What could I bring home to my dogs?

[Kara31191]

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I was just wondering what I could potentially get from coming home from work and seeing my dogs.

I did ask about the risk for my birds though! 🙄 I just didn't realize how many things are passed dog-human-dog and cat-human-cat.

And my vet/boss also added that a 15 year old was killed by Lepto when they volunteered at a clinic. He/she was cleaning up urine in a cage and got terribly ill I guess. Well, anyways, I was just wondering what the risks are, and what I could do to prevent certain things. I was even thinking of changing at work and then returning home to reduce the risk. Or I could spray my clothes with some nolvascan before leaving work? Or would that even do too much? 😕

I couldn't find much on the internet, so I appreciate you all answering my threads! 🙂

 

[zpinkpanther]

I would change at work if I were you. Just bring a change of clothes in a plastic bag and put your work clothes in them and tie it shut when you head home. Also, I bleach my scrubs whenever there was a patient that could potentially be contagious.

I think the kid that died of Lepto was from New Jersey? The vet I work for is always telling people that as an incentive to get a Lepto vaccine for their dog. Anyway, we're always super duper cautious when we have a patient that could possibly have Lepto. Wear gloves when handling EVERYTHING, especially urine.

 

[168135]

While volunteering at a shelter, I was around cats with upper respiratory infections. I was told that when I got home to leave my shoes outside, because apparently you can pass a lot of things along when your animals come over and started sniffing around your feet.

I avoid my cat, and immediately change and do the laundry up. 90% of the time, I'll have a shower as soon as I get home.

 

[Electrophile]

I thought of the same thing when I did more shelter work. At least 50% of my fosters would have kennel cough or some other non-descript "cold." My own dogs were all on 1000-2000 mg of ester C a day and it wasn't an issue. None of them ever got it from my fosters nor were they vaccinated for bordatella (a useless vaccination if there ever was one).

I would make sure your dogs are titer tested against the big three: rabies, parvo, and distemper. My dogs are titer tested instead of automatic re-vaccination as it is a better test of immunity than the vaccination. You may also want to have a little pan (think like the size of a dish pan) with a small amount of 10% bleach solution that you can step in and out of. Toss your clothes in the wash when you get home. Lots of handwashing too!

 

[ElvisMarie6]

Kara- I have a question for you! I haven't had much experience around birds and over the past week I was house-sitting for a family who has a Mexican yellow-headed parrot. The thing hates me and every time I tried to pick her up she tried to bite my finger off. Also trying to put her food in her cage was a challenge bc she tried to bite me when i opened the little food doors. Soooo I have heard birds are very partial to their owners, but is there something I could do to try and make her feel more at ease around me? Thanks so much!

 

[Catch91]

This post is helpful for me as well. I may be starting volunteer work at a veterinary clinic soon, and this honestly hadn't crossed my mind. I have animals at home that I need to consider before I take this job.

Didn't mean to hijack the thread; just commenting.

🙂

 

[Kara31191]

Kara- I have a question for you! I haven't had much experience around birds and over the past week I was house-sitting for a family who has a Mexican yellow-headed parrot. The thing hates me and every time I tried to pick her up she tried to bite my finger off. Also trying to put her food in her cage was a challenge bc she tried to bite me when i opened the little food doors. Soooo I have heard birds are very partial to their owners, but is there something I could do to try and make her feel more at ease around me? Thanks so much!

I'm guessing this is an amazon. Either a double yellow head... or a Mexican Red headed Amazon. Well, it sounds like this bird was having a laugh at you, literally. Birds are definitely partial to their owners, and will learn by what a person does. You need to show a bird that you are the leader.

A few ways to win a bird over:
- Feeding them a "special" favorite treat. I'm currently working with my sun conure. She was in a cage alone for several years eating seed. The lady gave her vodka to quiet her down. Well, this bird will see me and immediately swear. I picked Banana as her "treat" because she LOVES them. Every time I see her I give her some banana through the cage bars. Everyday I had her come a bit closer to me to get to the banana. When she learns I am not that bad, she will come to me and I'm sure we will have a great bond. I also have a Severe macaw that now will cuddle due to this type of training.

