Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi everyone! I hope that you are having a great week!

I just restarted my career in animal welfare after about a four-year break. This time, I'm in a municipal shelter setting with no vet services as opposed to a 501(c)3 organization that had a vet services department. This is quite a difference for me and the foster program.

How do you/your shelter handle after-hours foster emergencies? With kitten season coming along nice and busy, I want to find a way to properly support our fosters and the pets that they take care of for us. In the past, I've used an on-call system with employees at the shelter. While this was okay, I wasn't a huge fan of it because I feel as if time away from work/the shelter is really important for our emotional, physical, and mental well-being. 

Thank you so very much for any and all ideas! I want our foster program to be more successful and for our fosters to understand that they have support and are very appreciated.

#FosterPrograms

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Liz Gonzalez
Operations Coordinator
Jeffersonville Animal Shelter
IN
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Hi Liz, 

I hope you are enjoying your Friday! I'm glad to hear you are getting back into the animal welfare industry-that's exciting.

The transition from a 501(c)3 organization to a municipal setting with no vet services sounds like quite a shift, but it's clear you're dedicated to making the foster program successful and supportive for both the animals and the fosters.

I understand your concern about after-hours support for fosters, especially with kitten season ramping up. Ensuring fosters feel supported is crucial.

I wanted to share a resource that might be helpful for you and your fosters. We have a program called Doobert Connect, which provides 24/7 support for fosters, addressing both basic questions and medical concerns. This includes access to vet services to determine whether a concern needs immediate attention. The program is designed to help shelter staff by being an extra set of hands while ensuring that fosters have the help they need when they need it. This way, you can maintain that important work-life balance for your team while still offering robust support to your fosters.

I'd love to connect with you to explore more options around this if you're up for it! Just let me know. Either way, I hope you find a great resource to help your team and your fosters.

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Kimberly Ruiz
Doobert.com
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Hi Liz,  Have been in your shoes, and YES - all staff members need their own time to be just that.  What I have had success with in the past was having a foster "buddy" or mentor.  A foster who has successfully fostered a similar situation (i.e, has had multiple bottle babies, or fostering a recent surgery, etc) and pair them with another foster as a type of sounding board.    This way, they had another party who has been through training, and maybe dealt with a similar situation to bounce thoughts/ideas/concerns off of before going to a staff member.    We also had "on call" staff that were designated to specific days in case the "buddy foster" didn't have the ability/skills to address a concern.  Usually they figured it out before having to go a step further up the chain unless it truly was a dire emergency.

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Kym Iffert
Consultant
Dog Whys, LLC
TN
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Hey Liz, 

 I also work at a muncipal shelter. We do have a vet team on hand but they do not work after hours so we have a contract with a local vet and 24/7 ER for cases that come in after hours and/or is something beyond our capabilities. 

Previously the foster coordinator took the phone home with them every night and was essentially on call 24/7. They realized a few years ago how intense and a little insane that was so what we've done is shift our call focus. We are currently under our police department so fosters are urged to call the non emergency PD line if they have an after hours emergency. PD then contacts our oncall AS officer who makes the decision on whether they need to bring the animal in for humane ER or be sent to the ER if they are savable. 

We're also working on growing a new foster private group on FB to assist with various situations over seen by our long time fosters who have been through it all. 

Good luck!

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Angellee Vincent
Volunteer & Events Coordinator
Grand Prairie Animal Services
Grand Prairie, TX
www.gptx.org/paws
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We love the yearly subscription of 24/7 veterinarian call access subscriptions. It is great for getting something answered quickly before actually running the animal to the physical vet. As far as after hours depending on how many people you have to help I would suggest having a calendar of people that all the fosters can see so you have certain people as the person they call if there is an emergency that night and they can guide them. That way it is not always the same person.

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Sunny Levine
President
Sunny day rescue
GA
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