In-Sync Exotics3/08/2013Board Meeting

Minutes from2/08/2013 Meeting

Meeting called to order at 6:30 p.m.

Present:Vicky, Chemyn, Helen, Lisa, Christina, Elizabeth, Jodi, Ron, Parul

REVIEWING OF THE MINUTES

Reviewed minutes from Board meeting– Vicky makes motion to accept, Christina & Jodi second, all approve.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT/MEDICAL REPORT COMBINED

January 2013

Feeders Meeting (01/06/13) covered issues or discrepancies between feeders and regular commissary people. Made sure everyone was on the same page in regards to food prep and feeding.

Mercedes food change (01/07/13) eating chunk treats real well and so we started cutting her up 1 lb. of chunk to go with her dinner and then we upped that to 2 lbs. since she was eating it so good.

Tacoma started on meloxicam (01/07/13), started off with 2 meloxicam 1x daily and then per Dr. Hoppus she instructed to keep him on it for every other day.

Reebok vet appointment (01/08/13) — went to vet due to sneezing a lot and having diarrhea. Started on antibiotics.

Spike (01/08/13 — 01/10/13) came off of his food, breathing heavily, lethargic, not very responsive.

  • 01/09/13 gave Spike a B12 injection — 2cc and 1 liter of fluids sub Q.
  • 01/10/13 Spike was even worse than the previous two days. Tried getting blood but could not find the vein. Made the tough decision to let Spike go. I tried throughout the day to get blood from Spike with no luck. When DR. Toby came out we ask him to try. We finally did get blood and the results showed that he was in really bad shape. Some of his levels we so high that Toby was surprised that he had not already passed. We believe that Spike may have suffered a stroke at least a week to ten days before he passed. His system was no longer circulating his blood the way it should. Letting him go was the right decision.

Gideon got blood (01/10/13) phenobarbital level is 18.2 still within therapeutic level.

No longer having seizures since he was put on liquid phenobarbital.

Tacoma started on Tramadol (01/12/13) before he had been on 6 Tramadol 3x daily but this time we put him on 4 Tramadol 3x daily.

Aasha, Tacoma and Java started on Omega-3 Fish Oil (01/13/13), Java is on the Omega-3 for his skin, Aasha and Tacoma are on it for their bones/arthritis.

Jasper food change (01/16/13) still working on slowly weaning Jasper off of the canned cat food and getting him strictly onto zupreem. Getting 3 cans of cat food and 4 spoonfuls of zupreem.

01/29/13 getting 2 1/4 cans cat food and 5 big spoonfuls of zupreem.

Kazuri not feeling well (01/16/13) had a big vomit of some food, straw and chicken bones. Not interested in AM treats nor did he eat his dinner one night. Started him on Vaseline, gave him Vaseline for a few days but he had already started eating again the next day on bone night and seemed fine afterwards.

Tacoma at A&M (01/17/13). Found severe hip dysplasia and osteoarthritis after running several tests, also did a root canal on his bottom right canine. Discussed all the options for fixing the problem with his hips. Checking into a surgery that has never been done in the US before. It has been done to 5 tigers in Canada with a 98% success rate.

  • The Canadian doctor wants to get a CT scan of him to ensure he is a candidate for this surgery. (surgical bilateral denervation of his coxofemoral joints) Need to overnight the cd. Hopas’ says he is a candidate. 2 vets will come down and perform the surgery at Chuck’s clinic. A&M will send an anesthesia team with equipment to help. Looking at 3/14/13 as surgery date.

