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Seeking advice on rural medical costs for a tiny volunteer team

  • 1.  Seeking advice on rural medical costs for a tiny volunteer team

    Posted 2 hours ago

    Hi again, everyone,

    It's Radha's Cat Haven in rural West Virginia, reaching out to y'all. We are approximately 2 volunteers operating a cat sanctuary, caring for neglected wild cats in our area.

    We're in a bit of a tough spot with medical logistics. Our closest vet is about 25 minutes away, which isn't so bad, but as a tiny team with very limited funds, the cost of standard private practice care and the time spent on multiple round-trips can be very challenging.

    Our local vets are standard private practices. They are wonderful, but they aren't set up for "mid-high-volume" TNR prices or the specific needs of unsocialized "wild" cats. For a tiny team like ours, shuttling 2-3 cats at a time for standard office rates isn't sustainable, but the high-volume mobile clinics often skip our areas and are serving areas really far from us. I'm curious if anyone else has found a way to bridge this gap?

    Specifically:

    • Have you found any success in asking local vets to 'match' a certain number of spay/neuter slots if the sanctuary covers the base medical supplies?
    • When a mobile clinic isn't an option, has anyone had luck with 'voucher' programs through larger state organizations that local vets might accept?

    Thanks for listening :)


    #AccesstoCare
    #CommunityCatManagement
    #CommunityPartnerships*
    #Medicine,SurgeryandSterilization
    #PetSupportServices*
    #TransfersandTransport

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    Beverly Ordonez
    Non-Profit Administrator
    Radha's Cat Haven
    WV
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