The Spay Me! Clinic is operated by Shelter From The Storm Animal Rescue, Inc. - an all breed cat and dog rescue based in Madison, Wisconsin. Our goal is to reduce euthanasia of healthy and adoptable animals and to provide affordable veterinary care. Shelter From The Storm Animal Rescue, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization.
The Spay Me! Clinic is primarily a high quality high volume spay neuter clinic, which averages fifty sterilization procedures per day three to five days per week. In addition, the Spay Me! Clinic offers wellness services, other surgical procedures, and dentals.
The goal of this externship is to give students an opportunity to practice their surgery skills as well as to learn how to work with clients and pets with financial limitations. During a two-week externship, students will be involved in all aspects of the clinic, including the various positions in the S/N clinic and wellness appointments.
two full-time surgeons
two part-time wellness veterinarians
six CVTs as well as additional support staff
digital radiography
large surgery suite with four surgery tables
small surgery suite for advanced soft tissue and orthopedic procedures
multiple textbooks, especially surgical
Students are expected to work 10 days of a two week period. They can choose to work Monday through Friday or exchange one week day for a Saturday. Students are expected to be here at 7:00am most days and to stay until all the animals are fully recovered from surgery, which can be as early as 4:00pm or as late as 6:00pm. Students can choose whether to stay late for emergencies or not.
Students are asked to start performing physical exams on the surgical patients right away. We ask students to observe surgery the first day asking questions of the surgeons and seeing how we do our spays and neuters. Most students start doing cat neuters by the end of the first day, although this depends in part on the student's previous experience and comfort level.
Students may also be asked to help with dentals, monitoring anesthesia, scrubbing in on advanced surgical procedures, and other tasks as needed.