Barrier Nursing

A technique that involves each animal or each group of animals having their own nurse, carer or surgeon to ensure that illness or contamination does not spread to other animals in their care. This procedure takes place in businesses such as veterinary surgeries, catteries, kennels etc. This method will usually use separate rooms for separate illnesses just as an extra precaution against cross contamination. This is important in export as you would not want an outbreak of an illness during an export as you could take the illness into another country. This technique is also used even when the animals are ill, along with quarantine, as a precaution.

Diet

When animals are taken into quarantine before export, whilst they are being exported and in waiting, they must be fed the correct diet. To do this, the feeders must know what the animal ate before it came into export. This is because if an animal’s diet changes greatly as they come into export it may upset their stomach and cause problems such as sickness and diarrhoea. This could prevent the animal from being exported as it could be a sign of illness. The other thing to remember when exporting an animal is that they must be fed and water the correct amount regularly and at regular intervals, nearest to their routine at home.

Disinfection/Sterilization

Disinfection and sterilization is a process in which germs and bacteria are killed using powerful cleaning chemicals. It is important that you do this as dangerous pathogens are eliminated, preventing the further spread of any illnesses or diseases.

Quarantine

Quarantine is a process in which an individual animal is removed from all other animals and put into a location where their illness/ disease cannot be spread to any other animals or, if the illness is zoonotic, humans. This is always done when exporting an animal as any illness can be identified while they are in quarantine and if illnesses are found, the carers/ vets do not have to worry that it has spread to any of the other animals in their care. Quarantine usually takes place on a separate bay or ward. 

Vet Care

Before an animal is exported a veterinary surgeon must examine them to make sure that they are not showing any signs of illness. This can be done by a visual/ physical check and other procedures such as haematological blood samples. Also, animal ready for export will have a veterinary history which must be studied before they go anywhere. This is to identify any past problems the animal may have had that could be a reoccurring problem.

Prophylactic Medicines

These are medicines that are preventative rather than curative. These can be medicines taken by mouth, creams/ gels that you can apply or injections (vaccinations). All animals should have a vaccination card, on which all the vaccinations they have had in their lifetime are recorded. This is essential for the animal pet passport. Examples of these vaccinations are kennel cough and parvovirus.