Budget Spay and Neuter Option

      The Health Care Team of the New Carlisle Animal Clinic strongly believe that spaying and neutering is in the best interest of most pets since it has many health benefits and reduces the pet over-population problem resulting in shelter over-crowding and euthanasia of unwanted animals.  As the science of veterinary medicine has progressed in its ability to provide state-of-the-art care for our pets, we have improved our ability to keep our pets, who are truly members of the family, safe and comfortable during the surgery and recovery period at a level never before imagined.  However, these advancements come at higher expense and sometimes this prevents clients from being able to afford to have the procedure done at all, especially when the owner is just trying to provide minimal care such as that for strays, farm animals, or when their personal economic situation has taken a downturn that now prevents them from providing the level of care they would prefer.  Therefore we have developed a "Budget Option" to offer these surgeries at a much lower cost than normal.  Of course, we still recommend that the pet receive our "Preferred Plan" which maximizes patient comfort, safety, and recovery while minimizing risk.

      So how are we able to do this?   First, our Budget Option surgeries do not include many of the advancements that help improve patient comfort and safety.  Many of these are detailed below; however, the animal still receives general anesthesia, short term pain management, a unique sterile surgical pack, and of course the surgery.  Second, we are limiting these surgeries to one morning per week in order to streamline our staff's focus and therefore improve efficiency.  We need to make sure that the schedule is full to do as many animals as we can safely do to maximize productivity.  Check-in and release discussions will be minimized and frankly, the animal will receive less individualized attention than with our preferred surgery.   However, we will still have a dedicated assistant to monitor the animal during the actual procedure.  Third, we have a few policies that are different than that for our "Preferred Plan."  The pet needs to be FIVE YEARS OF AGE OR YOUNGER and healthy.   For examples, boys that are cryptorchid, girls in advanced pregnancy, or animals that are very overweight, have heart murmurs, significant respiratory disease, or other problems need more advanced care and therefore will be excluded.  These may not be discovered until the pet has been admitted but can result in our canceling the procedure or requiring that the Preferred Plan is required; you would be notified of this before we would proceed  although it might result in the procedure being rescheduled. Although some procedures like vaccinations and examinations can be done at the same time, there may be additional fees and exclusions, such as declaws cannot be combined with cat spays or neuters because of the additional time, pain management and laser use that is needed for the declaw.  Any animal found to have fleas will be treated at additional owner expense since we will not tolerate fleas in the hospital.  With the Budget Option, animals must be dropped off between 7-7:30 a.m. (South Bend Time) after an 8-12 hour fast and picked up between 3-6 pm; a boarding fee will be incurred if the pet is kept overnight before or after the surgery, whereas with our Preferred Plan, one night's boarding is waived if the pet needs to be admitted the day before surgery for your convenience.  As a result of clients failing to show up without 24 hours advance notice of cancellation, we now require pre-payment which can be done most conveniently with a credit card over the phone at the time the appointment is made.  This is forfeited if you fail to make the appointment, although you may re-schedule the appointment without penalty up to 24 hours before the appointment.  For those pets adopted from a rescue organization, the Budget Option can be used instead of the discounts given with the adoption agreement, but the discount will not be applied to the Budget Option. Finally, we generally provide care for minor complications at no additional cost should they occur after discharge with our Preferred Plan, but with the Budget Option, the owner will be charged for care such as incisions that get infected, the animal pulls out its sutures, etc.    Of course, any time you have questions, feel free to call our Health Care Team at 574-654-3129