Toby out to discuss Tacoma and Aasha (01/18/13) discussing what was covered during Tacoma's A&M visit along with the x-rays taken of Aasha during her visit to chucks. The pros and cons of giving Aasha adiquin injections

Mercedes (01/19/13) had been off of her food for a couple of days, acting more and more lethargic. Got her blood. She is in renal failure. Not sure if it is chronic or acute. Time will only tell us which. Started her on fluids -1 liter daily, 2.5cc famotidine injection, 2cc clindamycin injection. First few days couldn't get her to take any food to get meds in her so had to give her shots but then started eating again and started her on pills. 1 Clavamox 2x daily, 1 Azodyl 2x daily and 1 famotidine 2x daily. Changed her food amount as well to accommodate for what she is eating, took her down to 1 lb chunk and 1 lb chicken but now she is eating better and so she is back up to 2 lbs each at feeding plus getting as much as she will take in the morning with her meds.

Serval weights (01/22/13) Nefie —29 lbs (was 31), Kibo —22.5 (was 26.5) and Shira -22 lbs (was 26). Upped Kibo and Shira's food amount to % lb zupreem plus 1 drumstick. No food changes for Nefie.

Tacoma started on Gabapentin (01/23/13) taken off of tramadol the day before and started on Gabapentin 600mg lx daily. On 01/29/13 he was upped to 700mg Gabapentin 1x daily but that seemed to make him a little loopy so we are currently fluctuating between the 2 amounts to figure out what is best for him.

Got Java and Smuggler's blood (01/23/13). Needed to get blood from a healthy cat to compare numbers so we got Smugglers for that but we got Java's blood because he has been drinking a lot of water. Both results came back normal.

Started getting blood from everyone (01/27/13) so far we have blood from Kiro, all of the babies, Sultan, Iona, Smuggler, Aasha, Layla, Eve, Aurora, Jasmine, Tyjar, Java, all of the cats in Surround Sound, Chloe, Crimson and Cerella.

Blood results — Lucca kidney values are slightly elevated so started her on 2 Azodyl 2x daily, need to get her blood again in 2 months. Jasmine's kidney values elevated more than Lucca's so she is also on Azodyl 2 in AM and 3 in PM. Will need to take her blood and get a urine sample in a month. Also need to recheck Emma and Tyjar's blood in 2-4 months.

Toby out to assist with getting blood on Thursday 01/31/13, Friday 02/01/13 and Thursday 02/07/13 for the cats we have to knock out just to get blood.

Update on Aramis — Still not eating, having to give him injections to get meds in him in hopes to get him eating again. 1 Occ Dex and 1Occ Cerenia. Also started him on Ursodiol 3 pills lx daily for his gallbladder. Started eating here and there and did eat a couple of pounds for a couple of day’s straight then didn't eat anything for a day or two. Started him on Milk Thistle (7 1xdaily) and Sam-E (2 1xdaily) both are vitamins for the liver, currently no end date to when he will be done with these meds. Started him on 6 prednisone lx daily and each week cutting the dose in half to slowly wean him off of it. Seems to really like brisket and elk so we grind some brisket to mix with chunk grinded for his dinner each night along with getting elk in the morning with his meds. Had to give him brisket and elk because he really did not want horse chunk or anything else we had. As of today he is eating regularly although still on the odd diet of grinded brisket and chunk and elk in the morning. He seems to be feeling better all the way around. Active, alert, gaining his weight back, eating regular, urine is normal colored. Working on getting his blood now so that we can check all his values again.

Jynxie (01/14 or 01/15) started to come off of her food, to where she would only eat a few bites or only her treats and chicken. Then completely came off of her food 01/21/13. Started her on Vaseline, 3 metronidazole and 3 sucralfate on 01/18/13. Only took meds once or twice before we couldn't get her to take them anymore at all. Took a culture of the sore on her leg on 01/19/13. Injection of cerenia 8cc and famotidine 9cc 01/20/13. Gave her 5 liters of fluids on 01/21/13 then a total of 4 liters the two days afterwards. Toby out to knock Jynxie out on 01/21/13 for blood draw, to get a culture of the sore on her leg, gave her an injection of dex, b12, cerenia and famotidine. Same with 01/22/13. 01/23/13 Jynxie seemed to be more responsive, alert and somewhat active Wednesday morning. She had switched sides throughout the day mostly on her own. Early early Thursday morning Jynxie took a turn for the worse and we lost her real sudden and unexpectedly.

