Hygiene rules in different situations of care at the pet clinic
Hygiene rules are much stricter than for the care of pets at home. Indeed:
- animals are often sick or must be anesthetized or operated, which makes them more fragile
- there is a large concentration of animals in space and time, which increases the risk of contaminations
- in a clinic, there is a greater risk of presence of Multiresistant germs to antibiotics. An exotic animal infected with one of them would be very difficult to treat
- many exotic animals are likely to be achieved by a zoonosis and contaminate the staff
Those risks are maximum with reptiles and hygiene must be very strict.
Care to hospitalized animals:
General care to healthy or sick animals not by a zoonotic disease:
- When:
- giving any care to a pet
- cleaning or disinfecting a cage, an aquarium or terrarium,
- preparing or giving food or water
- How
- professional clothing, with nude forearms
- nails short and clean
- tied-back hair
- No rings, no bracelets, no jewelry on the hands and the forearms
- before the care:
- after the care: antiseptic hygien of hands: washing or rubbing (washing and rubbing for reptiles)
Care to animals sick or suspected to be hit by a zoonosis:
- When:
- giving any care to a pet surely or suspected to be sick of zoonosis
- cleaning or disinfecting a cage, an aquarium or terrarium, of a pet surely or suspected to be sick of zoonosis
- preparing or giving food or water to a pet surely or suspected to be sick of zoonosis
- How
- professional clothing, with nude forearms
- nails short and clean
- tied-back hair
- No rings, no bracelets, no jewelry on the hands and the forearms
- before the care:
- antiseptic hygien of hands: washing or rubbing
- body: wear a protective clothing: single use surgical or plastic gown
- hair: wear a protective cap
- face and eyes: wear a mask for nose and protective goggles or a full-face protective mask
- after the care: antiseptic hygien of hands: washing and rubbing: the rubbing is better for most of germs, but washing is the only possible for anaerobic bacteria and protozoans who make spores
- Example of complete protocol to clean and disinfect the terrarium of a reptile suspected to be contamined by a zoonosis (for example salmonellosis)
Surgical preparation:
Preparation of the staff
- professional clothing, with nude forearms
- nails short and clean
- tied-back hair
- No rings, no bracelets, no jewelry on the hands and the forearms
- in the operate room: a single-use mask and a protective cap
- before the preparation of the animal for surgery: antiseptic hygien of hands
- before the surgery for the surgeon and the help-surgeon:
- surgical preparation of the hands
- for a surgery which needs a high degree of sterility (bone surgery…) wear a sterile gown with an aid: your body must not touch the outside of the gown (video demonstration of gowning methode)
- put sterile gloves with one of the three possible techniques:
- with a sterile gown, use the close-gloving technique. The second one can use the assist-gloving technique
- with nude forearms, use the open-gloving technique
Aseptic preparation of the operating site:
- in the Preparation Room:
- for the mammals, cut the hair on a large area around the site of the incision
- for the birds, the area of incision should be plucked
- for all, do the first washing of the surgical site, with a povidone-iodine or chlorhexidine soap
- In the surgery room
- do two other washings of the surgical site
- apply a disinfectant with the same molecule than the soap (they are incompatible together): povidone-iodine 1% or chlorhexidine 0.05%