Chronicles of the Traveling Vet: Community Emergency Response

Colleen Lambo, DVM, PhD, MS
January 24, 2025

In light of the recent fires in Los Angeles, we want to share this story from one of our Roo Veterinarian Ambassadors, Dr. Colleen Lambo, who was part of the veterinary emergency response during the Texas Panhandle Fires last year. 

A few ways you can offer support:

Deployments for Animal Rescue

The air is thick with smoke as I lay in my upper-bunk cubby in a sleep-pod trailer. We arrived early and witnessed base camp transform into a city of sleeping trailers, shower trailers, a mess tent, and dozens of working vehicles. The Texas Panhandle Fire became the largest wildfire in the state, and the second largest in US history. We all knew what we would see and brought counselors to combine with our otherwise macabre coping skills. But we’re here. We are here because no matter what we see, we are the fortunate ones, and we want to help. Many of the locals have lost everything, and a million acres of pasture on fire means the livestock inhabitants vary from singed to cinder. We’ll help where we can.

Being able to give is a gift

My ability to be here is a gift. Self-employed and with the right connections, I found my way back to the service world. I had deployed for the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf, after my LSU rotating internship, just before my post-doc, and haven’t had the freedom to give back to the community since. It is an honor to be here, and I’ll be sad to leave. Some of what I see here may haunt me, but there is nowhere else I would rather be. 

I didn’t have to hesitate when I got the deployment text. My schedule was awaiting last minute shifts as I like to leave space for, and my tickets to ‘Dune 2’ and the Houston Rodeo instantly lost importance. If I had work shifts scheduled, I could have canceled them, thanks to the recently unveiled feature in Roo. The flexibility to be where I want to be is why I work relief, and few things demonstrate what that freedom means more than being able to roll into a deployment with less than 10 hours notice. Flexibility for work like this is why I continue to work exclusively relief and travel around the world.

The help we are here to provide

It is essential to participate with an organization in large disasters. Communication is respectful to the dozens of agencies on site, local veterinarians, and the community — showing up without integrating can make you a larger liability than an asset. 

By choice, it has been a decade or more since I’ve been near a horse. Today, I held their halters, stroked their necks, and tried to tell horse after horse it would be okay with a poignant look and soothing voice. I gazed into their dark eyes with wisps of eyelash remnants curling haphazardly along their lids and oozing pink skin at the corners. How scared they must have been. And these were the lucky ones. The owner found her four large horses protectively circled around the yearling in a distant pasture. The evacuation call had come too quick, and the owner couldn’t load them all, but these horses would thankfully be okay.  

Two pups visited our mobile hospital trailer. They evacuated successfully with their owner 30 minutes before the roads closed. Their house was now ash, and they were fortunate to be offered a place to stay by friends. They were alive but showing clear signs of stress as anyone would in their paw pads. We gave them plenty of love and pets and sent them home with medications and instructions for follow-up with their vets.

A litter of kittens with singed mittens were found beside a house. The homeowners welcomed these adorable blessings of the cat distribution system, and we sedated them in our medical trailers to clean and bandage their tiny paws. They stayed with us in our kennel trailer for daily bandage changes and medication while they healed.

We are intimately coordinated with local veterinarians. Day one on-site was spent reaching out to let them know we are here to help. We now exchange daily calls to swap drugs, bring extra helping hands, or travel the distances they can’t cover. Vets are not immune in these situations and some of them are dealing with total loss of their own while others have been up until 3 in the morning every night trying to connect with all the clients who need them. As is customary in the panhandle, many farmers became their own vets and are only asking for salves and drugs for the survivors after euthanizing the less fortunate ones themselves.

Who else deploys?

Our team has fluctuated as schedules allow. The Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team has had 8 - 10 Veterinarians and at least as many support staff deployed here. 

We are stationed with Texas Task Force 1, the largest Texas response force including search canines and their handlers, search and rescue, logistics, comms, medics, and Environmental Health & Safety. 

Additionally, a swarm of firefighters descended on camp in the middle of the night, and we are now at nearly 250 souls. The groups swap deployment stories about Katrina, Hawaii, Harvey, and worse. One of the HR dogs is a descendant of the oldest living golden retriever that deployed to the twin towers with her handler and others here. Our camp is brimming with legacy.

Appreciation from the community

In town, there are pop-up tents serving lunches and a drive-through donation center with an impressive stash of necessities to help the community rebuild. On one lunch trip, waiting families tried to usher us in front of them in line and felt that we were the priority, while a couple shoved a donation in our hands at the grocery store and refused to take it back. In our minds, we are here to serve and give, but their appreciation for our presence is boundless, and the community that has nothing is eager to give back to us.  

Ways to support your community

If this type of work is appealing to you, there are opportunities to get involved with disaster response in most states. I have worked with the Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team (TAMU VET), and Louisiana State Animal Response Team (LSART)

There’s also: 

Your local team can be identified with a quick google search for state or county animal response or veterinary response. Many local and international groups get involved in larger disasters, such as Worldwide Vets, raising money for animals surviving the LA fires and the Ukrainian war

Most importantly, find a career with the flexibility that allows time for the things that matter to you. Who else do you know that can be where they want to be at the drop of a hat and not face consequences at work?  Should that be you?

Partial list of organizations: 

Below are examples to show how many opportunities are available to get involved with or donate to. I strongly recommend participating in legitimate organizations who have or create the necessary contacts before entering a disaster zone. This helps ensure you are as effective as possible and an asset rather than a hindrance to the community, local vets, and the existing response teams. 

State:

National: 

Private: 

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