not the hardest thing in the world to write a law and get it passed.

Dr. Cliff Redford (15:55)

haha

Yeah.

Probably a little bit more common sense sort of approaches there. Yeah. Yeah. With only 45,000 people. Um, have you always lived in, I mean, you were originally in Guam. Were you born out that way?

Lauren Cabrera (16:06)

Yeah.

No. So I'm from New Hampshire. Do you want to hear like the, I it's a little crazy. Okay. So I'm from New Hampshire and I, you know, grew up there and went to college in Vermont. And then what did I do? I met somebody hiking in Maine one day when I was like 22 and they were moving to Saipan. And I was like, I don't know what that is, but I don't like my night shift ICU nurse job anymore.

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:21)

All right. Yeah, yeah, give it to me.

Lauren Cabrera (16:48)

I mean, I never liked it. It was like very rough. I'm like, I'm coming with you. I don't know you, but I'm coming. So I moved out here for a year and I went to India during that time and I went to yoga school there and I stayed there for a couple of months. And then I ended up going back Stateside and the travel bug had bit me, but I wasn't quite ready to be like.

far, far away. So then I pursued my nurse practitioner degree, which allows you to like prescribe and diagnose and stuff. ⁓ And I did a fellowship in New York City in palliative care, took a job in Washington State doing palliative care. And then I was and I traveled a lot during that time, too, mostly central and South America. But then I just

I really felt called back to the islands from the second I left. And so I made my way back to Guam because I thought there's more one hospital, there's more opportunities. And I stayed there for a couple years and then moved back here. So I've been living here. Yeah, it's kind of like a...

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:56)

Found your way.

Wow. But you've done Saipan as one of the smaller communities all the way to New York city. Like what a, what a variety. Beautiful. Yeah.

Lauren Cabrera (18:06)

Yeah, with my dog from Saipan, who's now passed away. It's been a while, but yeah,

I took her to like everywhere. Saipan, New Hampshire, DC, New York, Seattle, Guam.

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:16)

Yeah.

I got to introduce you to, if it's all right, I'll connect you to my friend Joanna, who, ⁓ she reminds me a lot of you. She started her vet career. She's in vet school right now in Edinburgh. She's about halfway through and she's probably, she's going to kill me if I get this wrong. I think she's early forties. ⁓ and I sort of pushed her slash encouraged her.

Lauren Cabrera (18:35)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:50)

she had thought about being a veterinarian and reached out to me years ago. And apparently I was the only vet that said, yeah, do it. This is the greatest career in the world. ⁓ which is, which is funny and also sad at the same time. Cause I think it is true that a lot of vets, ⁓ are not happy with their, with their place in life. but, ⁓ she, she struggled to get in because it had been so long that she'd been in school. She was not.

Lauren Cabrera (18:57)

Yeah, there's no funny.

Okay.

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:17)

She didn't have any sort of science or math background. She was a dancer, ⁓ like a dancer and theater performer, and therefore also a server at a restaurant. But she, like you, spent a lot of time in India and did a lot of volunteer work and is going to graduate as Dr. Joanna in a couple of years. ⁓ she talks about moving back to Toronto and working, maybe working at my clinic, but I think she's going to.

She's going to show up in some place like Saipan or go back to India and deal with street dogs and whatnot. But you two seem to be cut from the same cloth, is cool, which is definitely cool, definitely inspiring.

Lauren Cabrera (19:57)

I think so.

It's funny you mentioned her because I listened to that episode of the podcast and I was like, where is she? need to meet her. She seems like my type of person.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:04)

⁓ ha ha.

I'll connect

you guys. You're on, are you on WhatsApp? That's the easiest way. All right. I'll send you the details later on. Obviously. ⁓ I got to do another, I'm doing an episode with her every six months as like, ⁓ you know, how is school going kind of thing. ⁓ and she just reached out to me to say, I passed again, you know, which, ⁓ my response was boring. I knew you would, but I mean, it's been, it's been a harder struggle for her than, than for other people. And it's.

