Good to Know

Drop Off is between 7am–8am. Expect to spend about 15 minutes here during drop-off as you'll need to sign a surgical consent form, help check in your pet, and talk through the procedure with the surgeon.

Pick Up is between 4pm–6pm. At this time, we'll review how your pet's day went with you, cover post-op care and instructions for any medications, and collect any payment still due.

There are a lot of vaccines out there, and costs can add up quickly. You know that it's probably important for your pet to stay up to date on shots, but which ones? Below is a brief overview of the most common vaccines as well as when you should give them.

Core Vaccines (recommended for all/most pets)

Rabies: This is the one vaccine that's required by law — and for good reason. It's an exceptionally safe and effective vaccine against a disease that is essentially 100% fatal once symptoms appear (CDC), and rabies is a threat to people as well as pets. Pets can have it as soon as they're 3 months old, then a booster in 1 year, and after that every 3 years. Keep those records!

DHPP / FVRCP: These combination vaccines are occasionally nicknamed 'distemper' although they treat for much more than that! DHPP (for dogs) helps protect against Distemper, Adenovirus, Parainfluenza, and Parvovirus while FVRCP (for cats) helps protect against Rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus and Panleukopenia. We typically start the series around 6–8 weeks and booster every 3–4 weeks until they're past 16 weeks — though depending on the individual patient and their risk, we may start earlier (even neonates, in some cases). After the puppy/kitten series it's good for a year, then every 3 years as long as they stay up to date.

Leptospirosis (dogs — recommended for nearly all dogs): Carried in the urine of several wildlife species, "lepto" is a bacterial disease that causes organ dysfunction, organ failure, and even death — and it can spread to people too. It's increasingly common, and the current AAHA canine vaccination guidelines recommend it for essentially every dog, including city and suburban dogs, since the wildlife that carry it are everywhere. Given as 2 doses 2–4 weeks apart (starting at 12 weeks or older), then boosted annually.

FeLV (kittens — now core): Feline Leukemia is a widespread immunosuppressant virus that was long the leading infectious cause of cancer in cats — once blamed for the majority of feline lymphomas. Testing and vaccination have since driven both its prevalence and its cancer toll down sharply, which is exactly the case for keeping up with it: the vaccine works. Because a kitten's future lifestyle is hard to predict and young cats are the most susceptible, current AAHA/AAFP guidelines recommend it for every kitten (2 doses 3–4 weeks apart, starting around 8 weeks, plus a booster at a year). After the first year it becomes optional — worth continuing annually for cats that go outdoors or live with other cats, and can be dropped for confirmed indoor-only, single-cat homes.

Non-Core / Lifestyle Vaccines (dogs)

Bordetella: The 'kennel cough' vaccine. Recommended if your dog is going to have an active social life — boarding, dog parks, daycare, grooming, or other exposure to new dogs. Good for 1 year (sometimes boosted every 6 months for high-exposure dogs).

Lyme: A tick-borne illness (spread by deer ticks, not wildlife urine — so it's a different beast than lepto). Lyme can cause fever, painful lameness, and in some dogs kidney disease (CDC). Pets kept on good flea & tick prevention run a much lower risk, but in our tick-heavy part of Wisconsin the vaccine is worth considering for most dogs. Given as 2 doses 2–4 weeks apart, then annually.

Canine Influenza (dog flu): A contagious respiratory virus that spreads wherever dogs gather. It's increasingly required by daycare and boarding facilities in the area (such as Waggin' Tails), so if your dog boards or does daycare, check whether they require it. Given as 2 doses 2–4 weeks apart, then boosted annually.

The short answer here is: Yes — we can safely spay your pet even when she's in heat. We see females in heat regularly, there are usually at least a couple here on any given day, and our surgeon is extremely comfortable operating on them. A lot of vets have big scary warnings about the concerns associated with spaying a pet in heat and we get asked about these a lot, so what's the truth about going into heat?

When your pet is in heat, there is more blood flow to the reproductive tract — the blood vessels become engorged, which means more care is needed to tie off and suture the blood supply. In practice that adds a couple of extra ligatures and a few extra minutes for any patient in heat, whether she's a cat or a large dog. It takes Dr. Meghan a little longer, but there is no additional charge associated with it. Just please let us know ahead of time so we can make a note and let her know what to expect.

