Animal Welfare Professionals

Many of us work in (or have worked in) some tried-and-true low cost and easy-access vet care settings, like spay-neuter clinics, MASH clinics, or non-profit preventive care clinics.

But what about less common models for delivering care? For-profit settings? Partnerships with traditional vet clinics or corporate clinics? Lots of other things I don't know about at all😉???

And beyond addressing the cost of care, are what other barriers have you seen addressed effectively  -- like transportation to vet services, distance to a vet, or vet clinic hours?

Tell us about what you've seen, heard of, or done. We want to learn more about what works where in hopes of spreading great ideas farther and wider.

Thanks!

You're not going to like my answer and will probably delete it, but I'm going to say something anyway.

I run a cage free sanctuary for cats and kittens. On average, we have between 100 and 150 cats/Kittens of all ages. Discouraged and dissatisfied by the cost and results of traditional allopathic vet care, we  have started using homeopathy and are very happy with the results. 

Remedies are extremely affordable ( a tube of 80 doses costs $8) and can be kept on site which minimizes issues with distance, transportation, and availability of a vet. Homeopathy is based on observation of symptoms rather than a clinical diagnosis, so treatment can be started at the first sign of illness rather than waiting until an animal can get to the vet.  Most of the time, a remedy only needs to be given 2 or 3 times for the animal to return to health.

Most importantly, we have been getting great results with homeopathy. Now we able to treat Minor ailments quickly, easily, effectively and affordably. I've also seen homeopathy facilitate some amazing cures in cases where the vets were having no success in treatment.

A lot of people automatically dismiss homeopathy as fake medicine because our current science cannot explain how or why it works. I think that is due to the limitations of our current science rather than a failing of homeopathy and someday in the future we will understand it. Personally, I don't care about theory - I care about results and that is what we get using cell salts and homeopathy.

Hi there! I try to keep up my shelter surgeries amongst the volunteer (and one PT vet) each week. We also partner with a mobile low cost spay clinic that comes to the shelter each month. We also use our local vet clinics to help us with spay/neuter as well. Obviously during the peak season, it feels like I'm barely keeping up :)

What I've found to be most effective is:

1. Have a contact person at each clinic so the information is stream lined. By talking to one person, they can coordinate with the surgical schedule and let me know what they have time for. Each doctor seems to have a preference of what they will do (size of dog, age of animal, preference kittens vs cats, etc.)

2. Having volunteers transport to clinics. It saves a lot of staff time if we can have volunteers or fosters drop off and pick up.  I send all the relevant paperwork ahead of time

3. Scheduling animals that will do the best in a clinic setting (i.e NOT super shy, dog aggressive, feral) It makes for a smoother experience all the way around

4. Bribe! I stress bake like a boss and the local clinics can often be "bribed" with home made baked goods at tweaking schedules.  I usually use this for when I need an x-ray or a drop off day admit appointment.

5. Understand that most clinics absolutely want to help where they can but cannot fill their entire surgery schedule with discounted spays/neuters. Sometimes I've been able to ask if they could do a "cat neuter-a-thon" or could they fix a litter of kittens plus mom. That seems to be something they can work with and look at the schedule if that is my need.