Rutland County Humane Society: Build-A-Bear Youth Humane Education Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
The money was used for medical care over and above normal shelter vaccine and preventative measures. In addition, we used this money to improve our vaccination protocol to vaccinate all animals upon arrival, including strays, for kennel cough and administer flea and tick preventive treatment. Finally, we used the money to purchase the more expensive smallest size microchips for comfort, especially for kittens.
Rutland County Humane Society (RCHS) cared for more than 1,400 animals in 2017. In order to do this and to save lives of animals with medical needs, we run a deficit. While we can draw on savings to do some of this, grants allow us to be less selective in the animals who receive medical care for serious issues. By having this grant money we could save animals we may not have been able to without it.
How many pets did this grant help?
For medical care, four animals were helped. For general improved shelter care, approximately 350.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Kahn (first photo) had been adopted from RCHS by a couple who later experienced some domestic issues. When they separated, Kahn stayed with the man and was receiving good care. However, the man faced possible incarceration and we believe that the day before his court hearing, he brought Kahn to the shelter at night and put him in an outdoor pen. We had no idea that this happened until later. We received reports of a dog running loose in a neighborhood near the shelter. The dog had no sense of the danger of cars, and people were afraid he’d be hurt. We set a humane dog trap, but he did not enter it. Then, one night, he was hit. A passerby called Animal Control and sat with Kahn until an officer arrived. The ACO took Kahn to the veterinary clinic that is open 24/7. We determined it was Kahn and that he had escaped from our pen. Kahn was admitted to the hospital and treated. One leg seemed to drag after he came back to the shelter. We sent him back for another examination and X-ray. As he came out of sedation, he threw up, and the clinic staff observed that Kahn had been eating a lot of toys. Kahn required surgery to remove all the ingested pieces of these toys. The leg issue appeared to be pain-related and he was put on gabapentin to help him during a period of physical therapy. Later, Kahn went to a foster family that eventually adopted him.
Gus and Duchess (second photo) were two older cocker spaniels who arrived at the shelter when their elderly owner could no longer care for them. Both had medical issues that included serious dental problems; both also had long-term chronic ear infections. Because of their ages, 8 and 11, we knew that adopting them out would be difficult with the veterinary care they both needed. We also knew they had to stay together. This all added up to ensuring that finding them a good home would be very hard. We used the grant money to cover dentals on both dogs, to resolve the ear infections and promote their adoption. Because of this, their stay at the shelter after their treatment was very short — less than two weeks — and they are happy in their forever home.
