The Affordable Spay Neuter Clinic and Pet Care

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

12/31/2021

12/31/2021

Dear ASNC clients and friends,

For many years, the staff of ASNC has worked under an ever-increasing load to continue to provide quality medical and surgical care for our patients. The last two years of Covid has increased our case volume past the point of exhaustion and this has unfortunately resulted in the recent loss of critical, skilled nursing staff that we cannot easily or quickly replace.

To maintain the quality and safety of our surgical cases, it has become necessary to immediately reduce the number of patients treated at ASNC due to the lack of skilled staffing. We simply don’t have the people we need to ensure a good outcome for every surgery at the current case volume.

We will therefore immediately be reducing the medical side of the practice (office appointments) so that we may concentrate all our efforts in continuing to provide the quality surgical care that has been our mission for the last 15 years. We will also be rescheduling or cancelling a significant number of surgical cases to allow time for the recruitment, hiring and training of skilled staff.

Nothing is more important than the safety of our patients and we must be responsible and realistic about our current situation. If you are an established client and choose to remain with ASNC, we ask for your patience and understanding through this challenging period for we likely will not have availability for medical cases for at least one month. If you choose to leave us, we will facilitate your transition to another veterinary practice in every way we can.

Thank you for your understanding during these extraordinary times. Hopefully, 2022 will be a better year for us all.

Best wishes.

Steven M Silberman, DVM

11/11/2021

This 13 lb, Jurassic lagomorph was prescribed a 3 lb emotional support yorkie after surgery. Both are now back home and doing well.

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

10/18/2021

21 Thousand Surgeries (almost)

In the past, we have posted only happy photos of whichever patient was our most recent 1000th surgery. Sadly, this patient was scheduled to be surgery number 21 thousand but she never got the chance. We are showing why to hopefully make a lifesaving point.

This is a photo of an advanced breast cancer and the chest x-ray of a very sweet, 7 year old terrier who was never spayed. Her family recently brought her to ASNC for surgical help and with the tumor rapidly growing and ulcerating, we went to x-ray as part of the pre-surgery workup.

The x-ray shown here reveals a chest full of metastatic (stage IV) cancer nodules (arrows), all resulting from mammary carcinoma.

Poor R**** could not have her mastectomy and was humanely and gently put to sleep.

It was a tragedy for our patient and her family, who now must live with the real regret of knowing that this death (and pain) was preventable.

Please have your pet spayed or neutered. The longer they keep their s*x hormones, the more likely they are to have a consequence like this.

If you choose to wait, we may one day be having yet another heart breaking conversation. The children will lose their best friend and everyone cries, including us.

Thank you for caring about these animals.

Dr. Silberman