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CAN YOU TELL ME WHERE TO FIND LOW-COST SPAY/NEUTER SURGERY IN OR NEAR PENSACOLA, FLORIDA?

Below are nearby clinics that work with the community to spay/neuter feral cats in traps as well as friendly strays in carriers. It is recommended that you contact the clinic directly before driving there to make sure they have appointments available--even if they have always welcomed walk-in patients. These prices are up to date for 2022, but it is best to verify the cost when setting up the appointment. Many local rescues and animal welfare organizations use these nearby clinics for transporting several cats at once to be spayed/neutered. There may be a delay in getting appointments because of the overwhelming need in our community. Call first!

SPAY NEUTER IMPACT PROJECT (SNIP)
Ocean Springs, MS (Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes from Pensacola)
7350 Hwy 57, Unit J, Ocean Springs, MS, (228) 215-0172

Website: snipms.com (easily make appt online for feral and domestic cats)
Facebook: www.facebook.com/snipms
Email: SnipAppointments@gmail.com

These prices were updated November 27, 2023.

HIGHLANDS VETERINARIAN HOSPITAL
Theodore, AL (Approximately 1 hour from Pensacola)
5596 Highway 90, Theodore, AL 36582, (251) 345-4114

Website: www.highlandsvethospital.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/highlandsvethosp

CAT SPAY/NEUTER PRICING BELOW

Spay Cat: $50 (includes $10 required rabies vaccine)
Neuter Cat: $35 (includes $10 required rabies vaccine)

This price includes pain medication for when the kitty goes home.

Highlands accepts SPCA $10 off spay/neuter coupons. At the time of this posting, the clinic has the coupons already printed. Each family can use three $10 coupons per year.

NOTE: There is an additional cost of $20 per female cat if she is pregnant or in heat.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: When setting up an appointment for spay/neuter surgery, please make sure you tell them the AGE of your pet. This office has limits to the age of the cat or dog they will spay/neuter. Thank you.

DOG SPAY/NEUTER PRICING - PLEASE CONTACT THE CLINIC FOR THE MOST RECENT PRICING

SPRING HILL ANIMAL CLINIC
Mobile, AL (Approximately 1 hour from Pensacola)
3488 Spring Hill Ave, Mobile, AL 36608, (251) 343-5033

Spring Hill Animal Clinic accepts cats for spay/neuter surgery Monday through Wednesday. Please contact them at 251-343-5033 if you have any questions. Please let them know if you think a cat may be pregnant, in heat, or injured.

Website: springhillanimal.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/springhillanimal

Each new patient must be seen by a doctor upon their first visit. The examination fee is $52. The exam fee is included in spay/neuter pricing. Cat Surgery Prices: Neuter (male) $70; Spay (female) $107. Rabies vaccines are $23.50.

ELBERTA ANIMAL HOSPITAL
Elberta, AL (Approximately 35 minutes from downtown Pensacola)
27817 US-98, Elberta, AL 36530, (251) 986-6400

Website: www.elbertaanimalhospital.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100036868137365 (or Search Elberta Animal Hospital)

Female spay surgery $98 + vaccinations
Male neuter surgery $60 + vaccinations

You can make your own appointment for friendly cats in carriers but be sure if you make an appointment for a skittish cat in a trap, be sure you are able to trap the cat and keep the appointment! This is important for the continued local support of TNR and help for people caring for cats in their community.

Taking one of the free TNR classes offered by EAWG will offer close coaching to avoid missed appointments.

NOTE: Frightened or skittish cats in carriers can be sedated in their carrier but you must notify Elberta Animal Hospital about the need to sedate in carrier.

Delivery is between 8 and 9:30 am. Pickup is between 2 and 5 pm closing.

The minimum weight for spay and neuter is three pounds and three months of age.

Microchip that EAWG provides is free. Left ear tip is free.

