Petfinder.com forums :: View topic - 4/19 - 4/25 What to Expect When Fostering a Pet! [ ]

We are so excited to welcome Linda Reider from the Michigan Humane Society! Linda is here to help with any questions you have about fostering a pet.

Linda Reider is the Director of Animal Welfare for the Michigan Humane Society, which operates three adoption centers and full-service veterinary centers, plus multiple offsite cat centers in the greater Detroit area. Her department developed and coordinates MHS’ foster care program, “In-Home Heroes,” which places more than 1600 animals into foster care annually. Her online course “Foster for Success! Developing your Foster Care Program for Maximum Capacity, Efficacy and Quality” is the newest addition to Humane Society University’s “Pets for Life” series. She presents workshops on foster program management, adopter support, collaborations among animal groups, disaster response, and maximizing offsite adoptions at regional and national conferences. Linda holds B.S. and M.S. degrees, plus a Certificate in Nonprofit Business and Management, and has held various positions in the animal welfare field for the past 25 years.

Please join us in welcoming Linda!

Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:37 am Post subject:

Welcome Linda! I have been considering getting involved with fostering for a rescue group that pulls many of their dogs from a high volume, crowded animal control in our local area. I've heard that it's important to do a home quarantine in this type of situation? I was wondering if you had any advice on home quarantine? I want to help out and presently have two dogs of my own and while they are current on all vaccinations, I’ve still been a little nervous about it… If the foster receives vaccinations once it’s pulled, am I just worrying too much?

Linda's Answer:

Great question! I think it’s very important to protecting the health of your own animals by housing a new foster animal separately for 7-10 days, especially one coming from an animal shelter such as you are describing.

Even if the shelter is vaccinating their dogs when they arrive, some dogs will have been exposed to and are incubating a contagious disease before being vaccinated, and just not showing symptoms yet. These may break with the disease in your home. Most common diseases of dogs show up within a 10 day window. Also, some dogs have suppressed immune systems and will not respond to a vaccination with good immunity. In addition, the development of immunity from a vaccination takes a little time, so encouraging a shelter to vaccinate when the animals arrive, versus when they leave, will help ensure the health of the animals when you get them.

Also remember that disease transmission during the “quarantine” period in the foster home may be related to “fomites” (objects such as your clothing or shoes which carry disease particles). Having a spare shirt and pants in the room to pull over yourself when handling/interacting with the new foster is ideal. The clothes can be left in the room so as not to carry potential disease back to your own animals. Feces and urine can also carry disease, so potty area for a new dog should ideally be in a place not used by your own pets.

Quarantine periods make the initial fostering a little awkward, but they are critical to avoiding the spread of disease. Your own dogs should of course be vaccinated as well, including against Bordatella. Be sure to let your veterinarian know you will be fostering, and to follow their specific recommendations for a vaccination schedule for your pets.

Linda Reider

Michigan Humane Society

Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:14 pm Post subject:

I have been foster home for several dogs in the past and I’m now getting ready to take my first foster kitty. While the shelter always does a good job of promoting their pets, I like to help out as much as I can too. In the past with the pups I would do things like take them on walks through town with “adopt me” bandannas on. Are there things I can do to help my foster cat get adopted?

Linda's Answer:

Promoting foster kitties:

· Take a photo and email it far and wide, asking those who receive it to email to others to help find an adopter. Include details as to how to adopt. You can include the animal’s picture and write-up under your signature as a more subtle marketing method.

· Place a photo with description on the counter of your local coffee shop. Use an acrylic frame that you can re-use.

· Post photo of kitty on social networking sites. Get neighborhood teens to take up the cause as community service—they are savvy online!

· Flyers of adoptable kitty on community bulletin boards—grocery stores, vets offices, libraries, etc.

· Invite people over for a “Meet the New Kitty” party.

· Petfinder is critical for finding cat homes! MHS uses the events calendar for our offsite adoption events and posts the photos of our adoptable pets online in advance to build traffic at the event.

