RSPCA Cambridge

The perfect Valentine's day gift?

2012-01-21T21:47:00.001Z

If the man or woman in your life loves books (as well as you, of course!), why not buy an author-signed volume as a Valentine's day gift.

We have a shelf of very reasonably priced books to suit every taste, signed by authors ranging from Maeve Binchy to Sir Peter de la Billière at our bookshop at 188 Mill Road.

The shop's next open on Friday 27th January, then every Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the week: perfect for last-minute choices.

We have some wonderful new volunteers training now and hope very soon we'll be able to open Monday and Tuesdays too.

Please display this poster if you have a suitable location

2012-01-19T13:58:00.003Z

Animal Welfare Statistics for 2011

2012-01-12T01:21:00.000Z

Just finished the analysis sheet for 2011 and the final totals for the Cambridge branch are:

Low cost veterinary treatments provided via our clinic:

Dogs: 2,826
Cats: 1,204
Rabbits: 107
Miscellaneous small animals: 53

Grand total: 4,190

Emergency first aid at private vets (for owned animals):

Dogs: 38
Cats: 33

Microchipping:

Dogs: 143
Cats: 121

Animals rehomed:

Dogs: 29
Cats: 75
Rabbits: 11
Miscellaneous small animals: 13

Grand total: 128

The number of rabbits seen at the clinic remains worryingly low considering the high availability of rabbits as pets. For the first time I began breaking down our vaccination statistics by species and it is concerning that very few rabbits seem to be vaccinated against myxomatosis.

On the plus side, it's interesting that cats appear to have a relatively high vaccination rate - in many months nearly equal numbers of cats and dogs are vaccinated even though overall figures for attendance by dogs are more than double those of cats. Dogs appear to be microchipped more frequently than cats; possibly because chipping is viewed as a way of preventing theft rather than reuniting an injured animal with their family.

We rehomed slightly more animals than our intake during the year, enabling us to end 2011 with a slightly reduced current number of animals in care.

11 of the cats, 1 rabbit and two rats taken in had to be put to sleep on vets advice due to untreatable injuries or illness.

Cats update

2012-01-09T20:43:00.004Z

The vets had a call this morning from a family whose newly spayed cat had gone missing in the area where our little injured cat was found. They drove over to view and fortunately she is their cat, so we have a happy ending there.

No-one has enquired about the older boy yet, although the vets say he's so laid back and friendly he must have a family out there somewhere. They wired his jaw yesterday and the plan is to transfer him to a foster home tomorrow and see how he goes. He's not yet very willing to eat, which may be due to crush injuries to the delicate bones of his nasal passages impairing his sense of smell. The vets are going to give him an injectable appetite stimulant this evening and we hope he will then eat normally in the foster home. If he doesn't, we may have to bring him in to our clinic with a view to fitting him with a gastric tube so he can be fed that way.

He'll need a second operation in about six weeks to remove the wire from his jaw once it's healed.

We need to recruit more volunteer foster carers for recuperating animals. If you might be interested in this, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Update
Older boy's family have now turned up, so he'll be going home too.

Two injured cats taken in

2012-01-08T18:29:00.000Z

These cats were taken in as the result of two separate road accidents. One is a middle-aged neutered male, who has a broken jaw, but we hope no more serious injuries, the other is a young female who has been recently spayed as a shaved area is still visible. She has a broken pelvis, but the vets think she will not need a repair operation although she will need at least six weeks confined to a cage to reduce stress on the damaged bone. If you think either of them may be your cat, please contact us or phone the emergency vets where they are being cared for on 0845 500 4247.

Gift Aid: Thank You Everyone!

2012-01-08T00:03:00.000Z

Our Newmarket shop achieved a fantastic 40% gift-aided sales in December, meaning that we will be able to claim around £500 from HMRC. Total gift aided sales for all three shops were nearly £4,000 meaning that we are very close to achieving our initial target of raising an extra £1,000 income for the branch each month through gift aid.

Thank you to everyone who completed a form, and thank you to the staff and volunteers for putting in all the extra work involved in stickering and tagging sales items. It really is starting to pay off and help us towards our goal of maintaining as much of our animal welfare services as we possibly can.

Identifying a wheaten terrier

2012-01-06T01:45:00.000Z

The Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier Club are circulating a helpful guide on identifying Wheatens who have been neglected to an extent where it's difficult to guess their breed. I have to admit that my best guess for some of these pictures would have been a neglected Tibetan terrier or some kind of cross-breed.

Little tabby cat

2011-12-29T20:23:00.002Z

We've just taken in a tabby kitten with head injuries. He's about 6 months old and has no chip or collar—he's young enough that the lack of a chip may simply mean someone was intending to get it done when he was neutered.

Sadly, he's another perfect illustration of the added complications caused by the unreasonable antipathy some people have towards the RSPCA and the way this makes sensible decision-making more difficult for us.

He may not survive, whatever we do. Head injuries are unpredictable and there's little that can be done to treat them except provide supportive care and medication to keep the patient pain-free and to reduce swelling and inflammation.

He has a broken jaw and will need to be tube-fed, which means inserting a feeding tube under a general anaesthetic. To avoid subjecting him to two anaesthetics it makes sense to wire his jaw at the same time, although this will be wasted money if the head injuries kill him in the end. Anaesthesia always involves some risk, so it's possible that he may not survive the treatment intended to help him, but there's no way to avoid this as he can't be left without food.

Because he's so young we want to give him a chance, and if he does survive he should be easy to place in a home, even if his current owner doesn't make contact with us. However, his chances are probably not much better than 50/50 and arguably the funds needed for his treatment might be better used to help other animals. It's possible that an owner may turn up, but choose not to continue his treatment or request to sign him over to us.

Basil was not much more of a hopeful prospect when he first came in, so let us hope giving little tabby his chance was the right thing to do.

If we had opted for euthanasia and his owner then turned up, there are people out there who would have made use of the situation as propaganda to discourage donations to the RSPCA and knowing that doesn't make decision making any easier.

Sad update
Unfortunately little tabby didn't make it. He deteriorated during the night despite being given iv fluids and the vets advised that it would be wrong to attempt to put him through surgery the following day.

More freakonomics

2011-12-27T21:08:00.001Z

One of the most common reasons people give for not supporting the RSPCA is that we're not doing some task they think we ought to be—and often the reason we're not doing it is because we don't have enough support.

The second most common reason is probably an objection to one of our campaigns (or conversely objections because the campaign isn't being pursued sufficiently vigorously!)

Update

Tony Woodley has a blog entry in the Huffington Post and the comments illustrate exactly what I mean.

Cats, Dogs and freakonomics

2011-12-26T22:36:00.004Z

Freakonomics is basically about the use of ideas from economics to investigate how incentives shape the way people act—including perverse incentives that trap them into behaviour that benefits nobody, including themselves. I picked up a copy of the book in our charity shop recently, and I've been thinking about the ways in which these ideas apply to the world of animal welfare.

Lots of the issues we face are very clearly freakonomics-type problems:

The person on very low income who buys a £2,000 puppy and doesn't have £20 to pay for vaccinations, or £55 to pay for neutering.
Whether it's better for rescues to charge an adoption fee and lose some potential adopters, or charge nothing and risk rehoming to people who can't even afford the cost of a single veterinary consultation if the animal gets ill or injured.
If rescues don't rehome to people who can't afford veterinary treatment, what happens when those people get animals through other channels?
Does provision of low-cost, or free veterinary treatment for pet owners on low income mean some of them acquire more animals until they still can't afford treatment costs? What proportion of them?
Pet owners who can't afford the cost of spaying and are then faced with the cost of a caesarian or emergency hysterectomy, which can be at least five times as expensive.
Cat owners who put off spaying because of the cost and end up with five cats to feed instead of one.
Pet owners who simply assume free or low-cost veterinary treatment will be available in an emergency. What proportion of pet owners does this apply to?
Does provision of low-cost spay/neuter reduce the numbers of unwanted pets? It seems obvious that it should, but maybe it's not true for all species—for example most pet rabbits seem to be acquired from pet shops, and the primary reason for them becoming unwanted seems to be lack of knowledge about the amount of work and expense involved in keeping them. (It is very important to spay and neuter rabbits in order to be able to keep them in pairs which is vital for their individual welfare.)
What effect does education about spaying and neutering have on the proportion of dogs and cats belonging to pedigree breeds? Are the effects the same for both species?
How do you avoid education replacing one problem by a different one? For example discouraging purchase of exaggerated pedigree dogs leading to a fad for crosses which may have their own problems.
Fads for particular breeds (during my lifetime German Shepherds, Border Collies, Lurchers and now Staffordshires have all suffered the effects of excess popularity, or popularity for the wrong reasons.)
Breeds becoming attractive to certain types of people precisely because they have a bad reputation.
Is there a way to encourage pet owners who would otherwise be a drain on the resources of animal welfare societies to contribute by taking part in fundraising, or other useful activities, thus potentially changing a vicious circle into a virtuous one?

Update

Checking the link to the Freakonomics site, I came across this economics blog post which is horribly relevant to the problem of the family with maxed-out credit cards and a sick pet who won't make it through Christmas without treatment.

Clinic opening hours over the holiday

2011-12-25T21:41:00.000Z

Tuesday 27th Dec: Closed
Wednesday 28th Dec: Closed
Thursday 29th Dec: OPEN
Saturday 31st Dec: Closed

The emergency out of hours service will be available throughout the holiday period - please phone the contact number on your registration card.

Basil off to his new home

2011-12-22T20:14:00.001Z

Excellent news for Basil the little terrier who was found with terrible injuries to his front legs some weeks ago. Not only has he made an almost complete recovery, but he has a beautiful new home for Christmas.

All the family members are adults, so Christmas is a fairly quiet occasion for them and there should be no problems settling Basil in during the festive season.

The rather large plastic collar is to stop Basil licking at the scab on his right leg and he should be able to do without it fairly soon.

Late Night Shopping

2011-12-06T22:43:00.001Z

As an experiment, we're going to open our shop at 61 Burleigh Street for late night shopping every Wednesday from 5-8 pm until Christmas.

Crossed fingers for good results.

We have lots of beautiful RSPCA cards and calendars, as well as plenty of items that would make really unusual presents - anyone interested in an antique earthenware hot water bottle?

Or a limited edition print of a racing car signed by Damon Hill.

A glimpse into the canine underworld

2011-12-05T22:43:00.000Z

We've been concerned about the large numbers of animals being advertised on "Gumtree" and similar sites for a long time, and a call I took over the weekend gave me a very nasty insight into what can happen.

The caller wanted to find out whether the RSPCA could prosecute a man who bought a dog from him, and had the dog put down as dangerous within a few days of the transaction. Of course this wouldn't be possible because it's not illegal to have a vet put an animal to sleep—it's illegal to cause an animal to suffer, but not to kill.

If all the details of the story are correct, it appears that the purchaser changed his mind about wanting the dog, and possibly expected to be able to get his money back in order to buy a puppy (also, incidentally of a "status" breed). The seller couldn't have taken the dog back as his original reason for selling was friction with an existing dog (although he seems to have several other dogs and I wonder whether he is also breeding). He does appear to have left the purchaser a contact number when he sold the dog and offered to try to help solve any problems.

Background details of the various dogs involved are complicated, but there appears to be a whole ecosystem of people breeding dogs at home. Their motivation is probably a combination of the attraction of "cash in hand" income and a fairly genuine interest in dogs as a hobby. I wonder how much of it is driven by a desire to find a substitute for meaningful work that they can take pride in and whether an improvement in the job market would make things better.

An awful lot of dogs seem to be traded around like so many packets of sugar, with not much common sense about the presence of small children, or suitable facilities. Against this background our messages about not getting animals you can't afford to care for probably aren't going to make very much of an impact.

The people we're trying to persuade are being lectured all the time—don't drink so much, don't smoke, eat more fruit, lose weight ... it's not hard to see why they're not going to pay attention to us.

Pics from Mill Road Winter fair 2011

2011-12-04T20:22:00.001Z

Ben (in the dog suit) got rather too hot, while poor Pat was frozen running the tombola outside the shop for most of the afternoon. Grand total raised was £354.91, £22.86 of this from the collecting boxes, just over £50 from the tombola and the rest from shop sales.