Additional fees:

$49 pre-surgical bloodwork is optional
$45 extra if the cat is pregnant
$35 extra if the cat is in heat
$15 FVRCP shot
$16.50 Basic rabies shot

If the cat is injured and you need an exam fee, the fee is $42.00.
If the cat looks sick and you want to rule out leukemia, the leukemia/FIV/Heartworm test is $40.

WIREGRASS SPAY/NEUTER ALLIANCE
570 S. Foster Street, Dothan, AL 36301
(334) 671-8111

Website: www.wiregrassspayneuter.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063606550605

DAVIS ANIMAL HOSPITAL
8560 North Davis Highway, Pensacola, FL 32514
(850) 479-9484, ext. 1

Email: Lowcostspayneuter@davispetvet.com
Website: www.davispetvet.com/lowcostspayandneuter

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT LOCAL VETERINARIANS

The following local veterinarians offer lower cost spay/neuter services but you cannot make the appointment yourself.

All appointments need to be made through Cindra Anderson with Everett Animal Welfare Group. Text 850-501-1531 and mention “need spay/neuter”

Brentwood Animal Hospital: Cats in traps or carriers
East hill Animal Hospital: cats in traps only

HOW CAN I TELL IF A CAT IS FERAL, STRAY, OR SOMEONE'S LOST PET?

A pet or stray cat is one who lived with humans and strayed from home. It will likely show social traits such as approaching closely for food or coming onto the porch or up to the front door looking for food or attention. They may also walk slowly toward you with their tail up or be vocal or purr when you bring food to them.

Feral cats, on the other hand, are not very social with people. They may crouch or stay low to the ground when moving toward or away from you. They often hide in the bushes when you bring the food out and usually won’t look at you. They may scatter, hiss, or growl when you are near.

While these traits are associated with feral cats and kittens, sometimes feral cats will begin to trust the person who feeds them and begin to come a bit closer or show traits usually associated with a stray cat.

If you see a cat with the tip of its ear missing (or a notch in the tip of the cat's ear), it is most likely a cat who has already been trapped and spayed/neutered.

Ear tipping is the universal sign of an altered feral cat. One centimeter is removed from the tip of the left ear while the cat is sedated during spay/neuter surgery. The missing ear tip is easily visible from a distance, making it important that caretakers, trappers and animal control personnel can immediately identify a cat as already having been spayed or neutered. For large version of flyer, visit the Alley Cat URL below to download the PDF file:
www.alleycat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/EartipPoster_new.pdf.

I FOUND AN INJURED OR SICK CAT/KITTEN. I WAS REFERRED TO EAWG. CAN YOU HELP ME?

Thank you so much for rescuing the kitten. Do you know how old the kitten is? See the Alley Cat Allies flyer and link below for help determining the age of the kitten(s).

Please TEXT your full name and your answers to the following questions to (850) 501-1531:

1. How old is the kitten?

2. Is the kitten eating or drinking on its own?

3. Are you feeding the kitten and what are you feeding it? **

4. What appears to be the injury to the kitten?

**If you are bottle feeding a kitten, you should never leave the kittens without feeding them through the night until they weigh at least 12 to 14 ounces. You will need to continue feeding them between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. until they weigh 12 to 14 ounces.

The Alley Cat Allies link below also shows how to determine the age of kittens and how to care for each age kitten. Click the, "Visit Our Kitten Guide" button for each kitten age to find out more about that particular age care.

You can also find a larger version of the kitten age progression chart on the page below.
www.alleycat.org/resources/kitten-progression/

HOW DO I CARE FOR A TINY KITTEN I FOUND?

Bottle feeding guidelines:
Click here for Best Friends Pet Care and Shelter guidelines for bottle feeding kittens. **

**If you are bottle feeding a kitten, you should never leave the kittens without feeding them through the night until they weigh at least 12 to 14 ounces. You will need to continue feeding them between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. until they weigh 12 to 14 ounces.

