Spay Day 2010 was a great success

It was a lot of hard work but our spay day was a great success.  Alley Cats and Angels (AC&A) and Paw Prints Animal Rescue (PPAR)  partnered together to sponsor a spay day on Tuesday, February 23.  Dr. Farmer of Greystone Animal Hospital hosted the spay day at her clinic and performed the surgeries.  AC&A and PPAR paid for the surgeries, vaccinations, and all medical supplies so there was no cost to the people that had appointments for their animals.  Our spay day was targeted towards lower income households. Very nice people that want to do the right thing for their animals but not currently able to afford to do it, especially since many of them are currently unemployed because of the economy.  Some of the cats were abandoned cats that people were feeding but not able to vet.  Approximately 85% of the cats and dogs participating in our Spay Day were female and in heat.  That is a lot of puppies and kittens that will not be born in the spring.  Our smallest was a 5-6 month old cat weighing about 5 pounds and the largest was a Mastiff/Boxer mix weighing 105.6 pounds (it took 3 people to get Bear up on the table).  We had appointments for 10 dogs and 20 cats, but we did have a couple last minute cancellations, no-shows (or couldn't get all of the cats), so we did 9 dogs and 16 cats.

Volunteers from both Paw Prints and Alley Cats were there to do intake and discharge, paperwork, surgery prep (shaving bellies, clipping claws, cleaning ears), monitor the animals after anesthesia (pre-surgery) and post surgery monitoring.  My job was intake and discharge and paperwork (health records, preparing rabies certificates for vet signature, etc.) -- that's really all I'm qualified for but I am the queen of paperwork and it was a very necessary job.  I did do some post-surgery monitoring of the cats in short doses to when someone needed a break - which entails watching the cats in one of the recovery rooms very closely to monitor their respirations, check color of their gums, etc. I could have done more post-op monitoring except I'm claustrophobic and couldn't be in those rooms with the doors closed for very long.

AC&A and PPAR have worked closely together for several years and it's a partnership that will continue as we make a great team and we have already had some preliminary discussions about Spay Day 2011.  This will be an annual event where we can further carry out our goal of helping stop the pet overpopulation crisis and saving lives through spay/neuter. 

Below are just a few pictures, but more can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alleycatsandangels/?saved=1.

This is one of the cat rooms before surgery (there were 2 rooms for the cats).  After surgery, paperwork folder gets moved to bottom of cage so the cats can be closely monitored with nothing obstructing the view.

Dog surgery - I think this was the huge dog but not sure

Surgery prep - belly shave time!

Pre-operative monitoring in the dog room

Post operative monitoring of one of the dogs that required extra TLC.  This dog required fluids, etc. and so she was not moved back to the dog room to recover after her fluids, she recovered seperately and had one person sitting with her and monitoring her very closely

Dr. Farmer preparing to spay one of the younger cats

One of the cats recovering after surgery