Hero veterinarians and volunteers provide a much-needed service
By Midge Raymond
It’s 7:30 a.m. on a foggy, 32-degree February Friday, and the FOTAS Community Spay & Neuter Clinic at 3265 Biddle Road in Medford is checking in cats for the day’s surgeries.
Today’s felines are coming in from FOTAS (Friends of the Animals) foster families as well as clients of Rogue Valley Street Dogs. Just before 8 a.m., two cats without appointments are dropped off, and the staff tells their owner they will try to get them fixed today.
The clinic, currently open three days a week, had its first surgery day on Jan. 26, and the following two weeks were devoted to dog surgeries, for which there are few low-cost options in the Rogue Valley.
In addition to two surgery rooms, the 5,200-square-foot building, formerly a veterinary clinic, includes a cat intake and holding room, dog and cat kennels, two foster supply storage rooms, a laundry room with an industrial-sized washing machine and two dryers, a break room, a pharmacy, a lab, and a doctor’s office. From a large open area in the middle of the clinic, Terri Frazier, the clinic volunteer manager, who is a volunteer herself, looks at the whiteboard where each cat’s name appears, along with gender and kennel number.
“I see two Spookys,” she says. There are 15 cats on the schedule today, including the two who don’t have appointments. A volunteer confirms that there are indeed two Spookys at the clinic.
Just after 8 a.m., intake is in full swing. In the cat holding room, volunteers under the guidance of certified veterinary technician Jenny Pace take heart and respiratory rates, weigh the cats, and put them into prewarmed kennels.
A small black female takes issue with being weighed, yowling and hissing while volunteer Wendy Lea Diamond puts her on the scale. The cat is 6.6 pounds, and when Diamond moves her, Pace says, “Can we put a big ‘caution’ sign on her kennel?”
Of the clinic’s three veterinarians — Timothy Groves, Ann Langer and Laura Edwards — Drs. Langer and Edwards are here today. Once intake is completed, they begin their exams. “If they’re sick we turn them away to minimize risk,” Dr. Langer says. “We’ll wait until they’re better.”
So far, all the cats are in good health. Dr. Edwards examines Smokey, a 9-month-old female, while Pace takes notes. “Heart rate is 220, teeth look good, gums are pink, eyes are clear. Four out of nine on the BCS.” The Body Condition Score rates cats’ health based in part on weight; a four or five is ideal, whereas two or three is too thin and six to nine is obese.
An examination of Mr. Snuggles reveals ear mites, which is noted on his chart and to those at the front desk. “If we find something after the animal’s been admitted, we call the owner to let them know, if they’d like us to take care of it,” says Frazier. Those who’d like to add on additional wellness services — from ear cleanings to nail trims to microchips — can also schedule them at the time of surgery.
The clinic’s services — which are set at the lowest possible rates while covering the clinic’s costs — range from slightly lower to less than half of the cost of many local veterinary practices. “We have a high standard of care for high volume practices,” says clinic manager Victoria Wade. “That’s something we didn’t want to compromise.”
All cats and dogs who are sterilized at the clinic receive a veterinary exam, sedation and pain medication, general anesthesia and an abdominal tattoo indicating the animal has been fixed. “For the standard of care we’re providing,” Wade says, “it’s an incredibly valuable service.”
At 9:05, staff and volunteers gather in the open area to discuss the day’s game plan before Dr. Langer scrubs in. The cat holding room is full, with three more cats in kennels in the open area. Anxious cats meow from the intake room, and soon the lobby cats join in.
Today’s lineup comprises 12 females and three males. The veterinarians and Pace have decided on the order of the 15 surgeries, which today will alternate between small and large cats, with the three males, whose surgeries are quicker, at the end.
Volunteers include Barbara Hostick, a longtime FOTAS dog walker who, in addition to walking dogs at the shelter and fostering puppies, “started at the clinic as soon as I could.” Her role as Animal Handler includes helping with pre-op and post-op monitoring. Volunteer Laurie Goetz will be here today, as well as Saturday and Sunday, doing pre- and post-op training with Pace and the clinic’s new veterinary assistant, Katelyn Blakemore-Hebert. “But you may begin in pre-op and end up in laundry,” Frazier reminds them. For all volunteers, flexibility is key.
