Frequently Asked Questions

This is a collection of questions we have received in the past regarding issues of shelter health and management. We will post interesting new questions and answers as we receive them from you (Ask a Question), the users of this website. So be sure and check back often, and we hope you find this helpful.

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Question # 1124	I have just begun working in a shelter and am now responsible for all animal care and any decisions made regarding their care. The shelter is relatively small, but seems to always be at full capacity with a high percentage of cats with upper resp and other diseases/symptoms. At present, if the cats are sneezing along with other symptoms, they are moved to the sick room. In the sick room, we only have 4 cages, and if we need room, I usually end up having to euthanize someone. What are some things I could do to prevent upper resp from starting and how could I get them over it faster so I can get them back out of the sick room? My concern is that the staff caring for the animals moves from room to room without really any precautions other than alcohol hand sanitizer. There is only a staff of about 6 to care for 50 cats and 40 dogs, which is not ideal. Our cleaning protocol is basically one person takes each room and cleans it, usually we only have 1 or 2 cages empty and end up rotating the cats around, cleaning the cage, putting the next cat into it etc etc. From reading on the site, I have learned this is really not ideal. I am trying to implement new cleaning and care protocols. Are there any suggestions you have for reducing stress, reducing disease and reducing contamination with such a small staff? I have put foot baths and lab coats for each room into effect, but I doubt its enough as they just had a calici outbreak last month and it wiped out their whole shelter. I apologise for the length and the rambling of the email, but I am really just looking for any info I can get at this point as I seem to need concrete evidence/support to get any changes made. Any suggestions would be great,
Answer	Welcome to the wonderful and often frustrating world of shelter medicine! Your brief experience with feline URI in shelters is an all too common one. The root cause of URI is crowding i.e. too many cats under one roof. We find that URI is a good "canary" as shelters that have a high proportion of their cats sick basically have too many cats. So, the first step to evaluate is some shelter stats. There are documents available on our website that can help you with shelter statistics. Basically, it will help your shelter to figure out the average length of stay for cats. In has been shown that risk of URI increases with each day spent in a shelter. Establishing an e.g. three week (or less) maximum average gives a shelter the ability to work towards a definable goal. The documents will also help you to determine what your capacity should be based on your intake etc. The goal of feline URI management must be prevention rather than treatment which you have already surmised. It appears that the number one "cause" of excessive URI is underlying stress. To lessen stress I recommend starting with cage size. Most shelter cat cages are far too small for adequate behavioral enrichment - we recommend at least 3.3 ft² per cat. Furthermore, our website has these minimum recommendations for cats: Minimum welfare recommendations for cats: Short term requirements (up to 2-3 weeks): Protection from exposure to infectious disease Sufficient room to s tretch to full body length (body plus front and back legs stretched to full length) Hiding place (separate from litter pan) Soft sleeping surface Novel and varied toys for cats < 1 year old Eat and drink normally (fresh food and water separated from elimination space) Freedom from dog view and noise Medium term requirements (3 weeks to 3 months): Opportunity to interact a minimum of ten minutes daily with a familiar human (aside from caretaking/cleaning activities; taking into account individual cat preferences) Opportunity to jump, climb and run Choice between warm and cool, hard and soft resting surfaces Play for all cats – novel and varied toys Scratching post Long term requirements (> 3 months): Complete medical and behavioral evaluation every 6 months Exposure to varied, non-threatening physical, auditory and visual stimuli Paper bags and boxes or things to climb on periodically added and removed, televisions, aquariums, windows, etc. Cat social cats: exposure to other cats Grass to chew on Outdoor access On the subject of cleaning you are right to consider keeping cats in the cage. Moving them to a different enclosure each day is known to cause significant stress to cats. Cages that house the same cat from day to day really only need to be cleaned. Thorough disinfection is required once the cage is vacated, before a new animal is placed in the cage. A daily spot-cleaning approach can be used for cats remaining in the same cage. When done correctly, spot cleaning saves time, reduces