Animal Welfare Professionals

I am looking to begin an overnight foster program for adult dogs. The biggest problem to instating this program is the barrage of "What if" questions. The main one is, "What of there's a medical emergency while the dog is out?" My question is, what are other programs doing? Also, is this truly an issue other programs are seeing in practice? 

Yes, this is a sticking point for a lot of new programs-- the 'what ifs.' I can tell you that I've heard of few issues happening, but it's always best to have a plan just in case.  Most programs I've seen are doing emergency medical the same way they do for their regular foster program. For example, many give the foster the number for the foster coordinator or person who's on call that night and need approval to take them to a specified emergency clinic that the org. already has a relationship with.  

I'm happy to set up a call anytime to talk more in detail and/or send you resources from other successful programs-- email me at duer@maddiesfund.org!

We try hard to explain what a real emergency is versus what they may think is an emergency to set the stage. Then the foster caregiver must call our on-call veterinarian to get authorization to take it to a pre-arranged veterinary office we work with to get special rates.