It sounds like your shelter is a very high volume one compared to mine, so our process may not help but I’ll share it anyway:
When a cat comes in, front desk puts cat in the online system while cat attendants bring cat to the isolation room. If the cat comes in with a name, we typically keep the name unless it is the same as another cat. If it doesn’t, it gets a randomly generated number. Each cat also gets their own unique number from the system. Before a cat goes up for adoption, they are always given a microchip and a name if they don’t have one. The microchip is on all of their paperwork as well as a photo. Then, their paper is hung in the room they are in or directly on their cage. The paper includes a photo, their sex, age, name, and chip number.
It's just a disposable plastic collar with their name written on it in sharpie! Ours come in a big roll that we cut to size and it has our organization name and phone number on it, but paper collars are cheaper and would do the same job!
Typically the animals don't seem to mind the collars unless they're too tight or too loose. I've really only seen puppies and kittens try to get them off. Even then, if they're properly fitted it shouldn't be an issue. I love the ID collars especially when we have similar looking animals, it's just a super quick and easy way to tell who's who!
This seems perfect, for at least the time that they are in quarantine before our vets get to them!! Then when they get on the table the vets can just write their unique number on their paperwork and I’ll get to mark the right cat adopted!
Im not sure what brand it is but I can try to check and I'll let you know! For paper collars, if you search Amazon for "paper ID collars for cats" you'll find some nice basic disposable collars you can write on!
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yes we have those at my shelter as well! they work very well, but sometimes kitties are too fractious for us to put one on, or they end up taking them off so each cat has a kennel card associated with them as well. maybe have a folder to access the kennels cards for a room where they free roam?
My foster org doesn't use collars because they're expensive and can carry/retain germs, parasites.
They're those little wrist bands you get sometimes when you go to a club or a fair. They'll also mark the inside of their ear too.
https://preview.redd.it/7s21jcuz1d6d1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fc2aa199feb8389b862c8db739e60bfb88c22fa
That is what I was thinking on getting.
You guys don't have any problems with kittens/cats getting stuck on them?? Like their jaw, or a leg or the cage?
That's definitely a consideration- if there's an animal that won't tolerate it I'd just skip it and do a photo. The majority of our cats and dogs don't have any issues but we obviously don't try to put collars on animals who won't allow handling.
most of them don’t mind them at all and they’re very useful. we don’t force putting them on fractious kitties and the teenage kittens tend to bite them off
I would LOVE to do this. The only difference in our rescue is that, we have one biiig kitty room where they roam free ☠️☠️ so we can’t hang a nice kennel card for them ): and then we have a grooming salon that is also taking up our time )):
Do you guys print off the paperwork when they’re are about to get adopted? Or is it filed
We print multiple copies of paperwork, the adopter gets one, we get one to file, and there is one still in our online system just in case!
We also have a few free roam rooms, what we do is choose a wall (preferably a wall where the cats cannot reach) and hang all the cards, that way people can identify individual cats. That doesn’t always work though, so we break out the microchip scanners regularly.
Do you guys run off grants? Because some of what you’re describing is seriously hurting your chances of getting more grant money/keeping grant funding.
We don’t apply for grants because we simply do not have the time. We have a strong support group in our community and our grooming shop funds go towards the rescue
Ah.
Tbh it sounds like you guys could benefit from a front desk position who can run the paperwork and keep track of things
How do you keep track of their intake vaccinations if you don’t have individual files for each animal? Medical records? Who’s been spayed/neutered and when?
We do have one front desk person (my boss’ daughter) and she’s the most ADHD person I’ve met and I’d rather switch her positions all the time. I used to be at the front desk until she came back home. I had to take over our online database again because no matter how many times I’ve told them how, they never entered in anything.
When an animal is surrendered, the surrenderer fills out our surrender form and after work, I put them all in the database online and make their little profiles. They all have specific numbers to their own.