disinfection cost and chemical use, lowers potential for staff injury, is less stressful for cats, and reduces disease transmission from results from handling during cleaning or transfer to incompletely disinfected cages. This is appropriate for healthy cats, and may also be used for sick cats except those infected with pathogens of significant concern for environmental contamination (e.g. ringworm, panleukopenia). A suggested procedure for spot cleaning cat cages is: Have a carrier or hiding box in each cat cage, and gently coax the cat into this hiding place. Clean gently around cat, including wiping walls and any spilled litter, food, or water. Do not spray disinfectant in the cage - use a small squirt bottle or pre-moistened rag. As long as detergent or disinfectant is used at a correct dilution, it is not necessary to rinse. Replace or refill litter pan and dishes, and leave bedding in the cage, unless very soiled. For more info on spot-cleaning see this Animal Sheltering article Also, please review the following previously answered FAQs on our website: #965, #951, #871, #523, #759, and #454. In addition please visit our Shelter & Housing design information page I have listed below 2 scientific articles, both of which demonstrate the importance of providing cats with significantly more room than they have typically been provided in shelters in this country. Both of these articles come from the UK. In general, shelters in the UK provide their cats with 2-6 times the amount of space a typically shelter cat is provided with in a US shelter. Their shelters have rates of URI in their cat populations that are only 1/10th of what a typical shelter deals with here. I strongly recommend that you and your board members read both of these articles. Rochlitz I. Recommendations for the housing of cats in the home, in catteries and animal shelters, in laboratories and in veterinary surgeries. Journal Of Feline Medicine And Surgery 1999;1:181-191. Kessler MR, Turner DC. Effects of density and cage size on stress in domestic cats (Felis Silvestris Catus) housed in animal shelters and boarding catteries. Animal Welfare 1999;8:259-267. Although I realize that your shelter may not be able to increase staff at this time it helps to know how understaffed you are for future budget adjustments. The HSUS has information on how to calculate the number of staff needed for cleaning. This model assumes that staff should only spend 3 hours out of every day cleaning cages and feeding animals; it assumes that staff would be doing other tasks for the rest of the day. That is why the total number of feeding & cleaning hours is divided by only 3 hours per person. If your agency allows 4 hours of staff time for cleaning and feeding, instead of only 3, the last calculation could divide by 4 hours per person rather than 3, making the number of staff required slightly lower: 75 hours / 4 hours per person = 19 staff members required. I encourage you to do these calculations using your shelter's average daily population. If you are seriously understaffed, lobby hard for more help! And remember that these calculations only account for cleaning and feeding, and only for 3 (or 4) hours out of each day. All other tasks, including animal intake, laundry, washing dishes, walking dogs, adoption counseling, behavior assessments, medical care, socialization and training, etc. are not included in this calculation. I also recommend your shelter use Trifectant (potassium peroxymonosulfate) to clean cat cages. This product has both detergent and disinfectant properties and is proven parvocidal/calicicidal. You can contact us for references on the proven efficacy of various disinfectants. For more general information on Trifectant see our cleaning and disinfection information page. You can also visit Trifectant's information home page. Lastly, foot baths are at best fairly ineffective at worst may actually promote pathogen tracking. I would invest in booties if cleaning a ward that has been exposed to an infectious disease. Most feline pathogens are transmitted by fomites so we are the culprits. Specific gowns worn for each room and gloves changed between touching each cat will help to lessen spread of disease. Definitely provide a change of clothes to each cleaner once they are done before they go on to other chores that involve cats. Their clothes are definitely contaminated after the dirty job of cleaning! I’ve given you a lot to consider – I hope some of it is useful, please contact me if you need more information or help!
Question # 1122	We currently have had cats test positive for ringworm at our shelter.  We have free roaming rooms as well as cats and kittens in individual cages.  According to the information the incubation is anywhere from 4 days to 4 weeks.  Is the only option to isolate all the cats for the next 4 weeks.  We do not have separate buildings so they are all exposed just by living in the same building.  Is it just a wait and see situation or is there a way to treat them in hopes of preventing any additional outbreaks?