It just goes to prove that this shop can make money if we can only persuade people to realise we are here and come in.

Many of the people who visited on Saturday said how impressed they were by the shop and the interesting books available and that they hadn't realised we had a shop here (this roughly ten years after we first opened!)

We need more volunteers so that we can open six days a week. If you might be interested, please call in on a Saturday, drop in at our larger shop at 61 Burleigh street, or email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

6 am this morning...

2011-11-23T19:31:00.001Z

Yet another call from the purchaser of a new puppy that's now very ill. At six weeks old the pup is too young to leave the mother and the seller very obviously did not tell the truth when he said it had been wormed as pup is passing huge quantities of them as well as bloody diarrhoea.

The RSPCA has an online guide with useful tips about getting a puppy to help prospective adopters avoid some of the pitfalls.

Veterinary treatment again

2011-11-22T22:05:00.001Z

Maddeningly it appears that people are still not paying attention to our plea that they get their animals registered at our clinic so that they will be eligible for low cost treatment outside normal clinic hours in an emergency. Combine this with the fact that others are still allowing animals to breed without considering what will happen if something goes wrong, and yet another group are buying young animals, and you have a nightmare situation.

To give some idea of what this means: on Monday we had a frantic call from someone whose new puppy was now vomiting repeatedly and becoming unresponsive. Nearly all her spare cash seems to have been spent buying the puppy and she had no idea that intravenous fluids at a private vet would cost around £200. On Sunday night we had a call from someone with a litter of kittens who'd accidentally knocked over a video-player on one of their siblings. Last Thursday evening someone who did know about the clinic called us as an emergency because his dog was very ill but he hadn't taken him to the normal clinic session because he didn't have any money. The previous week we had another instance of a person with a giant dog so ill that she could not stand simply demanding that we should pay to get a vet out to her because she couldn't be got to the vet.

If we don't help, animals like these will go without any treatment, and it's not their fault their owners are so thoughtless.

If we do help, it risks simply perpetuating the problem of people with not enough to do acquiring animals they can't afford.

There's a separate problem that's almost a mirror-image of it. When we rehome animals, we do careful checks of the suitability of the home. In fact it's comparatively rare for us to turn homes down; it's more about trying to steer people towards suitable animals. However we do sometimes tell people they simply don't have suitable facilities and/or arrangements for what they'd do if the animal was ill or injured, and it's highly probable that some of those we refuse do go out and buy instead. When they do, we may well end up providing veterinary treatment for the purchased animal or, indeed, end up rehoming the animal if the purchasers really cannot cope.

In many ways, what we ought to be doing is trying to draw in more of the people who desperately want animal companionship, but don't have enough money or skills and involve them in working to provide a comprehensive support service.

Update
Sadly the puppy died two days later.

Animals In War Memorial on StreetView

2011-11-13T02:00:00.000Z

View Larger Map

Spend at our shops and help keep animals in homes this Christmas

2011-11-11T21:42:00.001Z

Reports of animals being abandoned or relinquished by owners who can't afford to care for them are coming in from all sides.

It seems that a toxic spiral is building up in which owners put off vaccination, spaying and neutering because of cost and then are faced with sick animals they can't afford to get treated, or with litters of unwanted babies they can't rehome.

Pumpkin, Little Owl and the three Shepherd cross puppies were all probably abandoned because they were ill and their owners were afraid of the cost of seeking treatment.

Some owners are so neglectful or so incompetent that their animals are better off without them, but in the vast majority of cases it is far better to help animals to stay in their own homes than to spend funds keeping them in boarding kennels until they can be found new ones. If animals are being relinquished because they are ill and the owner can't afford a vet, it's much more efficient to spend money on treatment than to spend money on treatment and boarding.

Times are tough, and we all need to spend our money as efficiently as possible. Over the next months—probably years—there are going to be more demands on our ability to provide help with veterinary care than ever.

Can you help us by diverting some of the spending you would be doing anyway in the direction of our shops? Most of us are going to spend something on Christmas cards and presents in the next few weeks. By purchasing some of them from our charity shops you'll be helping to keep our welfare services in action.

In the Alice in Wonderland times in which we live, prices for rags are good—to the point where we have to keep a sharp eye on the bags we're hauling out to the rag collector's van or they get nicked! If you're having a clear-out, we can turn clothes and other textiles into useful funds even if they are too worn to sell in the shop. Don't throw them out; drop them off to us.

2011-11-10T23:45:00.000Z

Pumpkin's Progress

2011-11-09T04:31:00.000Z

When she came in

Now

Hasn't she improved? The white, hairy mop is Marion's little Bichon, looking on.

Christmas is coming!

2011-11-05T19:11:00.001Z

These are the pics from the Burleigh Street shop today.

Many thanks to Ben for providing superb publicity for our new Christmas display: all the children (and the grown-ups!) loved the dalmatian costume and it was a fantastic attraction to draw people in.

Ben will be visiting us again for the Mill Road Winter Fair on 3rd December, probably in a Border Collie costume this time—look out for him at our shop at 188 Mill Road.

These photos are a bit dark because I was taking them from inside the shop; I hope to get some better ones on the 3rd.

Christmas cards, Advent Calendars and 2012 calendars are now on sale at our shops, also lots of items that would make wonderful and unique presents.

Look out on Burleigh Street tomorrow!

2011-11-04T21:02:00.000Z

Ben Pettit, who kindly collected for us at our dog show, is supporting us again this Saturday at our Burleigh Street charity shop. The picture below was taken at our dog show - those costumes are VERY HOT!

He'll probably be bringing the dalmatian costume this time and, depending on the weather, will either be in the shop welcoming customers inside, or walking up and down Burleigh street to drum up trade.

Watch out for Ben again at our Mill Road bookshop for the Winter Fair on 3rd December. Winter Fair collecting is usually very chilly, so Ben may be glad of his dog costume then.

Welfare assistance

2011-11-03T22:20:00.000Z

The Wirral News reports that RSPCA Wirral and Chester branch is having to cut staff at its animal centre.

"THE RSPCA’s Animal Centre in Wallasey is making further cuts and asking staff to volunteer for redundancy as its financial struggles continue.

Last November the charity’s Wirral and Chester branch closed its clinic in Birkenhead – which was running at a loss of £20,000 a year – after trustees decided to focus resources on its centre in Cross Lane.At the time the branch, which has been in existence for around 120 years, was said to have just a year’s worth of running costs in reserve.

Now trustees have decided their only option is to reduce staffing costs and an animal welfare assistance scheme.From this week the scheme, which gives treatment for pets owned by people on low incomes, will be replaced by an emergency vet consultation. ... read more..."

Clearly the "newsworthy" aspect of this is the possible closing of the animal shelter and the effect on the branch welfare assistance scheme is glossed over in a way that suggests the reporter didn't understand that the branch previously offered help with the cost of treatment for pets of low income owners and now can only cover the cost of a consultation (meaning the owner must find the whole cost of the actual treatment).

In many parts of the country RSPCA branches are the ONLY source of help available to people who can't afford to pay a private vet. In Cambridgeshire, our animal clinic is the only low-cost veterinary treatment centre for an area of 125 square miles, but in most cases a branch will support access to treatment by providing financial help for owners to use private vets. This is much more low-profile than having a facility of your own and something that's harder to publicise and fundraise for when times are tough.

Very few people allow their animals to starve—but I'm afraid quite large numbers of them simply do nothing about sick animals and justify it to themselves by saying they're not neglectful because they would take their animal to a vet if there was one whose charges they could afford.

Chaos!

2011-11-02T01:24:00.000Z

Phone call yesterday evening from someone concerned that a neighbourhood cat seemed to be unable to stand. She very helpfully offered to transport him to a vet herself, rather than wait until an RSPCA driver could get there. Then, about an hour later, there was another call, this time from the vet's surgery, to say they had the cat and also a stray kitten who'd been handed in.

Sadly the adult cat didn't survive, but the kitten improved over night although she's very snuffly still and anaemic because she had so many fleas feeding on her blood.

Then began what you might think was a straightforward process of moving her for further treatment. Being so small, kittens can improve or go downhill very fast. Yesterday evening, the vets were doubtful whether she'd survive the night, but by mid-morning she was perky enough not to be really in need of inpatient care. Because of the snuffles, there was the added complication that vets don't really want a potential source of cross-infection to other ill patients unless it's absolutely unavoidable.

We don't usually end up calling round our foster homes while an animal is actually in a volunteer's car wondering where to go, but I'm afraid our new volunteer driver had some anxious moments wondering whether he was stuck permanently in transit with a sniffling kitten.

Thank you VERY much to our domestic bird fosterer for stepping in at about 5 minutes notice to provide a safe place with no animals likely to be susceptible to cat germs, and thank you to our wonderful volunteer driver for coping with something we don't normally land on new volunteers!

It does show how essential our volunteers are to making it possible to save animals, and also the importance of having as many individual foster homes as possible to minimise the risks of cross-infection.

If you might be interested in fostering animals for the branch, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk or info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

What a week!

2011-10-28T20:46:00.000+01:00

We put out an appeal for help raising the final part of the £10,000 needed to safeguard the future of our animal clinic on Saturday.

George the three-legged cat is looking for a home

Thanks to the combined efforts of the Cambridge Evening News and Radio Cambridgeshire and the generosity of the public we've more than met our target, meaning we won't default on the agreed payment deadlines. Especial thanks to John Grieve and the staff of Cambridge Veterinary Group, who donated £3,000.

This doesn't mean our problems are over. We're now in a position to be certain we can pay the flat rate basic fee to keep the clinic open and that we will be able to carry on paying it in the next financial year.

We still have the awful dilemma of what we can do to help animals whose owners can't manage even the subsidised rates our clinic charges and animals who need emergency treatment outside normal hours but are not registered.

Fees for operations are paid direct to the University Vet School, who provide hospitalisation facilities for us. Charges are roughly a third of what the owner would have to pay at a private vet, but this may still represent an awful lot of money for someone who is on benefits of £70-odd pounds a week or already in debt.

Unless we can increase our fundraising really substantially, we dare not offer to provide extra help to cover the cost of operations because we can't justify putting the future of the clinic in doubt.

Our agreement with the Vet School means that registered animals can be seen outside normal working hours in an emergency, but animals who have never been to the clinic can't be seen and the only available treatment is at private vets. At the moment we will help in a real emergency that can't wait, but all we can do is to offer to cover the cost of a consultation — the owner must find the money to pay for first aid to stabilise the animal until they can go to the next clinic session. Again, we simply cannot do more than this, and we may have to say we can only cover part of the cost of a consult if fundraising dips again.

Many pet owners on low income seem terrifyingly unaware of how little help may be available if they can't afford to pay vet fees. Our clinic is the only one of its kind in the whole of Cambridgeshire, and the PDSA's arrangements with some private practices all require the owner to register before their pet becomes ill. Callers to our branch help line almost always say, "Can you tell me where to take him?" expecting that there will be free facilities in every town, and there just isn't. Getting this across to a frantic owner is incredibly stressful for the volunteers who run the helpline. Many vets will do their best to avoid putting down treatable animals, but at the end of the day they have to safeguard their businesses' viability or no-one's pets will get treatment.

I'm afraid no government is going to see pets' healthcare as something they are prepared to fund—if communities want their animal members to have treatment available they are going to have to organise and work to fundraise for it themselves.

This is why our shops are so vital, because the income they bring in is something we can increase by our own efforts. Please support them by using them when you shop for clothes; by donating saleable items and remembering to sign a gift aid form if you pay UK income tax.

We need more volunteers, to increase the rate at which we can process donated items and prepare them for sale, and to enable us to increase the shops' opening hours. If you might be able to help, please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk or drop in at one of the shops for a chat with the manager.

New kitchen for Christmas?

2011-10-19T20:05:00.000+01:00

These ex-display kitchen units were very kindly donated to our shop at 61 Burleigh Street by a local showroom and are for sale at £200 for the set of white units and £150 for the white and maple set.

Buyer collects. Very good condition except that they're a bit dusty after being in the showroom. They can be seen at the shop, but as you can see from these pictures they don't look exactly as they would when installed because we've had to stack them up so we can still sell other things.

We're just...

