Help! Spaying and other questions

I think a lot depends on the low cost spay clinic you are thinking of going to. Some are better than others. Do you know anyone that has used this clinic? Would it be possible to get more information about it?

I will always regret having Abby spayed by the shelter, who brought her to a low cost clinic, instead of my own vet. I had a very bad experience. This certainly does not mean all low cost spay clinics are bad. Many do a fantastic job. I think you need to research your options a bit more.

I cant offer any opinions on the low cost clinics as I am on the other side of the world, but I know many members here have used them and found them wonderful. Obviously there are always going to be bad experiences, as with anything. Is this a finanical reason why you cant take her to your personal vet? can you call around other vet offices and see what they charge?

Give some time here as more members will come in to offer their opinions on these clinics.

As with the black under his chin... I am not sure if it sounds like feline acne, however what bowls do they use to eat out of? are they plastic? if so plastic bowls can cause the acne as they rub their chin against the bowls.

Hey Ali,

If you're in the atlanta area, this is the low cost clinic I used to spay our stray mom cat and one of her babies.
http://new.atlantapets.org/lifeline.zz?this=71
$35 dollars for a spay/neuter is the best price I've been able to find in atl.
It is very different than going to a vet though. All the animals (dogs, cats and ferals) are dropped off between 8 and 9 am. Dogs and feral cats are returned the same day, cats are picked up the next morning. There are lots of people dropping off animals, picking up animals, renting traps for ferals. There's a shelter in the back, so you can hear the shelter dogs barking as well as the dogs that have been dropped off that morning. It smells like cat pee (with the amount of cats and ferals going in and out each day, it's no wonder!) and it's generally just a busy place. No one will know who you are and who your pet is (unlike your regular vets).
But both my cats received great care at a great price. Their incisions have healed wonderfully and would take other animals back there if I need to.
It's just different from a vets office because it's not a vet, it's a shelter.
If you and your family are ok with that, then I would say go ahead. Also, make sure your cat is current on her vaccinations, as there are bound to be some viruses and colds and such she could pick up.
There are many other low cost options in atlanta, but I don't have experience with them.
Good luck!

~Julia

Originally Posted by AbbysMom

I think a lot depends on the low cost spay clinic you are thinking of going to. Some are better than others. Do you know anyone that has used this clinic? Would it be possible to get more information about it?

I will always regret having Abby spayed by the shelter, who brought her to a low cost clinic, instead of my own vet. I had a very bad experience. This certainly does not mean all low cost spay clinics are bad. Many do a fantastic job. I think you need to research your options a bit more.

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Well, it's hard. I mean, locally, there seems to be quite a few, some close to me, and some out of the way, and I've been researching, but it's all so confusing

. This is why I was asking if anyone in particular had a good recommendation. I don't have many cat people friends. Most are dogs, or don't even have any.

Originally Posted by huggles

I cant offer any opinions on the low cost clinics as I am on the other side of the world, but I know many members here have used them and found them wonderful. Obviously there are always going to be bad experiences, as with anything. Is this a finanical reason why you cant take her to your personal vet? can you call around other vet offices and see what they charge?

Give some time here as more members will come in to offer their opinions on these clinics.

As with the black under his chin... I am not sure if it sounds like feline acne, however what bowls do they use to eat out of? are they plastic? if so plastic bowls can cause the acne as they rub their chin against the bowls.

Click to expand...

As for the moment, my family just had some very... pricey work done to the house( if anyone has any experience with septic tank issues they would understand). I did do a little research and called most of the local vets and they all range between $250-$400, averaging out to be around $300. It's a lot of money at the moment. It won't always be this way, but for the time it is. The poor girl is constantly going into heat, and she's so miserable so we are trying to do what we can for now.

As for the bowls, we have ceramic and stainless steel, depending on location. All are cleaned and sanitzed daily since we have all the kitts now. Like I said, it's weird because he is the only one who has this.

Originally Posted by jlutgendorf

Hey Ali,

If you're in the atlanta area, this is the low cost clinic I used to spay our stray mom cat and one of her babies.
http://new.atlantapets.org/lifeline.zz?this=71
$35 dollars for a spay/neuter is the best price I've been able to find in atl.
It is very different than going to a vet though. All the animals (dogs, cats and ferals) are dropped off between 8 and 9 am. Dogs and feral cats are returned the same day, cats are picked up the next morning. There are lots of people dropping off animals, picking up animals, renting traps for ferals. There's a shelter in the back, so you can hear the shelter dogs barking as well as the dogs that have been dropped off that morning. It smells like cat pee (with the amount of cats and ferals going in and out each day, it's no wonder!) and it's generally just a busy place. No one will know who you are and who your pet is (unlike your regular vets).
But both my cats received great care at a great price. Their incisions have healed wonderfully and would take other animals back there if I need to.
It's just different from a vets office because it's not a vet, it's a shelter.
If you and your family are ok with that, then I would say go ahead. Also, make sure your cat is current on her vaccinations, as there are bound to be some viruses and colds and such she could pick up.
There are many other low cost options in atlanta, but I don't have experience with them.
Good luck!

