Small Incisions, Big Impact with Dr. Becky Morrow

Dr. Becky Morrow's path into shelter medicine started with a flash drive full of old photos and a memory that still gives her chills: the first time she saw a high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter clinic in action back in 2006. Private practice had never quite fit, and once she saw that clinic run, she was hooked. She went on to found Frankie's Friends Cat Rescue in 2010 in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, after helping care for more than 400 cats rescued from Tiger Ranch, a large-scale hoarding facility — and has since performed tens of thousands of spay/neuter surgeries herself while training hundreds of veterinarians and vet students in the technique.

In this conversation with host Brianna Lovell Myers, Dr. Morrow talks about what actually separates high-quality, high-volume work from "cutting corners" — smaller incisions, faster recovery, and a team-centered model where technicians and assistants are trained just as thoroughly as the vets. She shares the story behind Frankie's Friends' two-day CE training program, a four-day, 325-surgery field clinic in Puerto Rico that trained 40 local team members alongside the surgeries themselves, and a rare cardiac condition in young cats she's now studying with a cardiologist and pathologist simply because her clinic sees enough volume to notice the pattern. She also makes the case that impact doesn't require going all-in: general practitioners who add just a handful of extra spay/neuter surgeries to their weekly schedule can meaningfully move the needle on community cat overpopulation, since roughly 80% of kittens entering shelters trace back to that population.

In this episode you will hear: How a single 2006 clinic visit reshaped Dr. Morrow's entire career path into shelter medicine

The real difference between high-volume spay/neuter and "cutting corners" — and why her outcomes often beat general practice

Inside the two-day Frankie's Friends CE training model, including its team-centered, not vet-centered, approach

The story of a 325-surgery, four-day field clinic in Puerto Rico that trained 40 local veterinary team members

Why Pennsylvania and Maine's licensing reciprocity rules make them easier states for visiting vets to train and practice in

A rare cardiac condition in young cats that Dr. Morrow is now researching, discovered only because of her clinic's surgical volume

Why community practices don't need to go high-volume to make an impact — and what "just add five" surgeries a week can do

Dr. Morrow's "Just Add Five" presentation from the 2025 United Spay Alliance Conference, available online for anyone who wants the full talk

Dr. Morrow's own path to developing her surgical technique largely self-taught, with mentorship from Dr. Donna Hughes

Resources from this episode: Frankie's Friends Humane: https://www.frankies-friends.org/