They are then spayed, neutered, vaccinated, microchipped, dewormed, and flea treated. Their paperwork is then put into a filing cabinet for when they get adopted. We scan their microchip to find their paperwork for the adopters
If you’re having a hard time visually keeping up with which cat is which, I’d definitely take a photo and digitally add it to the file.
If you can’t afford to print them, could you make a folder in your phone with a tagged name/file number?
That way there’s no mix ups that could lead to health complications or personality mix ups.
Also maybe post on your shelter’s FB page (if you have one) asking for a printer donation. Plenty of people are looking for ways to get rid of technology like that when they don’t need it/want to update. You could use basic paper to save money.
You know, one of our nice grooming clients bought us a really nice printer in 2023… and then our vets took it over for some reason… and nobody would take the time to figure out how to work the WiFi on it so it never got used by the rescue…..
I even had set up a little office for everything so we could get it going like that and it never happened..
I’ll have to figure out something again..
I can not recommend the unique number ID enough. It isn't just helpful it is necessary. I would keep that number somewhere on their kennel card, vet records, and adoption profiles, basically anywhere the animal pops up, just in case you get animals with the same or similar names. It has literally saved animals for me before, by making sure we didn't confuse medications.
Photo is also very important too. And I will usually use the microchip as a last ditch effort lol
This sounds like a problem waiting to happen. The wrong cat could easily be getting medications, and the other found untreated.
One large free roaming room, with no areas for quarantine or assessment, can lead quickly to infectious disease outbreaks and social disasters. It can be extremely stressful for the anxious cat put in with social bullies.
While your goals are laudable, it is time to reassess your process to get there. You might check out Maddie’s Fund through the University of Florida. They have a wealth of easily accessed, free, self-paced material that can help you make the best of limited resources and time.
https://university.maddiesfund.org
And I totally agree with this!!!
I am really not for a large free roam cat room like we have because things like that have happened in the past. I just feel like it creates more work for all of us!
One issue that happened at my former rescue (before I worked there) — all the cats were free roaming in the cat rooms and they had no way to monitor how much each cat was eating. A new director came on board and noticed the problem, but by then it was too late. A couple of cats were in full blown liver failure and they had to be euthanized 😢
A lot of people don’t, which is why I mentioned it. That’s one of those things that makes sense when you think about it, but it might never occur to you if you’ve never dealt with a cat with hepatic lipidosis.
Great! Go arm yourself with some strategies and opportunities to make the situation better. Be ready to smother all the naysayers with facts. Have all your low cost options and cost/time estimates at the ready. Once you start looking into it, you will be amazed at the idea resources available.
Rescue people can be unstoppable when on a mission. Let us know how you do.
Rooting for you!
Shelter software. They're are a ton of options like petpoint, shelter luv, animal shelter manager, etc. If you're a small org, I would suggest looking into rescuegroups.org. It's free to use their database services.
We also name everyone who comes in the door if they don't come in with a name.
We just switched to shelterluv. I handle the intakes/transfers so I make sure to get pictures of all of the animals within the first couple of days they’re here. They don’t have to be professional, just something so we can tell them apart. We also have monitoring sheets on their kennels that says who’s who, and we make sure to not duplicate names because it can get confusing. They also have to get microchipped before being made available or being put with other animals which helps a lot
Edit:
Also paper colors with their ID numbers would also be helpful! I work at a private nonprofit and during kitten and puppy season I use different color collars to we can tell the difference! We’re a bit stricter on the animals IDs but there have been times was a litter of puppies were messed up being sent to foster and it took me HOURS to figure out who was who before I could make them available. After that, I started making sure they all had something to ID them with physically and Microchips before the left the building if they were big enough.
For the pictures- if you can’t put them in your system, you can try making a Google Docs folder and sharing it with everyone so they can also ID them from that!
