BUCKHANNON – The Lewis-Upshur Animal Control Facility is offering free vaccine clinics for cats and dogs this May.
Director Jan Cochran said the facility received a $20,000 Petco Love grant and decided to use the funds to organize the clinics to help limit the spread of canine parvovirus and panleukopenia in cats.
“We are doing two clinics, one in Upshur and one in Lewis County. The Upshur County date is May 5, that’s Tuesday, and it’s going to run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s going to be in the parking lot of Tractor Supply, and it’ll be a drive-up clinic,” Cochran said. “They will not get out of their cars with their animals. We will come by with forms, the emergency management team is going to be parking cars, and we’ll come up with forms. They’ll fill out forms, and then a vet will come around and do the vaccine at their cars.”
The free vaccines being offered include the distemper parvo vaccine for dogs, the feline distemper panleukopenia vaccine and rabies vaccines for both animals.
“If they bring proof their animal has a rabies vaccine, then they’ll get a three-year vaccine. If they do not bring proof their animal has had a rabies vaccine, they’re only going to get a one-year rabies vaccine,” Cochran said. “They’ll get the rabies tags that day, but everything else will be mailed to them, and they’ll get proof of what vaccines they received. We’ll give them a carbon copy of it, but then the rabies certificates will come in an email to them, or if they don’t have email, it’ll get mailed.”
Participants will have to bring an ID or driver’s license showing they are an Upshur County resident to participate in the Upshur County clinic.
“There’s no limit on how many animals you can bring. If we run out before 1 p.m., then the clinic’s just over because we bought so many vaccines for each county,” Cochran said. “You wouldn’t believe how expensive the vaccines are.”
The Lewis County clinic will take place May 26 at the Lewis County Park from 9 a.m. to noon, with the same system and requirements as the Upshur County clinic.
“The reason we decided to do this is to try to keep parvo down in our counties and then, if we keep it down in our counties, then we can try to prevent it from coming into our shelters,” Cochran said. “The feline panleukopenia is a bit worse than parvo this year, which is like parvo in cats. That’s what is running rampant, and a lot of times when you see panleukopenia, you’ll see it in colonies of cats because the colonies have never been vaccinated.”