Neonatal kitten care:
Click here for Alley Cat neonatal care, feeding, help, and burping tips. **

HERE ARE ADDITIONAL KITTEN BOTTLE FEEDING AND CARE TIPS FROM EVERETT ANIMAL WELFARE GROUP

Keeping Your Carrier Clean Inside

When it comes to keeping the area clean, those disposable puppy pads are nice to put in your carrier. You can cut them to fit your carrier and instead of having to wash lots of towels, you put this on top of your bedding so when you take the kittens out to feed them you can pull the piddle pad out and if it’s soiled with urine or anything you can throw it away and put another one in quickly.

Weaning Stage

Every kitten is different when it comes to the transition it makes from only drinking milk to eating dry food and licking up wet food or lapping from a dish.

When introducing meat for the first time, start with only a pea-size amount of the wet food or Gerber baby chicken food. By putting it directly into your bottle, you can begin this at about week 3 1/2. Just use a tiny bit so the kitten begins to acquire the new taste of meat. It’s very different from milk. Take note if the kitten stops drinking the milk sooner than usual. You have probably put too much meat in it. Of course, it will clog your bottle so you have to kind of shake the bottle around. I try to pulverize the kitten pate food before putting that little bit into the milk so that it won’t clog up so badly.

A syringe can be used to teach licking/lapping skills. Sucking from a bottle is very different.

Kittens can learn to lap up the milk from a dish by learning to lick milk that you slowly drip from the syringe slightly higher than the kitten's head so that he has to look out for it and even lick the tip of the syringe to taste it.

Never do this when your kitten is really really hungry because they’re frustrated and will not perform as well. After you’ve taken the edge off of their appetite with a little feeding, then you can try these types of things once the kitten is 3 1/2 to 4 weeks of age.

It's this little bit of introduction that helps the kitten learn he’s not going to go from sucking on a bottle immediately to lapping from a dish or eating wet or dry food.

You can get a 3-ml syringe with a tip on it from your local pharmacy. If you go to the prescription counter, tell them that you’re feeding a baby kitten and ask if they would happen to have a 3-ml syringe or two with a tip on the end of the syringe. These can also be ordered through the Miracle Nipple website along with the miracle nipples.

During this transition, you need to make sure your kitten is getting enough nutrition. You don’t just let him lick what he will from a syringe hoping that he will be able to be motivated to lick more since he’s hungry.

At this stage of the game you can contact Everett Animal Welfare Group and ask for a coaching appointment with someone who has done bottlefeeding before and done this transition. To ask for a coaching session, simply text 850-501-1531 and indicate that you have been using the bottlefeeding guidelines on our page and you need tutoring. You would bring your kitten, all of the supplies that you are using, and your foods to meet with an EAWG volunteer who would work with you and the kitten.

Gerber baby chicken food is very smooth and it can be used in a syringe to teach licking and lapping skills. You can warm it slightly by putting it in the microwave for just 10 or 15 seconds. Test it to be sure it’s not too hot. The Gerber baby chicken food is not a complete cat diet. It only has protein in it so you can’t just feed this to your kitten or it will not be healthy. You need other nutrients that are provided and added to the milk.

Sometimes crushing good quality dry kitten food such as Blue Wilderness Grain Free Kitten Food and other foods where the first ingredient is real meat with as little preservatives and corn and wheat as possible. Foods that are different colors in the kibble are not usually good quality foods.

Do not feed Meow Mix, Friskies or plain PURINA kitten chow in the yellow bag to your kitten. They are not healthy foods.

You should crush the dry food even though it’s a small kibble. It’s still pretty big for a 3 1/2 to 4 week old kitten. I use a meat tenderizing mallet and put the dry food in a plastic sandwich bag. Then I sprinkle a little of the crushed dry food in with the Gerber baby chicken food. Once the kitten is lapping it from a dish, the kitten will be eating little bit of the dry food with the chicken and that will help him learn that that taste is good, too.

You can also crush the dry food and cover it with replacement milk. Then mash it with a fork so it continues to soften up. Then you can put a little on your finger and rub it on the kitten‘s mouth and on his teeth so he gets a taste of it. If he doesn't seem to want it, you can add more milk to it.

