by Janet Farricelli CPDT-KA

Created on: August 28, 2008   Last Updated: September 02, 2008

Working at an animal hospital for quite some years, I have encountered many pet owners facing financial situations that prevented them from spaying or neutering their pets. Do not get me wrong, these were people that literally loved their pets but simply were not able to afford the spay and neuter procedure. These were the same people that called after hours for tips on how to deal with females with annoying heat cycles or males going bonkers because of females with annoying heat cycles.

I really showed my empathy towards these pet owners because I knew the whole drill. They fell in love with a puppy or kitten, got their first vaccines done and then got a slap to their wallet upon learning how much a spay or neuter costed. And believe me, spay and neuters can be really costly especially if your dog weighs over 50 pounds.

Back to the animal hospital, as I said, I was pretty familiar with the vet bills following spay and neuter surgeries. I must admit that checking out pets post surgery was not a very pleasant task. Many owners questioned why they were quoted a certain amount upon check in and then charged another upon check out. It was my job to point out that estimates were what they really were, simply estimates, and that therefore, this was why we did not give an exact price range but rather kept the maximum amount open for any unexpected events.

I personally actually witnessed how estimated amounts easily added up. Once pre-anestethic bloodwork was done, pain medications were given, fluids were administered and sometimes unexpected findings were discovered (such as a female cat being in heat or pregnant or a male dog being crypthorchid) these items could have easily made your head spin once they made it up to the final bill.

So at one point, we actually started referring people with financial issues to some animal shelters that offered low cost spay and neuter surgeries for a small nominal fee.
We were also aware of other programs that best suited those with low income.

People that took care of many feral cats or stray dogs were told of various good Samaritan programs. These programs offered low spay and neuter programs in exchange for their kindful acts of generosity. If you cater to several feral cats or stray dogs, ask your humane society about such programs, chances are you will be eligible for the Good Samaritan discount.

Online, there are various web\sites that offer low cost or free spay and neuter surgery databases. Here are a few:
http://neuterspay.org/index.html
http://www.anima lliberationfront.com/Practical/Pets/FreeNeuterByStat e.htm
http://www.spayusa.org/

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