Do you want to take better care of the pets in your shelter, move them safely through to adoption much more quickly, spend less money on veterinary care, and improve overall operations in the facility? Then you can’t afford not to do daily rounds!

Daily rounds means having an established protocol of visiting each pet in the shelter every single day, and making paper or digital records of their health, appearance, attitude, and housing. From Brian A. DiGangi, DVM, MS, Diplomate AVCIM, and Stephanie Jacks, DVM, PhD, Diplomate AVCIM, here are the five questions you need to answer for each pet, every day:

First of all, who are you? Does this animal have identification? Is it the correct identification? Does the description on the cage card match the animal that’s in the cage?

How are you? How is the animal medically?

How is the animal behaviorally?

Are you where you should be? Is this a sick animal that’s mixed in with the general population that we need to identify a different space for him to live? Is it a neonatal kitten in with a bunch of adult cats that have specific infectious disease risks? We need to know those things and identify them.

And then, do you need something today?

While a veterinarian should be involved in creating the daily rounds checklist, any trained individual or team can perform the rounds.

Want more information? A complete video presentation from Dr. DiGangi and Dr. Jacks, along with transcripts, on how and why to perform daily rounds in animal shelters is available here.