No wonder there's a credit crunch

Opening a bank account (to invest the funds we don't need to spend right away) is much more difficult than you might think. Just setting up a second interest-bearing account with the bank we already use for the current account involves two personal visits, a form covering 6 sides of A4 and signatures of two trustees. Creating a completely new deposit account with a bank that doesn't have any track record with us means a 24 page form, providing personal banking details and addresses of three trustees, signatures of three trustees and giving the names of all the other trustees.

I suppose it does make money-laundering more difficult, but I am beginning to feel that a sock under the bed would be less time-consuming. 

Newmarket shop refurbishment

Our shop at 156 High Street, Newmarket will be closed on Friday and Saturday this week (12th and 13th September) for refurbishment and will re-open again the following Monday, 15th September. Many thanks to Lorna, Sharon and their team for all the hard work they've put into making the shop such a success. We hope that the improvements will lead to even better sales in the future.

So far this year the shop has made a net profit of £5,500 towards the work of the branch.

More and more cats

Elderly all-black female with probable thyroid trouble handed in from Tennison  Road area; very thin dark tortoiseshell with suspected kidney failure in via Vet24. Plus a returnee originally rehomed in June who didn't get on with the existing resident cat.

On the upside, one of the vets got so fond of the kitten with the ruptured diaphragm and fractured leg that he's going to adopt her, and the cat with two broken hind legs is being fostered with a view to adoption if he gets on with the pair of resident cats.

August Figures

A very slow month for rehoming: only three cats and one bird. We provided veterinary treatment for 227 dogs, 122 cats, 8 rabbits and 12 miscellaneous animals and neutered 15 dogs and 8 cats.

Total outgoings were £12,409 and we raised £8,411 with shop takings still rather depressed although total sales at the Cambridge shops were up £800 compared with July.

RSPCA Rescue dog of the Year Show

You can vote for Rescue dog of the year on the RSPCA website from Monday 8th September.

Due to various mishaps and shortage of helpers we didn't manage to run a heat in 2008 and we need to be starting our planning now if we're going to run one in 2009. If you might be able to help, please email either of the two Rosemarys. There's some further information about what's involved on the branch website. You don't need any special training or experience - except that if you have any experience of judging and would be willing to volunteer to judge "fun" classes we would love to hear from you. Helpers are needed to serve on stalls, make and serve refreshments, act as judge's runners, book in dogs etc. etc. We'd like to get together a small team who would be prepared to get together for monthly planning meetings. Previously we've tried to make arrangements during our normal branch committee meetings and it's never been a success because it just means we don't have enough time for either the show or the committee business to be discussed properly.

Myxomatosis

Spring and Autumn are high-risk periods for myxomatosis in the UK. Rabbits who are not regularly vaccinated (most vets recommend vaccination at 6 monthly intervals) are at high risk of contracting the disease and dying. This is the case even if your rabbit does not normally go outside and you live in an urban area, because the virus is spread by biting insects, such as mosquitos and midges.

Breeding like... Rabbits!

Most of our intake of unwanted rabbits are fostered with the rabbit residence rescue who have suitable facilities to keep rabbits long-term with a good quality of life until they are adopted. They've just had an influx of 21 unwanted bunnies - mainly the result of people allowing a pair to breed, then not separating the babies so they all breed... until the result is a nightmare of over-crowding, fighting and stress.

If you are thinking of getting a pet rabbit please do not buy one from a pet shop. In fact don't get one rabbit - they are highly social animals who will not be happy alone. (The slightly sinister-sounding reference to "bonding" in Rabbit Residence's introduction refers to the process of pairing up two neutered rabbits so that they become good friends).

If you already have rabbits and urgently need to get them neutered to prevent further population growth and are on benefits: we can help with the cost. If you live within reasonable traveling distance of Cambridge, the most economical choice is to use our clinic (see the article on neutering below this one). If you cannot get to the clinic, or if you need to get your rabbits neutered immediately rather than going on a waiting list, then we can send a voucher for part of the cost of having the operation done at a private vet. You need to be resident within our branch area (see the map on the side-bar). To ask for a neutering voucher email neuter@rspca-cambridge.org.uk - giving your name, address to send the voucher and the name of the vet you want to use.

Low cost pet neutering

If you are on state benefits (including working tax credit and pension credit, but not child tax credit on its own) and live within our branch area, you are eligible to have your pets neutered via our animal clinic in Cambridge. This is not free, but is significantly cheaper than the cost a private vet would have to charge.

The Wednesday morning session (9 am - 10.30 am) is reserved for pre-neutering checks and vaccinations, so is the best time to bring your animal along to be booked onto the waiting list. Charges are £55 for a bitch, £40 for a dog, £35 for a female cat, £20 for a male cat. We can also neuter rabbits and ferrets at the same charge as for a cat. Payment must be made in advance, and your pet will be given a health check to see that they are fit enough to have the operation. Once this has been done, your pet will be added to the waiting list and called in when they reach the top of the list (currently this is a few weeks).

Dogs and cats should be at least 4 months old before they can be checked to go on the waiting list for neutering. If a bitch is in season or just finishing a season she can not be put on the waiting list, but should  come back for a vet check to be put on the list in about 2 months. 

Ideally bitches should be neutered 3 months after their last season.

Neutering will prevent the birth of unwanted offspring who may not find good homes and it also has important health benefits for your pet - particularly in the case of bitches and female ferrets and male cats. Another great benefit in the case of rabbits is that it enables a male and female to be kept together as a pair which will make them much happier and more contented.

Experimental Lost Cat Notification Form

There's now an experimental form to enable us to receive information about missing cats on our branch website at http://www.rspca-cambridge.org.uk/testlost.html

This is only useful for missing cats within our own branch area (see the sidebar), and I strongly recommend that you also contact other local animal welfare organisations and vets by telephone. The main aim is to give us a sensible list of missing animals instead of lots of scrappy notes on pieces of paper that get lost or are unavailable because they're in the wrong jacket pocket!

Kittens!

Having been inundated with adults throughout the summer we now have kittens as well. If you could spread the word we'd be grateful as the sooner we find homes the better whilst they're still young.

Details are as follows:

Lynx (silver tabby) and Tiger (black) - about 7 weeks old. Were quite nervous but now coming on well but could do with getting into a home for more socialisation ASAP.

