U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. Alayna Tolentino, a veterinarian technician with the 7359th Veterinary Detachment, stands in Browning High School’s agricultural classroom, the room currently serving as her unit’s makeshift veterinary clinic in support of the Blackfeet Tribal Health – Operation Walking Shield Innovative Readiness Training (IRT). The room is filled with the cats and dogs of Blackfeet Nation, Montana, waiting to be seen for their wellness exams, spays, neuters and any other needs that may arise.
For many in the room, this is just another mission but for Tolentino, a member of the Red Cliff reservation, this was her opportunity to not only experience a new tribe different from her own, but to also help the reservation’s furry friends with their health and wellbeing by providing veterinarian services.
“My family was very excited I was able to come,” said Tolentino as she started tearing up. “They know that I have only seen my tribe. I can tell that this nation is really sacred and something that they love. It’s really nice to see how much they really honor and love their culture.”
Tolentino grew up on the Red Cliff reservation in Wisconsin and the place that her family still calls home, even though she has moved away to pursue her dreams.
“It means a lot to me to provide these services for the Blackfeet Nation, solely because I understand what’s going on with their community as far as their stray cat and dog population goes,” said Tolentino gesturing behind her to the dogs lining the wall of the veterinary clinic.
The IRT mission, which ran from July 18 through July 27, aimed to deliver real-world training to military medical professionals while offering vital services to communities that need it most and this mission provided critical veterinary care, but also medical, dental, vision, and behavioral health services.
Tolentino’s specific job in the IRT mission is focused on assisting with the spay and neuter surgeries as well as wellness exams to help with the overwhelming demand for care. Most dogs on the Blackfeet reservation are free roaming and many are susceptible to being hit by cars or being hurt by local wildlife.
The Blackfeet Tribe has only one local Veterinarian for the entire reservation’s dogs to receive care. This makes it difficult for the people of Browning to have access to spay and neuter procedures, vaccinations, vet checkups and emergency services, and for the town’s veterinarian to keep up with the high demand.
In addition to Tolentino, eighteen other veterinarian professionals deployed with the 7359th Veterinary Detachment in South Carolina to Browning, Montana, to support the IRT mission.
“Even with the domestication of dogs and cats, there is still a high risk of diseases and unwanted pregnancies which is something we are currently dealing with during this mission,” said Tolentino.
By the end of the mission, the veterinarian clinic had seen more than 500 cats and dogs, performing one emergency splenectomy, multiple leg amputations, toe amputations, porcupine quill extractions and many more unique procedures other than just spays and neuters.
“I brought my dog in to get checked,” said CEO of Blackfeet Tribal Health Garland Stiffarm, who was born and raised in Browning. “He did have porcupine quills and you can see that there are still some in there so they are going to try to take them out.”
Tolentino as well as the veterinarian and vet techs on staff were successfully able to help Stiffarm’s dog with draining the infected puncture wounds from the porcupine quills. Although, some quills were too deeply rooted for the vet to get since the wounds had already healed over.
“I didn’t realize they did other surgeries besides spay and neuter,” said Stiffarm. “I think this is a great service for families but also the community.”
Innovative Readiness Training missions bring military training and service together to provide basic healthcare needs that benefits the surrounding communities. While the training service members are receiving is critical, nothing can beat working with real patients in a real community with real needs.
“This environment is very different from what I am used to,” said Tolentino. “We are used to having a ready-to-go sanitized clinic and this is something we had to build into a clinic. So we had to do the cleaning. We had to do the sanitizing. We had to set everything up. We had to turn this into a field environment instead of a clinical environment.”
Other than finding herself in a unique environment, this was also her first Innovative Readiness Training.
“Some new things I have learned that I can take back to my unit is handling aggressive animals,” said Tolentino. “I also learned the essential task of giving vaccinations. The only kind of missions I have done have been small little missions in South Carolina so this has been very rewarding for me.”
Tolentino was one of more than 200 U.S. service members who traveled to Browning in order to serve the people and animals of Blackfeet Nation, but she was also one of more than two dozen who also has Native American heritage, making this IRT extra special and one that many will not soon forget.