Care that keeps families together
Community Vet Care
A veterinary bill should never cost a family their best friend. Our in-house veterinary team, Community Care Fund, and rescue partnerships bring real medical care to the pets, families, and shelters that need it most, so a treatable problem never becomes the reason an animal loses its home.
Why a sanctuary practices community medicine
Remove the barrier, not the bond.
Many of the dogs and cats who arrive at shelters are not unwanted. They are loved pets whose families hit a wall: a surgery they could not afford, a spay or neuter that cost more than the month’s budget, or a clinic with no open appointments for weeks. We saw it again and again in our own intake, and we came to a simple conclusion. The most powerful rescue we can do is keeping those pets out of the shelter system in the first place.
So we built veterinary capacity of our own. Our in-house veterinary team manages the medical needs of every animal at the sanctuary and also treats the pets of neighbors who do not have access to care. Living through more than half a million dollars in veterinary bills in a single year taught us where the pressure points are, and it shaped the belief behind this work: the medicine we built for our animals should help other animals too.
The goal is not to collect more animals. It is to help more animals, and to help the people who love them.
Three programs, one promise
How Community Vet Care reaches people
Community Care Fund
Direct financial help for families who cannot cover a veterinary need on their own. The Fund supports spay and neuter, vaccines, microchips, licensing, education, pet food, and extenuating circumstances, and the help goes directly to those in need. Roughly $250 funds one appointment.
Visit the Community Care Fund →Veterinary Rescue Collaborative
Vet care built by rescue, for rescues. VRC offers qualified shelter and rescue partners veterinary capacity tailored to their pain points: heartworm treatment, spay and neuter backlogs, or preventive care that keeps animals from becoming adoption-ready.
Explore VRC →Osawatomie Community Care
Our local program for Osawatomie and Miami County, run alongside the Osawatomie Animal Shelter. OCC helps with spay and neuter, vaccines, wellness checks, pet food, microchips, and emergency care, with priority for seniors, veterans, SNAP and Medicaid households, and families facing a hardship. Bowie was our very first OCC spay.
Learn about OCC →St. Francis Mobile Vet Outreach
Healing on the move. Our mobile team brings care to outreach days at places like the Little Wichita Barn, so the people who find it hardest to get to a clinic can meet one where they already are.
Meet the team →What a visit looks like
From a worried phone call to a pet who stays home
Reach out
Tell us what is happening and where you live. Community Care requests go to our Veterinary Rescue Collaboration team; Osawatomie and Miami County residents can start with the OCC application.
We find the fit
We look at whether Community Care, OCC, a partner clinic, or another local resource is the right match. We are not an emergency clinic, and availability and eligibility vary by local program, so we will tell you honestly what we can and cannot do.
Care happens
Preventive care, spay or neuter, dental work, or treatment happens at our clinic, through a partner, or on an outreach day. Animals who need it recover in our recovery rooms under the eye of our medical team.
The family stays whole
The pet goes home to the person who already loves them, and a space at the shelter stays open for an animal with nowhere else to go.
A veterinary bill shouldn’t cost a family their best friend.
The promise behind our Community Care Fund
Help a family keep their pet
Every gift to Community Vet Care is a surrender that never has to happen.
A few moments we’ve shared on Facebook
Follow us on Facebook →What Makes Us Different
Explore our other initiatives
Different ways to care. One promise: an animal’s life deserves to be meaningful while we are responsible for it.
