Animal Welfare Professionals

How can we improve emergency services, neutering and spaying availability in rural communities?

Currently rural communities have a huge deficit in availability to low cost spay and neuter and emergency services.

How can we improve emergency services, neutering and spaying availability in rural communities?

Currently rural communities have a huge deficit in availability to low cost spay and neuter and emergency services.

Rural vet care is a huge problem.  It is difficult to get new vet graduates to come to rural areas because they can make much more money treating small animals in large cities.  Rural vets often have to travel long distances to farms; that takes both time and money.  And to compound the problems, vets in rural, low-income areas often get stiffed by their clients.  So country vets don't get rich.  And there are never enough of them to go around. My county has three vet clinics. But of our neighboring three counties, one has a single practitioner and two of them have no vet at all.  I don't see any solution to the problem except money.  It would be great if there could be grants available for rural vets to do some low-cost spay/neuter work or to hire an extra hand to provide weekend vet care.  Just those two things would help tremendously.  

How can we improve emergency services, neutering and spaying availability in rural communities?

Currently rural communities have a huge deficit in availability to low cost spay and neuter and emergency services.

Agree if there could be grants available.  That could help tremendously.   I do believe also money unfortunately is the issue now.  In our state they recently passed a law that if veterinarians who graduate from instate vet college accept jobs in their first 4 years with a non-profit their tuition gets forgiven.  We're currently investigating this program with the hopes our non-profit could build an emergency clinic in the new future and to offer low cost spay and neuter.   We're hoping we can find grants that can help with the cost of building a small emergency clinic too.  

Rural vet care is a huge problem.  It is difficult to get new vet graduates to come to rural areas because they can make much more money treating small animals in large cities.  Rural vets often have to travel long distances to farms; that takes both time and money.  And to compound the problems, vets in rural, low-income areas often get stiffed by their clients.  So country vets don't get rich.  And there are never enough of them to go around. My county has three vet clinics. But of our neighboring three counties, one has a single practitioner and two of them have no vet at all.  I don't see any solution to the problem except money.  It would be great if there could be grants available for rural vets to do some low-cost spay/neuter work or to hire an extra hand to provide weekend vet care.  Just those two things would help tremendously.  

How can we improve emergency services, neutering and spaying availability in rural communities?

Currently rural communities have a huge deficit in availability to low cost spay and neuter and emergency services.

Tom, do you have the AZ law number that supports new vets working for non profits? Thanks!

Agree if there could be grants available.  That could help tremendously.   I do believe also money unfortunately is the issue now.  In our state they recently passed a law that if veterinarians who graduate from instate vet college accept jobs in their first 4 years with a non-profit their tuition gets forgiven.  We're currently investigating this program with the hopes our non-profit could build an emergency clinic in the new future and to offer low cost spay and neuter.   We're hoping we can find grants that can help with the cost of building a small emergency clinic too.  

Rural vet care is a huge problem.  It is difficult to get new vet graduates to come to rural areas because they can make much more money treating small animals in large cities.  Rural vets often have to travel long distances to farms; that takes both time and money.  And to compound the problems, vets in rural, low-income areas often get stiffed by their clients.  So country vets don't get rich.  And there are never enough of them to go around. My county has three vet clinics. But of our neighboring three counties, one has a single practitioner and two of them have no vet at all.  I don't see any solution to the problem except money.  It would be great if there could be grants available for rural vets to do some low-cost spay/neuter work or to hire an extra hand to provide weekend vet care.  Just those two things would help tremendously.  

How can we improve emergency services, neutering and spaying availability in rural communities?

Currently rural communities have a huge deficit in availability to low cost spay and neuter and emergency services.

Rural vet care is a huge problem.  It is difficult to get new vet graduates to come to rural areas because they can make much more money treating small animals in large cities.  Rural vets often have to travel long distances to farms; that takes both time and money.  And to compound the problems, vets in rural, low-income areas often get stiffed by their clients.  So country vets don't get rich.  And there are never enough of them to go around. My county has three vet clinics. But of our neighboring three counties, one has a single practitioner and two of them have no vet at all.  I don't see any solution to the problem except money.  It would be great if there could be grants available for rural vets to do some low-cost spay/neuter work or to hire an extra hand to provide weekend vet care.  Just those two things would help tremendously.  

How can we improve emergency services, neutering and spaying availability in rural communities?

Currently rural communities have a huge deficit in availability to low cost spay and neuter and emergency services.

How can we improve emergency services, neutering and spaying availability in rural communities?

Currently rural communities have a huge deficit in availability to low cost spay and neuter and emergency services.

I'm not sure about emergency services, but I used to drive a transport truck for a spay/neuter clinic. We were located in one of the more populated towns and I would drive out to the rural areas of WV and SWVA to pick up animals for surgery and then bring them back to their owners the next day. We would have designated meeting locations at gas stations or Walmart parking lots and I usually went to each location 1-2 times per month. 

The owners had to pay for the surgery/vaccines/treatments but the prices were extremely low due to grants to our organization and there was no extra charge for the transport. Some neighborhoods/areas would do fundraisers to TNR their local feral cats and we would coordinate a special run just to pick up their ferals, sometimes 40-60 at a time. Our regular runs were less than 1.5 hours from the clinic but I went as far as 3 hours away on occasion. 

The truck I drove was a 14ft box used box truck that was donated by a local dealership. We had our logo and information on the sides as well as a small advertisement for the dealership that donated the truck. It was a little beat up but it got the job done!

How can we improve emergency services, neutering and spaying availability in rural communities?

Currently rural communities have a huge deficit in availability to low cost spay and neuter and emergency services.