Among the volunteers are “pack people” who clean and sterilize surgical instruments, wrap spay and neuter packs and clean e-tubes and masks. Several volunteers won’t be arriving until later, and the others readily agree to fill in as needed. (To become a clinic volunteer, click here.)
In cat holding, one or two cats will be sedated in preparation for pre-op. “We have only one vet cutting today,” says Frazier: Dr. Langer will be doing surgeries, with Dr. Edwards handling anesthesia. “If we have two vets cutting and working more quickly,” Frazier adds, “they’d sedate two to four cats at a time.”
In Surgery 2, at 9:17 a.m., the first cat, Bramble, is comfortably asleep on a heated table and being intubated by Pace, who narrates the process for Blakemore-Hebert and Goetz. All female cats (and all dogs) are intubated, which is the safest option for animals receiving anesthesia.
“I’m really happy with the level of care here,” says Dr. Edwards, who grew up in Houston, Texas, where the city’s million-plus homeless animals inspired her to support strays, shelters and spay/neuter. She came to Southern Oregon after graduating with honors from Oklahoma State University and doing her post-doctorate internship at Purdue. “A lot of high-volume clinics don’t intubate.”
After checking Bramble’s ears, Pace shaves the cat’s belly, and Blakemore-Hebert uses a hand vac to clean up the fur before Pace empties the cat’s bladder and cleans and sanitizes the belly for surgery.
When Bramble is ready, Jenny lays the cat on another heated table in Surgery 1 and reports, “She’s breathing really well.” She and Dr. Edwards gently tie the cat’s limbs to the table, and moments later, Dr. Langer puts a sterile drape over the cat and makes a small incision.
When, a few minutes later, Pace returns to tell the vets that “the next kitty is a much bigger one,” Dr. Langer is already closing up Bramble.
Cat spay surgeries typically take seven or eight minutes. Dr. Langer, who is the founding veterinarian of three spay/neuter clinics in Washington State and has provided spay/neuter services for many animal shelters in Washington and Oregon, has done a three-minute spay. At one clinic she worked with, she says, the staff would play the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Free Bird” — whose album version is just over nine minutes long — and aim for each spay surgery to be finished by the end of the song.
“In a perfect world,” Dr. Langer says, “we’d have two surgeries going at once. Once we have enough people trained, we can do more.” The more efficient the clinic can be, she says, the safer it is for cats because they spend less time under anesthesia. “Quick is important.”
The doctors take off Bramble’s ties, and Frazier picks up the cat and her chart and takes her back to Surgery 2, laying her down on the post-op table. She monitors the cat’s breathing, makes sure her tongue is “nice and pink” and watches for eyes opening, ears flicking, front legs moving — the signs she is waking up and can be extubated. It is 9:37.
Meanwhile, the second cat goes into surgery, and Goetz sanitizes the pre-op table for the third cat. Bramble lets out a little cough, and Terri removes her tube and notes the time in her chart. Cats are usually ready to be picked up about two hours after they are extubated.
Bramble gets looked over by Pace and then returned to her kennel, where volunteer Diamond will monitor her, keeping an eye on her temperature, breathing and coloring.
At 9:54, the third cat is on the pre-op table. Meanwhile, in Surgery 1, Dr. Langer operates on the second cat; this one has already had a litter, “which makes the uterus more friable and the surgery more dangerous.”
Reflecting on her 30 years of experience in spay/neuter, Dr. Langer says, “There’s such a huge need for it, especially for cats.” Her best advice: “Keep your cats indoors. It’s safer for them, cheaper for you and it will minimize the need for services like this.”
By the time Dr. Langer closes the second cat, the third cat is ready, and this one, she discovers, is in heat. “We’re seeing a lot of them in heat, and I’m seeing more pregnant cats this time of year,” she says. These surgeries are challenging because there is more bleeding.
Both veterinarians are enthusiastic about their work at the clinic. “Through years of being a vet,” Dr. Langer says, “I realized I’m more task oriented. Spay/neuter is great because you see results.”
Likewise, Dr. Edwards likes the hands-on nature of spay/neuter work. In veterinary school, she says, “What no one tells you is there’s a lot of paperwork. To be part of what we’re doing here is exciting. And doing procedures — staying away from the paperwork — is exciting too.”