Lauren Cabrera (20:12)

Yeah.

amazing.

cool.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:38)

She's brilliant. She's super smart, but like, if I tried to get through university now, ⁓ and then get into vet school, like I've forgotten all my calculus. I've forgotten my organic chem. I've forgotten all that stuff. So you probably had to deal with that as well. Yeah. Bit of a challenge. So it's going to be, it's going to be a bit of a challenge. Maybe you need to talk to her so that she can, ⁓ she can patch on the back and say, I've been through it, Lauren. You know, this is what's going to be hard.

Lauren Cabrera (20:54)

Yeah, it was a pain.

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:06)

You're going to be, you know, you're going to feel out of place, but, I truly believe Joanna brings so much more to this industry as a veterinarian because of her life experiences. and I think you're going to have the same and with you being a nurse practitioner, mean, placing a catheter has got to be easier in a dog than in a person.

Lauren Cabrera (21:28)

You know, interesting part is like I, as a nurse practitioner, I don't do that. So I haven't done it for years. ⁓ Except for dogs in our clinic now, I have to like relearn everything. The last time I was a bedside nurse was 2015. And then I took on the provider role. So I worked as a hospitalist and I worked in palliative care. But most of what I would do is like evaluate the patients, make the treatment plan.

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:37)

⁓

Hmm.

Lauren Cabrera (21:56)

prescribe the meds or order the diagnostic tests and interpret them. ⁓ So I have had to relearn a lot of things.

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:05)

You pick it up. I learned how to drive on a stick shift. Cause my dad's a really cool dad. And then I went 15 years without driving stick. And then all of a sudden got into my, at the time girlfriend, now my wife's car and just, yeah, yeah, I know how to drive stick. And I just drove off and it was fine. you'll, it'll all bounce back. And there'll be a lot of times, I'm sure where you'd be like, all right, if this was a human.

Lauren Cabrera (22:10)

So I still cannot do that.

That's amusing.

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:34)

This is what I would do. They're pretty much the same, just a little less annoying. I less annoying.

Lauren Cabrera (22:38)

They are another. Yeah, exactly. That's what

like right now in our clinic. I'm going there today. Some days we have 40 or 50 patients and the way we do it is there's not a vet here right now. ⁓ If you're here for wellness, like flea and tick meds or vaccines, you go to the front desk, get it and you leave because it's like high volume. ⁓ And then if you are coming for a sick visit, we put you in a room.

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:51)

my gosh.

Lauren Cabrera (23:08)

And then me or one of the staff will evaluate and then we talk to a vet or we look at our protocols and we try to figure out what to do. ⁓ But I have noticed there is a lot of overlap between human medicine and animal medicine. And the meds are a lot similar, like most of them are similar or the same.

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:25)

Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah. You know, I write prescriptions to Shoppers Drug Mart. ⁓ You know, if it's something that I don't carry regularly, it's, you know, most of the time it's human medication. ⁓ And for anyone listening, no, you can't put it on your insurance. ⁓ Unless you have pet insurance, you can't put it on your own personal healthcare plan. It's not one of your children. ⁓ But, so what is your day like then? It's pretty much that's...

Lauren Cabrera (23:42)

Yeah.

Yeah.

man.

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:57)

Like

it's 40 to 50 patients and, you know, and then some, some sick ones and you go from there.

Lauren Cabrera (24:04)

Yeah, basically, you know, you just, always say you don't stop, pets don't stop getting sick because there's no vet. And here it's even worse probably because they're like running around in the streets and they have no preventive care more or less. So we see like a lot of hit by car. There's a lot of things where we're like, well, we don't, we don't know what this is. Sorry, but we will try something or like.

a lot of things where like a dog's leg is pointing in the wrong direction and we're like, well, we cannot fix this. ⁓ We see a lot of severe tick disease ⁓ and issues from that. And we see a lot of, not a lot, but we see a good amount of transmissible venereal tumor, which vets are always so excited to see because they learned about it, but they never saw it in real life. And we're like, well, here it is. We have it.