Bubble, Squeak, Fleck and Speck - 3 black and whites and one black kitten - about 11 weeks - not sure of sexes of them. Very friendly and good with stefs children. Could be homed in pairs. (pics attached)

We also have 4 black/dark tortie kittens who are about 6 weeks are also at a cattery in Peterborough (because our local cattery was full).

If you would be interested in adopting any of them, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Two more cats

One with both hind legs broken, but a reasonable prognosis that they can be operated on with an implant screwed across the broken sections to hold them together (The implant is basically a titanium plate, not too different from the "mending plates" carpenters use to join pieces of wood). The other is more problematic because she has a ruptured diaphragm which will need surgical repair.

Many thanks to the nurses at Arbury Road vets, who brought her down to our clinic themselves when time was too short to organise a volunteer driver.

Hamster of the day

This is Hammy, who is a fairly young Syrian hamster. He does nip!

If you might be interested in adopting him, please email rosemary@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

July statistics

Just got the records for July collated. During the month, our branch:

Provided low-cost veterinary treatment for 205 dogs, 115 cats, 11 rabbits and 14 miscellaneous small animals.

Rehomed 4 dogs, 3 cats and 2 birds.

Microchipped 11 dogs and 10 cats

Neutered 13 dogs, 12 cats and a rabbit

Our total outgoings were £16,904 (this amount also covers wages for our three shop staff, rent for the charity shop in Newmarket and our annual audit fee). We raised £7,811, mostly from sales at the charity shops and clinic fees.

Protecting animals from suffering

Call last night from the daughter of an gentleman in great distress because his elderly jack russell was in great pain to the extent that he wasn't able to pick the dog up. These situations always seem to happen at weekends and, quite apart from the increased financial cost of getting out of hours treatment, very few vets are now able to make home visits. Sadly this is a reflection of the times we live in, and the potential liability of their employers if staff members are attacked or injured during a call-out. We were fortunate that Royston Veterinary Centre is one of the few local vets who still do call-outs in their area and that they don't use another veterinary practice for their out of hours cover.

We keep statistics of the numbers of animals which are put to sleep at branch expense and these are reported annually in the combined Annual Report of the society, together with the numbers of animals rehomed or given veterinary treatment. Euthanasia tends to be seen as a situation where the RSPCA has failed to help an animal and I believe we need to challenge this. It certainly is a failure of animal welfare if healthy animals who should have their lives ahead of them are put to sleep. We have not failed when we ensure that animals who have reached the end of their natural lives are released from suffering and indignity instead of dying in pain and fear.

Investments

The RSPCA has an ethical investment policy - basically that society funds shouldn't be invested in anything which causes harm to animals (as that would negate the point of having them, anyway). Putting this into practice isn't exactly as straightforward as it might seem, as I've been finding out.

If you have large amounts of money that you can tie up for several years, there's no problem getting a tailor-made investment package where your funds are invested in companies which fit whatever criteria you specify. For smaller amounts (where "small" means less than about £500,000) it's only really feasible to put your money into existing schemes, and in our case it appears that the only really viable choice is between building societies (you know the funds are invested in property) and the Co-operative Bank (they have a pre-existing list of sectors where they won't invest depositors' money). It's looking as though the Co-op is going to be the right "home" for the money we know we won't need to touch for at least a year.

Unfortunately this doen't completely solve our problems as the Co-op doesn't have many branches where our shops and volunteers can bank cash takings, so it wouldn't be practical to transfer our current account there. We probably also need to maintain some cash on short-term deposit at our current bank because we need to be able to transfer money quickly into the current account when necessary.

I sometimes get asked rather aggressively "what companies do you invest your funds in?" - with the implication that we're probably funding smoking beagles and cosmetics testing. It always sounds rather evasive to say "that's not how banking works", but I'm afraid that's the actual truth. We're not big enough or rich enough to be investing in individual share holdings.

Fleas!

Another two cats — and a first for one of our inspectors, who wound up so covered in fleas that she had to bin her outer clothes and spray herself with insecticide before heading home for a complete shower and change. I wonder if Frontline is licensed for use on humans? Goodness knows what state the poor cats must be in after being shut in with that number of blood-sucking parasites.

This is one health issue where completely feral (free-living) cats are actually better-off than very poorly-kept domestic ones, as they are able to keep down their parasite burden to some extent by changing their sleeping places so that fleas can't build up. When we choose to keep cats inside we take on the responsibility of flea control. There are various veterinary preparations which will kill fleas on the cat, but it's also important to clean the surroundings (and if necessary spray with an approved product).

Elderly Tabby/tortie?

Has anyone in the Cambridge area lost an elderly dark tabby/tortie cat? She was brought in just over a week ago suffering from severe dehydration as well as being very thin, so may have been living rough for some time. She seems to have had an infection at some point which has left her third eyelids permanently partially raised, but this may have happened after she got lost. She initially had to be put on a drip and we thought we were going to be forced to put her to sleep, but she's picked up after being rehydrated and put on a renal diet and she's now maintaining reasonable body condition without artificial fluids.

Fenella's story illustrates the problem of unidentifiable older cats. She's so friendly that she must have had a home at some time, but without a micro-chip it's unlikely that we can re-unite her with her original owners. While she's reasonably well we can ensure her a good quality of life with one of our fosterers, but with so many cats it's not possible to give older ones the same kind of nursing care they would be able to expect in a home of their own.

If you might be interested in fostering animals for our branch, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com with subject: fostering

Stocktake

The caesarian cat came through the operation, but the kittens didn't survive - she had a malformation of the uterus, so she's been spayed.

O'Malley's gone out to his new home (that's him in the picture).

Four abandoned kittens in - booked into the Peterborough kennels for the moment as the ones we normally use are still full-to-bursting.

If you might be interested in adopting a kitten, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Caesarian

Call from one of our local vets to say someone's brought in a stray cat who needs a caesarian. They're being very good about keeping the cost to us to an absolute minimum, but (assuming mum and babies all survive) it means yet another intake of cats into our already-stretched facilities. Fortunately we're still at least in a situation where there's no doubt about reasonably quickly finding homes for kittens - it's the adult cats who stick in kennels.

Have my doubts about whether the cat is a genuine stray - but even if this is a "story" to avoid paying for the operation at least someone cared enough about her welfare to get her to a vet.