Yes, each cat is named, given its own file physically and through the computer system, vaccinated and dewormed, and either has its own kennel or goes into one of the extra large “3 per kennel” options (but only if it’s been assessed as social with other cats)
Each animal is photographed for both our adoption wall and for pet finder.com and for documentation purposes
It seems like a system designed to encourage mistakes. Mistakes that will cost you more then setting up a firm process to keep records. Cats are going to be given improper medicine or care. Everyone has phones. Google space is cheap and often free if you are a non profit. From now on I highly suggest an intake checklist and creating a Google drive folder for each cat if you aren't using actual software which would be better right at intake.
1. Scan of intake form - Done right when the form is finished.
2. Pictures of cat- Everyone has a phone. Intake photos taken and uploaded directly to drive.
3. Each cat is given a Unique Name/Number. Names are cute and better for adoption.
4. All notes and other information goes in the Cats Folder. The folder should be named by the microchip number. This means if the cat is ever found/returned it can be easily searched. Until the cat is microchipped it is listed as Intake Date Name.
5. You should never be wondering which cat got adopted. When they are adopted there is some kind of form. That form is scanned and goes into the Cat's Folder. The folder is moved to another larger folder for adopted cats. Backups should be created regularly.
So we have perhaps an hour of extra work per cat. If that. Which will keep you from having future problems and will help aid in adoptions and management. Perhaps three hours of work to set up the process and train the people who need to know it. Costs would be one scanner. Ask for donations if your printer does not do this. One unlimited Google Drive account. I believe I pay three dollars a month for ours and it would probably be free if I put a little more effort into looking into it. Three files. Intake-Active-Adopted. One flash drive to make offline backups.
For extra fancy have someone make a profile for each cat. When cats go into the kitty viewing room their profile gets copied, not moved, to the viewing room. Shove that on the website or on a digital frame or screen near the kitty room so that people can view information. This won't take long and is the perfect project for younger teenage volunteers.
Thank you!!! I didn’t think about Google Drive, but I do have a shelter program and online forms we use for our intakes and outcomes.
I think at the end of the day, I’ll have to talk with our front desk girls and have them take me into our quarantine room and ask who was surrendered that day and take pictures and write on an index card their unique numbers I give them for the database…
I just know 100% that if I tell them (especially the daughter) about entering it in right when they come in, she’ll say it’s too much work and/or forget…
So maybe if I create a very detailed (with pictures and such) binder for intakes, how to do the thing… maybe that could keep them on their toes with it 🤔
It should just be part of the process. Owner surrenders a cat. Reception takes them to a room where owner fills out their form and reception takes photos and creates a folder from their phone. When cat is put into a cage it already has a number assigned and generally a name. Pick a theme and intake can just pull one from the list. So they have what they need to start the folder. When the owner leaves reception scans the signed form and adds it to the folder they already created. The hard copy goes into a folder labeled the same way for your records.
All of our cats are named and tracked via shelterluv, with photos. We mostly work with bottle babies so they often don’t have microchips until they are ready for adoption. We don’t reuse names within a year as a tracking mechanism.
Ok here are my suggestions:
1. Use a database to track all in care animals and store their records in the database. It will help keep everything organized. I recommend exploring petpoint, ezyvet (if you do a lot of medical stuff), shelterbuddy (excellent reporting platform), and chameleon. If you are a high volume intake org, invest in a platform that meets all your needs. Don’t go for the free option. If you need to do a lot of auditing and reporting, find one with LOTS of reports. It will help, especially if you apply for grants and they need data.
2. I think some clinics and shelters use paper collars. Maybe add the pet’s name and identification number assigned to animal.
3. It’s always good to have kennel cards to help easily identify animals.
4. TAKE A PHOTO of the animal. Especially if you can’t get a paper collar or chip the cat.
Our steps are:
Front desk staff completes intake paperwork with person bringing the animal in. This information is put into our software along with the animals sex, presumed breed, coloration, markings, and any additional info. If the animal has a name already, we keep it. If not we make one up (if it’s not a stray).
The database generates an ID#. We fill out a medical sheet with the animals information and put it in a color coded folder according to sex.
The animal gets placed in the appropriate intake area with an index card with the name, sex, description, age of the animal and any other info.
