In a brightly lit room at the Humane Society of Weld County in Evans, a small puppy recovering from a spaying barked and whined for attention from inside her crate.
Humane society staff moved about within the pup’s sight on a week-day afternoon, as the veterinarians and technicians prepped cats for procedures performed in an adjacent operating room.
The puppy’s interest in her surroundings was nothing short of a miracle. A few weeks ago, Daffodil, a Labrador and terrier mix estimated to be 2 to 4-months old, was brought into the shelter one evening with one of her legs “hanging on by skin,” said Dr. Alexa Hollingsworth, one of the shelter’s new veterinarians.
Found July 20 on the side of Weld County road, Daffodil needed emergency surgery to amputate her back right leg.
“The leg was in horrible shape with dead and unviable tissue,” Hollingsworth continued. “It was so bad she was at risk for infection through her whole body.”
Dr. Talia Agone, the shelter’s other new vet, came in to perform the operation that evening and saved Daffodil’s life. The pup hasn’t missed a step. By the next day, Daffodil was already perkier and now is well on her way to being ready for adoption. The pup’s enthusiasm was undiminished by the small cone she wore around her neck after the spaying earlier this week.
“She got a whole new chance she wouldn’t have had,” Hollingsworth said.
The same might be true of the shelter, with a renewed chance this calendar year to better serve its animals. An increase in the number of clinical staff at the Humane Society of Weld County since October 2019 has allowed the nonprofit organization to provide higher quality medical care, giving them the best possible chance for improved quality of life and adoption.
As of early August, the shelter had 241 animals in its care, including five guinea pigs. Of the 185 cats and 51 dogs, 70 cats and 34 dogs are on site with the rest in foster care.
“It’s always helpful if you have as much medical care as you can before the adoption,” said Agone, a 39-year-old who received her veterinary training at Colorado State. “I hope we’re setting a good example that there is a need for them (the animals) to have that.”
Agone joined the staff in February, filling a six-week void during which the shelter didn’t have a vet in the midst of staff turnover. For a while after Agone arrived, she had help from only one other veterinary professional, Rebecca Boni, a certified veterinary technician who started in April.
Hollingsworth, a 27-year-old only a year out of veterinary school at Washington State University, came on board in July.
Since Agone’s arrival, she’s handled a variety of high-level medical procedures including: eye operations with three animals requiring eye removal, 89 dental cleanings with extractions, one animal requiring a feeding tube, three amputations, eight mass removals, five hernia repairs and eight wound repairs.
“It’s huge,” said Boni of the two vets on site. “We can do exams and surgeries with two vets and two vet techs. “One does the surgery and one does the exams and we’re moving vet care more quickly.”
During the void in vet services at the shelter, interim executive director Sarah Witherell said they were able to rely on neighboring animal facilities such as Milliken Animal Clinic, West Ridge Animal Hospital in west Greeley and Pets Emergency Hospital in Evans.
Witherell said Milliken handled an operation on a dog with a severely torn anterior cruciate ligament and another dog with a herniated rectum, which was a delicate operation.
The shelter is seeing a surge of business this summer after a dip in numbers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In July, owner surrenders were almost double from the number of a year ago — 55 last month up from 31 in July 2019. This mirrors a trend in place since April when the shelter received 74 owner-surrendered animals versus 21 in April 2019.
Intakes, which is any time an animal is brought to the shelter by animal control and the public, increased by nearly 100 from June to July (251 to 337), nearly matching the total from July 2019 (338).
The shelter’s owner surrender numbers have remained fairly consistent throughout the pandemic. The 55 animals surrendered by owners in July was down from 62 in June and significantly lower than the 82 the shelter received in May — the highest total during the pandemic months.
“With people being home with animals, the reasons we are getting for surrenders are compatibility issues,” shelter interim executive director Sarah Witherell said. “It’s dogs and kids not getting along.”
The shelter suspended veterinary services available to the public earlier this year, as it was managing not having a vet on staff for the in-house animals. Witherell said the goal was to re-evaluate how to bring back public services once the shelter stabilized its own vet needs.
COVID-19 delayed the shelter rolling out a plan for resuming public services and it’s problem the staff continues to tackle. Witherell said a key hurdle for the shelter in solving this issue is currently the clinic is limited by its space.
If the shelter were to again open services for the public, additional space would be needed to keep shelter and public animals separate.
Witherell said bringing these plans to reality might mean the shelter again partnering with other clinics or starting a capital campaign to acquire a mobile unit to perform spay and neuter procedures in rural corners of the county.
“You make due with what you have,” Agone said. “Funding is huge, donations. Having foster homes so you can treat in long-term environment. It’s all moving in the right direction.”