2011-10-18T14:24:00.001+01:00

£3,546.85 below the target amount we need to raise to assure the future of our animal clinic now.

Thank-you to everyone who's worked so hard to get us this far.

Just one final push!

You can donate online by clicking the donate button at the side of this blog, or using your mobile, by texting PETS00 £10 to 70070 to donate £10 to RSPCA Cambridge.

Sadly this won't mean we can stop and rest as we need to carry on fundraising as hard as we can to keep up with the daily calls for our services.

Please keep working on the ten point plan and support the hard work of our shop staff and volunteers in Newmarket and Cambridge.

With your help, WE CAN DO IT!

We've entered our clinic in the NatWest Communityforce grant bid. You can support us by going to http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/299 and voting for us. You need to register on the site to prevent multiple voting and you have three votes, so please also vote for two of the other RSPCA branches which are asking for help.

Animal Welfare Statistics for September

2011-10-17T22:59:00.001+01:00

During September our clinic treated a total of 233 dogs, 110 cats, 12 rabbits and 3 miscellaneous "small furries".

It's pleasing to notice that half of the rabbit visits were for vaccinations (compared with about a third of all visits for dogs and cats), so perhaps the message about the absolutely vital need to vaccinate pet rabbits against myxomatosis is getting through. The number of rabbits is still low considering their status as the third most popular pet after dogs and cats, so I fear many are still being treated as "expendable" creatures not worth the expense of veterinary care.

We rehomed two dogs and four cats: a slow month and probably still reflecting many people's feeling that this is not the right time to take on more commitments.

Blog Action Day 2011 - RSPCA Big Sunday Lunch

2011-10-16T19:59:00.001+01:00

Fancy inviting some animal-loving friends to a veggie lunch on Sunday 30th October?

Why not sign up for the RSPCA Big Sunday Lunch and use the opportunity to raise funds for your local branch or animal centre?

Complete the form in the attached frame to register. You can choose to fundraise for the National RSPCA, your local RSPCA branch, or a local RSPCA animal home, whichever your feel most needs your support.

Note from the Big Sunday Lunch Facebook page:

We expect there will be many different types of Big Sunday Lunches being made for this event so we just wanted to address the whole issue around vegetarianism and choosing higher welfare meat.

The Big Sunday Lunch is for everyone including those who are vegetarian, vegan and those who eat meat. We are very aware that many people who eat meat are regularly ‘sleep shopping’, that is, just buying any type of meat from the supermarket without realising the welfare issues that affect farm animals such as cows, pigs and chickens. We're trying to reach out to people have little or no awareness about these issues so they can make more of an informed choice when buying meat.

A recent survey by the Food Standards Agency in 2009 suggests that the percentage of the UK population that is vegetarian is less than 10 per cent. People choose from their own free will whether to eat meat or not. We're trying to get through to that 90% of the population who do, to encourage them to be more aware of what they are buying and to give them the knowledge to choose higher welfare options. That way we have the highest chance of making a significant difference for animal welfare.

Many people are confused about the labelling on packs of meat and just don’t realise the welfare issues facing farm animals. That is why we would always advocate choosing higher welfare meat which is an assurance that the animal lived a better standard of life.

Injured cat - urgent

2011-10-15T21:48:00.001+01:00

Has anyone in the Mill Road area of Cambridge lost a smallish mostly tabby un-neutered male cat? He's been taken to Companion Care Vets on Barnwell road after a traffic accident and found to have a microchip, but it's a foreign one (believed registered in the Netherlands) so they can't trace the owner.

If he might be your cat please phone Companion Care. Their number is 01223 243535

Hallowe'en at 188 Mill Road

2011-10-15T20:39:00.000+01:00

Spent the afternoon setting up a hallowe'en themed window display featuring a selection of books from our horror, folklore, esoteric and children's sections.

Many thanks to the donors who brought more vampire fiction, as well as lots of other books in beautiful condition, this afternoon - most appropriate to the season.

Our current volunteers are doing a wonderful job keeping the shop running with no paid staff, but we could still do with more people to achieve our target of 7-day opening. We pay rent whether we're open or not, so every extra day's cover is all profit for the animals.
188 is also very important to us as "feeder" for the larger shop in Burleigh street because many donors find it more convenient to leave items here instead of going into town.

If you might be interested in helping at any of the shops, please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk, or just drop in when we're open.

Do you recognise this cat?

2011-10-14T21:04:00.001+01:00

She was found in Longstanton and reported to us as a sick-looking stray. We think she may be hyperthyroid, and she was very matted until the vets groomed her, but otherwise she seems to be old rather than ill. She's a bit wobbly on her back legs, but seems bright and happy.

She was wearing a new-looking collar, but unfortunately with no identification attached and she's not chipped. Someone obviously cared enough to buy her the collar fairly recently.

Priorities again

2011-10-13T17:46:00.002+01:00

Events over the past few weeks once again demonstrate how difficult it is to prioritise in a straightforward way.

Nathan, an apparently young, fit cat who was recovering well, suddenly deteriorated and developed uncontrollable fits which didn't respond to medication.

Saffron, much older, but with someone willing to donate towards the cost of her care turned out not only to have nerve damage and early kidney disease which made it probable that she wouldn't survive an operation on her pelvic injuries, but also positive for FIV.

Conversely, some of the very old cats are now doing well on relatively cheap treatment by medication.

Looking at our situation in a more general way: someone looking at our expenditure with no extra information would almost certainly say we can run our rehoming program or our clinic but not both.

What that basic income and expenditure sheet doesn't show is that, if we closed the clinic, the rehoming program would almost immediately be overwhelmed by people wanting to give up animals because they couldn't care for them. If we closed our rehoming program, we would be closing the part of our activities which the majority of our donors want to support. Quite reasonably, a lot of them wonder why they should subsidise other people to keep pets they can't afford.

Essentially the rehoming program and the provision of veterinary help are complimentary to one another. We need to be able to say to someone who either can't or won't pay anything for their animal's treatment that we will help the animal by providing treatment and rehoming but we won't provide free treatment with no contribution from the owner. We ALSO need to be able to say to owners who are meeting us half-way that we will help them to keep their animals.

And to to do all that there is no substitute for the long slog of fundraising. Please support our ten point plan to keep our clinic open.

Just five minutes completing a gift aid form if you donate items for sale means we will raise an extra 25p for every pound the items sell for.

Hopeful update on surviving pups

2011-10-07T17:07:00.002+01:00

First test results have just come in and they do not have Parvo, Giardia: or Cryptosporidium, so they no longer have to be barrier nursed to protect other dogs from possible contagion, which is a relief and will help to keep the cost of treatment within reasonable limits. They're brighter and starting to be interested in playing, but still not eating well, so the next few days will be crucial.

If anyone would like to make a donation towards their treatment costs this can be done via your mobile.

Text the message PETS00 £10 to 70070 to donate £10 to RSPCA Cambridge. Your phone provider will add £10 to your bill and send £10 to our bank account. If you are a UK taxpayer and you complete the gift aid options we will receive an additional £2.50 at no cost to you.

Alternatively you can donate online using a credit card via

http://www.justgiving.com/rspcacambridge/donate

Update on the abandoned puppies

2011-10-06T20:36:00.003+01:00

They're still hanging on, although the smallest is very poorly with both vomiting and diarrhoea. The vets at the surgery where they were left have very kindly offered to contain costs at £400 for the whole litter so that they can be given the best possible chance of survival. The fact that only the weakest puppy is vomiting gives a bit of hope that whatever infection they have is not parvovirus, which would be the worst scenario.

The pups look as though they are rottweiler crossed with something else, possibly German Shepherd. The person who left them did at least put them somewhere where they'd be likely to be found and given treatment, but this is yet another example of the potentially dire consequences of breeding animals without having the resources to deal with potential problems.

Bottom line: it is enormously more expensive to deal with any of the multiple things that can go wrong with pregnant or very young animals than it is to spay or neuter.

Update 7th October

Sadly the vets contacted us just after midnight this morning to say the smallest puppy had died.

Vinyls!

2011-10-02T19:03:00.004+01:00

Many thanks to the donor of about four hundred vinyl records. We started the mammoth task of getting them out on the shop floor today. We're now about half-way through and have already raised over £70 from the first sales.

Thank-you also to Nicola and Michael who shipped the first two loads over to our Burleigh Street shop and to Anton for going through them checking for the most collectible ones which are likely to be worth more than the rest. I never knew before that some vinyls were made from white plastic instead of the usual black (they look rather like white chocolate) and are collectible because they're unusual.

We hope (if Nicola and Michael can bear it) to transfer the second half next Saturday and put them out on the shop floor at Burleigh Street on the Sunday.

Latest poster of branch animals

2011-09-30T14:06:00.001+01:00

Please download and display if you can to spread the message.

Quarter day blues

2011-09-29T17:54:00.002+01:00

You may have heard dire warnings on the news today that this is the "Quarter day" when most shop rents fall due and small retailers may not be able to meet their payments.

This applies to us too, and I have to admit my heart was in my mouth this lunchtime when I paid in our takings and checked our bank balance. Our shops make a profit for us, but it's a constant juggling act to keep enough money in the bank to be sure of covering their essential outgoings.

Fortunately my own employer has paid me this week, so by putting in a donation which I'll gift aid when I have a few free moments we should have just squeaked through.

Big Thank You to Hatton Park Community Primary School

2011-09-27T17:57:00.000+01:00

I've just received a cheque for £317.59 which the children at Hatton Park Community Primary School raised last year for the RSPCA. This represents an awful lot of hard work by the children (and probably their teachers and mums and dads too!).

We are VERY grateful for all their effort.

Pics of Sarah

2011-09-25T19:21:00.000+01:00

This is Sarah who was found on Cherry Hinton road. We think she probably doesn't have any owner (or at least not someone competent) as she was extremely poorly because of her uncontrolled hyperthyroid condition.

Once her thyroid levels have been stabilised by medication, she should put on some weight.

Cats, cats, cats

2011-09-24T11:56:00.001+01:00

Patch had another checkup at the clinic this morning and she's doing really well, although it's worrying that she seems to be so allergic to fleas that even one bite means an itchy lump that she'll scratch.

She's still on hibiscrub baths twice weekly and is amazingly good about them—probably because they give immediate relief from itches.

In an ideal world she'd be kept in a home with no other animals where it would be relatively easy to make sure absolutely all biting parasites are eliminated. Being an entirely indoor cat would also help as she wouldn't come into contact with hedgehogs or other roaming cats. As things are, I'm upping the frequency of flea treatment for my own cats, and being rigorous about treating the pen she's living in, while being careful to air and dry anything treated with household flea sprays containing permethrin which is toxic to cats if they're directly exposed to it.

However the added complication is that she seems to be mildly incontinent and does sometimes wet her bed at night, which would make it more difficult to keep her entirely indoors. I'm hoping that it may be possible to work on the incontinence problem once her skin trouble is completely under control as the steroid treatment she's on for the allergies will also tend to increase thirst and consequently create a full bladder which then leaks when she's deeply asleep. She's less than a year old and a happy little soul in spite of her problems.

Sarah, the tabby found on Cherry Hinton road with very severe hyperthyroidism seems to have fallen on her paws as the helpful couple who noticed how ill she was and brought her in have offered to foster her for the moment. Younger hyperthyroid cats sometimes make an absolutely dramatic improvement once their condition is under control with medication, so let's hope this will be the case for Sarah.

Hayley, the other hyperthyroid cat, is probably quite a bit older and she seems to be anaemic as well which possibly means she has other underlying issues. She seems well and happy in herself (much brighter than Sarah was when she came in), so the vet's advice is to treat the thyroid problem; worm and de-flea her in case the anaemia is simply parasite related, and see how she goes.

The vets have advised amputation as the best option for the cat with a severe leg injury as they feel the chances of saving the leg are minimal so it wouldn't be fair to put him through surgical repair and possibly have to amputate at a later date anyway.

No news yet on the cat with head injuries sustained in a traffic accident.

If you might be interested in fostering cats (and sometimes other animals) who are recuperating after treatment, please emain rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk for more information.

Ironic

2011-09-23T19:59:00.000+01:00

Someone using the pseudonym Richard Martin has been systematically putting in freedom of information requests to police authorities asking for details about data sharing between the police and the RSPCA inspectorate using the whatdotheyknow website. You can see the progress of some of these if you search the site and responses are starting to filter back now.