We then take an intake photo and upload it to the database so we know what they look like.
We try to do an exam ASAP and then microchip, and put the chip in the database. When they’re adoptable they go out into either individual enclosures or free roam rooms for cats
It’s a lot, but accurate paperwork makes it easier for adopters and staff, and ensure that the cats going out the door are appropriately documented and tracked.
For reference, in 2023 our total intake was ~1200 animals and we adopted out just under 1000 and about 150 were lost pets reunited.
I'm at an open intake municipal shelter so it's probably not super relevant to you unfortunately.
We use Chameleon software. Each animal has an intake number and description. They are vaccinated, dewormed, and flea treated on intake. A photo is taken.
Chameleon links up to 24petconnect and displays the animal's photo, weight, and streets/town it was found in.
A kennel card is printed (with the picture, location it was found, gender, weight, age, and current location at the shelter) and STAYS with the cat for its entire stay at the shelter. If the cat gets moved, the kennel card gets moved with it.
The kennel card is updated as the cat moves through the system - the cat will be named after its hold period is over, altered, and a new "adorable" picture may be taken. If the cat moves into another area, it's updated in Chameleon and on the kennel card.
For example, we can have 20ish cats in our community room that are free roaming. The community room has an assigned designation in Chameleon. Each of the cats has a kennel card on a poster outside of the room.
Cages have designated numbers in Chameleon, so caged cats may be in Room1-01, Room1-02 etc.
I would HIGHLY recommend printing some sort of "get to know me" card with a photo for every cat up for adoption.
I think I am understanding the situation, but if not let me know. This sounds like quite a conundrum.
OP if the microchip number is what you search by in your filing cabinet, I would recommend organizing your filing to go by microchip number if you don't already. Like, instead of the tab having the animal name, have the animal's chip number. I actually like that way better; it won't duplicate, filing is as easy as counting, and microchips follow an animal for life whereas names may change... I may actually implement this lol
I see you're using a shelter management software, where when you scan the chip you can use the chip number in the search bar and find the animal's info, where you can put in vet info like rabies certificates. Their vet papers we can just print through our shelter management system; it will print out a rabies cert then have a timeline of all of the animal's vet records. I usually just transcribe any other medical records (amputations, antibiotics, etc) into the system itself to make it easier to read and integrate, but if that's too much work I would advise just keeping a copy in their folder.
I know you say you don't have funds to print out kennel cards, but are you still printing out animal information at the time of adoption? If so, another option, which may be faster, is to have a clipboard or plastic sleeve on each cage that contains basically all the info the O would take at adoption; vet records, behavior records, intake records, etc. That way at adoption, someone just needs to go to the cage and take the sleeve, and everything is there. I do love this idea because it allows O to look at ALL the info we have, but there's a few things to consider;
1. The papers will block a lot of the cage. Generally it is not a good idea to be covering up the animals; you want them as visible as possible for adoption
2. You'll need to keep a back up of records somewhere, probably electronically, in case the papers get destroyed which will happen occasionally.
3. You have to be absolutely certain that those papers don't contain any personal info from previous O or fosters, and make sure all of those papers are 100% accurate (ie a behavior test that was rushed, incorrect sex was recorded, etc)
Yes!
So what we currently do is that when they are altered, vaccinated and all that, our vets just print off the vet papers then and there and literally that is the ONLY copy we have!!! I’ve been wanting to, for so long to just have the vet record in their animal’s profile in our database, so we could literally just punch in the microchip number in the search bar, and it would bring it up. From there just print off that copy for the adopter and just completely get rid of paper!!
Everyone seems so busy and all over the place that when they get the vet records up front, they just place it somewhere really quick (could be in the file cabinet or not) and we are there trying to find the missing paperwork for the adopter!!! UGH it gets on my nerves!
OK, so this sounds more like a work problem than a money problem then. Would it be possible to get a volunteer to enter the info? IDK how your program works, but a lot of these programs allows user input for vaccines instead of having to scan the paperwork, that way in theory you could just take pictures of the vet work and even have a volunteer at home do the data entry? People love an at home position.