Dr. Edwards is especially eager to learn all she can from Dr. Langer. “She knows the good, the bad and the ugly,” she says. “She knows the best ways and the safest ways to do things.”
By 10:10 a.m., kitty number four is in surgery. Through the small incision, Dr. Langer uses a hooked tool to find and pull out the cat’s Y-shaped uterus. “Small incisions make it easier to close,” she says.
The clinic, which opened to online appointments for the community on March 1, already had 500 people waiting at the end of February. In the month before opening to the public, the clinic worked with its local volume partners, qualifying shelters and nonprofit animal rescue groups, including FOTAS foster families, the Josephine County Animal Shelter and clients of Rogue Valley Street Dogs, which serves many cats in the valley and has a long waiting list for cat surgeries.
The FOTAS clinic is already making a big difference, says Street Dogs president Laurie Cuddy — 10 of today’s surgeries are clients of Street Dogs. “We got 40 animals fixed in the last week,” Cuddy says. “If we can continue to get this number of animals in, the impact will be huge.”
By 10:21, kitty number four is recovering in post-op while Dr. Langer finishes surgery on overweight patient number five. Surgery is riskier with overweight cats, says Dr. Langer, as well as with older cats. “Everything is harder when they get older.” She notes that it’s especially important to spay female cats early, to avoid not only unwanted litters (cats can reproduce at four months old) but also deadly reproductive cancers and illnesses.
Cat number six is out of surgery at 10:49, and number seven is one of the Spookys, a year-old cat whose uterus is hard to find; Dr. Langer has to make the incision larger. “Her uterus is large and friable,” she says. “She’s probably had a litter before.” Dr. Edwards reports that her breathing sounds good and her heart rate is 180. Dr. Langer asks Pace to monitor the cat’s breathing in post-op.
Dr. Langer opens up the sterile pack — containing surgical instruments, a surgical drape, gauze and sutures for each surgery — for Kiki, kitty number eight. “This pack is missing forceps,” she says, and Dr. Edwards gets her a pair while the cat waits on the table.
Kiki is young, and Dr. Langer says, “I need a pediatric hook for this one.” The sutures she uses will dissolve on their own, eliminating the need for follow-up appointments.
Kiki wakes up quickly and is extubated immediately. Pace comes over and hastily trims her nails before whisking her to recovery. “She went down like a house on fire and she’s waking up like a house on fire,” she says.
Cat number nine is extubated at 11:40 a.m., and cat number 10 goes into surgery. Pace ends up sedating cats 11 and 12 at the same time. Some cats are “reluctant sleepers,” and if Pace finds that they’re not easily sedated, she’ll poke two at a time so as not to slow down the process. “I don’t know who’s going to fall asleep first.”
“These are our last girls,” Pace announces to both surgery rooms.
Frazier looks at her watch. “It’s not quite noon. We did good, guys!”
The trash bins in Surgery 1 are nearly full, and volunteers are monitoring the cats in recovery, doing laundry, washing instruments and sterilizing packs for tomorrow’s surgeries. The veterinarians take a short, much-needed break before the male cats are sedated.
Mr. Snuggles is the first male cat on the table in Surgery 1. Males are not intubated like the females, but he wears a gas mask. His genitals are cleaned, his lower belly shaved for the tattoo. Dr. Langer makes one incision, pops out both testicles and removes them. The procedure takes less than a minute. Another minute later, Mr. Snuggles has his tattoo and is in recovery. By 1:03 p.m. all male cats are in post-op.
With the surgeries finished, the volunteers will continue monitoring the recovering cats, keeping them warm with heated fluid bags and blankets and updating the front desk staff about when the cats are ready to be picked up. Most cats are already lifting their heads and blinking at the volunteers.
This morning at the clinic, countless lives have been saved: In one year, an unaltered female and her offspring can produce 12 cats, which leads to 370,000 cats in seven years, and more than 2 million in eight years. For more information and to donate, volunteer or schedule an appointment, visit the clinic’s website.
At 1:30 p.m., the first human is in the lobby to pick up her patient. Outside, the fog has lifted and the sun is shining.
Ashland resident Midge Raymond is co-founder of Ashland Creek Press and author of the novels “Floreana” and “My Last Continent” and co-author of “Devils Island.” Email suggestions and questions for Catty Corner to her at [email protected].
