Archive: Around Town

The SPCA of Tompkins County has been awarded a grant for $13,000 from The John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation. The grant is designated for the purchase of equipment to be used by interning veterinarians completing onsite work to become certified in shelter medicine. The interning veterinarians are a part of a collaboration between the SPCA and Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine’s Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Program.

The grant will allow the shelter to purchase dental equipment, and intravenous fluid pump, two heart rate/oxygenation monitors, five surgery packs, a microscope and refractometer. This equipment will help reduce the length of stay of pets in the shelter due to medical holds, will decrease outsourced dental costs, and allow for the more immediate treatment of pets in need.

Veterinary interns spend a year working with the SPCA in a mutually beneficial relationship. Providing them with this urgently needed equipment will allow them to accomplish much more work and will greatly benefit shelter animals. The partnership with the Shelter Medicine Program has helped the SPCA reduce annual operation expenses while at the same time providing increased veterinary care for shelter animals. The SPCA continues to find ways to improve animal care while at the same time attempting to reduce expenses.

Jim Bouderau, the SPCA’s executive director says: “A grant like this from the Wiederhold Foundation will help us purchase equipment that we never could have afforded otherwise. We are very grateful for their support and can’t wait for the equipment to arrive and be put to good use.”

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