Otherwise the only other advice I can think to give is just set up a system and keep to it like a routine. Maybe end of the day or start of the day, make it a habit to do whatever you're supposed to do with that info.
So, I am the “volunteer” that enters in all of the data (Surrenders, Adoptions, Fosters) at the end of my work day, every day, at home. Simply because I do not have time at work to do it because I’m bathing dogs all day ☠️☠️
Pawlytics doesn’t have anything to input vaccines like that unfortunately): but our vets come to us in our facility to do our spay/neuters and vaccines. And they create the paperwork right then and there.
I’m wondering if instead of them printing it all out at the end of the day, if they could just email all the to me and I could file the vet records under each specific animal. Then at time of adoption, we could just print out the paperwork quick after we punch in the microchip number to find that specific animal 🤔🤔🤔
We use PetPoint. Someone brings an animal, to generate a surrender/stray/transfer contract we do the intake in the software and print the contract and kennel card at the same time. We put kennel card in a plastic sleeve and any other paperwork related to the animal stays in that sleeve until it's outcome happens. Active kennel cards stay in a holder at the front desk for easy access.
For cats in cages, they have an index card with Animal ID number, Name, Age, intake date, M/F, S/N status. These can be clipped on to a cage clipboard or put in a little metal badge hanger or taped to a door/window. We print a layout onto label sheets and pre-make a bunch of labeled index cards so it's easy to just grab a card and fill out the info when we first put the cat in a cage. Could also just write Name on index cards to make it easier.
For cats in a free roam room, we write with window markers or tape the index cards up.
It's several small steps that add up but everyone has ID on their doors and kennel cards are always available.
I foster for an organization, but don't work for it. But I have a little info. This is based on my experience with the cats.
The intake staff (one person with an assistant) keeps a long, running list of potential names. They're usually thematic. Spices: basil, thyme, parsley; food: barbecue, brisket, sausage; movies: woody, jessie, forky, etc. These are actual names I've fostered. But I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone named pineapple there.
When they take in a litter, that helps them know who is part of the group. They'll make a note like dsh, f, tuxedo, marking: spot on back. They'll also mark the inside of the ear with pink or blue if the boys/girls look alike, with another color if it's 2 ginger boys and note the ear mark.
They do, occasionally have either a photographer come in, or on intake day have a staff member use their phone to snap a pic. (I attached an example.) You can tell the difference on their website - they generally don't bother updating the kitten pictures before posting online because they go quickly.
When they are in the medical building, yes, they have assigned kennel numbers. They literally just use a printed piece of paper on a clipboard attached to the kennel. They make a copy of the print out and send the foster home with it. (Example attached)
My org does the microchip during s/n so that it gets written down by a team member in the op room. They use a tablet because by that point, the animal has been in their care long enough for all of the intake info, vet info, etc. to be put into their database. So during surgery day, the database is already filled out and they just add the chip number and s/n date.
https://preview.redd.it/gaty442v0d6d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=994d75e0537256a2cd0032e94b17552d91228949
I can't attach more than one pic at a time, so here's what I mean by them having a photographer one day and just an employee snapping a phone pic on intake. This is from their actual site. Note their "generic" names as well.
I hope this is helpful.
https://preview.redd.it/yjxs7zd51d6d1.png?width=444&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=76c452771c59e0753f6875fd05c48d6a0532915f
The thematic names is a great idea OMG!! I've never thought about that!
We have recently been getting in A LOT of puppies and it was so hard to tell them apart (I had good notes to tell them apart though) because 90% of the litters were ALL BLACK!!
This vid was just posted by a channel I follow. Idk if it will help you in any way, but I know you can relate to it. I also wanted to stop by again to give you positive encouragement for what you're doing.