Pet Insurance woes

Pet insurance is a life-saver, but owners can be lulled into a false sense of security if they don't make sure their policy is the right one for their financial circumstances. Many policies have an excess - a fixed amount of money which the animal's owner is expected to cover themselves - and will only pay out if the cost of treatment is more than the excess amount. It can be as much as eighty pounds - a sum which an owner on a really low income may not be able to lay their hands on in an emergency. Some policies only pay out once the owner has settled the vet's bill in full - again potentially something that an owner who doesn't have a credit card will find completely impossible.

Aggravatingly, this is just what's happened to a caller who's adopted a dog from a local rescue centre (not RSPCA) recently. The centre rehomes all its dogs with 30 day health insurance cover, and she'd delayed registering her dog at our clinic until after the bank holiday as a result.

Getting stung by jellyfish on an August bank holiday, will set you back £100+ at a private vet if you are a labrador. Unfortunately her policy has an excess of £80 which she doesn't have - and she doesn't have access to her savings because they are in a Post Office account.

Moral - always read the small print and never put off until tomorrow what you need to do today.

Running round in circles

Most of the people we deal with mean well, but they can create complicated situations. Phoned last night by an elderly lady who takes her dogs to our clinic. Her grandson's looking after his parent's home while they're away and taken in an unwanted kitten. This would have been fine, until kitty managed to get caught in a door - now has a leg swelling to twice its natural size, and, of course, being a bank holiday weekend, only the 24 hour emergency vet is open. At 7 weeks, the kitten's not old enough to have been registered at our clinic for their emergency cover.

Managed to get kitty into Vet24. They think his leg's probably broken, so they'll keep him on pain relief until Tuesday when we can transfer him to our clinic. If the leg is broken, we're looking at around £200 to get it pinned, even with our RSPCA discount, so I think the owner may have to sign the kitten over for rehoming. Sad, as he's a nice lad and very concerned about it.

Parvo yet again

Another puppy with parvovirus. Treated with fluids at the clinic on Thursday and Saturday and again this morning as an emergency.

Honey

Honey is a lovely, friendly girl, one of the eight cats we took in after their owners were evicted. Ideally she would like to be adopted together with one of her friends as she is very sociable.

If you might be interested in adopting Honey, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Today's dog - Ben

Ben is playful and energetic in spite of being thirteen years old and a little chubby. We think he's not a pure-bred golden retriever, although that's obviously a major part of his ancestry. He's very healthy considering his age, but has had some problems with irritation of his ears and may need regular ear-drops to keep this under control.

If you might be interested in adopting Ben, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Update on Emily

Emily's now had her stitches out and looks more normal except for a bald patch. She was originally found in Burwell.

Latest stray

This little cat was brought in from the Cambridge area with quite severe mastitis, which presumably means she had kittens but they died.

Today's dog - Maddison

Maddison is a lovely, friendly longhaired German Shepherd who came into our care as the result of a cruelty case (she wasn't severely neglected, but a second dog was).

She's about four years old and needs an experienced owner willing to make sure she gets the training, mental stimulation and exercise she needs.

If you think she might be the dog for you, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

61 Burleigh Street

This is the unit we're hoping to lease to set up a new charity shop in Burleigh street. We're in the early stages of negotiation with the landlords, so nothing is definite yet, but it would be very nice if we could be open for the run-up to Christmas.

The rent would be an eye-watering step-up from the old shop at 184 Mill Road, but we would have more than twice the current sales area and be in a location with more people walking by and hopefully making purchases.

Spent an hour yesterday counting passers-by and recorded 486 - or roughly eight per minute. I'll do another count at the weekend to get an idea of the difference between weekdays and Saturdays.

We're not planning to move the bookshop at 188 Mill Road as that is doing well and still increasing sales. 

We need volunteer helpers at all three shops. If you might be interested, please email camshop@rspcabookshop.co.uk (for the two Cambridge shops) or newmarket@rspcabookshop.co.uk (for the shop in Newmarket)

Pedigree dogs?

Controversy this evening on the BBC with a documentary on the health problems of pedigree dogs. I can certainly go along with the comment about the problems some Westie's have with allergies and how awful it can be to have an otherwise perfect dog but be considering euthanasia because he's in permanent misery with itching skin that won't heal whatever the vets try.

Ironically, the despised Staffie must come out pretty well in the health stakes. I don't think I've ever seen one with health problems which had an underlying genetic basis. They're a normal "doggy shape" with no exaggerations and they're probably reasonably out-bred because most of them seem to be the result of ordinary pet owners deciding to let their dog have a litter. Most of the ones we see at our clinic have infections, accidents and so on, but are basically normal dogs.

The dog in the picture is poor old Ghost, still looking for a home. If you would like to visit him to see if he would suit you, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

National Dog Adoption Month

August is National Dog Adoption Month, so this week I'm going to feature the dogs we have waiting for new homes. This is Wee Man, a funny-looking chap with rather short legs, who is rather shy, but good with cats and other dogs. He would like a quiet home, but would be happy to fit in with other pets.

If you would like to visit him in our kennels, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Depressed-looking fence

This was once a fence and gate to the area behind our animal clinic, but there's not a lot left of it.

Irritatingly, the smaller building just off the picture to the left, is a bicycle shed, which we had to have constructed as a condition of getting planning permission to build the clinic. When the fencing was intact we didn't use it because it was a major operation to unlock the padlocks and open the gate. Now, we don't use it because no-one fancies sharing a bike shed with various undesirable objects left there by other people. 

As you can see, the windows are heftily reinforced. The state of the fence has fairly well proved to us that there's no point simply repairing it and we're probably going to have to replace it with metal palings and a metal gate. Ultimately, this is where we'd like to build a sluice room for improved disinfection and cleaning, filling in the gap and making another gate into the bike shed so that it might actually become useable.

Wilkinsons store in Ely

Wilkinsons have very kindly offered RSPCA branches the chance to collect outside their stores over the weekend 27/28 September. As the stores are on public thoroughfares we would also need to get permission from the local authority, so if we are to do a collection in the Cambridge branch area, we need to know whether we have enough volunteers within the next week. The only Wilkinsons store in our branch area is the one in Ely (see map below this post), and unfortunately the majority of our current volunteers live further South, or in Newmarket.