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Aramis – a guy in Florida who owns a recording studio (J Erwin Dunlop Owl’s Nest Studios) – would like to capture Aramis singing and will put his picture on the album. We need to get this in writing and ensure our name is mentioned.

Tyjar – Did skin biopsy 2-7-13 and waiting for the results to come back. Started him on homeopathic meds to see if that will help him. Losing his hair and getting a lot of red spots. Not sure of direction to go.

Since 3 cats had elevated blood kidney levels we started to take blood on other cats to see if they have the same issue. Some cats we have never taken blood so trying to get norms on the cats.

Have drawn blood on 30 cats so far. Toby has done 6 cats that had to be knocked out. Still have 15 to be knocked out to drawn blood and a few others that Vicky can do.

This will get a baseline on all the cats and help to determine if there is anything we are unaware that may be troubling the cats.

Very expensive. Right now we owe $14,000 to Chuck. Everyone was ok with taking the money out of Fidelity to pay Chuck.

All blood work that we have received on the lion’s show Vitamin A levels are under 100. Should be 200-500 (normal). Will need to do something to get their levels up.

We no longer have Kris as our Blog or Tweet writer. Vicky has the passwords to everything but in order to change the passwords she needs the security answers. Lynn says she would do the Blog but not sure if she will actually do.

Mercedes is not in renal failure but her kidneys are having some trouble so will keep giving fluids – 5 days off 1 day start again. Her levels have come down. She is back to her usual “difficult” self and going out on playground.

SECRETARY’S REPORT

Helping Christina with the database

Working with Chemyn on the Visitor Overnight Campout

Worked with Chemyn on the Enrichment shed – Cleaned shed and updated the enrichment program.

Working with Lisa on the Strategic Plan

TREASURY REPORT

I'm running the In-Sync booth at the Challenger tennis tournament Friday. While I have people coming to help in the evening, when they get there and the traffic from North Dallas pretty much say that I won't make the start of the meeting.

As you can see from the Profit and Loss our income for January this year is quite a bit less than last year, but most of that was special contributions last year for the water project and Cheetah cages. Our vet bills for January were also quite a bit larger than last year. Vet bills are subject to great variation because we have to do it as needed. To give some perspective, I've also included a 12 month Profit and Loss report. In this you can see that the last 12 month vet expenses were actually a little less than the previous 12 month. What doesstand out is the payroll expenses. We knew going in that this expense would increase but I just bring it up so everyone can note that the last 12 months are running about $45,000 more than the previous 12 months for payroll. Not a problem - as long as we have the funds - but just this addition adds almost 8% to our total costs.

DONOR RELATIONS

DB entries for
December 2012 / Estimated visitor count for
December 2012 / How heard about us other than normal - friends, family, news, school, etc.
267 / 294 / Brochure
Calendar
Drive By
Radio/News
Owl Club
Girl Scouts
Internet/Website/Facebook
DB entries for
January 2013 / Estimated visitor count for
January 2013 / How heard about us other than normal - friends, family, news, school, etc.
N/A / 249 / Co-Worker
Friends/Family
Online/Facebook/Google
Local Paper
Volunteer Referral
Drive-By
Flyer
Wylie Print Shop

Thanks to Helen Truman and Ricki Hart we are making headway and getting things current.

Helen reported that the database is now up to a total of 10,475 as of 2/1/2013.

We have had some nice donations through the Fundraising Strategies brought to our attention, 2 for $500 And 1 for $1,000 and $2,500. I sent these Donors a special Package including a DVD and the larger amounts a Calendar as well.

(We have not received the Funds for this as of yet). We have $7,500 right now. It will run 6 weeks then we should get our money.

I Sent out 228(84 via email) Tax 2012 Notices. These are donors who donated $180 or more for the year of 2012.