Always choose wet or dry foods with the first ingredients or two shown as having real meat. Kittens are protein eaters and corn, wheat, by-products, and colorings are not real meat. Read your labels.

Elimination

Note: Have several clean soft wash rags prepared and ready so you can clean and dry off the kitten after this process.

We find that stimulating the kitten to pee or poo is best done before you feed the kitten. I can’t think about eating if my bladder is full and I don’t think kittens can either.

We like the method of holding the kitten in your left hand while you get some warm running water in your sink coming from the faucet. Once the water is nice and warm (but not hot!) and the temperature is not changing, wet your fingertips of your right hand and hold the kitten in your left hand with his back two legs hanging off your palm. To simulate the action of a mother kitty encouraging a kitten to pee--gently tap the genital area with your wet fingertips periodically rinsing your finger and rewetting them. While stimulating the kitten, you can often feel the warmth of their urine on your fingers. Then, rinse your fingers clean.

Next, lift the tail and look to see if there is a possibility that stool is trying to be eliminated. On the first stool, sometimes you might have to just gently try to help to pull the first bit out because it can sometimes be hard and dry. Once the kitten has finished urinating or pooping, then gently turn the kitten over and rinse them from the hips down including the tail with the same warm water coming from the faucet. Then turn off the water and using your prepared soft dry wash rags, dry the kitten. The first rag will become the wettest and each one subsequently will be getting less and less wet as you dry him well to prevent hyperthermia and chilling.

The kitten should be pretty regular on pooping when you stimulate him or when he’s asleep in his carrier.

Kittens can get kind of smelly if you’re only doing the dabbing method with a cotton ball to stimulate urination. When they’re very young newborns you can take a warm washrag to try to wash away or wipe away the urine that dribbles onto their tummy which can scald them and cause infection. Or just like I mentioned above, you can rinse them gently from the hips down with warm water. You need to DRY them with a clean soft washrag and then use another one to wrap them again to make sure you get the kitten as dry as possible so the kitten doesn’t become chilled. Then re-wrap the kitten and put him in his carrier when it’s time to go back to sleep.

Our Recommendation On Kitten Formula

Revival Animal Health online (www.revivalanimal.com) provides a wonderful kitten replacement formula called “Breeder's Edge." It’s wonderful and it’s easy on the kitten's stomach. You can buy it from them directly and have it shipped to your home. It’s much better than anything you can buy in the pet store or at Walmart. **

**If you are bottle feeding a kitten, you should never leave the kittens without feeding them through the night until they weigh at least 12 to 14 ounces. You will need to continue feeding them between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. until they weigh 12 to 14 ounces.

Formula and Weighing Bottle Feeding Kittens **

**If you are bottle feeding a kitten, you should never leave the kittens without feeding them through the night until they weigh at least 12 to 14 ounces. You will need to continue feeding them between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. until they weigh 12 to 14 ounces.

Give them 8 ml of prepared kitten formula (such as KMR powdered formula mixed according to the package directions) per oz of body weight daily using a kitten nursing bottle you can purchase at places like Tractor Supply, some Walmart stores, Amazon, etc., or use a syringe in an emergency.

Weigh your kittens daily, preferably at the same time each day, using a kitchen or postal scale.

Kittens should gain about ½ ounce every day or 3 to 4 ounces per week.

By 8 weeks, most kittens weigh about 2 pounds. Enter their daily weights in the logbook. If the kittens are not gaining weight or are losing weight, contact your veterinarian right away.

I HAVE A COMMUNITY CAT THAT IS PREGNANT! CAN I TRAP HER AND HAVE HER SPAYED OR DO I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL SHE HAS KITTENS?

I'M AFRAID TO HAVE A STRAY CAT AROUND MY OTHER ANIMALS. CAN YOU HELP ME GET THE CAT(S) TESTED FOR LEUKEMIA OR FELINE AIDS?

If you are concerned about determining whether cats or kittens you are fostering may have leukemia or feline aids, please send an email to eawg.manage@gmail.com and we can give you a low-cost option.