- Be tough and show the bird who is boss. Amazons are likely to take advantage of you if you let them. If the bird lunges, hiss or say no in a deep calm voice... and give no reactions otherwise. As soon as you make a big deal out of it, the bird will go "Oh my this is fun, let me see if I can make them jump." And considering the owners aren't present at this time, I'm sure this bird has nothing better to do. But, don't expect the bird to want to jump on your hand right away without it's owners there.

- Have fun. I take care of my vet's birds. I sing, I dance, and I play music. I try to get them to associate me with "play time" even though I'm cleaning there cages.

- Do familiar routines. If this bird says something, say it back. They love to hear a person say "Good night" or "Hi Pretty baby" right back.

If you have any specific questions, I'll do what I can to help! 😀

Thank you everyone for your help! This is a great topic and I needed to know. The clinic isn't overly busy with sick dogs/cats, more routine things happen... spays, neuters, vaccinations, etc.

-Kara

 

[Kara31191]

I would change at work if I were you. Just bring a change of clothes in a plastic bag and put your work clothes in them and tie it shut when you head home. Also, I bleach my scrubs whenever there was a patient that could potentially be contagious.

I think the kid that died of Lepto was from New Jersey? The vet I work for is always telling people that as an incentive to get a Lepto vaccine for their dog. Anyway, we're always super duper cautious when we have a patient that could possibly have Lepto. Wear gloves when handling EVERYTHING, especially urine.

That's what my vet just told me. She gets very concerned and it;s understandable.

 

[pressmom]

When I worked with wildlife, I had a specific pair of shoes that stayed in a plastic bag in the car trunk and I would shower and wash my clothes IMMEDIATELY when I got in. For just routine work at a vet clinic I had a different pair of shoes and would put them in my laundry room away from my dogs and I'd usually spray them down with cleaner before I left the clinic. Scrubs I would wash weekly usually because I had enough to get through a week. I would sometimes take a shower when I got in. If it had only been a routine vaccination day, sometimes I wouldn't take a shower...I'd just change clothes, but if we had a bordetella or parvo case in or something, I would definitely shower. I'd say about 85% of the time I would shower right after work.

 

[clawsbeatskin]

My facility is lucky enough to have a shower outside of potential contamination areas. I shower there everyday after work! I don't think I've showered at home for about 2 weeks...sure helps with the water bills!

 

[ElvisMarie6]

Thanks Kara!😀

 

[168135]

My facility is lucky enough to have a shower outside of potential contamination areas. I shower there everyday after work! I don't think I've showered at home for about 2 weeks...sure helps with the water bills!

Our clinic had a shower... the said part is that is looked pretty dirty... I don't know how often it gets used.

 

[thesonofdarwin]

While volunteering at a shelter, I was around cats with upper respiratory infections. I was told that when I got home to leave my shoes outside, because apparently you can pass a lot of things along when your animals come over and started sniffing around your feet.

I avoid my cat, and immediately change and do the laundry up. 90% of the time, I'll have a shower as soon as I get home.

I work at my SPCA. I leave my shoes/boots in the car and put them on in there, and I get undressed outside and put everything in the washer asap. It's been getting below 15F though, so I've mastered the quick undress and thankfully the trees block potential peepers. Then I take a shower afterwards. My coworkers think I'm absolutely crazy, but if I was responsible for infecting one of my pets I could never live with myself.

 

[Duke07]

I was just wondering what I could potentially get from coming home from work and seeing my dogs.

One thing I can think of is ringworm. I used to volunteer at a trap, spay and release clinic and had to fully shave cats that came in with ringworm. Because the cats were feral, I just kept a robe in the laundry room, took off my dirty clothes and went upstairs to shower so my cats weren't at risk. I haven't seen anything like that at the clinic where I work now, but I still shower immediately when I get home - mainly because I feel kind of gross!

 

[Kara31191]

Yeah, I always shower... but I'm always worried... I never knew there were so many risks for dogs, cats and humans! =(

 

[david594]

What could I bring home to my dogs?

A kitten. The dogs will absolutely hate you for it.😀

 

[Kara31191]

A kitten. The dogs will absolutely hate you for it.😀

Haha! So would my Dad... he's allergic. 🙂