If you live in Ely and would be interested in collecting for the RSPCA local branch that weekend, please email rosemary@rspca-cambridge.org.uk as soon as possible. Our spring collections outside Tesco stores are usually very successful (although we've never had enough volunteers to collect at the Ely Tesco). It would be very nice to be able to run an additional autumn collection to raise funds at the other end of the year.

View Larger Map

Millicent needs a home

This pretty girl is Millicent, another one of the group of eight. If you might be interested in adopting her, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Healthy animals

A dear old lady with six cats of her own had been feeding a scruffy-looking stray and periodically trying to confine him to get him neutered. Finally he disappeared for several weeks and she assumed he'd gone off and died, but he turned up again last night, looking even more the worse for wear and blind in one eye. Claire drove over and took him to Vet24. 

Sadly it turned out that he was a perfect example of why a "no-kill" shelter policy is not as simple as it may sound. If he'd had an owner able to give him tablets and a special renal diet there might well have been some point in having him castrated (so he'd no longer want to wander and fight younger, fitter cats), operating to remove the ruined eye and treating the eye with some remaining sight. As things were, it would have been simple cruelty to confine a cat like him in cattery conditions (most of the earlier to-ing and fro-ing on the old lady's part had been because she couldn't bear to shut him in her shed because he cried). She was in her eighties and wouldn't have been able to organise tablets and special diet. Euthanasia was really the only responsible option to avoid causing him more distress.

Anyone in Soham interested in volunteering?

We have an offer of rent-free, short-term use of a unit on Soham High Street which might be suitable for selling charity items to raise funds in the run-up to Christmas. However, to make it viable we would need a nucleus of committed volunteers - at least 10 to give adequate cover.

If you might be interested and live in or near Soham, please email me - rosemary@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Branch Reserves Policy

Now that we actually have some reserves (the result of a generous legacy, which pulled us back from a very dicey hand-to-mouth situation) we need to have a policy about the way we manage them, and at our committee meeting this week we agreed the formula below.

“Owing to the nature of our activities and supporter base, branch income is composed of a fairly regular component from fundraising activities and clinic fees and an unpredictable legacy component. This means that we receive occasional very large amounts which need to be used gradually to support the regular income rather than being spent during the year in which we receive them. We aim to keep our free reserves between an upper limit set at twice our annual operating costs and a lower limit fixed at the amount which would permit 12 months continued activity at current levels of regular earned income. 

At any point when free reserves dip below this 12 month safety limit we will have to begin cutting back the level of service which we provide.

At current income and expenditure rates the lower reserve limit is £41,000 and the upper limit is £260,000.”

In other words, if our steady income from the shops, clinic fees, collection tins etc. is £3,000 a month short of what we currently spend, we can calculate how long it would take before our saved funds ran dry. If the remaining time drops to 12 months we need to make emergency cuts until spending is in balance with the steady income. 

Our free reserves at the moment (after allowing for outgoings which we know will take place at the year end) amount to £120,000. This would sustain our current expenditure for three years provided our regular income stays at its existing levels. It means our work is reasonably secure, but there isn't much scope for "capital" projects (such as building an extension to our clinic for a "sluice room", which is one of the things we'd like to do).

And again

Swayne & Partners phoned again this morning to say the last dog owned by the family with the original parvovirus infected puppy has started vomiting, and the one they saw yesterday has died.

Arguably the family have committed some kind of offence under the Animal Welfare Act by failing to provide adequate care for those five dogs, but frankly nothing we could do to them would punish them more than the consequences of their failure to get any of them vaccinated.

More Parvo

Vet phones in to say another dog belonging to the family with two parvo-infected puppies is vomiting. They've got no money, so I've agreed to cover basic supportive treatment - given in their surgery car park as they daren't have something that infectious brought into their building to put the paying clients' animals at risk.

Foster Homes Needed

We are looking for people who would be willing to help with short-term care of animals before they're fit enough to be transferred to the kennels. This would usually be injured cats needing "cage rest" - basically time spent confined in a fairly small pen in order to prevent them doing damage to broken bones or wounds that have been stitched.

Fosterers need somewhere indoors suitable to put up one of our pens (tiles or vinyl flooring are ideal because they are easily cleaned).  We provide suitable pens and pay for food and cat litter. Most injured cats would need to attend the RSPCA clinic for several check-ups before being passed as fit for rehoming. We can organise transport if the fosterer doesn't have a car (or isn't available at the right times). Ideally pens should be in a room where they can be shut away from your own cats in order to reduce the risk of disease being spread.

Because of the need to return to the clinic in Cambridge, we are particularly looking for fosterers in or close to Cambridge, but would also be interested in helpers further afield.

If you are interested in fostering for us, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com 

Raffle

Anyone who fancies winning this rather alarming creature (I think he's meant to be some kind of baboon) can buy a ticket at our charity shop at 188 Mill Road, Cambridge. Hurry, ends on Friday 15th August

Gratitude

To Haidee Barker of Arbury road vets for very kindly offering to look after the stray with the bad head abscess over the weekend while he still needed daily dressing changes - a really enormous help for us.

Also to Stone Lane vets who took in another stray tom late on Saturday morning, when it would have been virtually impossible to move him anywhere, and helpfully agreed to hold him over until Monday and neuter him before we try to get him into cattery or foster care. It will be much easier for our fosterers to cope with him if he's starting to lose that pungent tom-cat smell.

He's yet another tom who almost certainly had a home originally, but started to wander in search of females, and then was picked up as an injured stray because of a bite abscess. This is one reason why we offer low-cost neutering and neutering vouchers to anyone on state benefits. It not only reduces the production of unwanted kittens, but it also helps to decrease the number of adult males who are handed in to us as injured strays.

State of play

On the plus side, the kitty with the extreme hair-cut, little Tommy, the yorkie, Hendrik, the Shi Tzu cross, and Bob, with the dislocated hip, all have homes booked. 

On the downside, there's another cat waiting for collection from Arbury road vets (with a drain for his nasty abscess that will go on leaking pus for several days - oh joy!). 

Plus one angry hamster, product of an unexpected litter. This is more common than you'd think, considering that Syrian hamsters are solitary and should be kept in individual cages. The child who owned the original hamster appears to have given the babies out like sweets to her class-mates, some of whose parents weren't happy to be landed with the chore of cage-cleaning. 

