Thursday November 26, 2020
Dear Friends of the Animals
This extraordinary year in these extraordinary times has not derailed a focus on the future. Sustaining shelter medicine practice for healthy animals is top of mind, always.
Future Ready
This year, our Companion Animal Hospital Team is again hosting two veterinarians in training for five days. The Ontario Veterinary College regularly seeks placements for vets in training, exposing them to practice in the trenches, and the range of presenting patients. The five-day program experience at the HBSPCA includes pre-surgical checks, spay-neuter surgeries, patient recovery, and wellness checks for pets belonging to some of our communities’ most at risk pet parents. In addition, the students learn the importance of scheduling to support efficient patient flow from intake to discharge, all the while supporting the confidence of pet parents for post-surgery care.
Surprisingly, taking on students is not always an easy decision for the Team. Patient flow slows down. Fewer patients are treated. However, our commitment as a learning organization to help prepare future practitioners is an important responsibility. It’s the right thing to do.
Taking Care of Pet Families, Always
Life continues to get better for cats and their families every day in Hamilton. PetSmart Charities of Canada® has granted $74,904 to the Hamilton/Burlington SPCA (HBSPCA) to help chronically under-resourced pets and their people access basic veterinary care. Starting in June 2021, the grant will help fund access to affordable spay/neuter surgeries, and health and wellness clinics for vulnerable pets in partnership with social service agencies. Proactive and preventative care for pets prevents illness and disease, reduces costs, and keeps pets at home where they belong.
We are humbled by the trust PetSmart Charities of Canada has in the HBSPCA Team for 6 years
now to keep pets and their people together.
Giving Tuesday – Keeping Street Cats Healthy
The best thing we can all do for pet cats is spay/neuter, get a vet, and microchip. Alas, too many cats get lost, remain strays and reproduce on the streets. Many band together in colonies, seeking food and scant shelter.
There is a solution – TNVR (trap, neuter, vaccinate and return “home”). The HBSPCA supports colony caregivers with guidelines on how to care for street cats safely without attracting wildlife, subsidizing spay/neuter surgeries, providing rabies vaccinations and microchips for health and safety, and an ear tip – signaling “I’m fixed and someone cared enough to change my life”.
This Giving Tuesday, we are inviting you to donate to help get street cats fixed, and populations down, down, down. Find out how you can match donation, make a single donation, and change the life of a street cat in our community.