Shelter Medicine

Principles I – Housing
and Sanitation
Katherine Polak, DVM, MPH, MS, DACVPM, DABVP
(Shelter Medicine Practice)
FOUR PAWS International
In order to keep animals healthy…
• Population management
• Proper animal housing/facility design
• Adequate cleaning
• Preventive health
• Vaccination
• Intake protocols
• Disease recognition
• Medical treatment
• Accurate recordkeeping
 Shelter medicine
guidelines
Provide shelters and communities a tool for
self-assessment and improvement

• Management and recordkeeping • Animal handling

• Population management • Euthanasia
• Facility design • Sterilization
• Sanitation • Animal transport
• Medical health • Public health
• Behavioral health • Group housing
Shelter Facility Design
In order to save lives,
we must keep
animals physically
and behaviorally
healthy
Why care about facility design?

• Impacts so many aspects of the shelter

• Level of disease
• Behavioral health
• Animals and human stress
• Staffing and cost
• Adoptions
What do animals need?

• Sufficient space
• Food
• Water
• Bed
• Place to hide
• Litterbox (cats)
• Separation between feeding and
elimination areas
• Elevated shelf or space
 Basic principles
• Sick animals housed separately from
healthy ones
• Isolation areas: About 10% of housing
designated for this purpose is a good
rule of thumb
• Just as good or better than regular
housing
• House juvenile animals separately
• Minimize noise levels
• Animals need to hide
According to the ASV standards

“Poor cat housing is one

of the greatest
shortcomings observed
in shelters and has a
substantially negative
impact on both health
and well-being”
Minimal feline spacing recommendations
Less than 2 feet (0.6m) of triangulated distance
between litterbox, resting place and feeding area has
been shown to adversely affect food intake for cat
Installing portals
 Predictive of adoption success
• A UK study found that cats that
rubbed against toys or furniture
were adopted 30% more quickly
• A US study found that active cats
were significantly more likely to be
adopted.
• Placing adoption housing at eye
level and providing toys within the
enclosure (even if the cat does not
play with them) can also hasten
adoptions
Hiding places means happier cats (and dogs)
Using Double-Sided Housing Correctly
Importance of compartments
Encouraging interaction – treat buckets
Elevated resting areas
 Group Housing
• Provides more behavioral choices
• Running, jumping, hiding

• Caretakers can enter rooms to tidy up,

feed, and care with minimal disruption

• Play and social interaction

• Smaller groups of 2-4 cats are preferable

to a few large ones to minimize the need
for frequent addition and removal of cats

• At least 18 square feet of floor space per

cat and the opportunity to maintain a
distance of 1-3 meters distance between
themselves and other cats
Group housing for dogs
Playgroups - Shelterdogplay.org
Encouraging human contact
The best housing is out of the shelter!
Sanitation
Disease Transmission

Fomites Direct Oral/Ingestion

Airborne Environmental
The sanitation process and products

Optimizing the sanitation process Reviewing common disinfectants

The Process The Places

Staffing and
The Order
Training
The actual process

STEP 1: Remove organic material

STEP 2: Clean with detergent

STEP 3: Disinfect (appropriate concentration and contact

time)

Rinse

Thoroughly dry
 Goal:
Focus on
The places high-risk
areas and
animals

Shared Heavily contact High risk &

spaces/equipment areas vulnerable animals
• Vehicles • Intake • Intake
• Carriers • Clothing • Holding
• Intake • Hands • Juveniles
• Surgery • Countertops • Isolation
• Housing • Quarantine
• Restraint items
Common Endemic Diseases of the Shelter
• Feline herpesvirus-1
• Canine distemper virus
• Canine and feline parvovirus
• Feline calicivirus
• Bordetella bronchiseptica
• Microsporum canis (Ringworm)
Ideal cleaning product

