The Affordable Spay Neuter Clinic and Pet Care

03/23/2025

When I was a boy, report card time was always stressful for me. More than good or bad grades, it was considered an evaluation of my effort, since it was always presumed that I had enough smarts to get the job done. The evidence of my work, or laziness, was right there on paper for Dad to see - and sign - every few months.

It meant accountability. And it has never stopped.

My wonderful parents, Ira and Claire Silberman of Opelika, Alabama, are still with us and dad is turning 89 on April 11. Because of your extremely kind and humbling remarks about ASNC, I was able to present these comments to my father - as one last report card on his oldest son after my 38 years in practice. Thanks to you, I had passing marks on my career, and I was able to show this to him one more time. I felt the significance of it.

He was very pleased. It was gratifying for my heart in a way that is too big to describe here.

This was your gift to me. Thank you everyone for this blessing today.

Thank you, Dad.

The Affordable Spay Neuter Clinic and Pet Care provides quality service at an affordable price

03/03/2025

ANNOUNCEMENT 03/01/2025

It is with a full and grateful heart that I am announcing that The Affordable Spay Neuter Clinic and Pet Care is no longer in active service to the community after 17 years at Diane's.

In spite of my ambition to continue operating at the pace necessary to sustain ASNC as the low cost surgical option, I have been forced to admit that while I am still good for a long hard day, I just can't do it everyday anymore. Life has decided for me that I can no longer perform the forty or so surgeries weekly that are required to keep our fees low enough to matter. Unfortunately, there has never been a vet in the pipeline to take over and so far, few are interested in the responsibility that goes with my job description.

That reality means that to remain profitable in today's inflationary environment, ASNC would need to raise prices significantly while performing ever fewer surgical cases. If that occurred, we would be priced no better than your local animal hospital, making our name dishonest and our mission more about marketing than substance.

Unfortunately, circumstances are in charge and I must acknowledge the inevitable truth that I can't continue as before. It's just life.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to anyone who has been employed over the years at ASNC for your very hard work and for your dedication. It is you who have kept ASNC alive as I challenged your perseverance on a regular basis with my medical absences. I am privileged to have worked with each of you and I am better for it.

I especially want to thank anyone who has ever used ASNC for surgical or medical care for your pet. We are forever grateful for the trust placed in the staff and I hope that we measured up. We really gave it our best and we still believe that each of us can make a difference, especially when we row together.

And most of all, thank you Diane for showing me how to really work for animals. It was you who first truly exposed me to rescue and adoption decades ago and inspired me to use my particular skill set to try and help as I could. It was the best and most important thing I'll ever do as a veterinarian. After 38 years in all kinds of practice, nothing else comes close.

ASNC is currently being mothballed but is still present and intact. It is on the market at a price designed to hopefully attract another crazy vet on a mission. In the meantime, I am still here and may pop up in unexpected places if I can be of use. I will certainly try.

Thanks everyone for the trust and for helping me pay my rent as a human being.

All my best to those who care. You know who you are.

My guitar awaits.

Dr. Steve Silberman
War Eagle! (Auburn '87)

12/15/2024

Hi folks -

Thank you very much for your interest in having your pet’s surgery at ASNC.

Please refer to our website at affordablespay.com for answers to general questions including pricing. For specific information, please call us during business hours or leave a message. We will do our best to respond on the next business day.

Go Eagles!

Dr. Steve Silberman

12/02/2024

11-15-2024 NEWS! NEWS! NEWS!

ASNC is currently making appointments for routine spaying and neutering beginning next month on December 2.

Our reopening schedule will be Mondays and Tuesdays for surgery and dentistry and Fridays for appointments. We hope to return to daily service as soon as we know what the needs of the community may be after our 11 month hiatus. We have added new equipment, painted anything that didn't move and we have some new and highly qualified technical staff to help us as we stive continually to improve our services.

Thanks once again for everyone's patience and good wishes as I slowly made my way back to usefulness. I missed being able to contribute more than I can express. I feel more privileged and more fortunate than ever to be able to return to this work.

Please stay tuned and check here or on our website (affordablespay.com) for the latest information.

For scheduling, please contact the clinic at 610-970-4173.
See you soon.

Dr. Steve Silberman

Meet Tubac. A Lancaster Cockatoo. Nikki saved his life.

11/17/2024

11-15-2024 NEWS! NEWS! NEWS!

ASNC is currently making appointments for routine spaying and neutering beginning next month on December 2.

Our reopening schedule will be Mondays and Tuesdays for surgery and dentistry and Fridays for appointments. We hope to return to daily service as soon as we know what the needs of the community may be after our 11 month hiatus. We have added new equipment, painted anything that didn't move and we have some new and highly qualified technical staff to help us as we stive continually to improve our services.