Answer	In general, quarantine is not a very practical approach for controlling ringworm in a shelter. I am using the term quarantine in a very literal sense: holding of cats for the duration of the incubation period of the disease in question, and monitoring them for development of disease. The reason that quarantine is not usually practical for ringworm is because, as you've mentioned, the incubation period for ringworm is quite variable, and it can be prolonged: up to 4 weeks. Holding each cat in the shelter for that long to wait and see if they develop ringworm is simply not possible for many shelters. Most shelters would either have to shut down (i.e. close intake) in order to do this. Otherwise, shelters tend to get very crowded during a long quarantine period, increasing the risk of transmission of infectious diseases (ringworm and others.) Also, in order for a quarantine to provide any benefit, the possibility of exposure to the disease of concern during the quarantine period must be completely prevented. So, cats or kittens under quarantine would have to be housed in an area NOT contaminated with ringworm, and should not have any exposure whatsoever to potentially infected cats. So again, this often means that a shelter has to completely close intake in order to achieve this. If any exposure occurs during the quarantine, then it has to be started all over again. So, I think that simply holding all the cats for 4 weeks is unlikely to solve your ringworm problems. The general approach we recommend for dealing with ringworm outbreaks includes these steps: Ringworm culture of ALL cats, in order to determine which are infected and which are not. Cultures must be confirmed microscopically. Complete decontamination of areas for housing of uninfected cats. Environmental cultures may be required to confirm decontamination. Careful isolation and treatment of all positive cats. Treatment includes twice-weekly lyme sulfur dips and oral Sporonox, as well as a minimum of 3 weekly repeat cultures to verify when infections are cured. Implementation of screening procedures to prevent future re-introduction of ringworm into the population. It is not absolutely necessary to house infected and uninfected cats in separate buildings. It is usually possible to house them in different rooms of the same building, even without separate ventilation systems as long as sanitation is generally good. The most likely source of contamination from one room to another is the hands and clothing of staff, so protective clothing For more information, please see the following links: Ringworm Information sheet Ringworm Profile Article on Ringworm from Animal Sheltering Magazine Dermatohpyte Treatment in a Nutshell Previously-answered FAQs on ringworm, from our FAQ page:  #863, #791, #738, #330, #379, #447, #646, #136, #246
Question # 1119	I work in an Australian shelter that uses water to control the temperature in their new dog pods. The water filters down inside the wall of the pods. On the way down it passes through 6 UV light exchanges and then is recycled back up.  I was wondering whether UV light treatment of water is effective for killing uneveloped viruses?
Answer	The set-up you describe sounds interesting - I have not heard or or seen such a cooling system used for dog housing before.  I am not sure I fully understand the system - does the water actually flow down the surface of the walls of pods, so that dogs in the pod could potentially lick the water off the walls?  Or is the water flowing within the interior of the walls, so that dogs can't actually contact the water?  Would you be willing to send a photo or two? Unfortunately, I am unable to provide a definitive answer to your question about whether or not the 6 UV light exchanges would be effective at inactivating unenveloped viruses such as parvo, if such viruses were present in the water. Certainly, UV light is effectively used for disinfection of water in various industrial applications.  However, the efficacy of disinfection via UV light exposure depends on the dose of UV radiation that the microorganisms of concern are exposed to.  The dose depends on exposure time and the irradiance (which can be thought of as the "strength" or "intensity" of the UV light source.)  The exposure time would have to calculated by adding up the amount of time that each particle of water is exposed to the radiation as it passes through each of the 6 exchanges. I would imagine that the irradiance of these UV light exchanges might be limited somewhat by their close proximity to the animals.  The efficacy may also be influenced by the specific wavelength of the UV radiation. To complicate things further, the dose of UV light required of anti-microbial activity depends on the pathogen.  As would be expected, unenveloped viruses are more resistant to UV light than enveloped viruses.  I am not aware of specific research on the required dose of UV radiation to inactivate parvo.   However, I did find that rotaviruses, another unenveloped virus, are 8 times more resistant to UV radiation than common bacteria such as E. coli (i.e. the dose required to kill rotavirus is 8 times higher than the dose required to kill E. coli.)  Some rotaviruses can infect dogs, but the significance of this virus in shelter dog health is unknown. I am sorry that I'm unable to give you a definitive answer to your question.  This system sounds innovative and environmentally friendly. However, I would worry that it could lead to problems if the water is actually flowing down the surface of the walls where dogs could have direct access to it.  I would be concerned that waste from the floors of the pods (e.g. urine, disinfectant, etc.) would end up being recycled back with this water instead of going down a drain.  I would also worry that this water might end up making floors of the pods damp much of the time, which could promote growth of microorganisms.