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:00)

There it is.

Yeah, yeah.

Lauren Cabrera (25:03)

and then the ones that bother me the most, like last week we had a dog come in that was in labor and the baby's stuck and we're like, well, we cannot fix this. ⁓ or PIO, we can, we have a portable like handheld ultrasound and some PIO is pretty obvious. ⁓ anyways, and yeah, we can't fix those. So that is a bummer. So that's like a clinic day.

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:26)

Yeah, yeah, there's not a lot you can do. You can just keep them comfortable.

Lauren Cabrera (25:31)

but I actually don't work there. I started it and I go there and I help out, but my job is for the local government. ⁓ Essentially, I fulfilled the role of like the animal health officer for the island and I have a veterinarian on Guam who supervises me remotely. So I'm handling a lot of the biosecurity import. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:35)

Okay.

Lauren Cabrera (25:58)

Livestock health, which I know nothing about. we're doing a training that I've been trying to get here. And yeah, every day is like totally random and interesting.

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:08)

Yeah. You're going to,

you are going to learn so much at school and then you're going to learn 10 times more when you're actually able to do those things. ⁓ you know, like the, these days, you know, if you graduate, yes, you learn about broken bones and this and that, unless you go and, and are interested and, take some additional courses and have a clinic that's going to support you. ⁓ such as Banfield, let's say you really have no.

Lauren Cabrera (26:18)

I hope so.

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:37)

need requirement to learn how to fix a broken bone because you're going to refer it. and, know, ⁓ if there's a referral hospital within an hour, even within two hours, you're doing your patient to service by saying, look, I don't really do this. We should be referring you. ⁓ whereas, you know, 30 years ago, that was not very common. lot of veterinarians didn't have access to a specialist.

Lauren Cabrera (26:42)

yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (27:06)

So they were forced to learn much like me learning how to fix a bald eagle's broken wing with the volunteer work I do at a wildlife place. There's no one willing to volunteer. So now there is Dr. Wendy is on Mondays. I'm on Thursdays, but I mean, for the first six years I was there, I was their only vet. And they basically said, you need to learn how to do this because we're going to euthanize this animal. And I figured it out. Right. So you're going to end up being like five years after you.

Lauren Cabrera (27:11)

That's so cool.

Dr. Cliff Redford (27:34)

graduate, you are going to have so many more skills and experiences under your belt than like a 20 year veteran, uh, vet would have at a big city, um, because of the, need, the need to do it. And, and you're going to find that you're, really good at it. So, uh, that's, that's super exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're she's crossing her fingers right now. You're super excited. It's super exciting. So, so how

Lauren Cabrera (27:56)

So yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:02)

How often do you have vets there and what is the, like, if I were to come there for, say 10 days, you're not going to come just for a week. If I was to come there for 10 or 12 days, ⁓ what would my, what would my task be like? What walk me through my day?

Lauren Cabrera (28:18)

Okay. So it depends on kind of where your strengths and interests are because we don't want to like say somebody doesn't like doing big dog spays. This is not the place to do surgery because everything is a big dog spay. ⁓ so yeah, everybody bleeds and bleeds and bleeds because everyone has tick disease and nobody has platelets and they're in rough shape coming in. So yeah. And, ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:35)

Yeah, with complications.

Lauren Cabrera (28:48)

So if you come for a surgery, like we're about to do a spay neuter clinic though, starting a little later this week. And we have it down, you know, we learned and tweaked our methods and whatever. And our whole team here is really good at checking in the animal, the vet does a quick exam when they come in. We shove some trazodone down and shove them in a crate and they hang out until it's their turn. We have like...

anesthetic protocols that we follow and a prep team and the vet does their thing and then they go to recovery. So that is like an assembly line basically. If you're coming not for spay neuter, because those days are pretty quick moving too. If you're coming for a regular old everything, you do everything because everything shows up. And when word gets out a vet is here, clinic gets real busy. All these animals come out of the woodwork that

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:26)

Hmm.

