Working with vet charities: squaring a circle

Transcription

1 Vet Times The website for the veterinary profession Working with vet charities: squaring a circle Author : Scott Parry Categories : Career/training, RVNs Date : February 6, 2017 During my career as a veterinary nurse I have always taken great satisfaction from working alongside animal charities by giving my time and experience freely. Scott and his wife regularly neuter and spay litters of kittens for charity. However, since becoming a practice owner, I have often wondered how it can make good business sense to provide this valuable service at a greatly reduced cost, as this ultimately decreases our profit margin. I will try to address the pros and cons of providing such a service in this article. A huge difference exists in the decision-making process when working with charities, compared to our usual clients. Most of us are lucky enough to have some fantastic clients who will do anything necessary to improve the lives of their beloved pets whatever the cost and care involved. Their pets are often insured and considered part of the family, so decisions are usually based 1 / 5

2 primarily on what is best for the individual animal, rather than the cost implications. Different ball game When it comes to animals in charity situations, however, financial constraints are, unfortunately, usually the primary consideration when making decisions as to what treatment takes place. This is because the majority of animal charities are entirely self-funded, receiving no government or lottery assistance and, in my experience, fund-raising is becoming more difficult. People are living longer for one and, with having dependent relatives, less legacies are being left, which have, for many years, been the lifesaver of many charities. Most of us work with charities because we want to offer help to those animals with no voice we are animal lovers and are trained to provide the care required to help them flourish. This all comes at a cost and the money has to come from somewhere. In fact, being a trustee for my local RSPCA branch provides me with the opportunity to appreciate this from both perspectives, namely 1) a private business owner, and 2) a guardian of charity funds. I have encountered the often thankless task of trying to make a very small pot of money stretch a long way. While I am trained to provide nursing care, I often find myself battling with the extremely difficult task of raising much-needed funds to allow this work to continue. My RSPCA has a superb rehoming centre, of which I am extremely proud, and 10 charity shops that assist in raising the funds to keep us afloat. Our monies not only pay for the animals in our care, but also animals in our community whose owners are, for whatever reason, unable to pay for veterinary treatment. We also provide neutering vouchers and regularly cover the costs of consultations so animals can be assessed by professionals and given the correct help they need. A case of balance 2 / 5

3 Another litter treated by Scott in his charity work. When making decisions regarding the animals under our care in a charity situation, we often have to balance the scale of the number of animals potentially treated against carrying out a costly procedure on a single animal. We also have to consider the "rehomeability" of each individual animal, taking into account not only medical, but also behavioural, issues. An example of this would be a cat with a complicated fracture of a limb. In practice, we would go to every length to save the limb and often perform amazing surgeries to get the results we want. In a charity situation, however, we have to appraise things differently. If we opt for fracture repair, for example, we have to consider the cost implication, the length of time it will take for the cat to recover which is usually six to eight weeks and the stress involved by being in a cattery situation for this length of time. But, if we instead made the decision to amputate the cat's limb, not only is the patient fully recovered in 10 days time, but is available for rehoming shortly afterwards. Getting the balance right can be very challenging, but each case is assessed individually and with decisions made based on the many criteria involved. We carry out weekly vet visits to the rehoming centre and every new animal gets a thorough health check where any problems are identified and a plan put in place to maximise the animals chances of finding a new home. This can be: 3 / 5

4 neutering dental work removal and investigation of any masses found advising on a weight plan, if required All animals are vaccinated, microchipped and treated for both internal and external parasites, while animals older than eight will have a blood sample taken, which will be analysed back at the surgery to look for any hidden problems not externally apparent. In most cases, the results are good, but, occasionally, a condition may be identified that will require the particular animal to have life-long medication. This is the cause of quite a few sleepless nights. Historically, the charity would offer the animal for assisted adoption, which resulted in all medical bills for that condition being covered. However, unfortunately mainly due to the limited funds we now have this is not something we can always offer. As an animal lover and veterinary professional, it feels wrong to make a life-ending decision based on money, but where does that money come from? It s a situation we also regularly encounter in private practice, to be fair we know some animals could live happily for many years, provided they take regular medication, but, sadly, not too many homes are able or prepared to fund this. This is one of the reasons my wife and I have so many pets of our own we are only human and these decisions can t always be made when our heart rules our head. Many ways to help A cocker spaniel Scott and his wife adopted because he had terminal cancer. 4 / 5

5 Powered by TCPDF ( I play a very active role in supporting our local animal centre. As well as being a trustee, I m a member of the fund-raising committee, regularly judge at our annual dog shows and provide basic first aid training for the staff to keep their skills up to date and useable. One of the big changes we have made as a charity is carrying out prepubertal neutering of dogs and cats, as this removes the headache of ensuring rehomed animals have been neutered when in their new homes. Now, 100% of cats and about 90% of dogs are neutered before being rehomed. On a veterinary level, and an aside, I have been amazed at how well our younger patients seem to recover compared to their older counterparts. Within just about half an hour of having their operations, they are fully recovered, eating and playing with their litter mates. Conclusion To sum up, I feel we have a duty as veterinary professionals to do our part in helping animals in rescue, so they get the second chance they deserve. Although we offer our services at a greatly reduced rate, the charity provides us with a regular income, a varied caseload and job satisfaction. We also regularly register new clients who have adopted animals from the charities in our area, as they know we are already familiar with their new family member this not only generates further income for the practice, but is good PR for the practice and the profession as a whole. I would recommend any practice not doing charity work to take the plunge and reap the rewards. Get involved and make a difference. 5 / 5