GOING BIG TIME

By David G. Wolf, NGAP Director
Posted: June 16, 2017

As we look back over the past 28 years when we began adopting greyhounds, for a short period of time we simply first met the people at the airport as the dogs came off the plane and said "here′s your greyhound." It didn′t take long to figure out we had to do better by preparing them for adoption, profiling them, and matching them up with the best possible family to have them adopted. At first we had no veterinarians. With the help of Mr. Mark Carl, who at one point was transporting greyhounds to seven different vet clinics, we were able to receive our dogs and prepare them for adoption; the logistics were incredible. When Mr. Carl passed, he was followed by Edward Zadarozny who has helped for many years. Soon we began setting up our own in house clinic just for greyhounds. Just like everything else at our last facility, it was a converted office trailer. After a period of time, Sangita and Bakul Patel, husband and wife, worked Tuesdays and Fridays performing neuters, spays, dentals, and other occasional surgeries. During this time, we would see 25 greyhounds in one day, almost all going under anesthesia. In fact, we would sometimes have 4 dogs under anesthesia at one time: 2 dentals and 2 spay or neuters. There was one year where we did over 700 adoptions; sometimes 10 in one week. In 2005 we moved to the new facility and began working on a new kennel which ultimately opened in October 2009. If you have been there and seen it you can have some sense of exactly how much work went into converting an industrial building into a sectioned kennel with approximately 100 research grade stainless steel cages originally costing $6,000 each with long trench drains underneath the cages to make cleaning easier in one continuous epoxy floor. It would take two additional years for the clinic to be complete. During the interim, we moved the surgical trailer and attached it to the new building while working out of there until the new surgical facility was complete. The Patels worked for us until 2010 and for a period of time after that we had a high turnover of doctors while we searched for the right ones. Dr. Aime Berman, our Medical Director began working in 2011. The numbers of doctors fluctuated over the years but we now currently have three full time veterinarians: Dr. Amie Berman, Dr. Gabriel Mills, and Dr. Emily Seymour. We have achieved the perfect combination of surgical skills and veterinarian-client compatibility. We have gone from doctors having a combined 32 man hours per week to now having 120 man hours per week. For several months now we have been operating seven days a week: Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Fridays, 9a.m.-5p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-3p.m.. We have not forgotten our greyhounds. We will still see more greyhounds at our facility than any other in the U.S.. We average 3-6 greyhounds each day but we also see many other dogs, cats, and other critters. Late last year it we decided to expand the number of exam rooms. Over this past Winter, while I enjoyed the Florida sun, my son and our staff constructed five new exam rooms making a total of eight. which give us the ability to place clients more quickly and handle them more efficiently. We do between 5 and 10 surgeries Monday through Friday, not including our own greyhounds. There are a wide variety of surgical procedures that we do with modern equipment and an efficient staff of skilled doctors and technicians. Greyhound adopters are always concerned about anesthesia and over the years, we have developed the safest protocol we could potentially find. This is enhanced by the skills of the technicians and the equip used to monitor dogs under anesthesia. Most dogs will be intubated with the CO2 monitor for their breathing and oxygen levels while a doppler is attached to listen to the heartbeat with a vital signs monitor in use to check many parameters. For more serious surgeries there is a blood pressure monitor and four work stations with oxygen ventilators the same as those used in a hospital for humans. Most clinics do not have ventilators but if there is a problem, it is absolutely critical to have them available and the skills to use them. The ventilators are usually not needed but if your patient has difficulty breathing like human patients, it will be turned on to assist the animals breathing until it comes back to normal. The wake up times are generally smooth and uneventful. Our weekly man hour total with the most recent count of 32 employees including kennel staff, clinic staff, doctors,and office staff comes to a total of 1000 man hours per week. Times certainly have changed.

We are proud to announce to the community that we serve our latest expansion. We hope you will come and visit to take advantage of our service. Of course, we are still nonprofit with the help of so many who support us.