2010 Paulatim Magazine - RAAMC Association

Veterinarians in the Australian Military
Until it was disbanded at the end of WWII, there was a Veterinary corps
providing care to the military horses and other animals. There are now
but a handful of Veterinarians in the military, most of whom are
reservists, and fall under the RAAMC banner. Apart from the novelty
factor, uniformed veterinarians currently undertake a number of tasks
but are largely underutilised. There are two reservist Veterinary Officer
positions at the Army Malaria Institute (AMI) caring for the colony of
Aotus monkeys. These monkeys do not suffer malaria like humans do
as they will self-clear the parasite.
Other Veterinarians are
present within the military in
non-Veterinary positions but
provide input into Exercises
such as AACAP and Pacific
Partnership, as well as
assistance to Military Working
Dogs (MWD) and unit
mascots.
Every year a Veterinary Officer attends AACAP. In 2010 was held in
Ernabella (Pukatja to the locals) and was attended by two
Veterinarians: MAJ Amanda Parry and CAPT John Hunter. The primary
aim of veterinary involvement was to desex as many of the local dogs
as possible and euthanise some animals to aid in population control.
This was done in a makeshift ‘surgery’ with an FS table for our surgery
table. The efforts of the construction team were greatly appreciated
after they made some leg extensions for the tables to raise the height
and save our backs as we performed surgery. We were also ably
assisted by our dog wrangling team: CPL Seton Wardrop and especially
LT Stacey Lawrence , an EHO who took up the challenge of being our
nurse come anaesthetist and did the job brilliantly!
Another activity we were involved in was the US-lead Exercise Pacific
Partnership which provides health care, including veterinary assistance,
to the south pacific region each year. AS involvement in PP 09 was
limited due to the outbreak of Swine Flu, however LT Garnett Hall
participated in PP 10. LT Hall is currently deployed on OP Astute and
attended the Timor Leste phase of PP10 in August as part of a
veterinary team. In addition to providing small animal veterinary
services, the veterinary teams travelled to regional communities to
treat livestock, and assisted in the investigation of a disease outbreak.
With the ever-present threat of IEDs in Afghanistan, our Explosive
Detection Dogs (EDD) are becoming a much more important asset.
Veterinary care on deployments is largely reliant on coalition
veterinarians or health personnel.
I am currently working within the
health cell of 1 Div and in
conjunction with SME am developing
veterinary policies for our MWD to
improve the care of our canine
soldiers. I welcome any input from
members and health personnel who
have had experiences caring for
MWD.
In addition to surgery we conducted general examinations, house calls
and parasite control. The two local donkeys who had the run of the
town were spared from the scalpel.
For any veterinary matters contact
MAJ Parry, HQ 1 Div or email
amanda.parry@defence.gov.au.
By: MAJ Amanda Parry
1 0 2 P A U L AT I M – M A GAZINE O F T HE R OYA L A U S T R A L I A N A R M Y M E DICAL C O R P S – 2 0 1 0