Thanks once again for everyone's patience and good wishes as I slowly made my way back to usefulness. I missed being able to contribute more than I can express. I feel more privileged and more fortunate than ever to be able to return to this work.

Please stay tuned and check here or on our website (affordablespay.com) for the latest information.

For scheduling, please contact the clinic at 610-970-4173.

See you soon.

Dr. Steve Silberman

Meet Tubac. A Lancaster Cockatoo. Nikki saved his life.

10/02/2024

Hi folks,

It’s Dr. Steve, still alive and kicking, with the latest from The Affordable Spay Neuter Clinic.

Last spring, we had great ambition to have reopened the clinic by now, but by early summer my spine had other ideas in a big way, and I ended up having surgery instead of doing surgeries.

In my case, a bad back is the price for refusing a desk job for the last forty years and happily, I am vertical once more. My hands are still fine and after so long, they seem to know what is required to do the job. They are itching to go.

We are planning to restart our surgery motor very soon. The new goal is October/November, but everything depends on staffing, especially experienced surgical nursing care. For 17 years, our secret sauce has always been the staff. If you have been to ASNC, you may know what I mean.

If you know of a great human who has the tools, experience, inclination and grit to help make a lifesaving difference for a lot of dogs and cats (and their unborn), please grab him or her by the ear and bring them to us for a talk. There will also be a proper job posting on Indeed very soon.

We are 900 patients away from the goal of 25 thousand low cost surgeries at ASNC since opening in 2008. Personally, this number has long represented my own Mt. Everest to overcome at the clinic before I'm done. Although it can seem that the mountain gets steeper the higher we go, we will climb on.

With the right staff, we will get there in 2025 and there will be a BIG party. You are all invited. There will be clowns...

All our best to everyone and thanks very much for your patience through our unplanned shut down. It really sucked but we are STILL in the game.

Please stay tuned.
Dr. S.

05/31/2024

We need a surgery technician!

Our nurse and future vet (Calla) has been tending to her cat rescue full time since ASNC went on hiatus and we now are in need of someone very special to join us as lead surgical technician so that we may get back to work.

After almost four decades "in the business" at all levels, including the founding of three animal hospitals, I can attest that there is nothing else in veterinary medicine that can save lives and reduce suffering like the work we are so privileged to do at ASNC. The days can be intense due to the nature of the job, but the rewards are so much more than a paycheck. Our team compensation and benefits are competitive with traditional animal hospitals but the days at ASNC are unlike general practice.

Each day brings the challenge of dealing with patients (and people) who are not well vetted for a variety of reasons, frequently financial. Our job is to figure them out and perform high quality, safe surgeries on a deadline, whether the patient is young and healthy or old and full of tumors. Every operation is a custom job and we are still trying to advance (or invent) surgical techniques as we go. After 24 thousand plus surgeries at ASNC, our focus remains as intense as ever (even though I now need my old man glasses).

If you know of an experienced technician who really cares about trying to make a difference, please consider sending them our way. We work hard but sleep well each night knowing that we are helping to end the convenience killing of healthy dogs and cats.

This is why we MUST continue.

As always, thanks for your support.

Dr. Steve Silberman

05/19/2024

I took an accidental dive from a flag pole a couple of years ago and ended up like this. It was still easier than trying to operate with a broken collar bone (2011). The show must go on....

05/09/2024

Dear clients, supporters, animal lovers and friends of ASNC,

It’s May 2024 and I have unfortunately been missing in action for a few months. The surgical clinic has been on standby, and many patients have needed to seek care elsewhere during this time. I am truly sorry for this unavoidable, yet unpredictable absence. It is health related. In my case, that's life with Crohn's disease since 1982.

However, I am determined to once again rise from the canvas to continue our mission to help empty the kill shelters by making essential surgeries more affordable for working folks. We are hoping to reopen the operating room this summer.

I am also planning to do some catching up with you. Although we have neglected to post for a while, we had been operating steadily until this year and have tallied 24,062 medical and dental surgeries since the opening of ASNC in 2008. We have continued to try to document the good stuff as we went along and will be posting critter case photos and stories once again.

Perhaps it is also time to explain a bit about my journey and why I’m trying to stay in the game, no matter what. I am hoping to post weekly editions of our animal adventures each Sunday evening. The rest will be a surprise.

As always, we at ASNC thank you for the privilege of your continued support. After 37 years on the job, doing this work still keeps me going. It will until the killing of surplus dogs and cats or I am no more.

Thank you for having your pet spayed or neutered. See you Sunday...

Dr. Steve Silberman