Scott Weese, DVM over at Worms & Germs has another excellent post about the things you need to think about if you are considering, or currently doing, any fostering of dogs or cats.
Many of our clients do some fostering or cats/kittens,and it is important to spend a little time considering the potential disease risks to other pets in the home AND humans. But it's just as important to not get excessively worried to the extent that foster homes become less available.
As Scott puts it so well:
"Fostering is a good way to reduce pressures on humane societies and shelters, and to provide better care for some animals, like pregnant animals or those with young kittens/puppies. A good fostering program can be set up with limited risk to all involved, but infectious disease risks can never be completely eliminated. By accepting a new animal into your house, you increase the risk of exposing yourself and anyone else (human or animal) to infectious diseases. That's just a fact of life."
And speaking of fostering: we are still fostering Little Miss(ed) Pancake here at the hospital. This weekend she was allowed to have free run of the middle of the hospital when nobody was here to supervise. She did well until last night, when she figured out how to get up onto the counters in the lab and knocked a soap dispenser and some other things over. She is adjusting well to the increased freedom, but SHE REALLY NEEDS A PERMANENT HOME.
