How Texas A&M vets helped save 100 animals after Tropical Storm Imelda

Like many residents of southeast Texas, Dr. Wes Bissett and the Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team (VET) have just been through a chaotic two weeks.

As VET’s lead director, Bissett and his team are on call 24/7  to help aid animal victims of natural disasters through the the Texas Department of Emergency Management. His team has helped save animals during countless crises, including the California wildfires, hurricanes Katrina and Harvey and most recently, Tropical Storm Imelda.

Imelda’s fury inundated parts of Houston and southeast Texas with upwards of 40 inches of rain that flooded neighborhoods, inundated roads and led to five confirmed deaths so far. While Texas is slowly starting to recover, some roads in Chambers and Jefferson counties are still flooded. Many of the affected areas are largely rural and as a result, cattle and other animals are still being rescued after being stuck in floodwaters for days, Bissett said.

Bissett’s team had just spent nearly a week helping treat more than 200 animals found in horrific conditions a Texas warehouse when he got the call about Imelda. Just a day after the Texas warehouse seizure, the team headed down to southeast Texas and has spent the last several days in Chambers and Jefferson counties where they have rescued close to 100 animals, Bissett said.

IMELDA BY THE NUMBERS: The highest rainfall totals from Tropical Storm Imelda across southeast Texas

Imelda’s devastation was all too familiar for residents in those counties after Hurricane Harvey inundated the area in 2017. Bissett said because of this, many of the animals the team treated had already been evacuated and just needed check ups. Bissett said one of the main illnesses the team treated animals was for submersion injuries, also known as “river rot.”

“We just had some animals that came out of the water today that were rescued,” Bissett said. “Water is just now going down where people can get to animals.”

Bissett said submersion injuries tend to adversely effect the skin, leading to swelling and other infections.

“As long as the skin stays vital, you can turn those cases around very easily,” Bissett said. “We’ve been very fortunate in that most of the submersion injuries that we have seen have been what I consider moderate.”

Bissett said the animals mostly consist of cattle and horses, as well as some dogs and cats. He said while the team is still looking for and rescuing animals from floodwaters, he estimates his team’s operations will wind down soon.

RELATED: Aftermath of Imelda still has people and livestock in southeast Texas seeking higher ground

“We don’t have a confirmed demobilization date but it’s headed that way,” he said. “The water is finally going down a bit more quickly. Ranchers are getting access and are able to move cattle into dry areas now…things are getting better.”

After helping save hundreds of animals from two back-to-back heartbreaking disasters, Bissett said his team’s dedication has humbled and inspired him.

“It is just incredible to watch these people work and watch them use their veterinary medical expertise, agricultural expertise to make an animal’s life better,” Bissett said. “It’s sad to see what people and animals go through either when Mother Nature is angry or when a human does it, that’s sad. But then you see the turnaround; you see the animals’ condition start to improve and that’s just an incredible thing to witness.”

Rebecca Hennes covers community news. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | rebecca.hennes@chron.com