Disaster Preparedness and Response for Veterinarians
August 23, 2025
In person only
Thank you to our partner
This course is an overview of the veterinarians role in disaster response, starting with your own preparedness to be a responder, understanding the importance of working within the system in your county, and then going through the multiple aspects of deployments, including field medicine and euthanasia decisions, medical records, and self care.
Speaker
Debra L. (Deb) Zoran, DVM, PhD, DACVIM-SAIM
Professor and Director, Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team (VET)
FEMA IST Veterinarian
Texas A&M Task Force 1 Urban Search & Rescue
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences
Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Debra Zoran specializes in emergency preparedness and response, and the use of simulations in the teaching of disaster. She also studies nutrition, especially related to feline health, obesity, GI diseases and exercise physiology of working canines. Zoran is actively involved with clinical, teaching, and research activities in small animal gastroenterology, nutrition and feline medicine. She is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Specialty of Small Animal Internal Medicine). She works with both the Canine Internal Medicine Service and the Feline Internal Medicine Service. She is a professor in Small Animal Clinical Sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She earned a BS in animal science from Kansas State University, an MS in clinical sciences from Iowa State University, and a DVM and a Ph.D. in nutrition, both from Texas A&M.
Schedule
7:00 – 8:00 am Check-in and breakfast 8:00 – 8:50 am Introduction to ICS, why you need to understand it, and organized veterinary response options 9:00 – 9:50 am Preparing to be a veterinary first responder – personal, family and business preparedness 10:00 – 10:50 am Deployment 101 – understanding how deployments are different and how to prepare yourself/your team 11:00 – 11:50 am Medical operations in disaster – triage, medical care(SA/LA) in austere conditions, field euthanasia, medical records, and accountability 11:50 am – 12:30 pm Lunch 12:30 – 1:20 pm Decontamination – the forgotten step in disaster response 1:30 – 2:20 pm Emergency animal shelters – co-located, stand-alone and biosecurity keys for vets 2:30 – 3:20 pm Disaster responder self-care and understanding stress management in disaster response 3:30 – 4:20 pm Introduction to the veterinarians role on LA technical rescue
Registration
There is no charge to attend
This program offers 8 hours of Continuing Veterinary Education Credit approved by the NCVMB
Registration includes continental breakfast, lunch and electronic proceedings