Honors College Senior Thesis Presentations
“Barrier between Client Education/Communication and Exotic Animal Husbandry”
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Senior
Major
Pre-Veterinary Medicine
Minor
Chemistry
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Laura Ken Hoffman, Dr. Jeffry Osborne
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
A topic of increasing importance in the veterinary world revolves around the discussion and education of clientele knowledge. Client communication and education is something that is currently being recognized as lacking, a barrier between what our clients know and what we know as veterinary professionals is vastly different. Part of our job as veterinary staff is to be client educators about things such as proper diets, environments, enrichment activities, parasite prevention, etc. all of this revolves around an animal’s husbandry needs. As the prevalence of interest and ownership of exotic pets increases due to social media influence, we, as veterinary staff, see a lot of people getting these pets with no idea how to properly care for them. Social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and more have the capability to reach a much larger audience than those that a single veterinary practice can reach. Much like other issues these platforms allow for the spread of misinformation by untrained professionals such as influencers, in turn this creates distrust of veterinary staff and makes our job of educating clients that much more difficult.
Exotic pets such as reptiles, gerbils, rodents, birds, and more have very particular dietary and environmental needs that differ from a dog and cats. In my personal experience, I see a lot of clients come in with sick pets due to a lack of appropriate housing or diet. Therefore, I am conducting research to establish how and why there is a barrier between veterinary staff and clients when it comes to educating them. With this research I also aim to gauge the knowledge of those who are currently in the veterinary world. This specific pool will contain students, technicians, technologists, assistants, doctors, etc and help me to put into perspective how large the gap of knowledge is and to prevent skewed results of the survey.
Overall, the goal of this research is to establish how large the knowledge gap is, why it is so large, and discuss ways that we, as a whole field, can help lessen the gap and better educate our clientele on the husbandry needs of their exotic pets. This will allow for healthier pets, satisfied clients, and happier veterinary staff as we begin our outreach and reestablish some trust that has been lost due to misinformation spread through popular social media platforms.
Spring Scholars Week 2023 Event
Honors College Senior Thesis Presentations
“Barrier between Client Education/Communication and Exotic Animal Husbandry”
A topic of increasing importance in the veterinary world revolves around the discussion and education of clientele knowledge. Client communication and education is something that is currently being recognized as lacking, a barrier between what our clients know and what we know as veterinary professionals is vastly different. Part of our job as veterinary staff is to be client educators about things such as proper diets, environments, enrichment activities, parasite prevention, etc. all of this revolves around an animal’s husbandry needs. As the prevalence of interest and ownership of exotic pets increases due to social media influence, we, as veterinary staff, see a lot of people getting these pets with no idea how to properly care for them. Social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and more have the capability to reach a much larger audience than those that a single veterinary practice can reach. Much like other issues these platforms allow for the spread of misinformation by untrained professionals such as influencers, in turn this creates distrust of veterinary staff and makes our job of educating clients that much more difficult.
Exotic pets such as reptiles, gerbils, rodents, birds, and more have very particular dietary and environmental needs that differ from a dog and cats. In my personal experience, I see a lot of clients come in with sick pets due to a lack of appropriate housing or diet. Therefore, I am conducting research to establish how and why there is a barrier between veterinary staff and clients when it comes to educating them. With this research I also aim to gauge the knowledge of those who are currently in the veterinary world. This specific pool will contain students, technicians, technologists, assistants, doctors, etc and help me to put into perspective how large the gap of knowledge is and to prevent skewed results of the survey.
Overall, the goal of this research is to establish how large the knowledge gap is, why it is so large, and discuss ways that we, as a whole field, can help lessen the gap and better educate our clientele on the husbandry needs of their exotic pets. This will allow for healthier pets, satisfied clients, and happier veterinary staff as we begin our outreach and reestablish some trust that has been lost due to misinformation spread through popular social media platforms.