A class earlier in her veterinary medicine studies spurred Kelci Vashaw to take a special preceptorship.
“I became aware of the preceptorship because Dr. (Scott) Radke had someone from the Pet Poison Helpline (PPH) give our class a virtual lecture in our toxicology course,” the fourth-year Iowa State veterinary student said. “I recognized that toxins are very much a weakness of mine and I knew that was something I wanted to get more familiar with.”
The decision to take this preceptorship was magnified when she didn’t see many toxin cases during her ICU clinical rotation in the Hixson-Lied Small Animal Hospital.
“I think that it is important to be familiar with the most common toxins and treatment strategies,” Vashaw said. “Revisiting a lot of the most common toxins in small animals has really helped me feel more comfortable and confident with toxicities.”
The preceptorship is with PPH, the same organization that offered the guest lecture. PPH is based out of Minnesota, so the interactions with PPH veterinarians during this preceptorship are remote. Dr. Scott Radke, clinical associate professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine and a toxicologist, facilities the preceptorship and provides on-site mentorship for students using an independent-study format.
Dr. Jim Noxon, Morrill Professor of veterinary clinical sciences, joins Radke in meeting with students before, during and after the preceptorship to check-in, offer further guidance, answer questions and to both review and evaluate the work done by the student and their understanding.
“Toxicology is an important part of veterinary medicine that all practitioners have the potential to encounter,” Radke said. “For students to have the opportunity to be exposed to real-life situations such as these, hear the different scenarios and toxins, and how to effectively treat intoxicated animals is incredible.”
Vashaw spent about half of her time during the preceptorship listening to calls with a PPH toxicologists or veterinarians. Most of the calls were from veterinarians or technicians treating an animal with a potential toxic exposure. The PPH representative helped develop an initial treatment plan.
The schedule allowed Vashaw the opportunity to ask her own questions of the toxicologists.
“I wanted to learn more about alternative treatments or hypothetical next steps based on patient progression, the mechanism of action of drugs or toxins, and interesting cases they had recently,” she said.
When she wasn’t listening in on live calls, Vashaw worked on various projects related to the preceptorship including a log of cases she experienced with PPH veterinarians. She also wrote a pair of blog posts on rodenticide toxicity, one each for owners and veterinarians. In addition, she was assigned two case studies where she followed a previous PPH case.
These assignments are reviewed by Radke and Noxon, who provides feedback and guidance to students throughout the preceptorship.
“When reviewing their case logs, I drive into the cases and toxins themselves asking questions to ensure the student understand the situation and material,” Radke said. “I also review their chosen case report with them and go over those same aspects as well as what else could be considered and done or not done.”
The preceptorship exceeded Vashaw’s expectations.
“The volume of information that PPH has is incredible and way more than I expected,” she said. “It’s been super helpful to reference as we talked through the cases.
“While I don’t think I’ll see a ton of toxicity cases as a general practitioner, I think it’s really important to be able to talk to pet owners about what substances may be toxic to their animals and relative risk and urgency of various exposures.”
January 2026