A CAT I TRAPPED ISN'T EATING THE NEXT DAY AFTER IT HAD SURGERY! WHAT CAN I DO?

Offer the kitty some sardines mashed up with its juice.

Take a bite full and put it on a fork and just ever so gently lift up a small part of the trap cover but don’t look at her. Don’t talk to her or stare at her in the eyes. Just lift the trap cover to see where she is.

Then, still without looking at her or staring at her with a cover barely lifted, put the fork (or a butter knife) with the sardines on it through the trap and place it on the newspaper just close enough to her so that she only has to move a little bit to move and take a little bite of it.

Just lay it on the piddle pad or the newspaper--whatever you’re using in the trap. A lot of times they’ll nibble on that and it will get them going with an appetite. It’s OK to offer sardines mashed with oil every day whatever she’ll eat is a good thing.

Also, try putting some treats in the trap just by dribbling them in through the side of the trap.

The whole thing to reducing her stress is to not look at her, or talk to her or try to socialize her. Don't even tell her how much you love her.

A stressed out cat would really just rather pretend as though she was not even there and that you didn’t even know she was in there. Be as elusive as possible.

Gerber chicken baby food is also a good thing. It's smooth and tasty and most cats like it. It’s not a complete cat food but it does have protein in it and it’s moist, which helps with hydration.

You can take a peek in a few hours to see if she’s gone for the bite of sardines. If not, then you might try the Gerber baby food and taking the same slow low approach not looking at her.

Never uncover the whole trap to put food in it or anything. Uncovering her is the worst thing you could do. If you have to change a cover, then you should work one cover on while you’re pulling the other one off so that she’s constantly hidden.

IF I NEED TO BUY A TRAP, WHAT KIND SHOULD I GET?

The TruCatch 30LTD brown trap is the best trap to use because it is easy to set up and humane. This is also the same trap that works with the Trick Stick shown in this instruction video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aBUO9ja6b8

30LTD - Light Duty Animal Trap | Tru Catch Traps

WHAT KIND OF WIRE KENNEL SHOULD I GET FOR FOSTERING CATS/KITTENS?

The best option for plenty of space if you are fostering kittens is to use a collapsible 36-inch x 24-inch wire kennel. That way, there is plenty of space for food, water, and a small litter box. There is also plenty of space to run and the kittens won't be bothering your other pets.

36-inch collapsible wire cages are often found on Facebook. Consider talking to friends, relatives, and neighbors to see who may have a cage in their garage they might have used when potty training their puppy. The cages fold up nicely, so they may have just stored it away and would consider loaning it or giving it to you!

They cost about $50 to $80 and can be found in many retail stores, Tractor Supply, Walmart, or online at Chewy, Amazon, etc. They can be found used for less.

HOW DO I SET UP A KITTEN/CAT FOSTERING AREA IN MY HOME?

If you happen to have a screened porch that is adequate to foster, it can offer some protection from getting worms and fleas compared to living in the yard. Plus, they get to be around people more and get to hear the sounds of living close by.

Here are some example of using 36-inch large wire kennels for fostering kittens. You can attach two kennels together side by side to offer more space for kittens to play if you are fostering more than 1 or 2 kittens. If they are older, having an additional kennel gives the kittens more room to play, chase each other, hide, or rest.

HOW DO I SIGN UP FOR THE EAWG FREE TRAP, NEUTER, RETURN (TNR) CLASS?

To sign up for one of the free TNR classes held in Pensacola, please contact Janet Lander at FreeTNRClass@gmail.com. You can visit the TNR Info page to find out more information, watch some trap videos (including using a trick stick), visit a link to the lastest Class Schedule(s) and more.

Watch for More Answers to Frequently Asked
Questions to be Added Soon!

HOW DO I PARTICIPATE IN THE EAWG PETSMART ADOPTION EVENTS IF I HAVE CATS OR KITTENS WHO NEED TO BE ADOPTED?

DO YOU JUST TAKE THE KITTENS FROM ME AND FIND HOMES FOR THEM?