Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello,

I'm interested to hear about  others' puppy handling protocols.  We're discussing changing our shelter's vaccine protocol for DHPP to every 2 weeks up until 20 weeks of age.  We currently are only vaccinating up until 16 weeks of age.   Puppies are handled first before the rest of the population with staff wearing an extra set of scrubs, gloves and booties. Puppies are carried and not walked in the shelter. Puppies are not going outside.  Most of our animals are transferred to us from other shelters. Puppies are held in isolation and not moved to surgery/adoption floor until 7 days after their first DHPP vaccine.   I'm trying to convince the medical director to stop the 7 day quarantine hold and to move the healthy puppies through to surgery and adoption as fast as possible. She is worried they will break with parvo once they are adopted out, thus the 7 day quarantine.  Are you doing any kind of quarantine for unvaccinated puppies? What is your puppy handling protocol for puppies under 20 weeks of age?

Attachments of your puppy handling protocol welcomed!

Lauren Andrews, DVM

Shelter Vet

Hey sorry don't have any protocols to give you as we are working on making our own currently.

I just attended the Cornell Shelter Medicine Conference and would say to reach out to them by email at sheltermedicine@cornell.edu , they said they would be glad to talk to others and provide helpful resources to the specific questions you ask. The 2022 ASV guidelines state directly to do DHPP vaccines at 4 weeks of age, or whenever you get the pup which ever is earliest, and to continue with one every 2 weeks up until 20 weeks of age. I believe there are also studies that state unless you have a known reason to quarantine past 48 hours (ie. you know the shelter you pulled from has an issue) it's better for the dog to be fast-tracked to adoption. 

on a side note, If anyone wants to share their protocols I'd be extremely grateful to see them as well lol. 

Hello,

I'm interested to hear about  others' puppy handling protocols.  We're discussing changing our shelter's vaccine protocol for DHPP to every 2 weeks up until 20 weeks of age.  We currently are only vaccinating up until 16 weeks of age.   Puppies are handled first before the rest of the population with staff wearing an extra set of scrubs, gloves and booties. Puppies are carried and not walked in the shelter. Puppies are not going outside.  Most of our animals are transferred to us from other shelters. Puppies are held in isolation and not moved to surgery/adoption floor until 7 days after their first DHPP vaccine.   I'm trying to convince the medical director to stop the 7 day quarantine hold and to move the healthy puppies through to surgery and adoption as fast as possible. She is worried they will break with parvo once they are adopted out, thus the 7 day quarantine.  Are you doing any kind of quarantine for unvaccinated puppies? What is your puppy handling protocol for puppies under 20 weeks of age?

Attachments of your puppy handling protocol welcomed!

Lauren Andrews, DVM

Shelter Vet

We've used these protocols for years.  Very useful for preventing parvo.

Hey sorry don't have any protocols to give you as we are working on making our own currently.

I just attended the Cornell Shelter Medicine Conference and would say to reach out to them by email at sheltermedicine@cornell.edu , they said they would be glad to talk to others and provide helpful resources to the specific questions you ask. The 2022 ASV guidelines state directly to do DHPP vaccines at 4 weeks of age, or whenever you get the pup which ever is earliest, and to continue with one every 2 weeks up until 20 weeks of age. I believe there are also studies that state unless you have a known reason to quarantine past 48 hours (ie. you know the shelter you pulled from has an issue) it's better for the dog to be fast-tracked to adoption. 

on a side note, If anyone wants to share their protocols I'd be extremely grateful to see them as well lol. 

Hello,

I'm interested to hear about  others' puppy handling protocols.  We're discussing changing our shelter's vaccine protocol for DHPP to every 2 weeks up until 20 weeks of age.  We currently are only vaccinating up until 16 weeks of age.   Puppies are handled first before the rest of the population with staff wearing an extra set of scrubs, gloves and booties. Puppies are carried and not walked in the shelter. Puppies are not going outside.  Most of our animals are transferred to us from other shelters. Puppies are held in isolation and not moved to surgery/adoption floor until 7 days after their first DHPP vaccine.   I'm trying to convince the medical director to stop the 7 day quarantine hold and to move the healthy puppies through to surgery and adoption as fast as possible. She is worried they will break with parvo once they are adopted out, thus the 7 day quarantine.  Are you doing any kind of quarantine for unvaccinated puppies? What is your puppy handling protocol for puppies under 20 weeks of age?

Attachments of your puppy handling protocol welcomed!

Lauren Andrews, DVM

Shelter Vet