The vast majority of our shelter partners do not have a veterinarian on staff. They work with local general practice veterinarians, but still have to worry about finding appointment times as well as the financial resources needed for diagnostics and treatment. By providing basic medical and surgical care for shelter animals, the shelters can then redistribute their already stretched time, personnel, and financial resources to other needs.
In the spring of 2020, we received a $50,000 equipment grant that allowed us to purchase new surgery tables, new anesthesia machines, new surgical instruments, new patient cages, upgraded equipment including electrocautery and suction, an upgraded medical equipment including an otoscope, ophthalmoscope, and microscope. This will greatly expand our medical capabilities to include full ear and eye exams including checking ear swabs for infection; we could check blood smears and fine need aspirates for masses as well as skin scrapings to check for certain dermal parasites.
Ellie came to P4P in pretty rough shape. She was an overall healthy and very sweet pup, but, in addition to needing her spay procedure with us, she also needed some intensive grooming while she was under anesthesia due to severe matting of her fur that was causing her great discomfort and causing her underlying skin to become infected (which we treated with antibiotic therapy). Ellie's transformation from when we first met her to now is quite dramatic and just goes to show the incredible impact that our care can have on our patients.