Question # 1117	Can a cat reinfect itself (by grooming) with the same calici virus?  I.e., does it have a period of immunity to the virus for some time after having the disease?
Answer	You pose an interesting question. It has some bearing on a related issue that is viral shedding i.e. how long do cats shed virus after infection and do recovered cats still pose a risk to themselves or others? Can they be put up for adoption? Can they be spayed safely at a veterinary hospital, or do special precautions need to be taken? If an owner has a recovered cat at home, is it safe to adopt a new cat into the household? Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are not absolutely certain. On average, recovered cats shed for approximately 75 days, but shedding may be short term or may persist for months or even a couple of years. It has been shown that carrier cats may transmit infection to others. These carrier cats may themselves have no symptoms. Elimination of calicivirus carriers, however, is an unrealistic and probably un-necessary goal in most situations. As discussed above, about 1 in 4 new additions to a shelter, cattery or household, on average, will be actively shedding one strain or another of calicivirus. Although incidents of severe disease transmission to cats exposed to a mildly symptomatic cat have been reported, severe calicivirus disease following introduction of a new, clinically normal but recently recovered cat into a household has not been reported to this author's knowledge. Even in outbreaks of severe, vaccine resistant VS-FCV, some cats have survived and continued to shed virus for some time. Recovered cats have been adopted out, spayed at veterinary hospitals, and sent home to naïve cats, but in no case has a recurrence of VS-FCV been traced to any of these presumed carrier cats more than a month after recovery. Feline calicivirus undergoes constant mutation in persistently infected cats and it may be that, over time, strains tend to lose the mutation that conferred virulence. Unfortunately, the consistency with which this occurs and the time it takes for such loss of virulence to take place is unknown and likely variable. It is prudent, therefore, to be cautious in exposing vulnerable cats to those recently recovered from severe infection, especially with a vaccine resistant strain. Cats that are shedding calicivirus as per your question are not at risk themselves but can be a risk to others.  Hopefully the above discussion answers your question, please contact me if you need more information.
Question # 1110	Our shelter has many crates stored which have been exposed to parvo at some time or another in the past.  Your article Controlling Parvo: Real-Life Scenarios suggested discarding crates. This would be a huge financial burden to this private shelter.  Is it possible to disinfect these crates using a bleach solution?  Our shelter manager would like to dip each crate in a dip tank for 15 minutes, then spray  with bleach solution and let set for 15 minutes, rinse and let air dry in the sun. If this is possible, what do you suggest as a concentration in the dip tank and how many crates could be dipped into it before it would become ineffective? Also, I have heard that another facility uses a sprayer for bleach that has a ring in that controls the proper mixture of bleach to water.  Can you suggest where I can buy such a sprayer?  I have asked but they have had the sprayer for a long time and did not know the supply source.
Answer	It is difficult to say for sure whether or not you should discard these crates. It depends on several factors including the type of crates, their state of repair, and their intended use. In general, metal is easier to disinfect than plastic, so plastic crates should probably be replaced or only used in very specific situations (i.e. only for dogs who are at very low risk of parvo.) Whatever their material, if the crates are old, with rough, rusted, scratched, and/or cracked surfaces, it will be much more difficult to disinfect them. Despite your best efforts, the virus is likely to persist in crevices, cracks or scratches. If you use them for housing newly admitted puppies, any residual contamination is more likely to be problematic. If you use them only for transporting adult dogs that have been vaccinated at least 1 week prior, a bit of parvo virus in the environment isn't nearly as big a deal. If these are metal crates in good repair, it should be possible to disinfect them. First, take them apart to the greatest extent possible, to expose all possible surfaces, crevices, etc. Wash them first with a degreaser, then a detergent. Scrub them thoroughly using a stiff-bristled brush. Bleach only works on pre-cleaned surfaces, because it is inactivated by any organic matter (e.g. dirt, dust, spiderwebs, any dried body excretions, etc.), so careful scrubbing with detergent is important to make sure there’s no organic matter to inactivate the bleach. Rinse, then submerge them in a 1:32 bleach solution (1/2 cup of 5% bleach per gallon of water.) I think this calculates out to adding about 7 quarts to a 55-gallon drum of water, but be sure to do the math yourself. Make sure the crates are completely submerged for 10 minutes. Longer soaking periods are unlikely to provide any added benefit. Also, make sure your bleach solution stays active - bleach solutions do become inactivated upon exposure to light. If this disinfection process is done over several days, either replace the bleach solution daily, or make sure the container is opaque and covered. As long as each crate is completely clean when placed in the bleach solution, and as long as the bleach solution is protected from light and is less than 1 week old, you should be able to use the same solution for many crates. There probably isn't any further need to spray the crates with bleach solution after soaking them, but drying them in bright sunlight is an excellent idea. Metered hose-end sprayers/foamers are widely available online and at hardware and gardening stores, as well as from shelter & veterinary suppliers such as Health Technology Professional Products, Superior Chemicals and Animal Care Equipment & Services. You can easily find these companies and/or sprayers themselves by doing a Google search. Be sure that the sprayer(s) you get will allow settings to provide appropriate dilution of the specific disinfectant you will be using - for bleach, there must be a 1:32 setting (1 part 5% bleach to 32 parts water.)