~Julia

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Hi Julia!

Nice to meet a fellow Georgian around. Atlanta is just south of me, I'm in Lawrenceville actually. The idea of Avondale Estates area makes my tummy tense up though. Not that great of an area. The price is nice, but the way you worded your experience sounds like it may be a little traumatizing for her. She's a sweet cat, but she has a hard time with strangers. She can be really skittish, and she has all her shots. I am probably going to call her vet again on Monday and do some pleading. Begging never hurt anyone

Hopefully someone will come about and offer some more information. Maybe I'll broaden my search outside the metro area and see if I can get some better prices. Heck, by the time this all is ready to happen, I'm hoping the bank account will be back up to par.


Thank you everyone so far! Please keep some more info coming.

Many low cost clinics are very sterile and assembly type... Talk to local rescue groups .... I did and found out that my own vet will do a spay for 35 and a neuter for 15 and she give pain meds at that price... the catch is finding the info out and then asking to use that special price


please flick off some of the black stuff onto a white paper and sprinkle with water if it turns red it is flea doo doo

The decision between regular vet vs. low cost is one that you need to weigh carefully.

My feeling is that if you can afford the full price clinic, it is the best way to go.

Generally, low cost clinics provide good basic care. Their rate of surgical complications are generally no higher than for full-service clinics.

However, they are usually no-frills assembly-line style, performing 20 or more surgeries on any given day. The animals get minimal individual attention. They also don't have usually have equipment like pulse-oxygen meters that alert them to problems. Plus the assembly-line style is quite a bit more stressful on the animal. The focus at low-cost clinics is on fixing as many animals as quickly as possible without compromising basic safety. High-volume spay/neuter is obviously a very necessary service for the animals and the community since the vast majority wouldn't be fixed otherwise, but given the choice between an assembly-line, impersonal clinic and a clinic with a low patient-to-staff ratio and where attention is paid to the individual patient, it's definitely a big difference.

From a baseline medical perspective, there will be no real added medical risk from taking your cat to the low-cost clinic. However, in the unlikely event that something does go wrong, the regular vet is much more likely to be able to identify a problem in a timely fashion and end up with a positive outcome to the situation.

Really, price shopping for medical services isn't a great idea because to a significant extent, you get what you pay for. $300 really isn't an unreasonable price to pay for a fairly significant surgery performed by a doctor who is as highly trained and educated as your own doctor. If you truly can't afford the full price service, then by all means, pursue the low cost option and get her fixed - that's the first priority. But if you can afford the full service clinic's price, then that's definitely the best choice.

I took my girls to a vet clinic that offers low cost spays when I had them spayed. The Veternarian who did them was wonderful. They called several times to check on the girls and took excellent care of them. As a result Monkey and Pixel have a new Vet. I found this veternarian to be much more kind and caring that the vet they had been seeing. I researched this clinic and all the others in my area before choosing one. This one was not the cheapest of the low cost clinics but it was the one I felt most comfortable with. They let me ask them a million questions when I made the appointment and when I dropped the girls off.

I think the key is to talk to the clinic you are going to see if you are comfortable with them. If you are not then find a different Vet.

The clinic I'm using is right off College in a good part of Avondale, not the sketchy part. I actually work right near there as well (which is a bonus for me!) If you're ok traveling to a different vets, I use Dearborne Animal Hospital. (google them) They're pretty low cost compared to other vets I've been to in the area and may be less than $300. They also let me make payments when two of our kittens became very ill.
Oh, also call the Atlanta Humane society and see if they can give you a spay voucher. they're good for a free spay from about 75-100 vets in the metro area. We got two of our cats from them and the voucher reduced the cost of their speuters significantly (still had to pay for pain meds).
I think your family would probably be happiest getting her spayed from a vet rather than a low cost clinic.
Good luck with your search, sorry I don't know any other low cost options outside the perimeter!

Julia

Zissou was spayed at a nearby shelter / mission. Her surgery went very well. We dropped her off the morning before and picked her up the next afternoon. They did the spay overnight and then called and said everything went well. I'm not sure how many cats / dogs were being fixed that day. Her scar healed really well and nothing went wrong.
The downside is that she got some sort of puky diarrhea sickness while she was there and also, when I took her to the regular animal hospital the vet said that it was odd that she was prescribed amoxicillin as a preventative, although I understand why they do this because sadly there are lots of puppy / kitten mills around that they deal with. (When we took her for her rabies shots there were two men with a huge stack of printer paper boxes full of puppies. Talk about exploiting charity!)
The vets at the shelter love animals and take just as good care of them. The clinic is subsidized by donations and adoption fees, so its not that the surgery costs less, its just that you pay less. They don't use lower-quality anesthetic or anything. Well, at least this one doesn't. If you research them well, there isn't much problem.
So, basically, I don't regret getting Zissou spayed this way, and if it is more feasible then do it, because the poor girl is in heat all the time!