There is a comment on our posting on Queenie's unfortunate passing after being spayed. The commentor suggested that the animals be boarded at the vet's instead of being discharged.
When we first started, I did ask for boarding, but our vets advised against this due to the following reasons:
1. There is no 24-hour monitoring at their clinics. Most clinics close at 7pm and the animals are left on their own through the night. The clinics only open at about 10am the next day.
2. The animal, once declared fit to be discharged, is better off with the fosterer as the fosterer can monitor more closely, especially for the first 24 hours after surgery. Should there be any untoward incident, the animal can be rushed to the 24-hour hospital in KL or another in PJ which offers the call-back of a vet within half an hour.
3. All vets agree that the clinic environment is not the most hygienic place as animals can pick up contagious diseases very quickly from other sick animals.
For the reasons above, our vets are of the opinion that a spayed-neutered animal is best discharged and fostered at home by the fosterer.
I have heard of a small percentage of fatalities after routine procedures like spay-neuter, even by the best of vets. A reputable vet told me recently that he had lost a seemingly robust and healthy German Shepherd after a routine neutering procedure. The post-mortem revealed that the dog had congenital liver problems which even the owner had not known about. So, if even owned pets can succumbed to a routine spay-neuter procedure due to some unknown underlying health problems, what more street animals whose medical history we do not know about.
As to the disadvantage of boarding, there was also a case of a dog who was boarded for skin problems, but had unfortunately caught distemper from another dog and subsequently died. Some animal diseases are airborne or caused by bacteria and these can be spread very fast. Even a viral flu can be fatal if caught by young animals.
Hence, the clinic environment is not exactly the best place to put any animal, especially those in a recuperative stage.
Our vets often warn us that baby animals can catch diseases very quickly when they are brought to the vet's for a routine deworming or check-up because another sick animal may be present and near enough.
When an animal is sent in for spay-neuter or any surgery, all the risks involved in the operation are explained to the rescuer and the rescuer has a choice - to go ahead or not. We are just there to help with funds and emotional support. The ultimate decision lies with the rescuer as he/she is responsible for the animal brought in.
Rescuers are also given the option of boarding the animal (if they so wish) but we do not have sufficient funds to cover this extra boarding after spay-neuter (when the animal is declared fit to be discharged), hence, rescuers would have to bear the cost themselves if they want the boarding. Some rescuers actually prefer to nurse the animals at home as they are there to monitor them closely.
I remember when one of our rescues, Bobtail, was boarded at the clinic because he was still under drips. I found him the next morning, lying in a small pool of fluids. He had bitten the drip through the night and this was not discovered even though I had specially boarded him at another clinic which had an attendant checking on the animals through the night. Bobtail died in my arms that morning. I did not blame the clinic, of course, but I asked the vet why the attendant had not discovered the bitten drip. To this the vet said that the attendant only does his rounds every hour through the night, and Bobtail had probably bitten the drip after the attendant had made his latest round. Bobtail's death was also not caused by the bitten drip, but other problems, as he was already in a very bad state. At that same time, Teddy was also rescued along with Bobtail and he too was boarded under drips. I decided to take Teddy home that day and nurse him myself. It took several weeks for me to nurse Teddy back to health and I camped every night with Teddy sleeping on my chest. Teddy is now adopted and enjoying a great life.
 Teddy at the clinic, on drips.
Teddy after being adopted.
We hope rescuers understand that we are already doing our very best to ensure that the best is given to the animals who come through us. We cannot provide fostering help for every animal as we do not have so many pairs of hands! We hope rescuers will do their part too and foster the animals after a procedure has been done.
We understand that rescuers also have their constraints and the most ideal option is sometimes not possible, then we will opt for the next best option and be at peace if things do not work out as well as we want it to.
Our "best" is also sometimes constrained by our limited funds. We wish we could do bloodwork for every animal before putting the animal through a surgery. But all these cost extra money, and often, the vet would advise that it isn't necessary since the animal, upon physical examination and based on whatever background that is provided by the rescuer, appears to be fit enough. Funds do not come easy. We may have a policy that says we can only "subsidise" for medical treatment, but it is so often that we end up paying more than 80% or even 100% of the cost because the rescuer is in dire financial difficulty. Even for spay-neuter, we do ask, "Would you like to donate something back to our fund to help the next animal?" Some do, some don't. Some promise, but don't do it. You can read in the postings because those who do donate back, are gratefully acknowledged for their thoughtfulness. We'd just have to sell more tshirts, I'd have to do more public talks, to replenish our fund and to keep us alive!
