Shelter Medicine Flashcards
What is the role of vets in shelter medicine?
- Examining individual cats
- Designing biosecurity and vaccination programmes
- Education – disease identification, disease control
- Assessing housing design
- Outbreak investigation
- Behaviour
What are the Cat’s Protection minimum veterinary standards for every cat?
- At least have 1 vet check
- Checked for chip/chipped
- Vaccinated
- Wormed
- Neutered
- Test for FIV and FeLV
How are dental procedures done at Cat’s Protection shelters?
Any cat with fractured teeth, stomatitis, resorptive lesions, retained deciduous teeth, missing teeth will have dentals
What is the effect on a cat being in a shelter for a long period of time?
The longer a cat spends, the more likely they are to get sick
Why are cats in shelters more likely to get sick?
Stress and density
What needs to be considered in sheltered when it comes to infectious disease control?
- Incubation time
- Persistence in environment
- Mode of transmission
- Which cats are vulnerable
- Disinfection – target common parasites, aren’t offensive in smell to cats, non-toxic
- Fomites
Which infectious diseases affect cat shelters?
- Cat flu
- Ringworm/dermatophytosis - spreads very quickly, affects kittens and has long treatment so can affect socialisation
- Infectious diarrhoea
- FIP
- Parvovirus
- Mycobacteria
What is within the infectious disease toolkit at shelters?
- Education
- Intake checks
- Screening/testing
- Biosecurity – cleaning order of more vulnerable cats first
- Vaccination
- Housing design
- Record keeping
- Isolation – barrier nursing – PPE
- Intake/movement within shelter
What should you be suspicious of with non-healing wounds in cat shelters?
Mycobacterium
How can stress be reduced in cat shelters?
- Other cats
- Control over the environment
- Unfamiliar surroundings and smells
- Interactions and people
- Enrichment
- Feliway
Which cats are more likely to be seropositive for feline coronavirus?
Cats that spent over 60 days in a shelter 5 times more likely to be seropositive
Why is FIP not included in the Cat’s Protection routine faecal screen?
Does this affect what you’re going to do
What is the treatment after diagnosis of FIP in Cat’s Protection shelters?
Euthanised FIP positive cat in shelters as new treatments are not financially available to charities
What are the considerations of chronic diseases in cat shelters?
- Can be a challenge to manage successfully in a shelter setting
- Rehomeability – a cat that will go on to have a good quality of life in a home
- Consider length of stay
- Can be a barrier to rehoming
- Comorbidities
What is the concept of sunk cost fallacy in the context of shelter medicine?
Continuing with a treatment plan despite lack of measurable improvement. Feeling unable to stop due to the emotional/financial and time invested, even though cat welfare is compromised with the accumulated time in care
How can sunk cost fallacy be practically avoided in shelter medicine?
- Try to make difficult decisions early on in the investigation of a case
- Talk to the carer early on about potential euthanasia
- Discuss the case with colleagues and seek help if you feel a case is likely to have a protracted treatment with an uncertain prognosis at the end of it.
What is the approach to chronic kidney disease in cat shelter medicine?
- Don’t do routine screening geriatric bloods
- If clinical signs present – urinalysis
- IRIS staging
- Rehoming involves thorough conversation with owner and medical summary form
How is IRIS staging of chronic kidney disease used in shelter medicine with decision making?
Stage 1 – rehome
Stage 2 – substage, looking at proteinuria and blood pressure e
Stage 3 or 4 – not rehomeable, euthanasia
What is the approach to hyperthyroidism in cat shelter medicine?
- Assess renal function, comorbidities and suitably for rehoming carefully
- Bilateral thyroidectomy when possible
- Rehomed with the condition resolved
How are heart murmurs approached in cat shelter medicine?
- Really tricky to balance financial resources of charity vs missing significant disease in a population
- Heart murmurs are not a reliable indicator of disease
- Echocardiography
How is echocardiography used for decision making in cat shelter medicine?
- Grade 4-6 murmur
- Arrythmia
- Gallop rhythm
- Clinical signs? Realistically in shelter medicine this is an indicator for euthanasia
When are no further investigations taken with heart murmurs in cat shelter medicine?
Grade 1-3 murmur
What is TNR in cat shelter medicine?
Trap, neuter, vaccinate, return
What are the benefits of TNR of feral cats in shelter medicine?
- Sets up stable, healthy colonies
- Reduces overpopulation of both feral and domestic populations
- Wider community