Question # 1106	Do you have a listing of humane standards for the care of animals in shelters?
Answer	I am a bit unsure of exactly what kind of information you are looking for, but hopefully the following information will be of some use. For basic care we often refer to the Farm Animal Councils Five Freedoms: Any animal's welfare, whether on a farm, in a home or in an animal shelter or sanctuary should be considered in terms of these freedoms. They form a good framework for analysis of welfare within any system and a way to safeguard and improve welfare within animal shelters as well as farms. Freedom from Hunger and Thirst - by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour. Freedom from Discomfort - by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area. Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease - by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment. Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind. Freedom from Fear and Distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering. We also have an information sheet for shelter design, including the minimum requirement for housing. Minimum welfare recommendations for cats: Short term requirements (up to 2-3 weeks): Protection from exposure to infectious disease Sufficient room to stretch to full body length (body plus front and back legs stretched to full length) Hiding place (separate from litter pan) Soft sleeping surface Novel and varied toys for cats < 1 year old Eat and drink normally (fresh food and water separated from elimination space) Freedom from dog view and noise Medium term requirements (3 weeks to 3 months): Opportunity to interact a minimum of ten minutes daily with a familiar human (aside from caretaking/cleaning activities; taking into account individual cat preferences) Opportunity to jump, climb and run Choice between warm and cool, hard and soft resting surfaces Play for all cats – novel and varied toys Scratching post Long term requirements (> 3 months) Complete medical and behavioral evaluation every 6 months Exposure to varied, non-threatening physical, auditory and visual stimuli Paper bags and boxes or things to climb on periodically added and removed, televisions, aquariums, windows, etc. Cat social cats: exposure to other cats Grass to chew on Outdoor access
Question # 1105	Currently I am working at a high volume spay/neuter clinic. Could you answer some questions about cats suspected positive with FIP?  Should any cats showing questionable signs of the disease be declined surgery?  From the info that I am reading it could possibly induce death shortly after the elective procedure.  After declining surgery is there medical technology to prevent estrus?(i.e. oral contraceptives, etc.)  Any recent studies or info would be appreciated.  Thank you!
Answer	You pose interesting questions!  I am assuming that the questionable signs you are seeing is mainly ascites?  I have seen a number of cats, especially kittens, with clear transudative abdominal fluid that was not FIP.  On the other hand, If you're seeing granulomatous lesions during surgery in the abdomen/omentum +/- icterus etc. then FIP is more likely. The prognosis for FIP is invariably fatal once clinical signs appear.  One study found that almost 80% of cats experimentally exposed to a virulent FIP-causing FCoV succumbed within 36 days (1).  According to Dr. Diane Addie cats with effusive FIP usually die within days of diagnosis or weeks at best; non-effusive FIP cats might survive weeks or months (2).  1) de Groot-Mijnes, J. D., J. M. van Dun, et al. (2005). "Natural history of a recurrent feline coronavirus infection and the role of cellular immunity in survival and disease." J Virol 79(2): 1036-44. 2) Greene, C. E. (2006). Infectious Diseases of the Dog and Cat. Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders/Elsevier. Certainly stress (of surgery) may hasten death but I don't know if it will do so significantly; I can't find any published research to that effect. If the cat truly has FIP I doubt she will be procreating anyway.  I would err on the side of doing surgery in cats; as lack of sterilization in those that do not have the disease will contribute to the feline overpopulation problem.  There is ongoing research looking for effective non-surgical feline contraception.  GnRH vaccines are looking promising but are not yet available.  Many vets in Europe use Depoprovera (medroxyprogesterone acetate) as a contraceptive method for both dogs and cats.  It's generally not recommended here due to side-effects.  Two papers on this topic include: Kutzler, M. and A. Wood (2006). "Non-surgical methods of contraception and sterilization." Theriogenology 66(3): 514-525. Purswell, B. J. and K. A. Kolster (2006). "Immunocontraception in companion animals." Theriogenology 66(3): 510-513. For more current information on non-surgical sterilization research, check the website of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs: http://www.acc-d.org/ You can access proceedings from their Symposia (the most recent one was Nov. 2006).
