After a two-year break due to the COVID pandemic, the ACVO/Epicur National Service Animal Eye Exam Event is back this May! As the namesake sponsor of the event, this is one of the Epicur team’s favorite events. It truly shows the compassion and heart of the veterinary community with veterinary ophthalmologists and their staff volunteering their time the entire month to give free eye exams to service animals. We’ve had the privilege of being at some of the clinics during these exams to see firsthand how much this event means to the pet, the owner, and the veterinary clinics.
Dr. Christine Lim, DVM, DACVO is an ophthalmologist at Eye Care for Animals and has volunteered for the ACVO/Epicur event for years. We recently sat down with her to learn more about why she chose veterinary ophthalmology and what this philanthropic event means to her.
Thanks for sharing your perspective on the event with us, Dr. Lim! Can you tell us more about your background and how you ended up in the veterinary field?
Like most kids, I loved animals. I did pet sitting and worked at various clinics and the Humane Society when I was younger. That led me to veterinary medicine. During school I developed an interest in ophthalmology, probably because it was both surgery and medicine rather than just one or the other, I got to do both.
After vet school in Ontario, I did a one-year internship in small animal medicine and surgery. Then I did one year in small animal general practice where I also spent time with an ophthalmologist on my days off to see how an ophthalmology practice worked. Following that, I went to UC Davis for a three-year residency in ophthalmology.
My first job as an ophthalmologist was in Saskatchewan at the university for a couple of years before joining the faculty in Minnesota for about seven years. Then we moved to Chicago, which is when I joined Eye Care for Animals.
What is it that’s so special about the ophthalmology specialty to you?
I think Ophthalmology is very cool because you can take someone who is blind and scared and give them their vision back; you’re helping them enjoy life again. Even in the sad cases where they’re permanently blind and they’re in pain, you can at least take away the pain and make them feel better.
I think the surgeries are very cool and a nice challenge. A lot of them are quite intricate and artistic, which makes them interesting. But it’s also a mix of surgery and medicine. So, I think it’s just a nice specialty because you get to do a lot of different things with different species. We do eyes so it doesn’t matter what animal you’re working with; you get a lot of variety.
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Do you specialize in a particular surgery or area of ophthalmology?
Veterinary ophthalmology specialties are less developed than they are in human physician medicine where you have retinal specialists, corneal specialists, etc. There are several veterinary retinal specialists in North America.
Personally, I like all ophthalmology surgeries because I like the mix, but I do enjoy intraocular surgery a little more than the others. It’s very intricate and more of a challenge. The area you’re working on is very small and all right in front of you. It was very hard for me as a general practitioner to enjoy things like abdominal surgery because it was less intricate and clean.
Ophthalmology definitely sounds like an interesting area of veterinary medicine! Let’s talk about the ACVO/Epicur National Service Animal Eye Exam Event – how long have you been participating?
For more than a decade – I’ve been volunteering since I started as an ophthalmologist in 2008. The clinic I was practicing in at the time would sign up, so that’s how I got into it.
There was a lot of promotion around it and it’s a fun event to do. I think everyone in ophthalmology is interested and willing to do it.
And your clinic does the exams for the police dogs, correct? How did you get connected with such an important group of service dogs?
Most practices I’ve worked at have police dogs as patients. For Chicago that was the case before I joined the practice. Working with them for the service animal event grew out of those connections.
For the event this year, one of my vet techs and I are going to drive down to the department’s canine training facility to do a bunch of exams back-to-back to make things easier for them this year.
Roy, a Chicago Police K-9, with Dr. Lim after completing his exam this year!
Are there any unique stories that you have from the event? Or a favorite animal that you’ve examined?
I think a lot of times it’s not just about the pet or the animal that you’re seeing. It’s just the whole relationship with the owner and how special their service animal is to them. It’s really nice to see the bond between the person and the service animal, a dog in most of these cases, and how much these dogs help these people in life.
Have any of the exams ever resulted in a big medical catch or impact on the service animal?
We did have one police dog, not in Chicago but somewhere else, and it turned out he was nearly blind from hereditary retinal degeneration. The police department and handler didn’t know that. Unfortunately, there was no way to save his sight or change the outcome but knowing that information is important because it impacts the dog’s ability to do its job.
Besides dogs, what other types of animals have you seen?
For the event, it’s mostly dogs. There are many service animals that aren’t dogs, but that’s the most common one I see during May exams.
Outside of the event, I think any of the zoo animals must be the most interesting. There was a Galapagos tortoise that was really happy to see me the first time but on the second visit she remembered why I was there, so she pulled her head in as soon as I walked into her area.