It's also worth saying plainly: this is one of the more hotly debated topics in veterinary medicine right now. The honest answer has gotten more nuanced than the old "everyone at six months" rule — but every study on the subject has real statistical limitations. It's extremely hard to trace a problem that shows up over many years back to a single cause while controlling for everything else in a living animal in the real world. So the guidance below reflects the current direction of the evidence, held loosely, not settled fact. With that said, here's how we think about it:

Cats: The current consensus — the "Fix by Five" recommendation endorsed by the AVMA, AAHA, and the feline-medicine associations — is to spay or neuter by 5 months of age (Feline Fix by Five). Cats can get pregnant as early as 4–5 months, and spaying before the first heat dramatically lowers the lifetime risk of mammary cancer (which is aggressive in cats). Earlier is genuinely better here.

Small & medium dogs (under ~45 lbs grown): Around 6 months is a great target, and spaying females before their first heat carries real cancer-prevention benefits. Small breeds don't show the joint downsides discussed below, so timing is largely your call.

Large & giant-breed dogs (over ~45 lbs grown): Recent research (notably the UC Davis breed studies) found that neutering big dogs before they finish growing can raise the risk of certain joint problems and, in a few breeds, some cancers — because sex hormones help the growth plates close properly. For these dogs, waiting until closer to 9–15 months, or discussing a breed-specific plan with us, is often the healthier choice. Our full write-up on this is in the blog.

What's the earliest we'll operate? Dr. Meghan is exceptionally skilled at pediatric surgery and can safely spay or neuter puppies from about 2 months old (weighing at least 2 lbs) and kittens from about 6 weeks (at least 1.5 lbs). For cats and small dogs there's no health reason to wait past that; for large-breed dogs we may suggest holding off for joint health, though early surgery is still the right call for rescue and shelter animals. But truly — the right answer for your pet is a conversation, not a chart. Bring your questions to a pre-op consult and we'll land on a plan that fits your specific animal.

The price posted includes everything that you'll need for a routine spay or neuter on a healthy pet — including take-home pain medications to help make recovery more comfortable.

If we notice anything concerning on the pre-op exam we'll give you a call before proceeding. If you have any concerns regarding your pet's health please discuss them with our vet at drop-off.

Basically, the only thing that would add an unavoidable cost would be fleas ($5), which we have to treat for the sake of the other pets visiting us that day.

Most importantly, please do not feed your pet after midnight the night before their spay or neuter. Having food in their stomach while under anesthesia can lead to vomiting.

If you're interested in vaccines, please bring a copy of your pet's medical records with you or email them to [email protected] ahead of time.

Every good spay or neuter should be accompanied by a tiny (1 cm | 1/2 in) green mark near the incision. This just serves as a flag to other vets and rescues that your pet has already been spayed/neutered in case you ever misplace their records (and can't get in touch with us to reprint them) or they run away.

If you are experiencing an after-hours emergency with your pet, please call an emergency clinic to discuss the signs you are noticing at home. Local emergency clinics include:

• Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG) — Madison
  7456 Mineral Point Rd, Madison, WI 53717 · Open 24/7
  (608) 716-3255
• Veterinary Emergency Services — East Side
  4902 East Broadway, Madison, WI 53716
  (608) 222-2455
• Madison Veterinary Specialists
  2704 Royal Avenue, Madison, WI 53713
  (608) 274-7772
• UW Veterinary Care Emergency Services
  2015 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706
  (608) 263-7600
• VCA Emergency Services — Middleton
  1612 N High Point Road, Suite 100, Middleton, WI 53562
  (608) 831-1101
• Veterinary Emergency Services — Janesville
  3710 E Racine St., Janesville, WI 53546
  (608) 314-3510

Nope.

Yeah, that's fair, so do we. Honestly, I'm really sorry for the phone tree, I wish we could avoid it but our receptionists were having trouble getting anything else done. We receive well over 100 calls per day and there are only two people up there. They also check in appointments, handle emails, and perform about a thousand other tasks to keep this place running smoothly so we had to give them a break somewhere. Using the phone tree to take messages allows them to batch tasks and triage calls more efficiently and without constant interruptions. While I totally get that it's way less pleasant than being able to get through to a human immediately when you call, it's made an incredible difference in our ability to keep things organized up front, which, in turn, makes the whole place flow more smoothly.

Most options are going to route you to a voicemail box so that they can review your message and get it to the appropriate person (even if you get the reception team on the phone, they still need to wait for the vets to have a chance to answer most questions).

The more detailed the message, the easier everything gets — let us know how you'd like us to get back to you and when. If you have a medical question, please leave a detailed description of what's going on, this will help reduce back and forth.