ASPCA comes to Portland to train OHS Veterinarians

Learning spay and neuter best practices

In April, two veterinarians from ASPCA’s Spay/Neuter Alliance came to Oregon Humane Society to share best practices on high-volume, high-quality spay/neuter.

Spay and Neuter Training with the ASPCA

In April, two veterinarians from ASPCA’s Spay/Neuter Alliance came to Oregon Humane Society to share best practices on high-volume, high-quality spay/neuter. 40 members of OHS’ medical staff and 27 volunteers from the Community Veterinary Hospital and Holman Medical Center participated in the training to enhance surgical techniques and refine processes.  Shelter pets and owned cats and dogs will benefit in a big way from the training as well.

Over four days, the teams performed spay/neuter surgery on 140 pets and worked through the entire Spay & Save wait list. Pets served included 29 shelter cats, 37 client-owned cats and 74 client-owned dogs. The training will also allow the Spay & Save program to serve more dogs each week in the future, by shortening the time needed for each surgery.

Reducing the time each animal is in surgery by even a minute or two can have dramatic, compounding effects for a high-volume operation like Oregon Humane Society and the Community Veterinary Hospital.

“Having the ASPCA vets come to OHS to train our staff was a great opportunity to improve my efficiency and technique. By being able to perform spay/neuter at a faster rate while still maintaining the same quality of procedure, it allows us to help more animals in the community.”

– Dr. Rachel Warnes, OHS staff veterinarian

ASPCA has a long history of sharing spay and neuter best practices with shelter veterinarians from across the country, as well as providing a hands-on training program at their facility in Asheville, North Carolina. Given the large number of OHS veterinarians that were being mentored, the ASPCA sent their veterinarians to Oregon instead.

During the training days, the Community Veterinary Hospital continued to serve pet owners in need of other services – 130 pets received dental care, wellness visits and other procedures.

To book an appointment, visit Community Veterinary Hospital.