A mobile clinic visiting Saguenay to sterilize cats

The SPA mobile du Québec is visiting Saguenay. In order to combat animal overpopulation in the region, around fifty cats will be sterilized in three days.

Housed in a refurbished recreational vehicle, the mobile clinic of the SPA contains a consultation room, a preoperative area and a surgical room for animal sterilization.

The service is offered to organizations, shelters or municipalities, specifies Josée Girard, veterinarian and general director of the SPA mobile. Some cities have a lot of stray cats and need spay/neuter servicesshe exemplifies.

In Saguenay, it is the cats from the Chicoutimi Animal Shelter that will be sterilized by Thursday.

At any given time, the shelter houses about a hundred cats. For the shelter’s owner, Marc Villeneuve, the proximity of the service is a big advantage.

Having them in our backyard, we can’t pass that up. We don’t have a trip [à faire]explains Mr. Villeneuve. Yes, these are big days, but we are in our facilities and everything is running smoothly. This morning, we are ready for the big day!

Expensive travel

A veterinarian, a technician and a technician’s assistant are needed to perform the surgeries. However, the help of volunteers is essential to the operations, explains Ms. Girard.

The team can perform about 22 feline spays and neuters daily. After the surgery day, which ends at 5 p.m., it takes an additional hour or two to pack up the trailer, sterilize the instruments and prepare the vehicle to hit the road.

Since travel is expensive and difficult, the mobile unit cannot cover a large area at present.

The acquisition of portable anesthesia machines would allow the SPA mobile to travel in remote regions of Quebec, explains Josée Girard.

They are often the ones who do not have a veterinarian, who do not have access to medical care. These are the regions that we are having trouble reaching at the moment.she says.