The reply from South Yorkshire police is rather interesting (they're explaining why it would take too long to examine every record of communication between the RSPCA and the police in order to report whether information was being given to the RSPCA by the police or vice versa):

"Since 1st Jan 2005 there are 7354 incidents where the phrase 'RSPCA'
appears in the incident somewhere.

In order to ascertain if the incident relates to requests for information
would require checking the incidents.

There are over 380 incidents where the source name or the source location
includes the phrase 'RSPCA' indicating the call has come from RSPCA rather
than SYP requesting RSPCA.

To view the 380 would take over 30 hours based on 5 minutes per incident."

On this basis it appears that South Yorkshire police made about 20 requests to the RSPCA for every one request from the RSPCA to South Yorkshire. It probably doesn't represent a huge proportion of their total workload, but it does suggest that the RSPCA saves quite a bit of public money by dealing with problems that the police would have to pick up if we didn't exist.

Why use volunteers?

2011-09-22T16:35:00.000+01:00

This might seem entirely obvious — we use volunteers to make more money available to help animals — but it's currently a hot topic in general volunteering circles, with some people saying that it's better to cut services than to replace staff with volunteers, and others rather more sensibly arguing that half a loaf is better than no bread and it's preferable to keep a few staff supported by volunteer helpers than making everyone redundant.

From the standpoint of an animal charity I have to admit I find the repeated assertions that volunteers should never, never be seen as "free labour" a bit strange. Volunteers are donating their time and it makes no sense to insist on devising complicated explanations of why this isn't the really important bit of volunteering.

If you're a stray cat with a broken leg, you need a qualified, paid vet to fix it, but you need volunteers to raise the cash that pays the vet.

If you happen to be a merchant banker, it probably would be more useful to us if you bunged us the odd half-million rather than helping out in your leisure time, but, for most of us, volunteering is a way to give the charity a cash equivalent we couldn't afford to donate as actual money from our wages.

Our shops illustrate how this works: we need some paid staff to ensure we can open regularly at the times customers expect, but if all the work involved in running a shop had to be done by paid staff the profit available to use for animals would be minimal, if not non-existant — probably around the 5% received by charities who don't have shops, but get a percentage from commercial "charity bag" collections.

Fundamentally, money is a way of storing the value of work. Whether you do the work directly or donate it as cash, cat food or saleable items, we need your help.

Please visit our shops at 61 Burleigh Street, Cambridge, 10a Market Street, Newmarket, or 188 Mill Road, Cambridge and give us your support.

Volunteers needed at our 2nd hand bookshop

2011-09-19T23:51:00.001+01:00

Many thanks to the hard-working volunteers who've made it possible to open our bookshop at 188 Mill road for two extra days per week—so we can now keep on fundraising on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We still need at least four more people so we can open on Monday and Tuesday, and ideally enough to try opening on Sundays as an experiment.

Mill road is never likely to become busy enough to generate enough income to employ paid staff and still make a profit to fund our animal welfare work (which, after all, is the reason for having a shop at all; there wouldn't be any point if it would actually raise more money if we closed it and I got a second job stacking shelves in Asda and donated the proceeds). However, because rents are low in comparison with more central areas, we can generate really useful funds on a "low input, low output" basis.

Books and CDs need proportionately less manual effort to prepare for sale than the more general charity shop stock, and it's relatively easy to run the shop using amateur enthusiasts. If you love books and reading, there's always something interesting to find among the day's donations.

Don't be daunted by the thought of having to learn to use the till; we arrange training either in the bookshop itself, or up at our main Burleigh Street shop, and there are also back-room tasks that need doing if you really feel it's not your thing.

If you might be interested in volunteering, please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Would you be more interested in flexible volunteering?

2011-09-16T21:50:00.000+01:00

We realise most people are incredibly busy nowadays, and committing to turn up regularly may be a serious difficulty.

Obviously our regular volunteers do have to skip sessions sometimes too when they need to fit in vets' appointments, holidays and so on (we're not slave drivers!)

If you think you can probably only manage to volunteer occasionally, there are still lots of useful things you can get involved with.

Shops

We need the regular volunteers to make it possible to stay open at the advertised times, but there are plenty of back-room tasks which can be started or stopped depending on the number of helpers available.

Behind the person at the till there is a busy team who sort, clean, price and shelve. If they can stack up plenty of items all priced and ready on days when many volunteers are available, one helper can keep up with the shelf-filling when we're short-staffed.

Extra helpers on a Sunday, when sales are comparatively slow, can really benefit the following weekdays by making it possible for Monday to open fully stocked and looking good.

RSPCA Week

We normally average over £20 per volunteer per hour for this collection, which comes round at the end of April each year. If you don't have time to do anything else in the year, just two hours volunteering would mean £40 we wouldn't otherwise have.

One-off stalls and events

Individual jumble, car-boot or table-top sales can raise useful amounts, although they need a fair bit of organisation and some way of transporting sales items.

Annual Dog Show

We need a team of people for the basic organisation, but there are plenty of useful things that can be done on the day itself if you don't have time to come to any pre-planning meetings.

If you might be interested, email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Veterinary treatment again

2011-09-13T21:32:00.000+01:00

We have to get our fundraising up to a level where we can give more help to owners who honestly can't afford the cost of treatment. Unless we can get on top of this, our rehoming effort is almost pointless, while animals who do have homes are dying because there's no way we can provide enough help to save their lives.

Every day our phone line gets desperate, crying owners that we can't help because they are way outside our area or who need far more help with the cost than we can possibly give.

We can't insist these animals are signed over to us, because that would still leave us with huge treatment costs we can't afford to cover. Some of the owners who come asking for help could raise the money if they really tried, but most of them simply don't have it and have no way to borrow because their income's so low they're not good credit risks. The same people are least likely to be able to afford pet insurance, or to have organised pre-registration with the PDSA or with our own clinic.

We can do our best to educate people about the importance of finding out what they need to do to be prepared for emergencies, but there will always be those who don't realise until too late. Unfortunately, the people with least money are likely to be those who are least able to cope with the complications of registering for charity help before their animal is desperately ill and needs immediate help.

Our shops are the best way we have to raise our income. They're already generating funds that cover all their fixed costs, plus the profit which we can use for our welfare work. This means that every extra hour spent volunteering in one of the shops generates money that can all be used to help more animals, because there are no additional running costs (other than the odd cup of tea).

Poole china set

2011-09-11T22:11:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to the donor of this attractive set of Poole china.

£400 for the whole, or we could split it up. There's also a set of blue Midwinter china.

Saturday at the bookshop

2011-09-10T18:40:00.000+01:00

Bulging stock room

Followed by nice, full shelves in the shop

Many thanks for the wonderful donations of books this week, including lots of out of print Penguins, which are very popular.

Stephanie and I are now bent double after hours sifting through sacks of books, but the RSPCA bookshop's shelves are promisingly full.

The shop is now opening Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but we still need to recruit more volunteers so we can cover the full six days, and possibly Sunday too.

If you might be interested in volunteering, please email camshop@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Calls about reptiles

2011-09-09T21:50:00.000+01:00

Common Lizard (Zootoca vivipara)
© Copyright Lairich Rig and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

We're getting a slightly surprising number of calls from people who are concerned about finding lizards in their garden (or straying inside buildings), so I thought I'd try to find a photo showing what species these are likely to be. The only other British lizards are the Smooth snake (a legless lizard) and the much rarer Sand Lizard.

They are entirely harmless to people (in fact beneficial because they feed on insects and slugs) and, at a maximum size of about 8 inches, have much more reason to be afraid of us than we of them.

All species of British lizard are protected by law, and it is an offence to kill or injure them. If one end s up indoors (perhaps attracted by warmth), the best way to remove it is probably to capture it by putting something like a jam jar over it, then sliding a piece of card or paper under the rim of the jar until the lizard is confined. Alternatively you could use a dustpan and soft brush to gently sweep the lizard up and then release it outside.

Lizards have waterproof skin which is dry and scaly to the touch. Other lizard-like creatures you may find locally are various newts. These are amphibia (related to frogs and toads) and their skin is moist. They definitely ought not to be indoors as they will dehydrate and die, but may get in by accident, or possibly be brought in by cats.

Newt
© Copyright Penny Mayes and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

As exotic reptiles become more common as pets, there's the added potential complication of escapees. If you find a lizard that's significantly more than 8 inches long, it may be a lost pet.

Animal Welfare Figures for July and August

2011-09-08T13:29:00.000+01:00

I've got a bit behind with these.

The stats for July are:

Animal treatments: Cats 108, Dogs 238, Rabbits 6, and 4 miscellaneous "small furries"

We rehomed 2 dogs, 11 cats and 2 miscellaneous.

For August:
Treatments: Cats 141, Dogs 295, Rabbits 7 and 3 miscellaneous.

We rehomed 3 dogs, 8 cats, 1 Rabbit and 3 miscellaneous.

Total treatments for the year to date: Cats 813, Dogs 1,970, Rabbits 71 and 28 miscellaneous.

Knackered...

2011-09-04T20:12:00.002+01:00

On reception at the clinic all yesterday morning, with Patch, one of the cats I'm fostering fitted in at the end of the session. The abscess under her eye has healed up nicely, but unfortunately her skin condition is, if anything, worse than ever. She's now on steroids to try to clear up the inflammation and irritation and medicated baths to keep the skin clean and wash off allergens.

This morning I had an anxious call from on of our local "cat ladies", about a probable stray she's been feeding (shown in the picture). We're fairly certain that she's hyperthyroid and that someone has gone to the trouble of getting it diagnosed, because her throat has been shaved at the point where blood would be taken for the test. The major problem is that she doesn't seem to be going home at all, which is very bad news if she ought to be on medication for the condition. The vets were able to feel an enlarged thyroid, and she's got all the symptoms: extreme weight loss while eating ravenously, racing heart, thirst and excessive drinking.

Cycled over at 8 and collected her as the "least worst" option since if we take her in we do at least know for sure what's happening, while if we leave her where she is we've got no way of knowing whether or not she's returning home or getting any treatment at all. Hyperthyroidism is a common problem in elderly cats and is usually treatable with medication, but the longer a cat goes without treatment the greater the strain on her heart and kidneys.

To the charity shop at 11, but not a lot of customers due to the awful weather. This was compensated by lots of incoming donations of items to sell, including two enormous ones including loads of very good crockery, which should go well when the students return. The clothes donations included a bag of towels, which are very welcome with so many foster cats needing washable bedding.

We need to recruit more volunteers to help in the shops. If you are interested, please email camshop@rspca-cambridge.org.uk or newmarket@rspca-cambridge.org.uk (depending on your location).

Gift aid starting to pan out

2011-09-01T21:23:00.000+01:00

After some initial teething trouble, I think we've now basically got the hang of running the gift aid system in our charity shops, and the first actual funds should appear in our bank account 6-8 weeks from now.

If you donate any items for sale and you are a UK income tax payer, please do complete a gift aid form, as it means an extra 28 pence for every pound raised when your donation is sold at no extra cost to you.

The process works on a bar code system. We take a sheet of bar code labels, all labels on a sheet having the same unique number. One label is stuck on your form and the others go on the price tags we put on your donations. When a donated item is sold, we scan the price tag at the till and the amount and donor number are recorded. During the night the till "phones home" and uploads details of everything scanned that day.

Once a reasonable sum has been recorded against your donor number, we print out and send you a letter telling you how much has been raised, and checking that you still wish to donate it to the branch. 24 days later (to give you a chance to demand your money!) we can put in a claim to HMRC for an amount equivalent to the tax you paid on that amount of income.

The need for the letters seems quite wasteful, but unfortunately they are a legal requirement if we want to operate the system, and there is a facility to avoid printing any which would cost more to post than the amount we would gain if we put in a claim.

It all sounds very complicated, but the degree of automation means it's actually harder to explain, than to do. Once the system has been running for a reasonable length of time, it should generate a steady amount of additional income as the gift aid forms come in and our claims go out to HMRC.

