The York County SPCA reopened its spay/neuter clinic with modified safety protocols on May 26.
The organization was required to close the high-volume clinic in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Information from both the CDC and state and national veterinary medical organizations at that time dictated that elective spay/neuter surgeries must be temporarily suspended, both to conserve personal protective equipment and to prevent the spread of COVID-19. During the closure, caretakers were unable to have free-roaming cats spayed or neutered.
The Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association has since revised its statement, now allowing veterinarians to use their professional judgement to resume these elective procedures, while still adhering to state policies and recommendations regarding social distancing.
York County SPCA's decision to reopen its spay/neuter clinic was made after careful consideration by the organization's leadership team and by consulting recommendations from the CDC, the AVMA, and shelter medicine experts. In order to safely resume services, several modifications to scheduling, intake, and discharge procedures have been made. Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) services will be given scheduling priority with the goal of preventing pregnancy and new litters in the community cat population. Scheduling priority will also be given to those clients with a pet that may be pregnant.
Once the clinic has caught up on TNR patients, the veterinary team will begin seeing rescheduled patients next. Due to the backlog of spay/neuter appointments, new patients will be seen beginning in August.
New appointments can be made by visiting http://www.ycspca.org. The SPCA anticipates that the coronavirus will continue to delay scheduling for the remainder of 2020.
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