Lauren Cabrera (29:46)

like, look, my dog has this mass that it's had for six years, or, you know, my dog broke its leg two months ago. Or, you know, we have a lot of cases that pile up before the vet comes and, you know, okay, you're coming. We have like three amputations waiting and an eyeball that needs to come out and a PIO and all these sick visits. So we do all the logistical.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:11)

Yeah, yeah.

Lauren Cabrera (30:13)

stuff and we're there to support you, but it can be intense.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:19)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, ⁓ that's have to realize, and I think they would, you know, as they're heading over there, look, this is while they're, I'm assuming there's going be a little bit of vacation time. ⁓ the majority of the time is you're there to work, especially if you're on your corporation's dime that you're going there, but you're going to work and you're going to get some experiences. ⁓ and yeah, it's just like you're inside for whatever 10 hours, 12 hours, and these animals just keep showing up in front of you.

Lauren Cabrera (30:30)

yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:47)

⁓ and the technicians know just don't let, don't let the vet leave for lunch. We'll bring you lunch. We'll bring you lunch. Yeah. Yeah. You stay right. You stay. We'll stay right here. ⁓ so that you don't disappear. ⁓ but yeah, it's, it's similar in, in a callowith that when, when they find out a vet's coming up, ⁓ up to this Arctic community, you know, everything, ⁓ my, my dog's been peeing blood for three months.

Lauren Cabrera (30:52)

We feed you. We bring lunch. We feed you. We make you eat lunch.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:15)

and the exhumator is not really working. So we sometimes have to make a guess and say, we think your dog's got bladder stones. So we need to roll the dice and go in looking. What kind of diagnostic equipment you have? I know you'd mentioned you don't have a lot.

Lauren Cabrera (31:25)

I know.

Yeah, I was going to say we don't have an x-ray. ⁓ But every vet who comes, it's like they go through the stages of grief when they get here. there's a lot of like, depending on the vet walking around being like, I wish we had an x-ray, if only we had an x-ray. And I'm like, yep, we wish we had one too, but we don't. So off you go. ⁓ We have a microscope. It broke. And finally we got a new one because we ordered one and it was like lost in mail.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:48)

Yep. Yep.

Lauren Cabrera (31:59)

which happens and then finally someone brought one for us. So we've got that. We have heartworm tests. We have a portable like butterfly ultrasound, ⁓ which the images are not amazing, but they're good enough. And then you've got a stethoscope in your hands. And that's pretty much it. Really.

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:14)

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. It's quite a lot though. Like the reality

is, is we were told in, in university and, I would agree with this anecdotally, um, with just a good history, can diagnose correctly 50 % of the problems or 50 % of the time we diagnose correctly the disease with a physical exam. You're now up to 75%.

Lauren Cabrera (32:35)

I love that.

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:43)

And then there are some tests you're able to do. And the reality is, is I would say with a lot of experience and again, with, people like you and your colleagues that are, that understand the diseases and the problems that occur specific to your Island. ⁓ you know, you can be a lot higher than, than that. And, veterinarians, young veterinarians forget that an exploratory surgery is a diagnostic test.

⁓ so sometimes just go in and look, you know, go with these bladder surgeries. did two, ⁓ one cat, one dog, the extra they had an x-ray machine, but it, basically showed you bones. That's it. ⁓ and the trip before that, they did not have an x-ray machine. So the majority of every single trip I've been on has been without x-rays, without microscopes, you know, ⁓ we're doing spay neuter clinics in the middle of the jungle with howler monkeys screaming at us. And we got, you know, no.

Lauren Cabrera (33:40)

So cool.

Dr. Cliff Redford (33:41)

No, no, ⁓ inhalant anesthetic. It's all just injectable. Right. So you figure things out. But, with this cat and the dog, I thought it had bladder stones. said, let me go in and look and they said, well, what if it doesn't? Well, then it's not a waste. know your dog or your cat's bleeding in its urine. can then take biopsies of the, of the bladder, take it back with me and diagnose interstitial cystitis or something like that.

