Animal Care Clinic Ventures to Mexicali!

Small Animal Veterinary Hospital in Mexicali.

Written by Gustavo Rayas, RVT

Ever since I graduated veterinary school in Mexico, I have had the dream to come back and help my school to improve and develop. Then six years ago Dr. Markoff and I were talking about an idea to visit my vet school in Mexicali. We started brainstorming about what we could do to help them. My biggest goal was to train them in leadership skills, management, and confidently developing working protocols. These are areas we work on to achieve at Animal Care Clinic to a high level and not previously focused in Mexico. When my good friend and classmate, Tomas Renteria was promoted to dean of the veterinary school, a great opportunity presented itself. Tomas shares with me a vision to work with and improve the vet school in Mexicali.  I went back to Bonnie and presented my idea again, and this time, we ran with it. 

In July of 2010, a group of school officials came to visit Animal Care Clinic during our annual Wine Gala/Open House and also to see Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo. This opened up personal relations between Animal Care Clinic and the Mexicali vet school.  After further discussion, we agreed to focus my goal by working on bringing the school up to American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) standards. These standards encourage the best management practices, medical procedures, and customer service in animal hospitals in North America. 

Team Animal Care Clinic/Mexicali during our first visit to the Mexicali vet school.

Dr. Markoff discussing our future involvement with Tomas Renteria,
vet school staff and students.

This November, Dr. Markoff led a small team of Animal Care Clinic employees to scout out the vet school and their small animal veterinary hospital. The trip was very successful and our team members were excited by our idea after seeing the current facilities and meeting students and staff members.  The future plan is for Animal Care Clinic to act as their formal mentor.  We will follow the AAHA Mentoring Program step-by-step in order to establish a good relationship and learning environment.  We hope that our working relationship with our new friends in Mexicali will lead to not only us helping them, but new experiences and personal growth for our own team.  We will keep you posted with future updates and look forward to what the future brings!