We also have cases of rescuers who insist on boarding the animals, and have promised to pay, but they don't do it. They just collect the animal and go off and they are not contactable anymore. We have to bear the costs. Thankfully, these are few and far between.
As for the best possible practice, we will continue to heed the advice of our vets as they are the qualified professionals in determining what is best of the animals' health.
The first animal we ever lost (from spay-neuter) was Mrs Sundari's female dog who passed away the next day after a routine spaying on 6th January 2010.
I spent many days soul-searching, wondering if we should even spay and neuter all these street animals. I almost wanted to give up the entire CNRM project and do some other animal charity. I asked myself if we should just let the street animals be and not have them put under such risks, even though it is very small. Mrs Sundari later told us that she had forgotten to tell the vet that the dog had not eaten for a few days prior to the spaying. Such information is VERY crucial and must be told to the vet; it is stated very clearly in our policies. But some rescuers just leave the animals and go off. They have no time to wait, they say.
It was very painful for me to have lost Mrs Sundari's dog, just as it is now, in Queenie's case.
In fact, Mrs Sundari's dog WAS boarded overnight at the vet's as she did not have transport to collect the dog on the same day. Her dog developed complications on the next morning while the clinic was open. She became short of breath and even though attempts were made to resuscitate her, she died. The vet was on phone-communication with me throughout that ordeal, and I rushed there after work. When Mrs Sundari was told the news, she immediately said we should NOT have boarded her dog. We should have returned the dog to her on the same day. She said her dog could have died of stress due to being in an unfamiliar environment or that her dog could have missed her too much and died of fear and heartache.
She could be right, of course.
So there.....you can't win them all, can you? Whatever we do, however hard we try, no matter how sincere our intentions and efforts are, we will still be blamed when things go wrong.
We understand that in shock and sadness, people are quick to point the finger. That's just human nature. It was only much later that Mrs Sundari told us that the dog had actually not eaten for a few days.
After losing Mrs Sundari's dog, I sought the advice of the manager of a local shelter. He said that when you do so many, a few fatalities are bound to happen. Think of all those whom you have saved and the many unwanted births and untold suffering that have been prevented as a result of spaying-neutering. It is still for the greater good, he said. Accidents happen sometimes and some parameters are really beyond our control. Just do your best, he advised.
According to our records, the percentage of fatalities in our spay-neuter cases to date is 0.56%. Besides Mrs Sundari's and now, Queenie's, the only other case was Mrs Muthu's cat. Like Sundari, Mrs Muthu later told us she should not have brought the cat in as it had not eaten for a few days before the procedure. The vet was not informed about this. Mrs Muthu still sends her cats to us now, but she now stays when the vet examines her cats.
We need the cooperation of the rescuers in ensuring that the animal is in the best of health before it is brought in for spay-neuter. The vet can only do a physical examination and ask for the background of the animal from the rescuer. Underlying health problems sometimes cannot be detected. There have, also, been a few times our vets have refused to do cases where the animal appears to be very pale.
So, we are already doing our best for the animals. It may not be THE best, but it is our best, based on our limitations.
In view of Queenie's unfortunate passing, I will seek our vets' advice again next week, and see if there is any better way to help the animals.
P.S. It is rather coincidental that we are talking about this because I have just come back from Penang today, after attending my relative's funeral. He had fallen down, hit his head and started haemorrhaging. He was under one of the best brain surgeons in Penang, but he could not be saved. My point is, animals or humans, we can only do our best. Ultimately, the universe decides. But we still have to do our best.
I also remember now that our late Chief Reverend had once told us that our lifespan is determined the moment we are born. We are meant to live only for a certain duration based on whatever karma we carry from our past. But nobody has the ability to "see" this. So, sometimes, when we say "oh, a miracle saved me", or "oh, the doctor prolonged my life, else I would have been dead by now", we may be right, in a rhetorical sense, but in the bigger picture, I think it was the universe that made things go the way it's supposed to. What is....is. But that's still no excuse for us NOT to do our best. Even that....is meant to be.
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