⁓ I have to say though, it's nice when you cut into the bladder and you put the little spoon down and you hear the clink and you know, okay, I guessed right. I guessed right. There are stones. right. Woo. ⁓ but, ⁓ yeah, you know, it, it, it really does, ⁓ strengthen your diagnostic skill and your confidence. ⁓ so for all those vets out there thinking about going to a place like Saipan, ⁓

You are going to do so much good work. You're going to have such an amazing time. Everyone's going to be jealous of you. And then it's going to make you such a better veterinarian because then you're going to come back and you have all these tools to then agree with you or confirm what you already know and what you figured out working on an island like, like Saipan. So, I'm so excited for what, ⁓ what, what you're going to be accomplishing.

Lauren Cabrera (34:55)

I love that.

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:00)

⁓ so as we wrap this up, like you guys do take donations to how do you afford all this stuff?

Lauren Cabrera (35:09)

Yes, donations are great. also, like we don't have a vet on staff. We don't pay our staff well, and that's part of how we survive, which we hope to change both of those things. ⁓ Donations of anything are greatly appreciated. I take expired flea and tick meds and I give them to the shelter dogs because without that, they have literally nothing. ⁓

like financial donations, if people want to make those, they can go to our website, sipanhumainssociety.org. We do occasionally fly dogs off island ⁓ through the rescue I started, Boonie Flight Project. We've actually sent over 700 dogs off Guam and Saipan, some to Canada and to the mainland US and some other places. So if you want a dog, let us know, but it is expensive to fly them.

Yeah. If you want to come hang out, the flight is expensive. So that's the main deterrent. It's, it's expensive and it's long, but we set up accommodation car and we give you meals and that is all we have to offer a good time, a good time. Lots of patients. Yeah. And our clients are so grateful and nobody expects like the vet to come in and solve like the world's problems. They're just grateful.

Dr. Cliff Redford (36:24)

Good experience. Yeah, good experience.

Mm-hmm.

Lauren Cabrera (36:36)

We call it like the blessing of the DVM. Like some people just want to see the vet and we're like, what's wrong with the pet? And it's like nothing. They just want to like see a real vet. And so we have some of those too. You'll, yeah, the clients are just very sweet.

Dr. Cliff Redford (36:54)

That's going to be you in four years. That's amazing. That's amazing. I am going to look into what this flight costs because I can't imagine it's any more than going to India. mean, it might be a little bit, but, ⁓ you know,

Lauren Cabrera (36:56)

my God. That's good. Yeah.

Yeah. Well,

coming from Canada, you are exempt from cabotage. That's one of our issues is flying from the mainland US to here. We're part of the US and the cabotage law requires that we use, ⁓ we cannot take a foreign airline port to port if it's within the US. So we could like logistically we could, but legally we cannot. And so that

makes it more expensive. You could probably hop on Jow and it wouldn't be that bad. That's how I send dogs to Canada.

Dr. Cliff Redford (37:42)

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We're going to have

to check that out. Cause, this is right up my alley. It's, uh, it's a place I've never been. I didn't even know you existed. Um, the infrastructure is there. People always ask me, how do you choose where you go? Right. And, and often it's while I've made connections over the years, once I start doing YouTube videos, et cetera, et cetera, but I need to go to a place that is different, you know, uh, and I need to go to a place where the need is there. And I need to go to a place where there's infrastructure.

where I'm going to show up and there is a team that can help me help the animals, ⁓ steal that from Jerry McGuire. ⁓ so this, this place has it, this place has it all right. So, and I don't mind, I don't mind a 26 hours worth of travel. ⁓ it's worth it. ⁓ you know, that's what a bottle of wine is for or half a bottle of wine before the flight. ⁓ I just go to sleep and I'll wake up and I'm there.

Lauren Cabrera (38:13)

Totally.

Exactly.

Our team is home.

Exactly. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (38:42)

It works out well. Not, not the healthiest thing in the world, but whatever. That's fine. Perfect. ⁓ Lauren, how can people follow you on Instagram?

