SCRAPS opening vet clinic to speed pet adoptions

Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Services is building a new veterinary clinic to treat its in-house animals with hopes of making the adoption process faster.

SCRAPS – which relocated to its current 30,000 square foot facility in 2014 – provides shelter for lost and abandoned animals as well as licensing services and community classes.

However, SCRAPS was lacking a veterinary clinic to treat sick animals arriving to the facility.

“Before, we had to transport animals off-site to a veterinarian,” said SCRAPS Field Operations Manager Ashley Proszek. “Now, we can walk them down the hall and get them in (for treatment).”

SCRAPS Regional Director Nancy Hill said she had hoped for a veterinary clinic to be included with the current facility’s plans, but cost overruns prevented construction.

Now, circumstances have changed and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals provided SCRAPS with an $85,000 grant to help fund equipment for the clinic. A second grant provided by the SCRAPS Hope Foundation will fund the clinic’s remodeling costs, Hill said.

SCRAPS started construction of the $150,000 clinic in October, which will replace an area in the building that housed several kennels.

The clinic will include a surgery suite, an exam room and recovery area for animals.

SCRAPS recently hired a veterinarian and is in the process of bringing on a licensed veterinary technician to work out of the newly remodeled clinic space, Hill said.

The veterinarian will help refine the health management program, identify isolation and treatment protocols, in addition to treating minor injuries and abscesses. They also will be an adviser on animal cruelty cases and serve as a expert witness in trials, Hill said.

SCRAPS handles more than 125 animals a day and many that come in to their facility are not vaccinated, so the in-house veterinary clinic will assist with keeping them healthy.

“The vet clinic will reduce days of care here,” Hill said.

Also, having an in-house clinic will improve efficiency for adopted animals, which can’t be taken home immediately after adoption because SCRAPS has to outsource sterilization to an outside veterinarian.

Once the animal gets adopted, the goal is to have them go home the same day – with the exception of dogs, which may have a longer one-day hold period, Proszek said.

Proszek said the clinic will greatly improve operations.

“It will be less stressful for the animals,” she said. “We can get them out sooner and it will reduce their chance to get sick.”

SCRAPS plans to open the in-house clinic in Jan. 2018.