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Thanks to two recent grant awards–one from the Community Foundation of Greater Lakeland–the SPCA is now offering free spay and neuter surgeries for Tweener felines. Tweeners are free-roaming cats that fall in between feral and owned. They are generally cared for by a few neighbors and will eagerly let neighbors pick them up. By offering free spay and neuter for this specific cat category the SPCA is helping to control pet overpopulation in our community.
To have your Tweener spayed or neutered:
- Call (863) 646-7722 to set up a Tweener appointment.
- Bring friendly Tweener cat in a carrier to the SPCA for appointment.
Additional Information:
- The Tweener program is based on the honor system, and we encourage people to abide by it in order to help the neighborhood Tweener cats. If people need to spay/neuter their owned pets, our McClurg Animal Medical Center offers discounted services ranging from $32-$38 for neuter and $55-$73 for spay per feline.
- The grant money is for spay and neuters only and does not provide vaccinations, medical treatment or food.
- Since the program started in November 2011, we have completed over 100 Tweener spays and neuters. In just the first four days of January we did 26 Tweener spays and neuters. The program is obviously gaining momentum with additional awareness.
- We will do as many sterilization surgeries as the $60,000 combined grant money allows.
Should you have any questions, please call the SPCA McClurg Animal Medical Center at (863) 646-7722.
Thanks to our dedicated staff and volunteers, as well as our generous donors and business partners, the SPCA is able to positively impact thousands of animals and people in our community. We are very proud of everyone’s hard work and would like to share just a few of the many accomplishments in 2011:
- Surrenders have declined from a high of 10,824 in 2006 to 6,279 pets in 2011, which we attribute, in part, to the success of the SPCA spay/neuter initiatives.
Thanks to generous donors Daisy and lots of other deserving pets are able to live happy, healthy lives.
- Guardian Angel Fund donations made life-saving treatments possible for 231 surrendered pets. Close to $45,000 was spent treating diseases and injuries, making these pets healthy and adoptable.
- The SPCA McClurg Animal Medical Center provided 16,684 animals with affordable, skilled veterinary care and 6,050 owned animals were spayed or neutered, helping to control pet overpopulation. Overall, our talented medical staff helped over 10,500 pet owners throughout the year.
- The SPCA’s Wellness Wagon provided vaccinations, heartworm testing, and preventive products to 1,916 pets belonging to 1,701 human clients.
- Over 30 animals received treatments funded though the Mend-a-Friend Fund, which enables Medical Center clients who demonstrate a history of providing for their pet and who otherwise, would not be able to afford a major medical expense to receive financial aid.
Deserving pets like Gilligan received necessary medical treatment through our Mend-a-Friend Fund.
- A $36,000 grant from PetSmart Charities enabled the SPCA to control PolkCounty’s feral cat population by sterilizing 740 cats in the Kathleen area.
- 700 active volunteers donated over 31,000 hours by lending a paw on our Campus of Kindness or at our various offsite outreach programs and events.
- One hundred senior pet owners on limited incomes receive bi-monthly donations of pet food and supplies. The items are collected from 25 SPCA donation boxes at local businesses and are bagged by SPCA volunteers for distribution by Elder Point Ministries, Polk County Elderly Services and Meals on Wheels.
- Through Paws to Read 255 children gained confidence and improved their reading abilities while enriching the lives of our homeless pets.
Critter Campers got hands-on experience grooming animals at our Adoption Center during their week-long summer camp.
- Critter Camp offered 60 youth in grades three through eight hands-on experience with its week-long immersion in kindness and compassion, responsible pet ownership, pet safety and SPCA behind the scenes operations. Critter Campers also enjoyed humane education guest speakers from Natural Encounters and Feral Fanciers.
On behalf of all the animals and people you helped us serve last year, and all the ones you will help us care for this year, thank you!
Gilligan received help from the Mend-a-Friend Fund to help cover his x-ray cost.
Gilligan, an adorable beagle, found his way into Nichole’s heart in August of this year. He was the typical puppy—playful, loving, full of energy, and often into mischief. Nichole had him for about two and a half weeks when the unthinkable happened. While playing with the family’s other dog Sophie, Gilligan fell off the back of the couch and broke his left front leg. At first she thought he might have just sprained it, but by the following day it wasn’t any better so she brought him to the SPCA McClurg Animal Medical Center for treatment.
Dr. Carol was almost sure that he had broken his leg and suggested an x-ray, but unfortunately Nichole could not afford it. The SPCA’s Mend-a-Friend program, which provides financial assistance for owners who demonstrate responsible pet ownership and qualify, paid for the x-ray that showed his leg was broken. His break was severe and in a spot that made any surgical option beyond amputation nearly impossible. So a few days later, Gilligan underwent an amputation. Thanks to the SPCA’s Mend-a-Friend program, the help of a family friend and the Care Credit program that allowed Nichole to pay for the treatment in several installments, Gilligan is now a healthy, active puppy—albeit a three-legged one.