Parvovirus again

Another phone call last night: 9 week old puppy, vomiting, lethargic. Owner never been to a vet, and, presumably, puppy never vaccinated by the breeder. Owner has no money and didn't realise that charges escalate after 6.30 pm when normal surgery hours end and all the local vets go over to emergency rates. It's worth stressing this - in normal surgery hours £50 will cover a private vet's consultation fee and some first aid treatment. After 6.30, you're talking about £75 just for the consultation fee.

Being vaccinated at 8 weeks old via our clinic might not have protected that puppy altogether, as she would only have had her first jab and there wouldn't have been enough time for much immunity to develop. BUT it would have meant she was registered and therefore eligible to be seen by the out of hours emergency service for a £30 charge.

Yet another this morning, via the Haverhill vet. Sadly, put to sleep on the vet's advice.

More on the "can't cope" theme

Ben's owner was evicted and had to give him up as a result. He's thirteen years old, but still playful and affectionate and really deserves a good home.










If you think you might be able to give Ben a home for whatever time he has left, please email: rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Collar wound

The stitches are difficult to see in the photo because they're black thread against a strip of black fur (pinkish part is where poor Emily was shaved so they could establish the extent of the lacerated area). Basically the collar sliced into her skin along a line from her shoulder to breastbone, going just behind her right foreleg. The Elizabethan collar is to stop her licking her stitches.

I'll put up more photos when she's got the Elizabethan collar off and some of the fur's grown back in case anyone recognises her.

Doing our bit for carbon neutrality

This is Emily, the little black cat from Burwell with the awful collar wound.

Now well enough to go out into foster care and looking a little apprehensive about our transport facilities.

I don't try this with animals with fractures or anything that will be made worse by jolting, but otherwise, most cats and rabbits prefer cycling to being enclosed in a noisy, frightening car. Cambridge is very "cycle-orientated" and there are often short-cuts which mean it's actually quicker by bike. One of my own cats loves travelling by cycle (even to the vet!) and practically sits there waving to her admirers like royalty.

Parvovirus

Just to reiterate the warning on our main website:

Any dog whose vaccinations are not current could be at risk of contracting canine distemper or canine parvovirus. The disease is particularly dangerous to younger dogs who have never been vaccinated and is very often fatal. If your dog or puppy is not vaccinated please consult your vet - IT IS NOT WORTH risking a £500 vet bill and a dead dog at the end of it for the sake of saving the comparatively small cost of vaccination. If you are on benefits or state pension and really cannot afford the full cost, you may be eligible to have the vaccination given at our clinic at a lower rate than a private vet would need to charge.

If your dog is not vaccinated and starts vomiting or has diarrhoea DO NOT let them mix with other dogs and phone your vet for advice. If you have more than one dog, keep the sick one away from the ones who are still healthy. Contact your vet by phone for advice before getting the healthy dogs vaccinated - they may be carrying the disease and it is important that they are not brought into contact with other dogs.

Many people assume that being vaccinated as a puppy means their dog has life-long protection. This is not the case, although your vet may advise some variation from a schedule of yearly vaccinations for elderly dogs or dogs with certain health problems. In case of doubt always consult your own vet for advice which is personalised for your particular dog's state of health.

Users of the Cambridge RSPCA animal clinic must bring proof of benefits or paperwork such as a bank-statement which shows that they have a very low income each time they visit the clinic. If you are unable to bring your pet yourself it's fine for a helper to bring them for you, but the helper must show proof that you are in receipt of benefit and needs to have a signed note from you confirming that they are bringing the animal on your behalf.

Damn!

Yet another dog with vomiting and diarrhoea; the third in two days. It's almost certainly an outbreak of parvo-virus, just to make our lives complete.

Chocolate!

Nice to be reminded sometimes that not every staffy owner is an irresponsible "chav". Worried phone call last night from a young owner whose 9 week old puppy had escaped from behind her dog guard and managed to nick a large-ish block of chocolate from a kitchen table she'd not realised the pup had grown enough to reach.

Apart from the initial accident of the pup's escape (which might happen to anyone), the owner had done everything right. The pup had had her first vaccination at our clinic as soon as she was old enough, so was not only protected against nasty diseases, but registered and so eligible for the out of hours service. The owner was knowledgeable enough to be aware that chocolate is poisonous to dogs and that she needed to get help at once. She had the pup's registration card and our emergency number to hand where she could find them instantly.

It really restores your faith in human nature.

Animal Hoarders and others

This is Bearface, who came in from the same original place as Alphina. If you might be interested in adopting them (or any of our other animals), please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Which leads into the subject of today's post, sparked off by an article on the Disability Now website. Bearface, Alphina and their eight other friends were brought in by our inspector after being signed over to the RSPCA because their previous owner couldn't cope with so many cats any longer. They were all evidently loved and cared for and there was absolutely no question of anyone being prosecuted.

The vast majority of the animals, other than injured strays, that we take in for rehoming fall into variations on the "can no longer cope" category, for a variety of legitimate reasons. Sometimes because people's circumstances have changed; often because a landlord has finally taken exception to the large number of animals being kept, and fairly frequently because the owner has mental or physical problems severe enough to cause them to be placed in some kind of institution for reasons that are not necessarily related to the fact that they have pets.

The most horrific example of this last category that's ever happened in our own area is one where a very elderly couple owned a number of dogs. The husband was suffering from severe dementia and his wife sadly had a heart attack and died with the result that he lived with his wife's remains for several weeks, unable to comprehend the situation enough to call the emergency services or feed the dogs. That clearly wasn't his fault, and the only reason our poor inspector was called in by the police was because they needed someone to deal with the surviving dogs.

When someone is suddenly taken into hospital or prison it is the responsibility of the emergency services to protect their possessions and, in the case of inanimate objects, this is simple to do by making their home secure. It clearly isn't an option to do this with living animals, which is why the police and social services will generally try to get the RSPCA to take them if it seems likely that the owner isn't going to return within a reasonable timespan. It's fairly clear from some of the Internet discussions about the RSPCA that this is sometimes interpreted as us "seizing" the animals, although from our perspective we've done nothing except respond to a request to care for animals who have been (involuntarily) abandoned by their owner.

Which leads on to the comparatively rare situations where animals are seized and their owners prosecuted. First of all, it should be said firmly that the RSPCA doesn't (and is not allowed to) simply take animals away without authorisation from the police and a veterinary surgeon's opinion. Once the animals have been removed they remain the property of the original owner until the owner signs them over to the RSPCA voluntarily or until a court makes an order about their future. This is as is should be - as a voluntary body we ought not to be in a position of being judge, jury and executioner.