Injured cat

2011-08-29T22:07:00.000+01:00

I've just been contacted by the 24hour emergency vet to let me know one of the Animal Welfare Officers has brought a cat in for first aid there. She'll have pain relief and emergency care overnight then one of our volunteer drivers will transfer her to our own clinic for further treatment in the morning. They say they're pretty sure she has at least one broken leg, but I should have more details, including a description, by tomorrow evening.

If a cat goes missing it's important to phone round vets—including the emergency out of hours vet, who may be some distance away—as injured animals are normally taken to the closest available private vet for first aid. Depending on how busy they are and whether the cat is found during the middle of the night, there may be some delay before the local branch is notified.

After a fracture repair operation cats will normally need to be confined for several weeks to avoid putting further strain on the repaired section of bone, which could cause the ends to move out of alignment. They also need to come back to the clinic for periodic re-checks. We are always in need of foster homes where they can be kept during this recovery period as it's a waste of funds and a drain on the kennel staff time to put them into our cattery, and it's also much more pleasant for the cats to be in home-like surroundings where they can have more attention to help pass the time.

If you might be interested in fostering cats for the branch, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

UPDATE:
Sadly she deteriorated in the next few days, and the vets took the decision to put her to sleep as they did not think she would survive an operation to amputate the leg with the worst injuries.

Do you know this cat?

2011-08-28T19:12:00.000+01:00

She was reported to us as a possible poorly stray, but examination showed that the fur on her throat had been recently shaved—most likely in order to do a blood test for hyperthyroidism as her thyroid gland feels enlarged. She's very thin, which is why the finder was concerned and phoned us, but this is probably due to the thyroid condition. As she obviously does have an owner who is attending to her medical care, we released her again, exactly where she was picked up.

If she's your cat, or you know who owns her, we'd be very grateful if you could let us know whether she's returning home regularly for her medication. If not, we can arrange to catch her again and bring her to you.

Good news on Riley

2011-08-25T02:10:00.004+01:00

Her real name is Roxy and she's insured, so her owner is able to take on the cost of her treatment. We managed to get a definite ID as she's chipped, although there was some delay because they'd moved since registering the chip and the phone number listed was no longer active.

Let's hope Roxy makes a full recovery—she'll certainly be more comfortable in her own familiar home surroundings than in a cat pen in a foster home.

We always need to recruit more foster carers for animals recovering after treatment. If you might be interested, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Update on Taylor

2011-08-22T19:35:00.000+01:00

Taylor's swollen pads are better than they were, but still not normal, so I took him in for an appointment with the veterinary dermatologist this morning. He's now on a different antibiotic with slightly lower levels of the steroids for another five weeks and booked for re-exam. then.

As I'd booked the whole day as leave from work, I thought I might as well open up the bookshop for the rest of the afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to take £25 in only two hours. It just goes to show the shop can be a useful asset to generate funds if we can only recruit enough volunteers to open every day.

If you're interested in old books, the shop is a fun place to be as there's always something unexpected turning up—and you do get to read books if you want! If you're looking for something that will help improve your CV, this may be for you, and we do give references for job interviews if we're asked.

If you might be interested in volunteering, please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Sunday at 61 Burleigh Street

2011-08-21T20:56:00.001+01:00

Huge thanks to everyone who donated so much fantastic china and books this week—please keep them coming.

As summer winds down, we could still do with more lightweight summer clothes since, at this time of year, shoppers are more likely to buy from charity shops than spend on new things they'll only wear for a few weeks if they need to replace clothes.

On Saturday we took in another injured cat, Riley, who will need surgery to repair her broken jaw. Your donations and purchases at our shops provide the funds to pay to treat her and other similar animals, so please keep up your support.

If you would like to make a donation by mobile phone to help with the cost of treating Riley, text the message PETS00 £10 to 70070 to donate £10 to RSPCA Cambridge. Your phone provider will add £10 to your bill and send £10 to our bank account. If you are a UK taxpayer and you complete the gift aid options we will receive an additional £2.80 at no cost to you.

(The last two characters of PETS00 are zeros, not letters.)

Village vet open day at Milton

2011-08-20T20:11:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to Village Vets for giving us a free stall at their open day. Attendance wasn't as good as I'd hoped because of the weather (by 3 it was setting in to rain properly and we all bailed out).

However it was all extra publicity for the shops, and several people took bags to collect saleable items for us.

If you would be able to take some of our collection bags to display somewhere (for example at your place of work), please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Just managing decline...

2011-08-18T05:30:00.016+01:00

Bobby needs a home

Is not something we should ever accept.

Currently we are stuck in a series of vicious cycles and unless we can break out and convert them into virtuous cycles things are just going to get worse.

For years RSPCA branches have struggled against a perception that they have almost unlimited resources and are simply being mean when they can't do everything.

We've gone on throwing everything we have into efforts to improve in the hope that finally enough of the animal-loving public will understand we are doing all we can and be won over into giving their support.

Every time we can't do enough someone will go away to tell all their friends that "The RSPCA doesn't care," and, in the next turn of the vicious cycle, our resources are even more limited.

Unless we can turn this round we'll end up in a situation where injured strays are kept alive just long enough to give an owner some chance of locating them and otherwise put to sleep because no-one can afford the cost of treatment. Understandably, vets hate it when this happens and it's probably one of the biggest reasons why so few vets and vet nurses are RSPCA members.

Ultimately, the solution is in their hands. If animal welfare professionals want a different RSPCA it's up to them to join and participate.

We can't offer free treatment to every local pet owner who is on a very low income, but we can give them the option of taking responsibility and registering at our clinic so that they can access low-cost treatment in an emergency.

However hard they work 60-odd volunteers and 200 subscribers have no possible way of satisfying the amount of need that exists. Four thousand people all contributing what they can do to help could bring about a situation where all treatable strays could be saved and found new homes and all pet owners in genuine need could be given access to affordable veterinary treatment.

In some ways the deteriorating animal welfare situation mirrors attitudes behind the rioting in London. People being told there's no point in using democratic options to make their views known because everything's corrupt. Being told nothing they personally can do will help them improve their community. Thinking they're entitled to more and being aggrieved when they don't get it. Believing there's no need to take personal responsibility for anything because someone else will always have to sort things out. Destroying instead of building.

The only way to get anything worthwhile done is to cooperate. None of us can expect to get precisely what we want, but working together gives us a heck of a better chance of getting close.

Volunteer for the RSPCA and learn new skills... hmm

2011-08-13T19:19:00.000+01:00

Very many thanks to the new volunteers who've offered to help at our second-hand bookshop.

WE STILL NEED MORE, so please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk if you think you might be interested.

Volunteering at the bookshop genuinely does mean learning more about the books, music and print trade, how to price items, what will sell and how to present them to best advantage (also use of the till and some general admin skills).

We probably won't ask you to fit a new toilet seat, as Ffi and I have just done that this morning, and also given the kitchen and lavatory a general sprucing up. If you are interested; removing fixing screws that have been in place for something like five years is difficult and involves hanging over the toilet bowl looking as though you are about to throw up.

Many thanks also to the generous donors who brought in huge quantities of books this week.

Please keep the donations coming. This is a shop that can be made to work to generate useful funds if we can only get enough volunteers and attract interest from the local community to get customers through the door and making purchases.

Another stray cat

2011-08-09T21:37:00.000+01:00

He's an un-neutered male and taken to the 24 hour vet under an RSPCA log number from the NCC because he was fitting. They've just phoned to say they think they've got the seizures under control, but he's very dehydrated and they suspect he may have eaten slug pellets or some other poison.

They're giving fluids and hoping there's no permanent damage to his kidneys. He's quite a young cat, but the next 24 hours will be critical.

Running on empty

2011-08-08T22:53:00.000+01:00

Just had a call from the 24 hour vet about an owner with absolutely no money and a pregnant cat who needs a caesarian. There's no way we can cover the cost, and he's going to try the Cats Protection branch, but even if they can help this time, eventually they'll run out of money as well.

Private veterinary surgeries can't work for nothing or they will go our of business. If only the owner had got her cat spayed—CP would have given her a voucher to get it done for nothing, or she could have used our clinic and paid only £35. If she'd done no more than arrange for her cat to be vaccinated at our clinic it would have meant the cat was registered and eligible for emergency treatment at the University Vet School's reduced charity rates.

The small numbers of people who keep animal charities running can't solve these problems on their own. We need support from the competent animal lovers who form the majority of the pet-owning population, and we need to educate the minority to develop at least the minimal forethought to get pets vaccinated and registered with our own clinic or with the PDSA if they're not going to be able to afford a private vet.

Ferrets!

2011-08-07T22:29:00.001+01:00

This cute little family were abandoned on our ferret fosterer's doorstep in a cardboard box.

Ferrets make very friendly, interesting pets but there seems to be a growing trend for thoughtless breeding of litters.

It used to be the case that Jill ferrets had to be bred each year to prevent them suffering from pyometria, but modern veterinary medicine has put paid to that.

PLEASE get Jills spayed (or keep them with a vasectomised male ferret) to avoid contributing to the problem of surplus babies.

If you are interested in giving a home to a pair of ferrets, email davedodds992@gmail.com

Help with veterinary treatment

2011-08-06T18:57:00.000+01:00

After spending all morning on reception at our clinic, I was less than delighted to see someone from London had posted a complaint on the branch Facebook page about the level of service the RSPCA provides to pet owners who can't afford to pay out of hours fees at a private vet.

Unfortunately this is just one aspect of a vicious circle in which we can't raise enough funds to do everything members of the public think we should, which leads to bad publicity and in turn to less funds and more situations where we can't help.

We run the only low-cost animal clinic in the whole of Cambridgeshire, and if we go under something like 2% of the local population will have no source of affordable veterinary help at all. It's absolutely imperative that we persuade more people who care about animals that the RSPCA can't function unless they get involved and help keep our services running.

Part of the problem is that we are dealing with a lot of people who are having difficulty finding relatively small amounts of money. On the whole, someone facing a £2,000 veterinary bill will understand that it's not possible for the RSPCA to cover it. Someone whose animal needs £100 worth of treatment can't understand why an organisation with a £250,000 turnover can't pay for it all, and, indeed, if there was just one person in that situation there would be no problem.

What is completely impossible is finding that hundred pounds every day of the week in addition to carrying on the normal clinic service for registered patients.

It's not as straightforward as saying that people shouldn't have pets unless they are prepared to pay for them, because at the point where they need a vet it's not a choice of keeping the pet or having it rehomed, but keeping it or having it put to sleep. Plus, of course, if everyone who would struggle to pay a £100 vet bill asked us to rehome their pet immediately, we couldn't possibly do that either.

Dogs and Heatstroke

2011-08-05T10:19:00.000+01:00

Sadly we've just had a fatal case of heatstroke in a dog taken to our clinic as an emergency. This wasn't a very old or very young dog and the owner hadn't done anything irresponsible like leaving him in a car.

In very hot, humid weather even young, fit dogs may be at risk of overheating, so I'm reproducing the advice given on the main RSPCA website at www.rspca.org.uk Dogs are less able to cope with high temperatures than we are.

Heatstroke - early warning signs

Heatstroke can be fatal. Do everything you can to prevent it.

Some dogs are more prone to heatstroke. For example, dogs with short snouts, fatter or heavily muscled dogs and long-haired breeds, as well as very old or very young dogs. Dogs with certain diseases are more prone to heatstroke, as are dogs on certain medication.

If dogs are unable to reduce their body temperature, they will develop heatstroke. There are some signs to look for:

heavy panting
profuse salivation
a rapid pulse
very red gums/tongue
lethargy
lack of coordination
reluctance or inability to rise after collapsing
vomiting
diarrhoea
loss of consciousness in extreme circumstances.

Heatstroke - first aid

If your dog shows any symptoms of heatstroke, move him/her to a shaded, cool area and ring your vet for advice immediately. Heatstroke can be fatal and should always be treated as an emergency.

Dogs suffering from heatstroke urgently need to have their body temperature gradually lowered:

Immediately douse your dog with cool (not cold) water, to avoid shock – you could put your dog in a shower and run cool water over him/her, or use a spray filled with cool water and place your dog in the breeze of a fan.

Let your dog drink small amounts of cool water.

Continue to douse your dog with cool water until his/her breathing starts to settle – never cool your dog so much that he/she begins to shiver.

