Photo by Alan Olson Dr. Allie Cain spays the clinic’s 19,990th animal Friday, in her last day of surgery before taking maternity leave. The clinic will be closed indefinitely until a new veterinarian can be found.

With the departure of the Tiffany Dlesk Spay & Neuter Clinic’s sole doctor, the clinic will be forced to close its doors until a replacement can be found.

The clinic will be closed indefinitely starting Thursday as Dr. Allie Cain will be taking maternity leave and not returning. The four other workers will continue to distribute medical records for a few days afterward before the clinic closes entirely.

The clinic continues to look for a replacement doctor to move in and keep things running.

“I’ve had ads out since May trying to find another doctor,” Cain said. “… Unfortunately, we have not had any bites on it. The (Marshall County) Rescue League board of directors, they were talking about trying to find a veterinary recruiter company to come help us out.

“We would love to get someone in here and keep it going. We’re swamped with people wanting appointments,” she added.

Cain said the clinic is flexible with a doctor’s schedule, and that applicants should be comfortable with the spay/neuter process, the high volume of clients — 12 to 20 surgeries is a typical morning — and vaccine appointments in the afternoon.

“(We’re looking for) someone who wants to help out the lower-income community. That’s what we’re here for. And someone interested in the shelter, too. The shelter’s also losing a vet, and losing a lot of what they’re able to do over there without a vet.”

Abby Bateman, director of the Marshall County Animal Shelter, said that in the meantime, the shelter will be using Glen Dale Animal Hospital to assist with their needs.

Since opening in 2012, the clinic has provided spay and neuter services to local animals, including working in trap-and-release programs to treat feral animals. As of the closure, Cain said the clinic will be just 10 animals shy of 20,000 animals spayed or neutered.

“Since the clinic itself opened in 2012, we are at 19,989,” she said Thursday. “Tomorrow’s our last surgery day. I had a running tally here at my desk of how close we were to 20,000.”

Many of the clinic’s patients were feral cats caught under the catch-neuter-release program, which reduces breeding among feral cat colonies, in addition to administering rabies shots.

Webark Estates offers spay and neuter services to cats at Compassionate Care Spay/Neuter Cat Clinic, located at 86 27th Street, Wheeling. Other local spay and neuter clinics, Cain said, are few and far between, with the closest being in Pittsburgh.

Cain suggested that anyone interested in the clinic’s plight attend meetings of the Marshall County Animal Rescue League, which meets on the third Monday of each month 7 p.m. in the basement of the clinic.

Barb Scanlon, head of the Animal Rescue League’s board of directors, said Cain definitely will be missed.

“(Cain) ran her story on Facebook, that she was leaving, and … she had several comments from people who had used the clinic, saying, ‘What a loss.’ It was really needed, and the cat situation is horrible,” Scanlon said.

“Other than word-of-mouth, that we do need a vet, donations do always help for when we get back up and running,” Cain added.