Please help us provide life-saving medical treatment to other animals like Gilligan, donate to our Mend-a-Friend Fund.
Step 1: Expanding the SPCA’s McClurg Animal Medical Center
What began in 2001 as a low-cost spay/neuter clinic grew into a full-service medical center in 2009 and now provides quality, affordable care to over 4,500 clients each month (nearly 200 per day). With its exponential growth, the SPCA’s McClurg Animal Medical Center is desperate for more room. The Medical Center enables us to treat animals with medical problems admitted to our Adoption Center as well as thousands of pets at affordable fees.
Dr. Kohn performs a patient exam.
To meet the increased demand and provide superior client care and customer service, the Medical Center will add 4,400 square feet. The new building will extend 50 feet north and 80 feet east with a relocated main entrance and an enlarged, paved parking area. It will include seven exam rooms with both corridor and administration entrances, separate reception and discharge areas, and a phone center to answer the 38,000 medical calls received monthly. Shifting the exam rooms and lobby to the new building will create areas in the existing building for treating heartworm dogs and feral cats as well as staff training on the newest and best treatment protocols. This expansion project will position the SPCA McClurg Animal Medical Center to meet the increasing need for quality, affordable veterinary care.
Step 2: Upgrading the Adoption Center
In 1991 the first visitors walked into our Adoption Center looking for their fur-ever friends. Over the past 20 years we have added tile and stainless steel, replaced cages with community cat and puppy habitats, and installed heat lamps and misters to make the animals more comfortable. It is time to take our improvements to the next level. To make our animals even more comfortable and attract more potential adopters, we are proposing to heat and air condition the kennels.
Additionally, the concrete dividers between each kennel will be replaced with tempered glass to provide an open, friendly atmosphere. Glass doors will replace kennel bars for increased visibility, interaction, and a more cheerful visiting experience. These upgrades will enhance the comfort of our four-legged guests as well as their daily caregivers and visitors.
Leave a Lasting Legacy, Donate to the Campus of Kindness Expansion
The SPCA’s Campus expansion and Adoption Center remodeling will require increased funding and support from individuals and businesses. To discuss sponsorship or naming opportunities call Executive Director Warren Cox today at (863) 646-7722.
Toni comforts her beloved Nyan after his surgery.
Nyan was missing his front leg and weighed just over a pound when he arrived at the SPCA on August 5th. Only three months old, this tiny domestic short hair was in need of some serious unconditional love. Luckily for Nyan, Toni Magrum entered his life when he needed her most.
At the SPCA we have a saying: pets adopt people. This was definitely the case for Toni. Remembering Toni from her previous visit to Cattery B, Adoption Center Manager Teri Becker asked which fur ball had caught her eye. With a heavy heart Toni pointed out Nyan, the kitten too tiny to be adopted yet. Teri offered Toni the option of joining the SPCA’s Foster Program until the kitten weighed enough to be neutered and adopted. Having lost her heart to that fluffy black fur and pleading eyes, Toni agreed to foster.
In her loving care, he gained enough weight and was brought in for his neuter. Sadly, during surgery Dr. Kohn discovered a hernia that stretched all the way to Nyan’s chest, specifically his heart. The doctor did what she could, but unfortunately because of his heart condition, Nyan’s life span is uncertain. Without a second thought, Toni went through with the adoption.
“Short or long, he’s going to have a good life. It was just meant for me to have him,” said a teary-eyed Toni as she comforted her precious baby kitten.
It’s stories like Nyan’s, stories of hope and unconditional love, that inspire and challenge us to give a deserving animal a second chance at a loving, forever home or help support animals entrusted to the SPCA’s care.
Daisy's eye was so incredibly infected, vets were forced to remove it. Still she remains a happy and playful Pug.
Tucked under a home alongside her four one-week old puppies, Daisy the Pug was in poor condition. Though she was brought to the SPCA as a stray, Daisy’s microchip revealed the house she was “found” under was actually the house registered to her chip.
Daisy’s right eye was so severely infected our veterinarians determined it was best to remove it. Following her surgery, she was reunited with her pups and placed in a foster home with one of our caring Adoption Center staff members. Despite losing her eye, Daisy’s spirit shined; she diligently took care of her puppies and displayed the best manners and loving disposition in her foster home.
Daisy now lives with her fur-ever mom, who travels with her and has nothing but glowing things to say about her sweet little Pug. All of Daisy’s puppies have been placed into loving homes where they will receive the attention and care they ought to have. Daisy’s story is just another example of how the SPCA is able to offer deserving animals the chance at a happy, healthy life full of love.
To help other deserving pups like Daisy, donate to the SPCA’s Guardian Angel Fund today: http://bit.ly/oJ7Abw.