Once you have cooled your dog down you should take him/her straight to the veterinary surgery.

Top tips for warm weather

Your dog should always be able to move into a cooler, ventilated environment if he/she is feeling hot.

Never leave your dog alone in a car. If you want to take your dog with you on a car journey, make sure that your destination is dog-friendly – you won’t be able to leave your dog in the car and you don’t want your day out to be ruined!

If you have to leave your dog outside, you must provide a cool shady spot where he/she can escape from the sun at all times of the day.

Make sure your dog always has a good supply of drinking water, in a weighted bowl that can’t be knocked over. Carry water with you on hot days and give your dog frequent small amounts.

Never leave your dog in a glass conservatory or a caravan. Even if it is cloudy when you leave, the sun may come out later in the day and make it unbearably hot.

Groom your dog regularly to get rid of excess hair. Give long-coated breeds a haircut at the start of the summer, and later in the season, if necessary.

Dogs need exercise - even when it is hot. Walk your dog early in the morning or later in the evening. Never allow your dog to exercise excessively in hot weather.

Dogs can get sunburned too – particularly those with light-coloured noses or light-coloured fur on their ears. Ask your vet for advice on pet-safe sunscreen.

Updates from the "Tweetathon"

2011-08-05T01:28:00.007+01:00

The team aimed to Tweet about 10% of the incidents coming in to RSPCA National Control Centre over a 24 hour period.

Most of the messages are all capitals because this was done by simply copy/pasting from the NCC computer's outgoing feed of incident details (the information which they send out to the field staff for action on the ground).

This is possible because the control centre staff have to summarise the gist of each problem in a few sentences. By serendipity this means the rather elderly Control Centre IT system is an ideal source of Twitter status updates even though social media hadn't been invented when it was first set up.

RSPCA 24/7 Tweetathon

2011-08-03T14:11:00.002+01:00

I've moved up the widget that displays RSPCA_Frontline's twitter feed so that it's more easily visible. Tony Woodley is aiming to display a selection of the incidents reported to the RSPCA National Control centre over a 24 hour period.

The codes E, NE, SE etc. indicate which of the RSPCA regions is the location of the incident.

Please don't forget that many incidents will result in the relevant local branch being asked to provide support in terms of veterinary treatment or care until an animal can be placed in a permanent new home.

You can donate to our branch (RSPCA Cambridge) using text messages on your mobile phone. Simply text the message PETS00 £10 to 70070 to donate £10 to RSPCA Cambridge. Your phone provider will add £10 to your bill and send £10 to our bank account. If you are a UK taxpayer and you complete the gift aid options we will receive an additional £2.80 at no cost to you.

We stagger on...

2011-08-02T21:17:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to everyone who turned out on a damp evening to support our second attempt at holding a valid AGM. We were successful in getting the required seven people elected, so the branch remains in being for another year.

PLEASE! Persuade, badger or cajole your animal-loving friends and relations into joining the RSPCA.

Adult membership is £25, of which £5 is passed on to support your local branch and keep its welfare services running.

My personal goals for 2012 are to see the branch able to:

Save all healthy and treatable animals that we take in for rehoming.
Continue to offer low-cost veterinary treatment for responsible pet owners in financial need.
Offer rehoming as an alternative to euthanasia for pets belonging to owners who cannot afford to pay for even reduced-rate veterinary treatment.

Wildlife

2011-08-02T03:00:00.032+01:00

I usually try to get people who find sick or injured wildlife to call the National Control Centre as the Animal Welfare Officers are better placed to handle them than we are. However I did bike over and collect a hedgehog on Friday as the caller didn't have anywhere safe to shut it in away from her two dogs.

Took Hhog in to the clinic on Saturday when I went in for Taylor's weekly foot examination and the clinician diagnosed probable lungworm infestation and gave him subcutaneous fluids and panacur.

The problem with treating lungworms is that, although panacur wormer will kill off the parasites, it's not good for you to have dead worms embedded in your lungs either. By yesterday evening the hedgehog was obviously worse and he'd also opened up a nasty puncture wound which had fly eggs developing into maggots, so I ran him in to the hospital as an emergency. Sadly, they called in the morning to say he was still deteriorating and recommending euthanasia.

Unfortunately almost any wild animal will be extremely ill or injured before it will let humans get up close, meaning there's a dilemma of whether you are simply prolonging the animal's distress by trying to treat.

On a happier note, Taylor's sore feet are gradually improving and only one still looks really bad.

If anyone has lost a budgie, one was handed in to Village Vets over the weekend and will be adopted by one of the nurses if no-one claims him.

Singing Westies!

2011-08-01T23:20:00.000+01:00

Singing Westies!

I'm sure someone out there would love these.

Press their paws and they sing and do a little jig.

Many thanks to the kind donor and to everyone else who brought items last week.

The response to our appeal has been wonderful, but we need to keep up the momentum if we are to preserve our services, which are in greater demand than ever. It's quite frightening to think that we run the only low-cost small animal clinic in the whole of Cambridgeshire. If we close, many animals will have no source of veterinary treatment at all.

We also have a large collection of very nice collectable china dolls.

Another antifreeze poison case

2011-07-26T13:57:00.028+01:00

Vets have just phoned to let me know the cat who was admitted with suspected poisoning last night has been put to sleep as tests showed that his kidneys had stopped functioning. He was only three years old, and the only consolation is that at least we were able to prevent him dying slowly and in pain.

His owner paid £10 (all the cash she had). I hope that she will pay us back for the rest of the cost of emergency treatment, but obviously it's human nature that there's less incentive when the outcome is a dead pet rather than a live one.

What to do?

Ultimately the only solution is to mobilise the local pet-owning community to understand we can't keep providing services unless everyone helps by doing something, even if they can't do very much.

Ducklings!

2011-07-26T04:46:00.018+01:00

One of our phone rota volunteers also takes in lost birds, but this little group handed themselves in.

Ducks often fly into the built-up areas of Cambridge looking for safe places to nest, and they often find it tricky to get back as the ducklings have to walk.

Releasing the family on the banks of the Cam

Mum and babies swim off into the sunset

Explaining finances

2011-07-20T22:37:00.001+01:00

Cambridge Evening News came over for a photo-session at the clinic today, with a view to doing a follow-up on the feature they did last month. I think they found my explanation of how our finances work confusing, if not positively evasive, and I'm wondering how it can be made more understandable.

Part of the problem seems to be an assumption that most charities have some kind of regular funding, either from grants or donations, which may dip (if the grant is cut, for example), in which case they then have a fixed sum they need to appeal for in order to fill the gap.

In our case, our regular income is generated by our shops. The good thing about this is that it's possible to increase it by working harder. The downside (and what's confusing) is that shops have running costs, so it's possible to have a very impressive turnover (money taken) but relatively modest profit (money generated for use by the charity).

So, for example with our new shop in Newmarket (I've rounded up the figures):

Monthly takings: £6,500

Monthly rent: £2,300

Monthly Wages: £1,000

Rates, heat etc: £300

That still means a net monthly profit over running costs of nearly £3,000 (although you need to bear in mind that we spent money fitting out the shop, so it's not an actual profit until we've fully covered those costs, which we should do in 10 months time).

This is why the shop takings we need to achieve in order to fund our clinic and the rehoming and emergency veterinary treatment are such a lot larger than the costs of the programs themselves.

Once the shops' fixed running costs have been covered, everything else is a bonus, so if we can generate more sales, increase donations of items we can sell and so on, the percentage profit available to finance animal welfare will increase. More sales mean some extra overheads (for example electricity used to heat water for steam cleaning donations), but they're comparatively minor.

Rollercoaster week

2011-07-17T20:10:00.001+01:00

After the high of our dog show, I got home to find Bambi hiding under my bed and obviously not well. Taxi to the 24 hour vet and she was put on a drip to support her liver, but sadly further tests and a scan showed that she'd finally gone into liver failure, 3 years after I adopted her, having been signed over to the branch by her previous owners, who couldn't cope with her medical condition.

Fifteen years isn't bad for a cat who developed a chronic condition at twelve, but I'm torn between relief that she had good quality of life right up to the last few days and sadness that it all happened so suddenly. Cycled over to the vet after working in the shop last Sunday and she's now buried in my garden.

As we approach the holidays, schools and youth groups start to think about end of term activities, and it's excellent that the St Matthews school Brownie pack and Barton Primary school were both kind enough to organise fundraising events to support us. Let's hope the children who got involved will be the RSPCA volunteers and trustees of the future.

Saturday was horribly wet, but today we had one of the best Sundays at the Burleigh St. shop for a long time, taking over £250. Very many thanks to all the people who donated so many really attractive items.

The desperate need to keep funds coming in was made all too clear too, as I had two calls for help with the consultation fee for very sick animals. If we hadn't been here neither of them would have been seen by a vet today.

This always involves very difficult decisions when we're called outside normal consulting hours, and the animal isn't registered with our clinic, as it's so expensive just to be seen and any help we give would go much further if it could wait until morning. Vets can't always tell whether something really is serious by asking the owner over the phone.

Occasionally their judgement can be hopelessly wrong, as happened to me some years ago when a vet assured me the owner was just making a fuss, but in fact the cat didn't survive the night. I felt dreadful, and of course the owner blamed the RSPCA for the cat's death.

Plasma cell pododermatitis

2011-07-14T22:38:00.000+01:00

Poor Taylor and his sore feet enjoyed minor celebrity status at the clinic today with all the students gathering round to see them.

He's got plasma cell pododermatitis, an unusual problem, which fortunately doesn't seem to be as painful as it looks and is relatively cheap to treat. The picture below gives some idea what it looks like (image freely available under GPL from the veterinary dermatitis site).

The pads of Taylor's hind feet are almost completely healed now, and the sore area of his left fore foot is better than it was, but his right forefoot still looks horrible, although some of the swelling has shrunk.
Update (11th January 2012)
Taylor's feet are looking pretty good; slightly puffy and with thinner, softer skin than a normal cat, but no bleeding or splitting. He's been off medication for several weeks with no deterioration so it looks as though his condition can be managed by keeping him in an environment where he's not running on anything hard or sharp and monitoring his feet for any inflammation that indicates he needs another course of steroids.

RSPCA bookshop at 188 Mill Road

2011-07-12T15:45:00.002+01:00

These charming "Four Seasons" and cat prints were donated to our Books and Prints shop at 188 Mill Road.

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Mill Road doesn't really attract many shoppers during the week and the area is becoming more and more just a "dormitory" where people who work more centrally return at night. This means we can't justify paying a manager's salary for the shop, as we'd never sell enough to cover it.

At the moment we can usually only open on Fridays and Saturdays, when we have enough volunteers. I've been on holiday from my paid job for the past few days, so I've experimentally taken in some of the branch paperwork I need to catch up with and done it at the staff desk. Results have been patchy. Thursday afternoon was pretty good, but yesterday was hardly worth the effort, with most people browsing rather than buying.

We do get a lot of good donations, that donors might not make the effort to cart all the way to our Burleigh Street shop, and I would really like to make the effort to keep 188 open for a full six days. If you have an interest in books, music CDs or pictures and think you might like to get involved, even for just a few hours each week, please email volunteering@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Talking Tigger

2011-07-10T19:31:00.000+01:00

Huge Tigger cuddly toy donated to our Burleigh Street Shop. Press his tummy and he talks.

First pics from the dog show

2011-07-09T22:22:00.000+01:00

These were taken from my phone, and some of the people with proper cameras will have better shots, but they do give a feel of how the day went.

In spite of a few heavy showers everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we raised over £500. The Shelford Feast organisers have said they would be happy to consider letting us do the show as an annual event and it looks as though there's lots of scope for improving our total next year with the experience gained from this time.

Rain clouds blowing up

Heroic collector in dog suit

Rehydrating our shaggy dog collector

Face painting

Judging the best veteran

All in all this was a really positive event, with several visitors taking membership leaflets, and some of them taking advantage of the opportunity to get their dogs chipped.

Crisis upon crisis

2011-07-08T10:49:00.002+01:00

Message from Vanessa, one of the Animal Collection Officers, to say she's just dropped off four seven week old GSD X Rottweiler cross pups after getting them signed over to the RSPCA.

