New clinic is a lifeline for more shelter pets in L.A.

The little white puppy went from wiggly and bouncy to droopy within the span of a day. Berry and her 10 (10!) siblings had ended up in a Los Angeles County shelter, which was tough enough, but then they all came down with parvovirus, or parvo for short. The viral infection is common, spreads fast among puppies, and if not treated is almost always deadly. Berry and her brothers and sisters needed help right away.

Luckily, there was a place designed exactly for puppies like Berry: the parvo treatment ward in the newly opened clinic at the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in Los Angeles. There, veterinary staff are on-site and have just the right space, supplies, and equipment ready to treat puppies who have parvo. Shelter staff contacted Best Friends staff, and in no time all 11 puppies were en route to the clinic.

Now there’s more support for Los Angeles pups, kittens, dogs, and cats of all ages with the clinic, generously funded by the Gershman Foundation, at the Best Friends center. The clinic has a surgical suite that will make it possible to spay or neuter over 2,000 pets a year, plus a nursery and three rooms designed to care for dogs and cats who come down with potentially life-threatening illnesses common in shelters. Saving those pets’ lives with veterinary care is just one of the ways Best Friends is supporting shelters to reach and maintain no-kill.

Berry and her siblings settled into their comfortable space at the clinic, and the veterinary team started each of them on IV treatments and monitored them closely. Everyone’s best hope was that they’d gotten the puppies in time to save them.

The new clinic began with understanding which pets were still at risk of being killed in shelters in the Los Angeles area: very young kittens, sick kittens, puppies with parvo, and pets who have ringworm. All those pets’ lives could be saved — it just takes time, resources, and space that the shelters simply don’t have.

“The Gershmans did an incredible job making sure all the medical equipment is state of the art and everything we’ll need,” says Brittany Thorn, Best Friends executive director in L.A.

The surgical suite holds two tables, so the two full-time Best Friends veterinarians can do spay and neuter surgeries at the same time. There’s an X-ray machine, ultrasound equipment, and an ICU area complete with oxygen tanks for pets who need it. Eye surgery, amputations, and other types of procedures can all now be done in the new clinic, as well.

And when other organizations are inundated with cats and kittens who all need to be spayed or neutered, or they have pets who need other minor surgeries, the Best Friends veterinary team can help them, too. “The services we offer to other organizations is at no cost to them,” Brittany adds.

Now, when a puppy or kitten falls ill in one of the shelters in L.A., there’s a system in place to fast-track getting them care. “Shelters alert us right away if they have puppies with parvo, and we’ll come and pick them up and treat them,” Brittany says. That’s the case for pups with parvo, kittens with panleukopenia, and pets who have ringworm.

Parvovirus and panleukopenia affect puppies and kittens, respectively, and both can be fast spreading and deadly. And ringworm, a skin fungus, isn’t life-threatening, but it can also spread to both animals and people.

[Quick response, teamwork save dogs in parvo outbreak]

These conditions are treatable. But pets who have those illnesses should be separated from other animals, and staff must follow strict treatment protocols to prevent spreading them through their clothing or hands. The clinic is designed so the veterinary team can efficiently and safely treat them all. When the calls come in, they're ready.

“Having a space on-site for kittens with panleukopenia has been extremely impactful,” Brittany adds. “These are kittens who would not survive in a shelter environment, and it gives us the opportunity to treat them in-house and then send them into foster homes as well.”

The new spaces have large windows, making it possible for visitors to see the work happening inside. “It just gives us an opportunity to talk more about what is going on at the shelters and what they really need help with,” Brittany says, “It shows people what we need the community's help with here too.”

In fact, it was thanks in part to the community that the clinic exists at all. Space is at a premium, and setting up the surgical and treatment rooms meant taking away several areas of the center that had previously been used for housing dogs. A robust dog foster program made it possible to do that without reducing the number of dogs Best Friends could take in.

“As we expanded our dog foster program, we’ve been able to get dogs in from the shelters and immediately place them into foster homes,” says Brittany. As dogs spent more time in foster homes, staff saw that they could free up valuable space in the center and continue to save just as many dogs in shelters.

Tiny kittens still need a lot of help in Los Angeles, and the new kitten (and puppy) nursery at the center is designed to house the tiniest furry friends until they can be placed in foster homes.

“The goal is to move them out of the nursery in 24 to 48 hours after we take them in from shelters,” Brittany says. The nursery is a safe and comfortable place for little ones to stay with round-the-clock care from staff and volunteers who feed, clean, and cuddle them.

[When these puppies lost their mom, they found the love they needed in an unusual place — a kitten nursery]

Berry began to feel better not long after she arrived at the clinic. Soon she was perky, curious, playful — all signs of a healthy pup. She and all 10 of her littermates survived the parvovirus and now have their whole lives ahead of them. Adventures await as they settle into new homes, their stay at a shelter and then the Best Friends clinic now behind them.

The goal for all pets Best Friends takes in from shelters is to save lives and place those pets in homes. It’s a collective effort between the shelters, Best Friends staff and volunteers, as well as each new person who stops into the center and walks out with a litter of kittens to foster or a puppy to nurse to health.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.