January 2013

In Honor/Memory Donations- Three In- Memory of Jynxie, One In-Honor Chemyn

EVENTS

Have a storage shed for garage sale items. Will send email to volunteers telling how/where to drop off. Will need volunteers there to man the drop off.

Easter Egg Hunt

Doing flyers

Bounce house ordered

Snow cones – have new vendor

We need a lot of candy

Need parking permit (now issuing permit for a year. Just need to email w weeks ahead of event so they will issue)

Will do flyers – post cards – need address labels. Send 10 days ahead of event.

Funds and Grants

Completed:

JAV & LE Mabee Foundation, Inc.

The Melba Bayers Charitable Trust

On-line application for Rees-Jones Foundation

Letter to Neal Hawks included DVD and Grant Proposal

Letter for request of invitation:

  • William H. Donner Foundation — by invitation only. 1. The Foundation henceforward does not accept, and therefore does not acknowledge, unsolicited proposals. 2. Only applications invited by the Foundation will be considered for support.
  • Tony Stewart Foundation — Completed on-line nomination form for review to be considered for application. (nominations reviewed until May — Grants awarded in November)

Working:

Working on corporate sponsor letter

Grants for February

  • Online Petco Application — need to consider — appears to be mostly for animals that can be spayed and neutered and adopted.

Greg Biffle

Ryan Newman

Future

Hoblitzelle Foundation — Work on now to get out for March (April deadline)

Horace C. Cabe Foundation — Work on in March to get out in April (May deadline)

Jane and Bill Browning Family Fund — Assoc w/Communities Foundation of Texas — Prepare in March for April send. (May 1 deadline). How does this work?

Harold Simmons — Work on in April to get out in March

Summerlee Foundation — work on in April to get out in March

Communities — work in April — due May 1st

Gus Hawthorne Foundation — 1 x year review. Open again in August 2013 and closes in November

Responses from December Mailing:

Glazer Progress Foundation — Not in line with what we do

San Antonio Area Foundation — Supports only counties surrounding San Antonio

Heinean Foundation — Does not support animal welfare

Murrell Foundation — Return to Sender

The Huisking Foundation — Return to Sender

EDUCATION

Parul – discussed the Education position – concerned because she has a full time job. Vicky told her that she could make arrangements for the tours then delegate people to handle.

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Had 46 inquiries about volunteering in Jan, 4 people were interviewed, 2 attended orientation.

# Volunteer Hours in January: 2,224

Eligible for green shirts due to 3 months of service:

Serena Meyer – since Oct, 71 hoursYes

Kayla Gardner – since Nov, 87 hoursYes

Eligible for gold shirt, due to 1 year of service:

Sunshine Benner – 120 hoursDouble checking

Janet Willey – 100 hoursNo

Sara Nabas - 362 hoursYes

Sharon Bruer – 312 hoursYes

I added our logo to all my materials (volunteer manual, welcome packet, etc).

Worked on ideas for the visitor campout with Helen.

Got updated addresses and phone numbers from volunteers for my database.

Updated our listings on VolunteerMatch, craigslist, etc.

Worked with Vicky and Helen to come up with changes to our enrichment program, for safety reasons. Sent updates to all volunteers, cleaned out shed.

We have over 5,600 fans on Facebook now! We have really had a great response when we ask for help or items on FB. Our fans either help, or pass the requests along to those who they think might be able to help (like Aramis’ elk meat), so please feel free to let me know anytime we need anything. You never know who might know someone who can help!

Media Report

Media/PR Report – February 8, 2013

Newsletter should go out next week, just waiting for Ken’s responses.

Press Releases I need to send out more of these but I’m not sure what to send out that will actually get picked up. (Upcoming: Easter Egg Hunt) What about a monthly “invitation” to the press, each month featuring a different species of cat? (April is volunteer appreciation month, so that month we can feature our volunteers) Please, if any of you have ideas, let me know.