BROAD CHEAP EASY TO APPLY EFFECTIVE IN NON-TOXIC

SPECTRUM ORGANIC MATTER

SHORT CONTACT NON-CORROSIVE NICE SMELLING

TIME
 Quaternary
ammonium products

Positives Negatives

Cheap Not reliably effective against non-

enveloped viruses!
Easy to use Can be toxic if diluted incorrectly

Stable in solution Inactivated by organic material

Some detergent
activity
Virkon/Trifectant – Potassium
peroxymonosulfate
Positives Negatives
Effective against non-enveloped viruses Cost
Some detergent activity Must use PPE with powder
Relatively effective in the face of organic Limited application – powder & tablet
matter forms
Non toxic Stable for 7 days as solution
Non-corrosive as solution
Bleach – Sodium hypochlorite
Positives Negatives
Cost No detergent activity – requires 2
steps
Effective against non-enveloped Partially inactivated by organic
viruses matter – must be applied to clean
surface!
Stable for 30 days as dilution if stored Corrosive to metal
properly
Effective against ringworm at 1:10 Requires rinsing
concentration*
Respiratory irritant
Inactivated if exposed to light
 Rescue – Accelerated hydrogen peroxide
Positives Negatives
Good detergent activity – one step Costly if overused
Effective against non-enveloped viruses Must use PPE with concentrate
Effective in the face of organic matter
Non topic/non-corrosive
Multiple applicator systems
Stable 90 days as a dilution
Short contact time (1,5,10 min) based on
concentration
No need to rinse (accept dishes)
Effective against ringworm at 1:16 dilution
 Goal:
The order of cleaning matters Prevent
potential
disease
transmission
Adoptable
juveniles

Quarantine*
Adoptable
adults
Isolation*

Stray healthy
juveniles

*Separate staff
Stray healthy and/or equipment
adults
Feline URI (cat flu)
• Stress reduction and cat
comfort >> ramping up
disinfection practices
• Feline calicivirus is an
exception
• Not reliably inactivated
by alcohols (hand
sanitizer)
Spot cleaning
• Minimize animal stress
• Allow animals to stay in the cage
• Shake out towels, provide fresh
food and water
• Reason: Even moving cats from
cage to cage is enough to induce
FHV-1 reactivation in some cats
[Gaskell and Povey, 1977; Maggs
et al., 2003]
DIY Disposable Litter Boxes
A California shelter teamed up with local
businesses to recycle cardboard trays
into disposable litter boxes.

“The staff at the store are thrilled to help

and save the boxes to help animals. We
usually pick them up one or two days a
week. It’s like Christmas!”
--San Diego Humane Society
Case Study:
Ringworm
 Animal treatment

Contaminated Hard surfaces

foster home
Laundry

Carpet
Game plan – Hard surfaces

Follow-up with
Mechanical removal Wash with a
disinfectant (10
of hair/spores detergent
minute contact time)

Many over-the-counter products with an

antifungal label against Trichophyton
metagrophytes are effective when the
surface is properly prepared
When is the kennel
decontaminated?
• There is no benefit to a waiting period prior to re-use of a
kennel after CPV decontamination; either mechanical
cleaning and disinfection was effective, or it was not.
• Waiting a day or even a couple of weeks will not result in a
significant further decrease in contamination.
• To be on the safe side, kennels should be completely
cleaned, disinfected, and dried at least twice before re-use
• However this can happen in a short period of time (e.g.
24 hours) if the area or kennel is needed urgently.
What about play yards?

• In general do not use grass or dirt areas

for juvenile animals and animals in the
shelter less than four days
• Careful and repeated mechanical
cleaning can be effective if applied
diligently
• Disinfectant with reasonable efficacy in
the face of organic matter (e.g.
Accel/Rescue®) can be sprayed on the
area using a pesticide applicator or
hose-end sprayer
• Maximize exposure to sunlight and
drying of the environment
 1. Little contact time
2. Organic matter
Ditch footbaths 3. Lack of scrubbing
4. Shallow water
Discussion