Linda Reider

Michigan Humane Society

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:52 am Post subject:

My husband and I started fostering "last chance" dogs about a year ago. We currently have three of our own dogs and do not seem to be doing very well with keeping our foster dog seperate from our family pets (we always want to make them feel at home, even if it's only temporary.) Some of the dogs that come into are home are already vaccinated and believed to be healthly, others we know very little about them medically speaking. Are we putting our animals at a health risk by allowing the foster dogs to interact with the family dogs? In a situation where we know little about them medically, what would be the best quarentine procedure to put them through? We do have a partially-finished basement that can be bleached down where we are able to do a quarentine.

Linda's Answer:

I would recommend a 7-10 day quarantine (use that great room downstairs) for all incoming dogs. Only allow them to interact with resident pets once that period is over AND the foster is symptom-free. At the same time, your own pets should be fully vaccinated. Check with your vet, as you may need to booster Bordatella and Leptospirosis a little more frequently than for dogs not exposed to foster animals. Remember that a foster dog is usually coming from a caged-living situation, and your basement room is much bigger and less stressful than a cage. In other words, don’t feel guilty for restricting their space somewhat for a week or so in order to protect your own dogs.

Linda Reider

Michigan Humane Society

Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:23 pm Post subject:

I fostered a two year old dog last year that I fell in love with and adopted. He had issues such as severe separation anxiety, shyness and was poorly socialized. He has made terrific progress. He is now a wonderful family pet good with people and most other dogs. I would like to foster another dog. What is the best way to introduce our dog to a foster and what behavior issues should we look out for that might indicate the foster is not a good fit? Thanks for your help.

Linda's Answer:

At MHS we encourage our foster families who have dogs to bring their pet to meet the potential foster dog. The meeting is done on leash (held loosely so as not to incite aggression) in a neutral room with an MHS staff person watching. Dogs should sniff each other, circle, maybe growl a little or even wag and seem interested. Some dogs are simply not interested in each other, and that is okay too. The problems like one dog trying to dominate or attack the other dog can be viewed, and the foster situation avoided.

I am not a dog behavior expert, so you might want to check with someone who specializes in that area for more specific information.

Linda Reider

Michigan Humane Society

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 1:22 pm Post subject:

If I decided to foster, am I required to keep the dog until it is adopted? I know that sometimes it can take a while to find the right home and I have friend who has had a foster cat for over a year now. Is it possible to foster for a specific period of time? say six or nine months?

Linda's Answer:

Depending on the specific agency for which you foster, you may need to hold onto the pet until adopted, or you may be bringing the animal back when an opening is available in either the shelter or an offsite adoption event. At MHS, we try to give our foster families an estimate of the length of time they will be fostering, and the most common length of time is 3-4 weeks. It could be shorter if the animal is already sterilized or being held short-term for an adoption event. It could be longer if the animal does not progress as expected with either weight gain, illness recovery, or injury recovery. After 2 months, we contact our foster families still holding animals to expedite the adoption process, but that is the minority of cases--most are in and out in about a month. One exception would be when an animal is not suitable for housing in a shelter or offsite setting, so the foster promotes the animal on Petfinder and our website and waits until interested adopters contact them. So six to nine months sounds like a long period of time to me, but I can see it happening when an agency has limited adoption spaces available.

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 1:29 am Post subject:

I volunteer at a shelter where we have a relatively small, but extremely wonderful and dedicated foster program. How do we know which of our dogs are best suited for a foster home and which are more appropriate to keep in our shelter?

Linda's Answer:

We choose animals for fostering at MHS based on their conditions. Animals who are not tolerating the shelter setting well are prime candidates. Others might be those with mild upper respiratory infections, which are generally easy to treat in a home setting and add significant virus load to the air supply in a shelter--get these into foster! Also, immature kittens and puppies with nursing moms usually do better in the lower stress environment of a good foster care home rather than the shelter. We limit sending kittens and puppies without moms to 4 weeks and older to foster care, due to the difficulty of raising these by foster parents, although many groups do this. Others to consider for fostering include dogs with generally simple behavior issues such as housetraining or household manners. Elderly animals and shy animals may also be good candidates with proper temperament screening for agtgressive tendencies for the latter. Hope that helps--bravo for your good program!

Petfinder.com forums Forum Index -> Public Forums -> Ask the Experts Forum -> 4/19 - 4/25 What to Expect When Fostering a Pet!

	Petfinder.com forums Forum Index -> Public Forums -> Ask the Experts Forum -> 4/19 - 4/25 What to Expect When Fostering a Pet!	All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1