Shelter Medicine

Summary

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The care of stray dogs and cats began in the Netherlands as early as the 19th century: the first animal shelter opened its doors in The Hague in 1877. 

Veterinary care for farm animals requires specific veterinary knowledge of farm veterinarians. This is so for cows, pigs and chickens in the agricultural sector, but also applies to cats and dogs in animal shelters or with breeders. 

Within the field of Shelter Medicine, veterinarians are trained in the care of companion animals within the shelter sector, focusing on disease prevention, safeguarding animal welfare and counselling in the daily operations of, for example, an animal shelter. 

This thesis presents research on effects of improved housing (hiding boxes for shelter cats), on data from the shelter population (key figures or shelter metrics) that can be used by an animal shelter in its operations, and on monitoring infectious diseases (e.g. infections with the virus SARS-C0V2) in shelter cats.

A number of conclusions can be drawn from these different studies:

• In order for cats to adapt faster to the stressful conditions in an animal shelter, shelter cats should be given the opportunity to be able to hide. This requires modification of feline housing.
• Using key figures gives animal shelters more insight into opportunities to improve animal welfare and optimize their own operations.
• Shelter animals form an (ever-changing) sample of the Dutch pet population. Monitoring the health of shelter animals thus provides insight into (zoonotic) infectious diseases within the entire Dutch population and can therefore serve as an early warning system.