The problem in the case of people who have a mental abnormality of some kind and are not willing to give up animals voluntarily is that it means there is no middle way to avoid putting them through the whole process of prosecution, including the inevitable publicity, without simply abandoning the animals to their fate. Rosalind Gregson is an absolutely classic example of someone who had to be stopped from collecting more and more animals and keeping them in abysmal conditions, but who wasn't fully responsible for her actions. Prison clearly wasn't an appropriate punishment for her, but sentencing is the decision of the court, not the RSPCA. Margaret O'Leary is a similar case.

In the States animal hoarding is beginning to be recognised as a specific form of mental illness and convicted people may be given treatment orders rather than punishment. This is clearly better, but I can't see any realistic alternative to the prosecution process unless society decides to go down the road of authorising confiscation of animals and enforced treatment of their owners without a legal oversight (or with something like a judge in chambers instead of open court). Have to say I find the idea a bit chilling - what happens to the "mad cat ladies" of this world who are eccentric but do look after their animals and keep numbers within fairly reasonable limits.

Full up

Worryingly the private kennels where we board our rescued animals have notified us that they are completely full up until after the school holidays.

They give us a very generous discount on their standard boarding rates because our animals need to be boarded throughout the year, and provide a steady income flow during off-peak seasons when not many people want to board animals privately. However this does mean that there's less space to take in RSPCA animals during the peak holiday seasons.

The cat shown here is Alphina, who is a very pretty girl, but has lost her tail.

If you would like to adopt Alphina, or any of our other cats, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Yet another cat

Collected by one of the ACOs from Burwell village, with a very nasty collar wound. This happens where a cat manages to get a leg through a collar and it cuts into skin in the equivalent of our armpit, and shows why it is so important that cat collars should be made so that they will break if they get caught up. 

It will certainly need stitching and probably a tissue graft as these injuries are very difficult to get to heal because the skin is continually being pulled apart when the cat walks. Most of them are caused by flea-collars, which is possibly another reason why they don't heal as the chemicals of the collar are worked into the damaged area.

No micro-chip, and no tag on the collar so we can't easily reunite the cat with an owner. 

Flea collars are dangerous and not very effective as a way of getting rid of fleas. It would have been so much better to use an efficient veterinary "spot-on" treatment and to have used a micro-chip for ID.

Update on Bob

Good news is that the surgery on his fractured pelvis went OK, and his FIV/FeLV tests also OK. Bad news is that he has a very nasty cough and enlarged kidneys - possibly the result of an ongoing lungworm infection that's flared up because of the stress of his accident.

Latest Cruelty Figures

The RSPCA's latest figures for 2007 expose a 34 per cent increase in convictions for cruelty to dogs (1,197 in 2007), a 15 per cent increase in convictions for cruelty to cats (277 in 2007) and a 12 per cent increase in RSPCA cruelty investigations (137,245 in 2007).

Thank-you!

To Cambridge City Council's Environmental Services dept. for offering to install and empty a nice new dog waste bin next to our animal clinic if we could pay the one-off cost of the bin.

The bin is now in place, so there is no excuse for the antisocial types who don't clear up after their dogs.

Frustration

Frustration today after a series of incidents that needn't have happened.

Yet another owner with a pet in labour and not enough funds to cope when things go wrong. This time a cat. We charge £20 to spay a cat if the owner is on benefits, and the most expensive private vet doesn't charge much over £60. A caesarian via our clinic will set you back at least £200; up to £600 at a private vet. Registering your cat by getting her vaccinated at our clinic will at least entitle her to out of hours emergency treatment at our discounted rates.

Two phone calls from people with multiple cats wanting them taken in for rehoming; which we can't do, because our funds just won't stretch to cover the cost of boarding them all. 

One call about an un-neutered tom cat who is beating up other local cats, whose owners want him taken away.

Another un-vaccinated pup with diarrhoea and vomiting. Owners not willing to pay for anything.

Dog who's probably eaten rat, or mouse poison.

Dogs who bite people

Wondered why: "Saved: knife man who set himself alight" was coming up in my newsfeed of RSPCA items, and found: 

Neighbours said the man had been upset after his bulldog had to be put down the day before.

One, who did not wish to be named, said: "The RSPCA came round and they said that it was attacking people and would have to be destroyed. I think the man was really cross with his mum for having the dog put down."

I doubt whether it happened exactly like that. It may not actually have been the RSPCA at all who called round: usually dog bite incidents are dealt with by the police or local authority dog warden. Certainly, if someone phoned our control centre and complained they'd been bitten, they'd be told to phone the police. 

The true story may well be something similar to a call I took late on Friday evening. The caller's rottweiler dog had just attacked her (adult) son for no apparent reason. He wasn't badly injured, but wanted the  dog out of the house, and was expecting that we'd be able to collect it that evening. Realistically, there's no way we could responsibly take on a large, potentially dangerous dog for rehoming to the public. It had to be their decision either to get professional advice on training or to have the dog put to sleep, and I told them so. 

Further down the line, if one of the other family members had reacted like the man in the knife incident, that could easily have been reported to the Press as: "the RSPCA told them they had to have the dog put down".

Dog crates

Does anyone out there have a small to medium sized dog crate (metal or plastic type) that they no longer need and would be willing to donate to the RSPCA?

It needs to be small enough to fit in the back of a car, and would be used by our volunteers when they need to transport dogs.

Any offers, please email me

Vets!

View Larger Map

The map above shows the full horror of our interaction with local vets. We have dealings with all of those shown; some on a day-to-day basis, others very occasionally. Each surgery will have several vets, nurses and reception staff, and there is no way all of them can remember our standard procedures, or how to contact the right person to ask for financial help for one of their clients.

Cats and more cats

Our poor driver had a wasted journey this morning. A member of the public had found a stray cat which was "walking funny" and believed to have been hit by a car. As it was after 9 at night, he was asked to take the cat to Vet24 for first aid, with a view to transfer to the clinic in the morning. Unfortunately the cat had other ideas, and on arrival at the vet, he shot up a tree and vanished into the night, before actually reaching the surgery. However, as the vet said, he most likely didn't have any fractures if he could move that fast.

