Preventive Health Care & Vaccinations
Two key components of preventive health care for shelter animals, including those who spend time in foster care, are vaccinations and parasite control. We've got webinars, how-to videos and downloads to help keep your animals healthy.
Webinars on Vaccination Protocols
Get a complete overview of shelter vaccination protocols and hear a two-part series on proper shelter intake.
How to Give the Intranasal Bordetella Vaccination
How To Give a Feline Subcutaneous Vaccination
When vaccination protocols are appropriately developed and properly applied, they can be among the most important and lifesaving tools available to shelters. Administration of core vaccines to animals prior to or at the time of intake is a critical disease prevention tool in shelters.
How To Give a Canine Subcutaneous Vaccination
How To Perform an Animal Intake Physical Examination
Vaccinations
The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) and American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) have developed vaccination guidelines for dogs and cats. Animal welfare professionals should refer to the portions of these documents that address vaccination of shelter-housed animals rather than those focused on owned pets.
Vaccination is a medical procedure, so oversight of vaccine protocols and specific patient questions should be directed to a veterinarian.
Vaccine Storage, Handling & Administration
Most vaccines used in the shelter contain living organisms, so care must be taken when storing, handling, and administering them to ensure these organisms remain viable and are able to induce a protective immune response.
Read details about what you must—and must not—do when dealing with vaccines.
Recommended Vaccines and Parasite Control
Download the updated vaccine tables below and post them so they’re easily visible in areas where you provide medical care to your shelter residents.
Dogs and cats can carry a wide variety of internal and external parasites. Some can be passed to humans and some can cause significant disease and discomfort in their host.
It is not possible or practical to test or treat each animal for every parasite. Animals with clinical signs of parasite infestation should receive individualized workup and treatment in consultation with a veterinarian.
Written guidelines should be created for prophylactic parasite control tailored to regional and facility parasite prevalence and based upon the sheltering facility and mission. At minimum, shelters should ensure that cats and dogs have been treated for common zoonotic parasites prior to release.
All dogs and cats should be treated for hookworms and roundworms, ideally upon entry.
Check out the most frequently asked questions of the ASPCA’s shelter medicine veterinarians.
