Hi guys
I finally have a few minutes to write down my thoughts.
First of all, my heart goes out to everybody who is under quarantine. It is extremely scary and heartbreaking. I also had close personal friends go through it and their strain was a lot harsher and it killed about 60 rats between the two of them.
It is not something I ever want to go through. I love doing rescue and have done so for many years but one thing we all made clear is that we do not ever want to put our own animals at risk. It is just not worth the heartbreak for us. I don't ever want to be in that position. It's just really not worth the risk.
All it takes is one rat or other rodent. One. It might go well 100000 times and then you get that one in.... The risk is too high.
Nowadays there are such mass producer of animals that you don't even know where the animals come from. You think local when in fact the animal could have been bred 1000s of kms away. Diseases can be easily spread esp. with airborne ones such as SDA or Sendai. You can't trust pet stores.
I know a lot of shelters around here have a problem with wild rats/mice. Yet another source. A lot of shelters are not aware of the risks of SDA/Sendai or about quarantine procedures. In a shelter environment it's also often not possible to quarantine.
I also know that 99% of all owner surrenders either lie or have no clue that their animals are sick. 99% of the times we are told that the animal is healthy when in fact they have respiratory issues and/or mites/lice or worse. They too don't know about proper quarantine procedures. You can't trust owner surrenders.
I can tell you though that you can run a successful rescue AND be safe.
You need quarantine fosters. No surprise there, I know. But I know many of you say you have none. They are out there, trust me. I want to give you some tricks on how to find them :thumbup:
Out here in BC we have a very active rescue community. There's a lot of wonderful people out there who are active in cat/dog rescue. They do cat/dog rescue and are clearly suckers for animals in need. We hit up a lot of those up. They are suckers for animals in need but they don't have nor want any of their own small animals. We ask them to do 3 week quarantine and most are happy to do that. It is only a commitment for 3 weeks. We supply everything, the cage, the food, the bedding, igloos, hammocks etc. We have volunteers drop them off, other volunteers pick them up. We are even ok if they just feed the rats and and clean the cages but don't interact with them. While it's not ideal, the main thing is that the rats are safe, have the basics covered and that we can do rescue safely. A lot of dog/cat rescuers agreed to do it once. And then fell for the little ones so we have several one of them now who keep fostering one pair at a time.
Other than that send out mass emails to your friends, ask them to forward it. In the email say what you are looking for... Fosters who have no rodents of their own. Foster period is 3 weeks. All supplies and vet care will be supplied. Support/education is given. Put it on your website, in your newsletter etc.
Make sure you are good to your fosters. If you say it's for 3 weeks make sure it's for 3 weeks, make sure you have back up. Some are ok with keeping them longer until they get adopted, but for some it's really only 3 weeks at a time. Respect their wishes. If you say you supply everything, supply it. Try and supply decent cages ie make it easy for them to clean etc. Be there 24/7. Don't overwork them ie don't drop off 10 rats at any give them but rather spread out the rats over many foster homes. Most people can handle a cage with a pair or trio but not a lot of people are willing to deal with 2+ cages as then it becomes work.
With new fosters give them easy rats, e.g. cute little babies with no issues, or health concerns. You don't want to overwhelm a new foster.
Check in with them to see if things are ok. Make it fun for them. Even have volunteer picnics, potlucks etc.
The rats will do the rest :thumbup: Most people get suckered into the little ones once they have them. Most people get drawn in by their stories.
And as they gain experience you can start giving them tougher cases, some that need medication. Give them instructions, show how it's done, tell them what to look for. Don't get frustrated or angry with them. Especially be there for them when things go bad. One of our main fosters for example is a 17 yr old who is just amazing. About a year ago we took in a pair of rats that were abandoned in a tank together. Our foster set them up in the Martins cage. The next day she woke up to a blood bath, one had killed the other one. She was horrified as we all were... But we rushed over there, offered to clean up the mess, dropped off some flowers and a movie ticket. I know a lot of people wold have quit fostering but because the support system was there, she continues to foster, even difficult cases.
Know their limits. Give them breaks. Some are good and ask for breaks. Protect them from the bad things as much as possible, it's up to you to carry the heavy burden and worry :wink:
It took a few months but we now have a wonderful wonderful steady network of quarantine fosters that we can count on. Some still aren't comfortable with biters, some are not set up to do pregnant ones etc Others are willing to take on EVERYTHING. Some fosters moved away or there were other reasons why they quit. And we have found and continue to find new ones. But there are some fosters that have been part of my life ever since I started rescuing rats just over 5 years ago and they just take one pair at a time. It all adds up. With LMR we managed to rescue over 400 in just over 2 yrs. Proper quarantine was done with each and everyone of them.
Everybody knows about the 3 hour rule though our volunteers are trained well and don't support pet stores that sell animals for example. Because we deliver the rats they also don't have to deal with the shelter after quarantine etc.
We even have a volunteer driver with no rats so that people don't have to worry about the 3 hour after rule. She's a big rat lover but can't foster/adopt as she's in a no pet building. So she gets her rattie fix and does a huge service to us. We give her gas money. We have other drivers who have their own rats so often we have them do the vet trips etc in the morning before work and then have someone else without rats do the pick up in the afternoon etc.
Our vets are aware of quarantine procedures. We warn them when we bring in unqted rats, they tell us if they have any other rodents booked etc. There have been VERY few incidents where qt was broken at the vet but if a rat needs to see a vet that's that.... we just start qt again from scratch.
Yes, sometimes it's a hassle. There were crazy weeks where some of us have to do 3 hour qt several times a week. Those are long days. But the alternative is worse, we don't want to go there. We don't want to take a chance.
Heck it doesn't even have to be something bad such as Sendai or SDA... even mites/lice are such a hassle and Revolution isn't exactly cheap... We are treating every rat that comes in with Revo while in the qt foster since then the use of Revo went down.
Besides the fact that we are protecting our own pet rats and other already qted rescue rats, we have gained an excellent reputation. There are many top notch homes who until recently went to reputable breeders because they felt like they couldn't do proper quarantine. Now we give them a chance to take in homeless rats without the risk. We have become the one and only source for a lot of amazing rat homes who keep coming back for more because they are so impressed with what we do. A lot of them wanted to give rescue rats a home but just didn't want to take the risk with unquarantined rats. We are extremely proud to have so many people that keep coming back for more and totally trust us... even though we make people jump through hoops to get them :laugh4:
We can't pack them up in a bubble and prevent everything. But there are ways to minimize the risk. It is a lot of work and can complicate things. But it can be done. And it is totally worth it. I can't even imagine if I lost one of mine because of something that I did which could have been prevented. I don't ever want to be in that position. I am not adopting anymore rats myself as I want to go back to quarantine fostering so I can hopefully lighten the burden of our wonderful amazing fosters many of which recently went through some tough times. It's the least I can do. Or even to give some of them a chance to have their own ratties, they are so good at letting them go even when they are head over heels in love with them because they know that we'd lose a quarantine foster.
I can't tell anybody what to do. And I'm certainly not blaming anyone because I'm sure you are already beating yourselves up. But I just wanted to say that it can be done, even as a rescue. And I think it's totally worth it for your own ratties and your own sanity :thumbup:
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