Second stray of the day was a badly matted, un-neutered cat. This is the time of year when tom cats wander in search of females and they often come to grief. This little chap is just a bit battered and should do fine. He turns out to be negative for both Feline Leukaemia (FeLV) and Feline Immunodeficiency virus (FIV): a huge relief. 

Which brings us to the dreaded topic of the Seven Days. Lots of people will tell you that the RSPCA  puts stray animals to sleep automatically after 7 days. This is NOT TRUE, but like many myths, there is a small amount of fact at base. Healthy animals and animals who can be treated so that they can have a reasonable quality of life stay with us until they find a home (the only exception is animals who are actually dangerous). We normally wait until at least 7 days are up before offering them for rehoming, to give their original owner the chance to reclaim them. 

Some animals are clearly so badly hurt and suffering that there is no choice other than euthanasia almost at once. The major difficulty is animals who are less severe cases, but are clearly not going to get better or have a reasonable chance of getting a home. Some of those (end stage kidney disease is an instance) might live happily for a few weeks or months more if they could be reunited with their original home, but it really isn't fair to keep them in cattery conditions. Feline Leukaemia is a nasty and ultimately fatal disease, but a caring owner might nurse a leukaemic cat successfully for some time. In these sorts of cases we'll normally keep the animal for seven days in case the owner turns up, but effectively we'll already have made the decision that euthanasia is realistically the only possible option.

On Payment Plans and Responsibility

Hardly any vets will allow arrangements where pet owners pay back the cost of treatment over a period of time, for the simple reason that too many people never pay back the full amount.

Our animal clinic is run in association with Cambridge University Vet School, and they charge pet owners for most operations direct, at prices which reflect the learning value to students of the opportunity to watch the process. This usually works out at roughly a third of what a private vet would charge (and is subsidised by us and by the University). Unfortunately, a third of £600 is still a lot of money for someone who is on benefit, and the Vet School used to offer payment plans so that owners could pay back a small amount each week. Like the private vets, they found that there were too many bad debts for the scheme to continue - money is tight and Universities are being pressed to pay their way like everyone else.

We're now left with the conundrum of what to do about the existing debtors. The School have a list and theoretically can refuse their animals any further treatment until the debt is paid. If we don't make some attempt to get everyone to pay it isn't fair on those who do make an effort and live on bread and jam until their animals' treatment is paid for. The non-payers have already cost the rest the payment plan option. It's also pretty unfair on the volunteer helpers and clinic staff when one of the people on the list turns up and makes a scene because they're not allowed to register more animals until they've paid. Further knock-on effects are less money for the School to employ enough nurses, so fewer in-patients can be admitted, and so on.

I've asked for a breakdown of the total amount owed by RSPCA clients and left unpaid. In the interest of maintaining a high standard of service, we may have to offer to make a one-off payment to reduce the debt. We'll also be looking to write to all the outstanding debtors to explain that their actions have caused the withdrawal of the payment plan option for operations.

£200 is a lot of money. Probably the single most effective thing the individual owner of a female dog can do to reduce her risk of needing such an operation is to have her spayed during the first few years of life. Spaying costs £35 at our clinic and up to £150 at a private vet. It eliminates the risk that she will need an emergency pyometria operation (£200-£700) later in life and greatly reduces the risk of breast tumours.

Lost Cats

In this hot weather there's a high risk of cats being shut in sheds etc., so it's advisable to start asking neighbours to check sheds, garages etc. (anywhere that a cat might go in for a nap and get shut in) if a cat doesn't check in at normal mealtimes. Also ring round local vets in case he might have been injured and handed in. It's best to start this as soon as a cat's been away for longer than his normal habit.

Vet24 at Milton do most of the out of hours emergency cover for the Cambridge area, so it's particularly important to phone them as they're the most likely vet for an injured cat to be taken to over the weekend or evenings. Their phone number is 0845 500 4247. Injured cats reported to the RSPCA will normally be taken to the closest available private vet for initial first aid.

The Blue Cross cats home on Garlic Row would be the most likely place for an uninjured stray to be taken if found in Cambridge City. Their number is 01223 350 153.

It's also as well to get a missing cat logged  with the RSPCA National Control Centre (NCC). Their number is 0300 1234 999.

I do not believe it

We're in the process of making an offer for the lease of a shop in a busier location than our present retro/vintage charity shop. One thing the landlord requires is what's called a "status enquiry" (basically a reference from our bank to confirm that we could pay the first year's rent). We have to fill in a form and pay £8.50 to the bank and they should send the necessary information to the landlord's agent.

First attempt was just over a month ago. Agent asks, "Where is it".  I call in bank. No record of a form. 

Try again last week. Call in today. No record. Ask bank manager how this could have happened. The first go might have been lost in the post, but last week's try was handed in with my own hot little hand. Manager prods about a bit in the innards of their computer system. Looks worried. Finally confesses that our requests had been passed by the branch to their commercial customer centre which then sent them back to the branch for action, and so on in an infinite loop that is impossible to trace because the people who open post and redirect it at either end of the system don't do anything else. 

Have printed off another request form and handed it to the manager with a personal cheque for £8.50 to avoid more delay getting a second signature for a branch cheque. She swears she will personally supervise its progress.

Heart sink time

Sometimes things go wrong. Our rehoming co-ordinator and I had a series of increasingly agitated calls over the weekend from family members of an elderly lady whose cat failed to come home on Friday evening. They sent out search parties and a neighbour told them that "an RSPCA van" had taken the cat away.

Our inspectors and ACO's definitely do not spend their lives roaming round Cambridgeshire kidnapping people's cats: someone must have made a call to say that the cat was an ill or injured stray. That wouldn't be a problem - the family themselves were realistic that the cat is very old and someone might think he was a thin stray. What is a problem is that nobody seems to be able to trace where the cat was taken. We (the branch) haven't had a request from an inspector or ACO to take the cat in for boarding and none of the local vets has contacted us to ask for funding for continuing treatment (assuming the cat looked bad enough to see a vet).

What is supposed to happen in these cases is that the paid staff member who collects an injured or sick animal takes it to the closest available vet and arranges for the National RSPCA to be invoiced for initial first aid (usually referred to as IET = Initial Emergency Treatment). Once that's happened, the vet is supposed to phone the local branch (me, in this case) to arrange for us to pay for the cost of continuing treatment and/or transfer to boarding facilities.