Meanwhile, the other side of the county, one of our Inspectors is desperately trying to arrange treatment for an elderly dog owned by an even more elderly gentleman with no money. He's been quoted over £300 at a private vet.

We need more volunteers!

Fosterers, fundraisers, shop helpers, donors... You name it, we need it!

Horrendous morning at clinic

2011-07-05T19:39:00.001+01:00

These pictures are a bit dark, but do at least give some impression of how swollen and sore this poor stray cat's pads had got. The pic immediately on the left is actually the underside of one of his front feet, and you can just see the claws round the outside.

I have a horror of really bad injuries to cats' feet ever since the time I trapped a feral tom who was literally walking on bone because abscesses had rotted away all the flesh of his pads.

To my enormous relief, the vets think this cat's problem is an immune-related dermatitis which is causing horribly painful swelling and bleeding, but isn't destroying the tissue in the way an infection would do.

He's got to go on steroids and antibiotics for a week and be confined in a hygienically-clean cat pen while (hopefully) the open, bleeding wounds heal up. Unfortunately all this will mean he can't be released where he came from as he'll almost certainly need to take steroids for the rest of his life, so he's yet another kitty looking for a permanent home.

The clinic was just non-stop busy, with two difficult questions about clients from long distances which illustrate the enormously worrying vet treatment situation. First was a gentleman who takes in rescue dogs and had been in the habit of using our clinic. Ironically he lives just next to Block Fen animal home in Wimblington, but we just can't allow him to keep registering extra animals. Second, and much more troubling was a couple from just outside our catchment area who'd been quoted £500 (which they didn't have up front) by a private vet to operate on their cat's broken jaw. We can't let them register because the University simply wouldn't accept it if we did, but I'm afraid they will be another group of people who'll go away and tell all their friends that "the RSPCA doesn't care about animals".

I do care; we all care, but we do not have unlimited funds, and, like the PDSA, will be able to help fewer and fewer animals every time someone withdraws support because we can't help with everything.

Update
Three weeks on Taylor's feet look a lot better. The really bad one (shown in the photos) is still red and sore, but the swelling's gone down, and his other three feet look almost completely normal - would look normal if you didn't know what you were looking for.

Animal Welfare Statistics for June

2011-07-04T22:51:00.000+01:00

In June our clinic treated 274 dogs, 106 cats, 13 rabbits and 5 miscellaneous "small furries" - a 6% increase compared with June 2010. We neutered 20 dogs, 3 cats and 5 rabbits, and chipped 13 dogs and 7 cats.

We rehomed 2 dogs and 2 cats, but took in 1 dog and sixteen cats, so we urgently need more offers of permanent and foster homes. Please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk if you are interested in adopting or fostering animals.

Repeat AGM

2011-07-03T19:47:00.000+01:00

We didn't get the 10 members needed to hold a valid Annual General Meeting, so will be trying again on 2nd August. If you are an adult member of the branch you'll receive your notification by post towards the end of this week.

The repeat meeting will be at 61 Burleigh Street, and will be slimmed down to the bare minimum required to elect a committee to keep the branch in existence, so it should only take about 30 minutes.

I very much fear that the problems with branch AGM's are just symptoms of something wider and more troubling. In our area, roughly 5% of the population make use of some of our branch services during the course of a year (this isn't just the clinic; it's also things like helping with injured stray animals, advice and so on and it's not necessarily the same 5% each year).

Roughly 0.2% of the same population are branch members, and roughly 0.02% are active volunteers.

Either we convince more people that we are not a statutory service and without participation there will be no service, or in a few years we will be a "downed branch" with no help for owners with sick animals and minimal ability to rehome animals from the inspectorate.

If you are not a member of the RSPCA, please consider joining. You can do it online by going to www.rspca.org.uk/membership, or pick up a leaflet from any of our charity shops. Membership gives you a vote at branch and national level and means you can (if you wish) stand for election to your local branch committee and to regional and national trustee boards.

Dining table for sale at Burleigh St charity shop

2011-07-02T22:04:00.000+01:00

Varnished pine dining table to seat 6 people, plus chairs, for sale £80.

Wayne and Ffiona managed to collect it from the donor in their hatchback, but you would need a car with the capability of folding down the back seats to take it away.

(The crockery is not included).

So, what needs to be done?

2011-06-23T01:49:00.100+01:00

Really not a huge amount per individual person. Our current problem is that the number of people who see the RSPCA as a service to be used is just too big in comparison to the number of volunteers who are struggling to provide the service.

If 400 extra people donated just one carrier bag of saleable items at any of our charity shops, it would raise £4,000
If they all completed a gift aid form that would add another £1,000.
If 20 people with an interest in books and reading volunteered for half a day each week at our 2nd hand bookshop on Mill road they'd raise an extra £12,000 each year.
If 5 more people volunteered for half a day each week at our Burleigh St shop they'd raise an extra £200 per week — £10,000 over the course of a year — by increasing the rate at which donations could be processed for sale.
If 100 extra people visited our shops each week and all made just one purchase at each visit it would raise £13,000.
If 200 people from our branch area did nothing other than join the RSPCA, we would have £1,000 as our share of their subscription fees.
If 20 of them regularly attended our AGM each year we wouldn't have the annual worry that the AGM would be invalid and need to be held again, due to low turnout.
If 2 of them were prepared to join our committee it would mean we could be certain of having enough trustees to comply with the regulations for a valid RSPCA branch.
If 100 people each volunteered to collect for just one hour during RSPCA week (and were prepared to collect their tins etc. from us rather than having one of us deliver it to each of them) they'd raise £2,400.
If ten people each got together with friends and organised their own fundraising event (coffee morning, open garden, car boot sale etc.) they'd raise £1,000.

That would secure the basic fee we have to pay for veterinary services at our clinic and mean our existing fundraising activities would comfortably be able to cover the additional costs of boarding and rehoming injured strays and cases from the Inspectors and ensuring that animals needing surgery could be treated.

Desperately worrying

2011-06-21T23:10:00.004+01:00

Vets' charges seem to be going through the roof. We've just been quoted £400 for an x-ray on one of our rescue dogs to confirm that her broken leg is now healed. We may be able to get some reduction by shopping around, given that there's no desperate urgency to have it done immediately as it's simply confirmation she can stop being kept on restricted exercise. However it's a desperately worrying trend as it must indicate that an owner with no pet insurance is facing a £2k bill if their dog breaks a leg, which must mean that, for many dogs, a broken bone is now a death sentence.

Anyone who reads Cambridge Evening News will have seen the excellent write up they gave for our clinic's 75th anniversary. I originally wanted my quote about the situation of our clinic to say that around 4,000 animals are at risk of being put to sleep by their owners if we can't raise the money to stay open, but was advised to change that to say they were at risk of needing to be rehomed to avoid the possibility that, "RSPCA says 4,000 pets will be put down" would become the story. I'm not totally sure I was right to agree, because I think there's danger in trying to minimise the real situation, so as to put over a positive story, because it means no-one takes us seriously until we actually do fall off the cliff.

Ultimately it's not physically possible for 43 volunteer workers to raise enough money to fund a service for over 3,000 people and we're very close to the point where we either succeed in recruiting more help or everything simply falls apart.

Update
I see from their Facebook page that the PDSA are evidently in difficulties too as they appear to be having to be more restrictive about the conditions to access treatment at their clinics.

Walkies?

2011-06-21T05:10:00.038+01:00

We periodically get enquiries from people needing help with socialising (rather than training) young dogs, so I was interested to find there is a local group who organise monthly communal walks: Big Walkies. Most of their events seem to be concentrated around St. Ives, where the main organisers live, but they do list some walks in Milton Country Park, and I would imagine they may schedule more this side of the county if they get enough interest.

Membership is free (they request a donation of £1 per dog per walk to cover admin costs), so this may be an option for people who can't afford formal dog training classes but want to encourage their dog to develop a positive attitude to other dogs.

They have some sensible Terms and Conditions which walkers are expected to comply with:

Ensure that any dog(s) I bring to Big Walkies will be fully vaccinated.
Have valid pet insurance for any dog that I bring with me OR agree to financial liability for any injuries received by myself or my dog, as my pet is uninsured. (If your dog happens to cause/receive injury on a walk we encourage that any costs occurred are claimed via your pet insurance or via the civil court. Big Walkies accepts no liability for personal or dog injuries).
Have full control and responsibility for any dog(s) that I bring with me to Big Walkies.
Ensure that any dog(s) I bring has a fair temperament (due to member safety we cannot accept known aggressive dogs on our walks. We are here to help dogs socialise, but will not take any unnecessary risks therefore if a dog becomes aggressive/causes injury towards either another dog or a person on the walk they will be asked to muzzle their dogs on future walks or even asked to leave Big Walkies group).
Ensure that any mess that the dog(s) that I bring to Big Walkies creates is picked up and disposed of legally by myself.

(Disclaimer: as always, the RSPCA can't take responsibility for events that are organised by someone else).

2011-06-20T15:58:00.002+01:00

Just donated at Burleigh St

2011-06-19T20:39:00.000+01:00

This pic doesn't give a really good impression of how large these dolls actually are. They're porcelain with attractive costumes—rather the kind of doll little girls had in Victorian novels, although I think these are much later replicas.

Many thanks to the generous person who brought them in.

Who owns Tinker?

2011-06-18T18:59:00.000+01:00

I'm fostering a very elderly fluffy grey cat who must have an owner out there somewhere as she's wearing a collar that looks almost new and is in good body condition considering her age - vet estimates at least 15+.

Unfortunately she's not chipped and her collar has a bell but no tag.

Cats!

2011-06-13T01:34:00.051+01:00

I don't know what's got into the cat population of South Cambs. Over the past seven days we seem to have had nothing but calls about sick or injured strays, mostly turning out to be very old cats with "senior citizen" problems rather than traffic injuries or infections.

I can only think that some of them are ones who don't go out unless the weather is really nice so that the neighbours don't normally see them. Many old cats do look thin, so from the neighbours' perspective it's not unreasonable to assume that the unknown cat suddenly appearing in their garden is lost and thin through lack of food. At least two of the current crop turned out to have owners who were very distressed that their pets had apparently been "kidnapped", and of course it's potentially quite dangerous if cats who are on medication are removed and don't get their pills at the correct time. There's also the worry that some owners may not know how to search for missing cats—unless they phone round vets and animal homes rather than relying on putting up posters they may never trace a cat who's been picked up as a stray.

I can't stress enough how important it is to ask around and put up notices before insisting that animal welfare charities should take away an apparently stray cat who is simply thin and somewhat unkempt-looking, rather than having any obvious injuries or infections. Removing an owned elderly animal is stressful and potentially dangerous to the cat and can cost the charity hundreds of pounds repeating veterinary tests which the real owner may already have had done.

Volunteer Opportunity: animal fosterers

2011-06-12T01:11:00.048+01:00

We urgently need to recruit more volunteer foster homes for animals who are recovering after treatment.

These are usually cats (some dogs) who are recovering after surgery to repair broken bones and need to be confined in a cage to prevent them from running or jumping until the bone has healed. This is essential because the repaired section of bone remains fragile for several weeks after surgery and can break again if it's subjected to sudden force from violent movement.

Ideally fosterers would be fairly close to Cambridge as most of the animals will need to come back to our clinic there for several re-checks before they are full fit.

If you think you might be able to help by fostering animals, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Volunteer opportunity: Phone Rota

2011-06-11T00:31:00.021+01:00

We need helpers with answering our emergency contact number on a rota basis.

This would involve having calls forwarded to your own telephone for an agreed period - e.g. every Wednesday between 9 am and 1 pm.

The most important reason for maintaining the rota is to make it possible for clinic clients to phone in for an emergency out of hours appointment if their pet has a problem that can't safely be left until the next normal clinic session. This is why we try to make sure that someone is available to pick up an incoming call within ten minutes.

Other calls are mainly from members of the public needing help with animal-related problems and many can be solved by putting them in contact with the main RSPCA control centre, dog warden service etc.

The rest can usually be divided into ones asking for information about using the animal clinic (e.g. opening times, charges, what proof of benefit is required) and requests for help with out of hours veterinary emergencies where the owner is not able to pay for a private vet to treat their animal.

Full training will be given.