It’s been years, but I did cataract surgery on a bald eagle once. I used to see a lot of raptors when I was on faculty in Minnesota. Weekly we did eye exams at their raptor center where they treated injured raptors. That was a lot of fun. During zoo visits, I’ve had the opportunity to examine a whole bunch of different species.
That sounds like it makes for interesting workdays! Before we wrap up, what would you say the ACVO/Epicur Service Animal Eye Exam Event means to you and the impact that it has?
I think it’s just nice to be reminded that there is something special and good in what you do, that you can help people. It’s special in your job to be able to do things that you can see are making people happy. But not just that, you get to see how it can make a difference.
It really is a fun event and most of us like participating in it because we get something out of it. We get to see the impact. And after two years of not having it, I’m really looking forward to it!
Thanks, Dr. Lim! Check back in for more highlights from the ACVO/Epicur National Service Animal Eye Exam Event!
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Mickey O’Connor has been part of the Stokes and Epicur story from the beginning. With his background as a pharmacist, Mickey brings a unique perspective and advantage to his role as Director of Business Development—both to customers and the company. Read our interview with Mickey to learn more about his role and his insights into all that’s happening at Epicur and in the veterinary field! Mickey, thanks for sharing more about your role on the team. Can you start by telling readers about how you got started with Stokes Healthcare and your current role? I’ve been with the company since the early 2000s. I worked with Emmett and Michael in retail pharmacy in the 90s before they purchased Stokes Pharmacy. My first job here with Stokes was as a sales rep selling human compounded medication. I worked as a pharmacist and as a sales rep for several years, and then, as we grew, I took on several different roles and grew into the role of business development. 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The purchasing groups started to realize that they needed to look at how their individual locations were getting medication for their hospitals, and how to coordinate it so that there’s consistency throughout each hospital to ensure better medication management and purchasing. So, that’s a lot of the conversations I have with them. There’s still a lack of understanding of the difference between a 503A traditional compounding pharmacy versus a 503B outsourcing facility. When I bring up that topic, most of the time they either know very little about those two or nothing at all about 503B. When I explain it, they start to get a better understanding of the differences and can see how Epicur products can help their overall process of managing medication for the hospitals. A Partner for Better Quality At Stokes Healthcare, our mission is to advance the quality of care in veterinary medicine. We support all clinics, whether independent or part of a corporation, with the highest quality medications that your patients deserve. No matter your practice type, we will make sure your practice needs are our priority! The differences in 503A and 503B can be confusing and there’s still a learning curve to it. Why do you think that is? I think it’s because there’s been a lot of change in the veterinary space over the last 20 years, but more recently, over the last five years. Some veterinarians still want to do things the old way, it’s comfortable and what they are used to. Previously we heard vets and their staff say they used to be able to get whatever they wanted when they wanted it, and there was no problem. There was longer dating on compounded products, and individual pharmacists could kind of do things without certain checks and balances, meaning they were able to put a beyond-use date of six months when the product really wasn’t good for six months. So, really, the industry needed some more regulation. Even though that’s frustrating, we did need that and it’s taking time to educate everyone in the field. Jumping back to your previous experience, it is interesting that you started as a pharmacist. What kind of advantage does your background as a pharmacist give you in Business Development? When we talk about medication, it does give me some more credibility as a pharmacist when I explain why our products are more advantageous. For example, the buprenorphine 0.5 mg/ml injection specifically. I talk about the concentration being different, but it’s an easy calculation for a veterinarian or vet tech to make. And if you’re able to get everyone on board using the buprenorphine injection that Epicur makes, then you have more consistency across all of your facilities. You can put out memos on how to use it, train, and teach. Using that medication is going to help your clinic or corporation as a whole. Plus, there’s the fact that the buprenorphine that Epicur makes has never been out of stock. So, when I share this message, coming from a pharmacist, it does carry more weight. They know I understand the medication, how it works, different concentrations, and they feel like, ‘okay, this is a professional who knows both the business side and the medicine side.’ What was it like switching from human to veterinary medications? It was challenging. Going into compounding was challenging because compounding is different than traditional retail. But the veterinary side was even more challenging because you’re dealing with different strengths and concentrations. A medication that may be good for a human may not be good for a cat or a dog. The hardest part about the compounding side was working as a sales rep. Back when I started with Stokes, around 2002, when you talked to a human medicine doctor about compounding, they didn’t really know what compounding was. So, before I could sell them on who we were and why they should use us, I had to explain to them what compounding was and why compounding, in general, could benefit them and their practice. Mickey and his dog, Cooper! Keep reading to learn more about Cooper. Sounds like the educational curve you mentioned for