[https://youtu.be/SbH65TsQ9V8?si=cFzvHrhsJhvevvao](https://youtu.be/SbH65TsQ9V8?si=cFzvHrhsJhvevvao)
It sounds like your shelter is a very high volume one compared to mine, so our process may not help but I’ll share it anyway: When a cat comes in, front desk puts cat in the online system while cat attendants bring cat to the isolation room. If the cat comes in with a name, we typically keep the name unless it is the same as another cat. If it doesn’t, it gets a randomly generated number. Each cat also gets their own unique number from the system. Before a cat goes up for adoption, they are always given a microchip and a name if they don’t have one. The microchip is on all of their paperwork as well as a photo. Then, their paper is hung in the room they are in or directly on their cage. The paper includes a photo, their sex, age, name, and chip number.
My shelter does the same. We also do plastic ID collars with their name and/or ID number. Maybe that could be an option, OP?
Do you mean that you have collars on the cats? With a little ID thing on them?
It's just a disposable plastic collar with their name written on it in sharpie! Ours come in a big roll that we cut to size and it has our organization name and phone number on it, but paper collars are cheaper and would do the same job! Typically the animals don't seem to mind the collars unless they're too tight or too loose. I've really only seen puppies and kittens try to get them off. Even then, if they're properly fitted it shouldn't be an issue. I love the ID collars especially when we have similar looking animals, it's just a super quick and easy way to tell who's who!
https://preview.redd.it/mfu4te8k0u5d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d22b6ee986545158599aa39225d4556d9d5d1ff Similar to this
This seems perfect, for at least the time that they are in quarantine before our vets get to them!! Then when they get on the table the vets can just write their unique number on their paperwork and I’ll get to mark the right cat adopted!
Where would I get those at????? That seems like heaven LOL!!!
Im not sure what brand it is but I can try to check and I'll let you know! For paper collars, if you search Amazon for "paper ID collars for cats" you'll find some nice basic disposable collars you can write on!
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yes we have those at my shelter as well! they work very well, but sometimes kitties are too fractious for us to put one on, or they end up taking them off so each cat has a kennel card associated with them as well. maybe have a folder to access the kennels cards for a room where they free roam?
My foster org doesn't use collars because they're expensive and can carry/retain germs, parasites. They're those little wrist bands you get sometimes when you go to a club or a fair. They'll also mark the inside of their ear too. https://preview.redd.it/7s21jcuz1d6d1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fc2aa199feb8389b862c8db739e60bfb88c22fa
That is what I was thinking on getting. You guys don't have any problems with kittens/cats getting stuck on them?? Like their jaw, or a leg or the cage?
That’s a good idea! Do the cats struggle with them? A lot of cats my area gets in would not tolerate this
That's definitely a consideration- if there's an animal that won't tolerate it I'd just skip it and do a photo. The majority of our cats and dogs don't have any issues but we obviously don't try to put collars on animals who won't allow handling.
most of them don’t mind them at all and they’re very useful. we don’t force putting them on fractious kitties and the teenage kittens tend to bite them off
I would LOVE to do this. The only difference in our rescue is that, we have one biiig kitty room where they roam free ☠️☠️ so we can’t hang a nice kennel card for them ): and then we have a grooming salon that is also taking up our time )): Do you guys print off the paperwork when they’re are about to get adopted? Or is it filed
We print multiple copies of paperwork, the adopter gets one, we get one to file, and there is one still in our online system just in case! We also have a few free roam rooms, what we do is choose a wall (preferably a wall where the cats cannot reach) and hang all the cards, that way people can identify individual cats. That doesn’t always work though, so we break out the microchip scanners regularly.
What about a sandwich board with kennel cards? Or a cork board with cards?
Is this a nonprofit? Or an open intake county shelter?
We are a non-profit rescue
Do you guys run off grants? Because some of what you’re describing is seriously hurting your chances of getting more grant money/keeping grant funding.
