Every doctor wants to see their patient at least once a year. This is certainly necessary for all animals in foster care to be sure they are maintained adequately. It is not practical or necessary for all species or residents, especially on-site. Each subject is their own unique case. Some may need more regular checkups, some may only need emergency services.

We are currently aiming to set up an annual facility checkup with vaccinations and other services as needed. That means a doctor coming out to the facility, examining the animals and environment, providing recommendations, etc. It is not practical to bring all the animals one at a time to the doctor, especially when many are wild.

Individuals with regular needs, like Pebbles and her self-mutilation, are proportionally handled. This generally means providing prosthetics, collars, vests, etc. Elective surgeries require fundraising and board approval unless the animal is on a medical plan willing to cover the costs.

Pebbles' elective surgery was a mistake. We thought her mutilation may be tied to her other medical issues. She was fully healed going in, and blew out her stitches quickly because the issue is common to her species. The entire thing devolved from there. It took fifteen months to finally heal, and even then it is a delicate area. We took the chance to better her life and failed badly.

Accidents and other necessities happen and medical attention is required. This is problematic because many veterinary offices act more like businesses and will take advantage. We will only cover the initial setting, required medication, and basic follow-up. Anything more and we need to consult our sources to make sure advantage is not being taken.

A broken wing like Max's should be set once, preferably with a splint. That is precisely what shops and naturalists do when they have a bird with abroken wing. It is best that someone who specializes in birds and has the experience is actually the person doing the work. Max's wing was set by a reprtile Dr. under the advice of an avian vet who wasn't experienced. Had we known, we would have gone to a bird store or waited for our regular vet. He may never fly right again because of business practices.

Problems like this make setting medical policies difficult on location, impossible off-site for foster care. On location we handle them case-by-case. Fosters are more practical with an insurance policy to make sure the expenses are covered.

We are a responsible no-kill animal shelter. We dispose of eggs because reproduction in sanctuary is forbidden. We will also euthanize but only for the sake of mercy as a last resort.

We consider it a last resort when there is no future but a painful death that cannot be medically made bearable. Our litmus test is always the basic question: "If it was me, what would I want?" We make no life or death decision based on our wants or conveniences.

Imax had the option to euthanize. He was dying of old age and wasn't suffering, so we brought him home to die with his friends and be buried with his life mate.

The nubian goats Bebe and Suzie were slowly and very painfully dying from irreversible copper poisoning. They had no future but pain unto death, so they were euthanized.

Akademe Foundation objects to behaviors that do not complement natural processes like cremation. We don't bury ashes with a tree, we bury the whole body with a tree. We only approve of responsible methods that are biologically useful as a matter of sustainable balance.

Arkansas

Our current vet is
Heather Hilvert (870-421-2579) in Moutain Home.
Our transferred medical records are stored electronically here.

Avian & Exotics (AZ)

Avian and Exotic Animal Clinic of AZ
Drs. Driggers & Scagnelli
(480) 706-8478; Emergency (602) 351-1850
1911 S Lindsay Road, Mesa, Arizona 85204

Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital
(480) 275-7017; Emergency
744 N Center St #101, Mesa, AZ 85201

Small Mammals (AZ)

Casa Grande Animal Hospital
(520) 836-5979; Emergency
1645 N Pinal Ave, Casa Grande, AZ 85122

Animal Medical Center of Casa Grande
Dr. Kasper
(520) 836-2166; Emergency
3151 N Piper Ave #107, Casa Grande, AZ 85122

Akademe Sanctuary requires any expense paid from its account to be board approved. Exceptions include the necessaries of maintaining the corporation like the annual report, and emergency veterinary costs for residents. Anything else like the Badgy printer for the IDS, business cards, etc. must either be approved in advance or provided as an in-kind donation.

Most of our spending is sponsors and donors providing goods and services as needed (ad hoc). The receipts are saved and written off as in-kind donations. When there is potential for conflicts of interest, they are reported into the financial records of Akademe Foundation, tabulated and put with the Foundation's records.

At the end of the calendar year, letters describing cash, resource, and in-kind donations on the Akademe Sanctuary record are provided to those donors. The letters can then be used as evidence to deduct from taxable income in accordance with tax laws.

We do not keep a record of online activities like donations from royalties, product sales, purchasing goods for us, PayPal donations, cash or check. Sometimes we have no reasonable way to track this information. Be sure to keep track of your own donations to optimize your deduction.

The basic schedule consists of feed, toys, veterinary, and maintenance directly associated with the residents. The residents also depend on sheltering from the extreme local weather, added to by enrichments to include foraging gardens that supplement their more easily tracked official diet. Feed rounds up to $400/month or $4800/year.

This estimate is higher than the actual spending reported quarterly to the board.For scheduling purposes, we always plan for the worst and compute based in best guess formulas.

Scheduling the expenses is a first step to budgeting. The Sanctuary will ultimately pay 100% of the bills for the property when it receives the property. For now, the budgeted percentages are the amount the property owner can write off as in-kind donations.

The sanctuary currently uses ~0.6 of the 1.55 acres available, which includes part of the residence (40.59% of the total property). The remainder of the property remains in private use until it is willed to the Sanctuary for use as an animal shelter (the sanctuary).

We will round the use to 40% of the electricity consumption (APS table below) plus part of the solar lease (~$535 of ~$1,332). When budgeting ahead, we use as much sample data as possible, report the actual, aim for average in practice ($1,390 of 3,475), but are ready for the rounded up worst ($1,600 of 4,000).

Water use is closer to 60% ($120/month) of the average $200/month mainly because of irrigation to sustain the habitats. The remnant is personal use, private pool, and front yard.

Trash service is also about 60% of the annual $360=$216.

We set maintenance equal to food and assume all other maintenance reported as irregular construction.

Comparing our vet bills for 2 dogs, 2 goats, a horse, and 3 parrots, we found the veterinary bills compatible. A vet pouring quarts of medications down the throats of farm animals ironically costs about the same as an avian vet with an eye dropper. The average necessary expenses we determined from a 6 year sample rounded up to $400 per animal per year. This included regular shots, heartworm, and regular allergy medication for one dog.

Some species will never spend this much for a lifetime. Some aren't practical or necessary, especially when you diagnose one member of the family with congenital issues seen in the other family members. Our aim is community safety and a high quality of life. We don't always have as much control over that as we would like. If there is something we can do, we generally try.

For our current population, we estimate the veterinary on the 5 cockatiels, 3 cockatoos, 2 conures, one dog and goat=12 animals @$400/year=$4800.

The total projected expenses for 2019 come to $17,340.34. Very close to 2018's ideal operation's goal of $20,000. For the actual spending see the quarterly reports in the Board Meeting Minutes.