5 Tips for Efficiently Managing a Large Intake

Large animal intakes may happen from a variety of sources, ranging from owner/surrenders to cruelty cases. This can include animals from overwhelmed owners, overcrowded homes, dogfighting, breeding, or other cruelty cases. Most of these cases will have several factors in common though, including a large number of animals that have specialized behavior and medical needs, which can require more work based on both the quantity and complexity of these animals’ needs. Use these tips and downloadable guide to help prepare and streamline your efforts (and resources) to ease stress on animals and staff.

1. Consider having medical and behavior staff members visit the home prior to intake to gather as much medical and behavior information about the population as possible.
   • Are the animals social, or are they fearful? Do they allow touch, or do they flee? Is the owner able to handle the animals easily? This information will help inform how intake exams and procedures can be approached upon intake.
   • Are the animals reported to be intact? Are there animals in the home that may be pregnant? Are there kittens or puppies? This will help determine the needs and urgency for neonate care, foster homes, and spay/neuter surgery.
   • Are there any emergency medical concerns? Are the animals in good body condition? Is there evidence of contagious illness such as upper respiratory infection or ringworm? This will help determine veterinary needs and if the population requires isolation or quarantine.
2. Plan for an efficient intake process.
   • First, triage the population. Start with animals that have urgent medical needs first. Send neonates or pediatrics to foster ASAP after intake. Then, work on the friendliest animals first, and give the more fearful animals time to settle in and receive anxiolytics medication, as needed.
   • If the animals are mildly fearful, consider giving oral anxiolytics (gabapentin for cats; gabapentin or trazodone for dogs) at intake to help the process go more smoothly.
   • Consider full sedation for physical exams and intake treatments for animals experiencing high fear, anxiety, and stress.
3. Be prepared for common medical conditions, including upper respiratory infection (URI), dental disease, skin disease, ear mites/infections, chronic diarrhea, and ringworm. Many of the medical conditions seen in hoarding environments stem from chronic stress, poor husbandry, high population density, and long-untreated illness/injuries/infection.
   • Take advantage of long-acting medications. Large intakes are resource intensive so try to minimize both the drain on staff time (where you can) and the stress of medical handling on fearful animals.
     • Convenia for skin infections/wounds
     • Bravecto for fleas/ticks/ear and skin mites - can dose cats and small dogs using dosing chart with XL dog topical Bravecto (off-label)
     • Claro (off-label in cats) for ear infections
     • Zorbium for pain control (as needed/after surgery)
   4. Be prepared to make trade-offs, accept some risks, and compromise.
      • Consider planning for spay/neuter on the day of intake before full medical and behavioral assessments are performed. This allows staff to perform a thorough intake at the same time as spay/neuter surgery, streamlining staff time and combining two stressful events into one. This also reduces the chance of litters being born in the shelter while awaiting spay/neuter.
      • Since animals from hoarding environments are often fearful, aim to minimize medical handling after intake to allow for behavior progress.
      • Consider group housing for cats from hoarding environments. Group housing can limit the ability to monitor and medicate individual animals, but it may help relieve stress which can contribute to disease.
   5. Prioritize foster placement to allow the animals space and time to recover from illness and make behavior progress.
      • Foster homes greatly help alleviate the workload on direct care shelter staff.
      • Foster homes provide animals with a reduced-stress environment to support their behavioral and medical needs.
      • Foster homes allow animals to receive individualized treatment and monitoring for medical conditions.

   Download the Planning Guide for Large Intakes