The dedication and care you give to the feral/barn cats of the Cornell community is absolutely outstanding. I truly value your work and dedication to the care of our cat colonies. The free spay/neuter service means the world to me and my cats. Thank you again.
-Client, CornellVetCARES Community Cat Spay/Neuter Clinic
In April 2019, Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Program (MSMP) at Cornell began to provide subsidized spay/neuter clinics for outdoor & community cats of Cornell faculty, staff, and students through our CornellVetCARES (CVC) Community Cat 
Spay/Neuter Clinics . These monthly clinics were made possible through a grant by Dr. Hollis Erb, Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology. Since then, MSMP faculty and staff have organized and executed 12 spay/neuter clinics for community cats at Cornell’s Small Animal Community Practice Building located on Cornell’s Ithaca campus.
204 cats have been served by our clinics thus far. “I love it – The people that run the clinic were friendly. Informative, and very
helpful. Thanks so much! I’m excited for NO MORE KITTENS – love them but don’t want any more!”, said one of our clients. Along with spay/neuter, we also provide routine vaccinations, ear mite and flea & tick checks and treatments (as necessary), and the option for ear tipping for feral and community cats.
Several Cornell veterinary students have also gained hands-on clinic experience while participating in these clinics, either as volunteers or while on Shelter Medicine Clinical Rotation with MSMP:
During the clinic, I helped facilitate the flow of cats through the clinic, from intake to anesthesia, and during surgery to discharge. I was also able to perform some surgeries (both spays and neuters). I think it was great that people really wanted to bring us these cats to have them spayed or neutered. They were very appreciative of the services. The supervising veterinarians were great! I liked working with a great team of other students and vets, and I enjoyed getting to practice my surgical skills.
–Lauren Alyssa Johnson (DVM ’20)
This was my first high-volume spay/neuter experience. I helped in recovery and made sure all cats safely recovered from anesthesia and received preventives and vaccines as necessary…. I learned that when recovering feral cats, it’s important to put them in their carrier early in recovery because they can become aggressive quickly and wake up very rapidly.
-Victoria Robertson (DVM ’20)
Clinics scheduled in March and April of 2020 were cancelled due to COVID-19. Clinics resumed in June and July 2020 with COVID-related guidelines and procedures in place. We just completed our 12 CornellVetCARES Community Clinic on August 21st, with 2 more clinics scheduled in September, October of 2020. We plan on offering similar clinics again next year under a new grant from the Feline Health Center.
All three of the cats I brought in are doing great. I truly appreciate this “gift” as I have exhausted my own ability to finance the spay/neuter of these community cats.
-Client, CVC Community Cat Spay/Neuter Clinics
Click here to learn more about our CornellVetCARES Community Cat Spay/Neuter Clinics.
#ThanksToMaddie
