Low-cost Veterinary Clinic

I am seeking donations to open a high quality, low cost veterinary clinic in conjunction with the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center (SCAWC) on the beautiful island of St. Croix. The clinic will serve the shelter’s dogs and cats as well as owned animals in our community. The clinic will support expanding shelter programs such as community cats, low/no cost spay neuter, and foster programs.

The SCAWC has served as the island’s only shelter for nearly 50 years but in recent years, island-wide economic hardship has threatened the shelter’s existence. This combined with our already staggering pet overpopulation challenges have placed us in a critical situation. Additionally, many pet owners on St. Croix struggle with the cost of veterinary care or do not seek care, leading to increased surrenders and abandonment. The low-cost clinic will provide an avenue to help keep pets in their homes and promote humane and responsible pet ownership.

WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN PROGRESS…

For several months, we have been operating a limited spay neuter and wellness clinic which has already served hundreds of local pets- just operating 2 days a week with little advertisement! Many of our clients have never been to a vet before. Combined with other new initiatives we have DOUBLED OUR LIFESAVING in the past few months.

(AWC rescue requiring enucleation, heartworm treatment)
(AWC rescue required blood transfusion, treatment for vestibular disease and heartworms- doing much better- he has doubled his weight)


For those of you who don’t know me – I am a veterinarian who started working on St. Croix in 2008 and for the SCAWC in 2009, where I fell in love with shelter medicine and St. Croix. I left St. Croix from late 2012 to early 2015 and during that time opened clinics for non-profit organizations in Monterey, CA and southeastern PA. I moved back in May of this year to open a private practice and started helping with the shelter while I made my plans… I soon realized that another private practice is not what is needed, but that a low-cost clinic is the best way to serve our pets and community.

I practice what I preach- all my pets are shelter adoptions (most from St. Croix) and I currently have 7 foster cats milling around on the couch “helping” me to write this. I use modern, high quality high volume surgery practices and have worked with specialists in everything from ophthalmology to orthopedics. I have not kept a log of the spays and neuters I have performed, but it must well over 5,000.

(Current foster crew - old man cat not pictured)

 
The low-cost clinic is the “missing piece” to tie together our new initiatives to decrease animals coming into the shelter and increase those going out. ALL money raised by this campaign will go directly towards medical equipment and supplies for the low-cost clinic to increase our services offered.

So if you have ever worked with me, if you have ever visited this pretty little rock but saw a dog or cat eating from a dumpster- please share and give!


(My boy on the beach... the happy ending we want for ALL of them!)

Here is a list of equipment we are looking to purchase; when funds are raised for each I will update - and if donations come in from other sources  (or donated equipment) I will lower our goal - thank you! 

Anesthesia System - FUNDS RAISED!

Anesthesia Vaporizer

O2 concentrator

Suction

Electrosurgical unit

Cages

Cast Cutter

Centrifuge

Hematology machine 

Chemistry machine 

Dental Unit

IV Pump

Lights-Surgery

Microscope

Oto/Ophthalmoscope Power Source

Otoscope Heads

Ophthalmoscope Heads

Patient Warming System

Scale (Walk-on)

Stands - Mayo

Table-Wet/prep

Vital Signs Monitor

X-Ray Stationary (Digital)