Christina Oddo

Colorado-based Sr. Communications Strategist for HUB International, the 5th largest insurance brokerage in the world.


Writer with interests in history, international cuisine, nature, and literature.

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Ask the Experts: What should you do if a staff member gets bitten during treatment?

April 9-15 is National Dog Bite Prevention Week. This year, we’re focusing on bites that happen at the practice. Getting nipped at by anxious canine patients is a potential hazard of the job for veterinary team members, and knowing what to do in the wake of a dog bite is crucial. We created this article to educate the practice team on what to do if a bite happens during handling or treatment—because quick action is important when it comes to bites.

Read This Before You Post: 6 Social Media Rules for Veterinarians

It’s easy to dismiss social media as thoughtless, harmless fun, but when apps overlap with the workplace, employees—particularly those in medical professions—can get themselves into hot water. In 2022 alone, two separate social-media-gone-wrong stories made national headlines, and both occurred at hospitals. Though these incidents occurred in the human medical industry instead of at veterinary practice, veterinarians can still learn a lot from these cautionary tales.

Five Stars: The Art of Encouraging Your Clients to Leave Positive Reviews

Online reviews play a significant role in generating new business. This holds particularly true in the medical field, where a decision to interact with a business (in this case, a veterinary clinic) carries significantly more weight than the average transaction. Unlike walking out of a coffee shop with a watery mocha or a burned croissant, a negative experience at a veterinary office often causes significantly more distress than a ruined breakfast.
AVMA Insurance Services •

Dr. J and the Case of the Routine Orchiectomy Gone Wrong | AVMA Insurance Services

Dr. J was supervising a visiting veterinary student who was completing a clinical rotation within their companion animal general practice. During the rotation, the student participated in surgeries as assistant surgeon and then lead surgeon. A 2-year-old intact male mixed-breed dog presented for routine castration, also known as orchiectomy. Physical exam at presentation (as well as pre-anesthetic bloodwork, including a complete blood count) was within normal limits on the day of surgery.
AVMA Insurance Services •

Dr. P & the Case of the Runaway Rabbit | AVMA Insurance Services

A 5-month-old female rabbit presented to Dr. P for a wellness examination. When Dr. P entered the exam room, the client stated that the rabbit had jumped off the examination table while the technician was present and had since been returned to the carrier. When the client went to take the rabbit out of the carrier for Dr. P and place her back on the exam table, the rabbit jumped again, this time landing awkwardly. Dr. P stated that after the second jump, the rabbit was noticeably lame.
FUNGI Magazine •

"Whose Woods These Are"

The morning of my first ever foray is blessed with a surprise rain. It’s more of a thick mist than a shower, like invisible hands are catching the drops and cupping them in midair for a moment before letting them plummet to the earth. Despite the drizzle, at least fifteen people are standing in the cratered parking lot of Schiller Woods. Baskets in hand and clustered in groups of twos and threes, they chat amongst themselves and nestle in the black-green-brown comfort of their raincoats. They're an eclectic looking bunch, but their separate conversations all swirl in similar directions.
Christina Cooks the World •

Christina Cooks the World: Türkiye

Sifting through Turkish recipe options became overwhelming almost immediately because I have such a soft spot for Middle Eastern food and flavors. That said, the second I stumbled across sogan dolma, the decision essentially made itself. There’s nothing I love more in this world than onions*, but it never occurred to me that you could stuff them with other things that you love (in this case, lamb, rice, parsley, mint, and tomato paste). With the exception of using onions instead of cabbage leaves, sogan dolma was delightfully similar to the sarmale I made for Moldova two years ago. The browned meat, spices, and rice were rolled up in a delicate wrapper of boiled onion, packed closely together in a Dutch oven, and then simmered in a tomato-citrus bath for an hour and a half. Gamze recommended that I serve them with garlic yogurt, and unsurprisingly, that turned out to be an absolutely amazing suggestion**.
Christina Cooks the World •

Christina Cooks the World: Dominican Republic

Corn-worship is an integral part of being a midwestern girl. Shuck it, grill it, butter it, cream it, add it to salsa, sprint around a maze made out of it… Whatever you do with corn, it’s delicious. That said, prior to today, I’d never tried corn-based pudding before, so when I initially came across majarete while researching Dominican recipes, I was immediately intrigued. Majarete is an easy-breezy sweet treat that comes together quickly and is the perfect harvest season snack.
Leisure Group Travel •

Adler Planetarium Puts the Universe at Your Fingertips

No matter how long we spend lying in the grass and gazing up at the dome of the night sky, it’s hard to imagine a world outside of our own. We learn about stars and planets, galaxies and Milky Ways, but from where most of us stand, it’s hard to see anything but pinpricks of light and scattered constellations that glimmer from thousands of light-years away. What do these celestial bodies look like up close? How much of the universe is left to discover?
Christina Cooks the World •

Christina Cooks the World: Mexico

...Competition aside, I think posole was always going to win for me when it came to Mexico. Rich, peppery, doused in cilantro, and perfect for winter, it’s been one of my favorite foods since I tried it back in the mid 20-teens, and I was so excited to try making it myself. On the other hand, I was a little nervous to give tortilla-making a go, but it turns out that I shouldn’t have been. Of all the breads I’ve made for this project- na’an, soda bread, braided bread, semolina bread, pan Cubano, etc.- tortillas are by far the most low-maintenance of the bunch*. No proofing, no rising, no “is the yeast alive?” panic, no adjusting oven temperatures to combat the elevation… just two ingredients, a tortilla press, and a cast iron pan.
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