March 2019 by Monica Frenden, Maddie's® Director of Feline Lifesaving, American Pets Alive! and Dr. Alexis Bardzinski, Medical Director, Austin Pets Alive!

Audience: Shelter/Rescue Staff & Volunteers, Veterinary Team

Video Length: 63 minutes

Cat Medical Care on a Shoestring Budget

Are cats in your community still dying and being killed due to medical conditions and the associated costs? For many shelters and rescues, cats with medical conditions such as feline leukemia, FIV, renal disease, hepatic lipidosis, skin problems, viral diseases, and trauma are placed on the euthanasia list with no way out. Austin Pets Alive! Medical Clinic treats thousands of these cats a year on a shoestring budget. In this session, you will have the chance to learn how to save these cats on a tight budget from national leading cat expert, Monica Frenden, and Austin Pets Alive! veterinarian, Dr. Alexis Bardzinski. This presentation was recorded by Maddie's Fund® at the 2019 American Pets Alive! Conference.

About Monica Frenden

Monica Frenden is the Director of Feline Lifesaving at American Pets Alive! and is an instructor for the American Pets Alive!'s Maddie's® Lifesaving Academy. Before teaching the Austin No-Kill Model to students, she founded a trap-neuter-return organization in rural Illinois in 2008 and pioneered one of the nation's first, and largest, barn cat programs. In 2012, she joined Austin Pets Alive! where she served as the Cat Program Manager, led her team to an 88 percent growth in cat adoptions and helped Austin achieve a citywide 98 percent live release rate for cats. Monica is a frequent speaker and advisor on innovative ways to save every cat, including cats with feline leukemia, community cats, and shelter cats in need of medical care.


About Dr. Alexis Bardzinski

Dr. Alexis Bardzinski is the medical director at Austin Pets Alive!. She is from Jupiter, Florida, and obtained her doctorate in veterinary medicine at Mississippi State University. Initially, she came to Austin to complete an internship in equine veterinary medicine, and then afterwards began working in shelter medicine and performing high volume spay/neuter surgeries. She has been working as a veterinarian at Austin Pets Alive! for just over five years and currently resides in Austin with her cattle-dog Paisley and crazy cats Kase and Sake.