Question # 1104	I've been searching the internet trying to find a cage bank (intended for cats) that is double-sided and that I have seen before. What made this cage bank different was that one side was significantly smaller than the "main" side. The idea was that the smaller side was a "holding" area for when the cage was being cleaned. Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but do you know where I might find such a cage bank? Are there any other double-sided cage designs that you can direct me to? Thanks.
Answer	First off, let me say kudos to you for looking to provide your cats with double-sided cages! :-) Double-compartment cages (either side-by-side or top & bottom) provide many benefits: they improve housing quality (by allowing distinct separation of elimination areas from feeding and resting areas), they make cleaning more efficient (because cats can simply be moved from one part of the cage while the other part is cleaned, and vice versa), and reduce the risk of disease transmission (because staff will not have to handle cats during cleaning.) That said, I don't think it's particularly important that one side of a double-sided cage be smaller or larger than the other side. In fact, the vast majority of shelter cat cages are far too small. Typical cages provide only about 3-6 square feet of floor space per cat. Published research has shown that cats require at least 10.8 square feet of floor space in order to avoid excessive stress levels! So, a double-sided cage with two regular-size halves is much more likely to meet feline needs for space. Is the cage that you are looking for made of stainless steel, or of some other material (such as laminate?) Unfortunately, double-sided stainless steel cages are nearly impossible to find, although we here at the Koret Shelter Medicine program are encouraging cage manufacturers to make these widely available. Stainless steel has the benefit of being very durable, easy to clean, and relatively inexpensive. I have seen a few stainless steel cages like you describe - with a main portion and a much smaller side section, but these cages were custom made for a shelter vet here in California and are not commercially available. Double-sided cages made of laminate materials are readily available, including some models with a larger main area and smaller area, as you describe. Manufacturers or distributors of such cages include The Cats Inn, Snyder Manufacturing, Raintree Cat Condos by Mason Company , and Cedar River Laboratories. Shor-Line primarily sells stainless steel cages (all single-sided, except for some large double-door cages that have removable dividers), but they also sell double-sided laminate cages. The disadvantages of laminate cages are that they are more expensive, less durable, and more difficult to clean, especially if the surfaces start to become damaged (which seems to occur frequently.) However, I might still recommend them, depending on your specific situation, because we feel that double-sided cages offer so many benefits. If you already have stainless steel cage banks, another option you could consider is to actually cut "portholes" in the walls or floors/ceilings of adjacent cages to make these double-sided. Depending on the configuration of your cage banks, this might give you two equal-sized sides, or one larger and one smaller (and again, either is fine.) We know of one shelter that has done this (photos attached) and they really like it. If you are interested in doing this, you can contact Jennifer Hatch, Cattery Manager at the Willamette Humane Society, jennifer.hatch@willamettehumane.org or (503) 585-5900. They worked with a contractor, Mr. Keith Burkhart of Layton Manufacturing in Salem Oregon. Mr. Burkhart is willing to provide guidance to metalworking or manufacturing contractors elsewhere, since making holes in stainless steel cages is not a frequent work request! It will be important to ensure that any gaps between cage walls and any jagged edges of cut metal are safely covered, and that some method is available for temporarily closing the opening in order to hold a cat in one side of the cage (e.g. during cleaning.) For more information, please see the following previously-answered FAQs: #993, #759, #523, and #454. Again, thank you for doing right by your cats and getting double-sided cages!