The only heartworm adulticide approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in canines is temporarily unavailable nationwide. Merial, its sole manufacturer, warns of an outage expected to “last several weeks to months.”
“Currently the SPCA is not scheduling any new heartworm treatments. We have only enough product to finish the second and third doses for those patients already in the treatment cycle,” said SPCA McClurg Animal Medical Center Director of Veterinary Services Dr. Boyd Harrell.
Heartworm positive Adoption Center pets like Murphy, pictured here at a Paws to Read event, will now have to undergo the alternative heartworm treatment when they're adopted.
Until Immiticide becomes available, the SPCA Medical Center has adopted the alternative treatment guidelines recommended by the American Heartworm Society. Dogs owned by the public and shelter dogs awaiting adoption will be subject to the same protocol. All heartworm positive dogs will be placed on a waiting list in the order they were diagnosed; high risk patients will be moved to the top of the list. Dog owners will be advised to restrict the dog’s activity and exercise. The following interim treatment will begin immediately: Heartgard given monthly; Doxycycline given on a one-month-on/two-months-off schedule. When Immiticide is available, owners will be called to begin treating the adult heartworms.
The Immiticide shortage is a grim reminder of the seriousness of heartworm disease. A single bite from a disease-carrying mosquito can infect any unprotected canine. Every Florida dog should be on heartworm preventative year-round. To schedule a heartworm test or purchase preventative, call the SPCA’s McClurg Animal Medical Center at (863) 646-7722.
McClurg Animal Medical Center’s Dr. Nallipati recently removed a fourteen-pound uterus from Tori, a forty-pound pit bull mix. Filled with a gallon and a half of puss, Tori’s enlarged uterus was the result of pyometra, a condition that develops after a heat cycle when bacteria travels through the open cervix and becomes trapped in the uterus. Once the cervix closes, the infection is trapped and can grow.
Tori was suffering from advanced stage pyometra, which could have been fatal if not immediately treated. She underwent an emergency ovariohysterectomy that lasted approximately 45 minutes and posed significant risk comparable to a human appendix rupturing during surgery. A rupture would result in toxins seeping into the blood stream and impacting major organs, especially the kidneys. Fortunately, Tori’s uterus did not burst and Dr. Nallipati safely removed it.
Noticing her swollen stomach, increased thirst and weakness, Tori’s owners brought her to their regular veterinarian, but were referred to McClurg Animal Medical Center due to the affordability of McClurg’s services. Additional warning signs for pyometra include increased urination, loss of appetite, and in later stages of the disease, vomiting and extreme fatigue. Tori’s case is an excellent reminder of the importance of spaying, which can prevent life threatening infections like pyometra as well as unwanted pregnancies and unexpected veterinary costs.
Be aware of the warning signs for diseases such as pyometra, and always schedule annual wellness check-ups for your four-legged family members. To schedule an appointment at McClurg Animal Medical Center, call 863-646-7722 today.
With the Fourth of July quickly approaching and daily thunderstorms rumbling across the sunshine state, many pet owners are faced with the challenging task of keeping anxious pets calm during noisy festivities and weather. Loud noises, flashing lights, and the stench of sulfur can cause excessive fear in pets, resulting in nervous behaviors such as trembling, whimpering, and panting. A distressed animal’s natural response to flee from what he or she interprets as a threatening situation may result in serious injury. Some dogs are so frightened by fireworks they may run through glass windows or escape from the yard and run the risk of being hit by a car.
Frightened pets need security, but what makes them feel secure varies by pet. When frightened by loud noises, SPCA’s McClurg Animal Medical Center Director Boyd Harrell, DVM strongly discourages owners from closing the pet in a room or cage he or she doesn’t normally spend time in. “This only adds to the anxiety and insecurity. Provide your animal with a familiar place that offers some degree of ‘hiding’,” said Dr. Harrell. In anxious situations, pets want to blend into the surroundings and disappear.
Dr. Harrell indicated most pets prefer to have their owners at their side or at least nearby. Familiar background noises such as radio, TV or music can reduce the loudness of fireworks or lessen the startle of the thunder cracking. Owners are also encouraged to remain calm and speak to pets in a calm manner as owners’ excitement or fear may increase the anxiety.
For extreme cases of noise anxiety, owners should seek a consultation from a veterinarian and explore the use of anti-anxiety medication. “If those medications are used as an aid, they should not be used as a total solution,” said Dr. Harrell. Owners should be mindful of a severe storm rolling in or anticipate early amateur fireworks as anti-anxiety medications, which take between 30 to 60 minutes to work, are most effective when given before the before the trigger begins rather than at the first sign or as an after thought.
For more information on calming noise anxieties in your pet, call the McClurg Animal Medical Center located on the SPCA’s Campus of Kindness today, 863-646-7722.
