This brand new manual provides a practical guide on how to deal with various clinical situations that arise when working with cats and dogs in a shelter environment. The first part of the manual describes the principles of shelter medicine and population health. The second part covers the prevention, management and control of disease in a shelter environment. The final part provides information on working with people in the shelter environment.
Table of Contents
What is shelter medicine?
- Top tips for a shelter medicine vet
Ethics and animal welfare
- Using the ethical framework to make decisions
Pragmatic decision-making in the charity situation
- Dealing with the elderly thin cat
- Dealing with the elderly dog
- Dealing with heart murmurs in dogs and cats
- Dealing with the itchy dog: is it atopic dermatitis?
Population control and management
- Setting up a population control program
- TNR/CNR checklist
- Euthanasia and shelters
Optimizing neutering programmes
- General anaesthesia protocols for early neutering
Shelter metrics
Principles of infectious disease and transmission
Biosecurity in shelters
- A brief overview of disinfectants
Shelter design and the flow of animals through a shelter
Preventive medicine in the shelter environment
- Intake assessment for animals entering shelters
Diarrhoea in the dog in the shelter environment
Diarrhoea in the cat in the shelter environment
Respiratory disease in the dog in the shelter environment
- Rehoming a coughing dog
Respiratory disease in the cat in the shelter environment
- Rehoming a snotty cat
Skins diseases in shelter animals
Managing FeLV/FIV in the multi-cat/shelter environment
Managing feline coronavirus and feline infectious peritonitis in the multi-cat/shelter environment
- Toxoplasmosis
- Exotic diseases in shelters
- Zoonotic diseases in shelters
Behaviour and stress management in the shelter environment
- Current thinking on dog behaviour
- Current thinking on cat behaviour
- Socialization of puppies
- Socialization of kittens
- Dealing with the aggressive dog
- Dealing with the hard-to-handle cat
- Environmental enrichment for dogs in shelters
- Environmental enrichment for cats in shelters
Charities, their policies and their staff
Law and shelter medicine
- Dealing with a stray dog
- Dealing with a stray cat
The shelter veterinary team
Working with the non-vet shelter team
- Hoarding
- Non-accidental injury
Training and education in the shelter environment