Animal Welfare Statistics for May

2011-06-09T22:13:00.000+01:00

Badger is looking for a home

During May 2011 our clinic treated 245 dogs, 81 cats, 9 rabbits and 8 miscellaneous "small furries". We neutered 12 dogs and 6 cats and chipped 9 dogs and 6 cats. We rehomed 3 dogs, 4 cats and 2 guinea-pigs.

I'm getting more and more despondent about the number of desperate calls we receive from areas so far outside our catchment area that there's no practical way we could possibly agree to see them. Most recent was from Croydon in Surrey, which I think I was able to help by putting the caller in touch with a PDSA clinic closer to her home. More worrying was from a private vet clinic near Peterborough, whose receptionist was phoning to ask where she could send a client with no money to get his pet treated free, and was shocked to find the answer is: there isn't anywhere. Unfortunately I'm very much afraid more and more vets are having to make a choice whether they will put down treatable animals, or give owners time to pay, knowing that many never will.

Dealing with ringworm in shelters

2011-06-09T00:15:00.014+01:00

There's an authoritative fact sheet about ringworm control in a shelter setting on the UC Davis Veterinary School's Shelter Medicine site. Be aware that it's based in the US, so some of the veterinary preparations mentioned may not be available in the UK. However it does give a very clear explanation of exactly why ringworm is so difficult to deal with in a situation where there is continual pressure to take in more animals who will suffer or die if no space is found to house them.

Learning from the misfortunes of others

2011-06-08T01:00:00.024+01:00

For shelters and animal centres

Most obviously the importance of avoiding panic actions and the importance of using the best scientific evidence to confirm exactly what is happening.

For those in charge of health and safety decision-making

The need to respect the emotional well-being of staff and volunteers—in terms of unhappiness and stress the efforts to protect workers were probably much more harmful to them than the original infection risk.

For animal advocates

Treating large animal charities as if they were quasi-governmental bodies makes things worse. One of the reasons why OSPCA was reluctant to go down the route of expensive treatment and testing to eradicate the infection was a genuine shortage of funds (like the RSPCA they have a lot of money, but spread very thinly due to the demands put on them). And one of the reasons why large animal charities are short of resources is because they're treated as though it's self-evident that they already have enough funds.

Too many animal advocates try to punish the large charities for not having enough funds, or set up organisations to "fill the gaps", so diverting resources away from the animals in most desperate need of help.

Bottom line: the majority in society as a whole dislikes cruelty and wants it stopped, but it does not feel the same intense bond with animals that we do. Transferring SPCA functions to government or local authorities would almost certainly mean more, not less, pressure to be "realistic" and "responsible" (for example to accept killing as the quickest way to eliminate ringworm and reduce the risk of human infection). Demands that the government "does something" to make animal charities more accountable are quite likely to translate into requirements for higher calibre (and therefore more highly paid) management.

One of the volunteers at the Ontario shelter has a blog, though, sadly, it looks as if she got disheartened and stopped posting in July last year.

I think one of her last posts is so important for the general truths it has to say about working to protect animals that I'm reproducing most of it here:

"The shelter will, once again, fill up, and those animals will need our help. I don't agree with their decision, but I do believe in the organization's long-term goal of making sure each and every pet finds a safe forever-home. Thousands of animals have been successfully adopted from the shelter, and with your assistance, more will be adopted in the future. If we truly want to make a difference, we have to educate our kids, friends and neighbours -- don't let your dogs or cats wander, neuter and spay them, and report all cases of abuse.

Volunteer. Be a part of the team that will make sure this never happens again. And if you're as heartbroken as I am, then just imagine how this has destroyed the souls of the wonderful staff who care for the animals each day. They deserve our support and encouragement. I don't know how they will deal with the emotional fallout from what has happened."

Ringworm and animal shelters

2011-06-06T23:48:00.102+01:00

The Ontario SPCA in Canada has just published the findings of an independent investigation into the handling of ringworm cases at their York region branch last year. It's extremely long and detailed (the link above goes to the summary), but contains lots of very important discussion, not just about how shelters should deal with the issue of ringworm infection, but also about the role SPCAs play in society.

One thing that comes over very strongly is that the report's co-authors (the former Dean of Ontario Veterinary College and the former Chief Justice of the Ontario Superior Court) essentially looked at everything the SPCA was struggling to do and recoiled saying no-one could possibly cope with it all on the kind of budget they have available.

Ontario SPCA is one of the few SPCAs round the world which have statutory powers and duties to investigate and prosecute animal cruelty entirely independently of the police. It also has virtually sole responsibility for stray animals and apparently an open-ended commitment to take in unwanted animals. Unlike the RSPCA it does get some government funding for its law-enforcement role, but the amount is quite low.

This means its shelters are continually under pressure to house the unwanted and strays and also any animals taken into care as a result of ongoing investigations and prosecutions. Recent legislation imposes conflicting obligations to take all possible measures to prevent spread of disease, while forbidding vaccination of incoming strays because there is no way to get the owner's permission.

Ringworm is particularly frightening to any shelter because it can infect humans as well as most other mammals, but it is a fungal disease (nothing to do with worms) which normally causes nothing more than self-limiting skin disease (possibly no visible disease at all) in healthy people and animals.

This means there are really serious moral issues about dealing with cases in a shelter. On the one hand it's essential that the disease is contained (no-one is going to adopt from a shelter if it means all your children end up itching and scratching). On the other hand it's very difficult to justify extreme measures, like mass culling, to control something that the vast majority of people and animals will throw off with quite minor treatment.

In OSPCA's case the misery seems to have been compounded by the inherent inaccuracies in scientific tests for ringworm which meant shelter management could never be quite sure whether it was still present or not. The final straw came when staff and volunteers had become so distressed by the probability it would lead to animals being killed that they were refusing to notify management of possible human ringworm infections they were experiencing themselves. This was illegal under Ontario's Health and Safety legislation and the Ministry of Labour then stepped in.

The independent investigation was set up in response to a campaign against the shelter sparked off by reports that all animals currently in its care were to be euthanased in order to stamp out infection. The failings which it did expose seem likely to fuel further campaigns and I think it's likely these will have the opposite effect from that intended by reducing funding for the shelter while increasing the amount of resources they have to divert into health and safety compliance, and possibly requiring them to set tighter limits on the numbers of animals they can house.

It seems likely that there never was an "epidemic" of ringworm and that the infection was in fact limited to the original group of very matted long-haired cats who had been taken in at the start of the incident.

Ironically this report comes out as the e-coli salad vegetable incident demonstrates just how difficult it is to pin down the origin and spread of disease, even with all the resources of a government health department.

Incidentally, infections are not a one-way-street: animals can sometimes catch nasty bugs from humans too.

Next dog show planning meeting Thursday 16th June

2011-06-03T14:03:00.001+01:00

Holly and Graham, winners of our last show

This will be a combined dog show planning and volunteers meeting at the Corner House Pub, Newmarket Road, Cambridge, starting at 7.30pm.

Anyone interested in helping with the dog show on 9th July, or volunteering with the branch in general, would be very welcome. The Corner House does excellent veggie or non-veggie meals if you would like to eat as well as chat.

Adding up the costs

2011-05-30T01:22:00.113+01:00

Some days I really worry that I am channeling the Reverend Arthur Broome, famous as the original founder of the RSPCA — but also for being thrown into the debtors' prison when he couldn't raise enough cash to cover the Society's outgoings.

Everyone seems to feel entitled to something from us, and it is rapidly getting to a point where things are completely top-heavy, with the number of people who think we should be doing, or paying for, something hugely more than those who want to help our work.

Part of the problem is that there is no useful feedback to animal owners to impress on them that they must do some planning about what they'd do if their pet was ill or injured. So many have no idea it may cost £100 just to have their animal seen—not treated—by a vet, on a Sunday or bank holiday. At that point tears and pleading won't do any good; lots of them genuinely don't have the ability to lay their hands on that amount of money at short notice.

If I'm unlucky and we get five of them in a day, then it's £500 spent that we can't afford—and most probably the animals will be put to sleep because actual treatment would have meant another £200-£600 that the owner doesn't have. Those five individual owners may have learned a terrible lesson (or they may simply go away thinking their pet died because we didn't care enough to pay the whole amount for treatment), but it doesn't have any impact on all the other people out there with pets and little or no money.

So it's going to keep on happening again, and again, and again so far as I can see unless we can get on top of a system that gets treatment for the animal but does enforce some payback from the owner. Sadly hardly any vets will allow payment by instalments now, because people don't pay, so the animal charities are the only available solution.

It's no good saying it's the owners' responsibility to have enough money; or to take out insurance; or that they could have saved enough by cutting out holidays, because what matters is having the money available on the day, which most of them don't, and it's the animals who pay the ultimate price.

Looking back over the past few months I am wondering whether the figures for euthanasia of unwanted animals are an almost pointless statistic because far greater numbers of treatable animals are being put to sleep through lack of funds, or, worst of all, dying in pain because they never even reached a vet. I'm almost certain that some owners ring up a surgery; are told the charge is £100 and just give up and wait for the animal to get better or die.

Sadly, I think being told their pet is going to be killed because they can't produce the money for treatment is the first experience many people have of facing up to responsibility that no-one else is going to sort out for them. All their lives they're being told they can't be expected to deal with things because they're disadvantaged, then suddenly they're slammed against the reality that their animal depended on them and no-one else is going to help—except us, and we simply can't raise enough money to do it.

The two giant chess pieces

2011-05-29T01:19:00.009+01:00

These giant chess King and Queen pieces were donated to our Burleigh Street shop last Sunday.
(Update: now sold).

RSPCA Cambridge

The perfect Valentine's day gift?

Please display this poster if you have a suitable location

Animal Welfare Statistics for 2011

Cats update

Two injured cats taken in

Gift Aid: Thank You Everyone!

Identifying a wheaten terrier

Little tabby cat

More freakonomics

Cats, Dogs and freakonomics

Clinic opening hours over the holiday

Tuesday 27th Dec: Closed Wednesday 28th Dec: Closed Thursday 29th Dec: OPEN Saturday 31st Dec: Closed The emergency out of hours service will be available throughout the holiday period - please phone the contact number on your registration card.

Basil off to his new home

Late Night Shopping

A glimpse into the canine underworld

Pics from Mill Road Winter fair 2011

6 am this morning...

Veterinary treatment again

Animals In War Memorial on StreetView

Spend at our shops and help keep animals in homes this Christmas

Pumpkin's Progress

Christmas is coming!

Look out on Burleigh Street tomorrow!

Welfare assistance

Chaos!

What a week!

New kitchen for Christmas?

We're just...

Animal Welfare Statistics for September

Blog Action Day 2011 - RSPCA Big Sunday Lunch

Injured cat - urgent

Hallowe'en at 188 Mill Road

Do you recognise this cat?

Priorities again

Hopeful update on surviving pups

Update on the abandoned puppies

Vinyls!

Latest poster of branch animals

Quarter day blues

Big Thank You to Hatton Park Community Primary School

Pics of Sarah

Cats, cats, cats

Ironic

Why use volunteers?

Volunteers needed at our 2nd hand bookshop

Would you be more interested in flexible volunteering?

Veterinary treatment again

Poole china set

Saturday at the bookshop

Calls about reptiles

Animal Welfare Figures for July and August

Knackered...

Gift aid starting to pan out

Injured cat

Do you know this cat?

Good news on Riley

Update on Taylor

Sunday at 61 Burleigh Street

Village vet open day at Milton

Just managing decline...

Volunteer for the RSPCA and learn new skills... hmm

Another stray cat

Running on empty

Ferrets!

Help with veterinary treatment

Dogs and Heatstroke

Updates from the "Tweetathon"

RSPCA 24/7 Tweetathon

We stagger on...

Wildlife

Singing Westies!

Another antifreeze poison case

Ducklings!

Explaining finances

Rollercoaster week

Plasma cell pododermatitis

RSPCA bookshop at 188 Mill Road

Talking Tigger

First pics from the dog show

Tuesday 27th Dec: Closed
Wednesday 28th Dec: Closed
Thursday 29th Dec: OPEN
Saturday 31st Dec: Closed

The emergency out of hours service will be available throughout the holiday period - please phone the contact number on your registration card.