It tends to be this final step that breaks down, because each individual vet only deals with RSPCA cases relatively infrequently. So, they tend not to remember what they're intended to do, and vets using their initiative, with all the best intentions, can lead to situations you'd rather not get into. The most common failing is that no-one in the practice contacts anyone (because they assume we'll have been told the cat's been taken to them), with the result that the animal has apparently been "disappeared". Understandably this looks to the owner as if we've either got the cat and are refusing to say where it is; have lost it, or (worst of all), put it to sleep without giving them a chance to claim it.

Another traffic accident

A four-year old cat with probable dislocated hip. Owners say they have no money at all, so they're signing him over to us for rehoming. He's currently at Isle vets on the far side of Ely, which will mean an early morning start for our long-suffering transport volunteer, if she's going to pick him up and get him to our clinic by the 10.30 deadline for admissions tomorrow.

Insurance musings

Guardian Money has an article on breed-specific insurance premiums:

Axa, the insurance company that provides the policy (and which underwrites well over half a million pet policies sold by a wide range of partners, including the RSPCA, the Post Office and John Lewis's Greenbee) has this month introduced a "selected breeds" category: they are bulldogs, estrela mountain dogs, German shepherds (alsatian), great danes, greyhounds, Irish wolfhounds, leonbergers, Newfoundlands, old English sheepdogs, rottweilers, Pyrenean mountain dogs and St Bernards.

Thinking about it, I'm not surprised that most of these breeds are bad insurance risks, but a bit surprised by the inclusion of greyhounds; I can only think they've got a higher than normal risk of expensive, but survivable, "athletes" injuries, such as damaged cruciate ligaments (which can set you back £1k for a repair operation). Breeds like the cavaliers' heart problems or setters' retinal atrophy are a problem for the dog and owner, but not so much for the insurer, because there isn't a ruinously-expensive treatment option.

I'd second their advice to shop around - not only for better deals if you own one of the high-risk breeds, but, crucially, to make sure you get a policy which suits your financial circumstances. If you don't have savings or a credit card, it is absolutely essential to check that your insurer will either pay the vet direct or be prepared to pay you on the basis of an invoice from the vet which you have not yet paid. If you don't have a credit card, some policies are virtually useless if you are on a very low income, because they assume you will pay the vet and then claim the money back.

Pet insurance isn't the answer to all veterinary cost problems, but without it a lot more animals would have to be put to sleep, or have amputations rather than effective treatment.

Our own webshop offers some links to insurers who pay us commission, as does the national site. We are encouraging insurance in general, and no individual insurer will be right for everyone.

Tommy

He's a Yorkshire terrier, about 7 years old, signed over to us because his owner was getting increasingly confused and tending to do things like trying to give him dishwasher tablets because he had worms.

Many people have an image of the RSPCA going about "seizing" animals here and there, but mostly it's not like that. Tommy's owner was an extreme case of not being able to cope any more, because she was actually ill, but the vast majority of animals we take in come from people who initially meant well. Some just aren't prepared to put enough effort into owning an animal; some have mental or physical problems, and some take on more animals than they can cope with, or let pets breed until they have a problem they can't get on top of. In Tommy's case, his owner's son was able to persuade his mother that the best solution for all concerned was to transfer the little dog to us to be rehomed.

Can anyone out there offer a home to Ghost?

We don't know very much about Ghost, except that he is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, about ten years old and was signed over to one of our inspectors by a previous owner who couldn't look after him. His age and breed are against him, but he's a lovely, friendly dog and hasn't shown any behaviour problems in kennels.

If you might be interested in adopting Ghost, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk.

Volunteers

Call from one of the vets in Peterborough, who has a client who can't afford the full cost of treatment and would like to come to our clinic on Thursday. He hasn't got a car and the journey by public transport would involve a three-quarter hour train journey to Cambridge followed by a bus ride. They're enquiring whether there's any way we could help with transport, but I can't really ask any of the Cambridge volunteers to drive to Peterborough, back to Cambridge and then to Peterborough and back again.

RSPCA Peterborough branch urgently needs more volunteers. If they had a volunteer driver available then at least only two legs of the journey would be needed.

Pelvic fracture

Call from Vet24 yesterday to let me know one of our inspectors had brought in an injured cat for initial first aid treatment. They'd assessed the cat and think he's got a fractured pelvis and possible leg injuries. Bladder and bowel working OK, so no likely spinal injury, thank goodness.

Today is a clinic day, so one of our volunteer drivers can pick him up this morning and drop him off for further treatment.

Update on dog with intestinal blockage

Good news! Phoned the vet this morning and they removed a sizeable chunk of her intestine, but she's now looking bright and alert. All being well, one of our volunteers will pick her up tomorrow morning and take her to our clinic for aftercare.

A cautionary tale

Spent most of Saturday at the Regional board meeting, and part-way through got a call from one of the vets in Ely about a young dog who they thought had swallowed some kind of foreign body.

The owner was on benefits, but had managed to scrape together a hundred pounds to get the dog seen and x-rayed to find what was going on. Now the dog was deteriorating and unlikely to survive without surgery to remove the obstruction. Estimated cost another £600, which the owner simply did not have.

Because so many people don't pay back what they owe, almost no vets will now offer any kind of payment plan. Our branch will normally help with a limited amount towards treatment costs, but we simply cannot put ourselves in a position where anyone can say they're unable to pay and expect us to cover hundreds of pounds; because eventually no-one would pay their own fees and we would collapse.

If the dog had been registered with either our own branch clinic or with the PDSA the dog could have been treated at much lower cost. In the circumstances, the only option was for the owner to sign ownership of the dog over to us, to give him at least a reasonable chance of survival.

Both the RSPCA and the PDSA often get a certain amount of "stick" for being bureaucratic about rules under which we provide veterinary help. We're not just being difficult when this happens. In our case, the reason why we can provide more help for registered animals is our arrangement with the University Vet School. They provide care for animals at a much lower charge to us per treatment than a private vet could survive on and, in return, their students get the learning experience of a variety of cases.

The students get maximum benefit from our cases when they come via our clinic at the pre-arranged sessions which mean they fit into the students' busy timetable. Registration of an animal means a student will have had the chance to examine that animal when he or she isn't in a critical condition and the student can practice handling; examining teeth; taking temperature etc. Because of this, the Vet School will only see registered animals outside normal surgery hours.