Question # 1101	Is there any correlation between URI's and the dust associated with clumping cat litter? I am hearing that there are studies out there testing clumping cat litter, corn cob litter and pine litter in the control of URI in shelter settings
Answer	I have not found any articles associating feline URI with clumping litter.  Some studies have looked at the ability of certain brands of litter (available in the UK) to kill feline coronavirus (the cause of FIP).  Some brands do appear to kill the virus more effectively.  However, this antiviral capability is unlikely to translate to respiratory viruses as they are not spread via the litterbox. It does seem logical that excessive dust in the air would irritate/damage the respiratory tract of cats.  This irritation/inflammation would then make the cat more susceptible to respiratory germs. For this reason it is a good idea to keep the air quality in shelters as clean as possible; some shelters use recycled newspaper and anecdotally report less URI.  Please remember that stress (from noise, crowding, insufficient space in their cages and lack of behavioral enrichment) is much more likely to cause increased prevalence of URI in shelters.  If you're having excessive URI problems I would concentrate on mitigating the above stressors rather than only changing litter.
Question # 1099	I'm looking for information on the best way to manage queens whose litters have been taken away (reached adoption age/weight). My staff is spending an inordinate amount of time and concern worrying about those big mammaries (not mastitis cats, normal post-kitten-removal mammary engorgement). Some are hot packing; some are cold packing; some are fretting and checking them many times per day and sending me worried emails. I am looking for an authoritative answer for them. I have had a difficult time finding reliable information on; a) is there anything that can be done to make this period more comfortable for mom, and help the mammaries go down faster (and therefore ready for spay sooner) or b) do you just leave her alone and things will sort out on their own with time. The most common suggestion I have heard is to drastically reduce the queen's food for several days. Most of these moms raised their litters in foster care and the kittens return to the shelter when they are 2 lbs. In most cases we ask the foster to keep the mom, alone, for a further week before returning her and in those cases things are generally well under control by the time she comes back. However that isn't always an option, and sometimes we get moms with nursing but adoption-age kittens arriving as well.
Answer	Perhaps part of the reason it's hard to find a definitive answer about addressing post-weaning mammary engorgement is that it is not actually considered a medical problem that must be treated! So, it's not as if there is any research to show what is or is not effective for drying up mammary glands after weaning. If you were asking about mastitis, there would be a definitive answer - antibiotics, warm compresses, and possibly anti-inflammatory and/or pain medication. For normal, post-weaning mammary engorgement, nothing needs to (or even should) be done. We do not recommend either warm or cold compresses. This is only indicated if there is inflammation (i.e. mastitis.) For normal post-weaning engorgement, compresses (either warm or cold) will do nothing to dry up the mammary glands. In fact, they may make the problem worse, because stimulation of the mammary glands through compressing may actually stimulate more milk production! So, don't use compresses. I have also heard that fasting queens for 12-36 hours will reduce milk production and speed drying-up. This makes biological sense, and may work. However, I would be hesitant to do this in a shelter setting. We have recent data documenting that over half the cats housed in one shelter showed dramatic weight loss (over 5% of body weight on average) within the first three weeks of admission. Cats that lost more weight were more likely to develop URI. So, while withholding or restricting food might be effective, it may not be worth the physiologic stress it might cause a cat in a shelter. One very simple step but important step to take is to remove any exposure whatsoever to any kittens. So, when it is necessary to house these queens in a shelter, be sure they are housed in an area where they cannot see or hear any kittens. Some vets feel that spaying a cat helps speed mammary gland regression, although it is possible that it is the pre-surgery fasting that might be  responsible.  If you can get them spayed immediately after the kittens are weaned, that might help (and it would also allow you to put them up for adoption and get them out of the shelter faster.) Spaying a cat with engorged mammary glands can be a bit tricky. There is often more bleeding in the skin and subcutaneous tissues, and it's easy to nick a gland and end up with milk in the incision, which can cause tissue irritation. However, it is not impossible, so I'd suggest talking to your vets and finding out how comfortable they'd be with spaying these queens right away, rather than waiting for the mammary glands to dry up. They could also consider performing spays through a flank approach rather than a ventral midline approach. Many vets are unfamiliar with this technique, but those that do learn it find that it is no more difficult, and is often easier, especially in lactating (or recently lactating) cats. There are some information resources on performing flank spays that I could direct you or your vet toward, if he/she is interested.