Animal Welfare Professionals

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  • 1.  Work Flow?

    Posted 06-21-2018 01:22 PM

    Hi everyone!  I'm curious to know what your work flow is for your cats?  Meaning, what is the order in which feeding, cleaning, etc... is done on a daily basis by your staff or volunteers?  Is each cat taken care of completely before going on to the next cat, or are cats fed first, then staff/volunteers go back to clean up after the cats?  Also, do you have staff on hand all day or just part of the day?  Thanks! 


    #OrganizationalManagement


  • 2.  RE: Work Flow?

    Posted 06-21-2018 01:37 PM

    Hi there! At our shelter, cats are fed and/or given gruel. We clean the adoption areas first to make sure they are presentable before we open to the public, and then we clean our holding and maternity area. Each cat is taken care of completely to avoid cross contamination and illness spreading. I also recommend changing gloves in between each cat, depending on how your kennels are set up. Our staff is on site from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Our open hours are 110 a.m. to 50 p.m. If someone needs assistance after hours, they are referred to animal control. 


    #OrganizationalManagement


  • 3.  RE: Work Flow?

    Posted 06-22-2018 12:01 PM

    We have 1 staff person and 1 volunteer assigned daily to the cat adoption area, and a separate staff person assigned to our 'cat evaluation' (new cats) area. The cat isolation room is cared for by a separate staff person responsible for other non-feline areas that day.

    Staff are there from 8:00 am - 40 pm. We are open from 12:00 pm - 40 pm.

    We have around 30-40 cats available for adoption at a time, and around 15 cats in cat evaluation at a time. Cleaning/care usually lasts until around 11:00 am when we have meetings or staff take care of additional duties (taking pictures, writing profiles, etc).

    In regards to work flow-  it can vary slightly depending on individual staff & cats, but typically wet food is prepped for all cats in the area at once (special diets are noted at this time and prepped separately), then each cat is fed their wet food while their cage is cleaned (usually distracts them, decreasing stress and making cleaning easier), they are given their dry food and clean water when they are cleaned. Staff then change gloves and move to the next cat. The goal is to minimize the number of times in/out of a single cage for person/cat & decrease glove changes, focus on efficiency as well as disease control.

    At some places I have been we replaced water afterwards with a watering can - this has pros and cons. Currently, staff have to carry a 'contaminated' bowl to refill with new water across the room, or just replace every bowl with a new bowl (which is not necessary daily and causes a backup of dishes), neither of these is ideal... so, a watering can limits movement of germs, decreases dish usage, but if it's allowed to touch contaminated surfaces, or isn't replaced regularly, can cause further disease.

    Hope that helped some!

     


    #OrganizationalManagement