Lauren Cabrera (38:43)

That's amazing.

just gotta do what you gotta do.

yeah, go to my Instagram, future Island vet. It's future dot Island dot vet and my dog rescue Instagram. kind of like split them because vet med people seem interested in the vet stuff and there's a whole bunch of rescue people following the rescue. So I post a lot of like heartbreaking stuff and reality of doing rescue on this Island, ⁓ on Boonee flight project B O O N I E.

Dr. Cliff Redford (39:00)

that.

Lauren Cabrera (39:23)

flight project. So definitely check that out. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (39:25)

And that's, that's Instagram as well. All right. I'll

find it. I'll stick it in the little summary. And, ⁓ I think if it's all right with you, you could be my second Joanna in the sense of maybe every six months or so do a little update with Dr. Lauren, the future Dr. Lauren. And then one day it'll actually be Dr. Lauren. and we can, we can grow with you and, see, see the experiences you have. And I think you'd inspire a lot of people to not only.

like future veterinarians, but just animal lovers to get out there and, be kind to animals as I tend to close my podcast with often. Yeah, this has been great. Is there anything else you wanted to bring up or?

Lauren Cabrera (40:01)

Yeah, I love that.

I don't think so. Just thanks for listening. And we're always, yeah, trying to get our story out.

Dr. Cliff Redford (40:09)

Yeah, is, this is a, this

is a, this is an exciting, this was an exciting day for me when I, when, when you said, yeah, I'd love to talk because not everybody is chatty. ⁓ and this is something that like, this is exactly, ⁓ the type of stuff that, gets me, keeps me excited being a veterinarian and, and, ⁓ knowing that I've talked about it before, like this,

Lauren Cabrera (40:23)

I'm

Dr. Cliff Redford (40:38)

I've always loved being a vet, but the volunteer and the travel work, ⁓ is something that like, can see my future. I can see my retirement. ⁓ you know, I'll probably be late sixties when I retire 15 years from now. And, but I'll still have these great skills. I love surgery. I love challenges. ⁓ and, you know, it's something that I can see myself traveling all the time. ⁓ and it's, it's talking to people like you that just kind of.

keeps me excited about it. Yeah. Perfect. Thanks for coming on.

Lauren Cabrera (41:10)

good. Well, anytime. Happy to chat. Yeah.

Thank you. And we have a lot of bladders stones here for you, we think. So please, we have we have yet to take any out of any animal and it's yeah, we would love that. Really? That's amazing.

Dr. Cliff Redford (41:19)

⁓ excellent, excellent. So it just cut.

it's my favorite surgery. It's my favorite. It's my favorite

surgery because it's relatively, I just did one yesterday as like an emergency on a Saturday because it was like the dog was starting to get blocked. I diagnosed him on Friday and I was like, can't, we can't, we're closed Sunday. Then Monday we're slammed. Tuesday is July 1st, which is our Canada day. So the clinic's closed. I'm like, just, let's just do it on a Saturday, but it's there's so much.

They're so rewarding because they're knock on wood routine, uh, with very little complications and just putting that little teaspoon in there or a spay hook or a finger. Uh, we had recently a dog that unfortunately is tiny little Pomeranian. kid you not, including the little gravel pieces had a thousand stones in it. And it couldn't, it could not even pee like it was unbelievable. So

Lauren Cabrera (42:17)

my God.

Dr. Cliff Redford (42:22)

⁓ yes, you could sit me and just every, every animal peeing blood, just boom, boom, boom. We'll do the little butterfly ultrasound. There's the stones. Let's do it. Give it a trazodone. Let's do it. So, you're, you're, getting me hooked. You're getting me hooked to come down there. ⁓ there's been a pleasure, Lauren. Thank you very much. Everybody be kind to animals and to people and to yourself and a future veterinarians and, ⁓ get out there and volunteer.

Lauren Cabrera (42:32)

We would love that.

amazing.

Dr. Cliff Redford (42:51)

Cheers.

Lauren Cabrera (42:52)

Thanks.