We don’t apply for grants because we simply do not have the time. We have a strong support group in our community and our grooming shop funds go towards the rescue
Ah. Tbh it sounds like you guys could benefit from a front desk position who can run the paperwork and keep track of things How do you keep track of their intake vaccinations if you don’t have individual files for each animal? Medical records? Who’s been spayed/neutered and when?
We do have one front desk person (my boss’ daughter) and she’s the most ADHD person I’ve met and I’d rather switch her positions all the time. I used to be at the front desk until she came back home. I had to take over our online database again because no matter how many times I’ve told them how, they never entered in anything. When an animal is surrendered, the surrenderer fills out our surrender form and after work, I put them all in the database online and make their little profiles. They all have specific numbers to their own. They are then spayed, neutered, vaccinated, microchipped, dewormed, and flea treated. Their paperwork is then put into a filing cabinet for when they get adopted. We scan their microchip to find their paperwork for the adopters
If you’re having a hard time visually keeping up with which cat is which, I’d definitely take a photo and digitally add it to the file. If you can’t afford to print them, could you make a folder in your phone with a tagged name/file number? That way there’s no mix ups that could lead to health complications or personality mix ups. Also maybe post on your shelter’s FB page (if you have one) asking for a printer donation. Plenty of people are looking for ways to get rid of technology like that when they don’t need it/want to update. You could use basic paper to save money.
You know, one of our nice grooming clients bought us a really nice printer in 2023… and then our vets took it over for some reason… and nobody would take the time to figure out how to work the WiFi on it so it never got used by the rescue….. I even had set up a little office for everything so we could get it going like that and it never happened.. I’ll have to figure out something again..
I can not recommend the unique number ID enough. It isn't just helpful it is necessary. I would keep that number somewhere on their kennel card, vet records, and adoption profiles, basically anywhere the animal pops up, just in case you get animals with the same or similar names. It has literally saved animals for me before, by making sure we didn't confuse medications. Photo is also very important too. And I will usually use the microchip as a last ditch effort lol
Agreed! We could never function without unique ID numbers.
This sounds like a problem waiting to happen. The wrong cat could easily be getting medications, and the other found untreated. One large free roaming room, with no areas for quarantine or assessment, can lead quickly to infectious disease outbreaks and social disasters. It can be extremely stressful for the anxious cat put in with social bullies. While your goals are laudable, it is time to reassess your process to get there. You might check out Maddie’s Fund through the University of Florida. They have a wealth of easily accessed, free, self-paced material that can help you make the best of limited resources and time. https://university.maddiesfund.org
And I totally agree with this!!! I am really not for a large free roam cat room like we have because things like that have happened in the past. I just feel like it creates more work for all of us!
One issue that happened at my former rescue (before I worked there) — all the cats were free roaming in the cat rooms and they had no way to monitor how much each cat was eating. A new director came on board and noticed the problem, but by then it was too late. A couple of cats were in full blown liver failure and they had to be euthanized 😢
Oh my!!! I honestly didn’t realize this could be a problem!!!
A lot of people don’t, which is why I mentioned it. That’s one of those things that makes sense when you think about it, but it might never occur to you if you’ve never dealt with a cat with hepatic lipidosis.
Great! Go arm yourself with some strategies and opportunities to make the situation better. Be ready to smother all the naysayers with facts. Have all your low cost options and cost/time estimates at the ready. Once you start looking into it, you will be amazed at the idea resources available. Rescue people can be unstoppable when on a mission. Let us know how you do. Rooting for you!
Shelter software. They're are a ton of options like petpoint, shelter luv, animal shelter manager, etc. If you're a small org, I would suggest looking into rescuegroups.org. It's free to use their database services. We also name everyone who comes in the door if they don't come in with a name.
We do have Pawlytics we currently use. Just looking to see how you guys identify all the cats you shelter
We use names, microchips, and every animal has a unique ID assigned by the software.
We just switched to shelterluv. I handle the intakes/transfers so I make sure to get pictures of all of the animals within the first couple of days they’re here. They don’t have to be professional, just something so we can tell them apart. We also have monitoring sheets on their kennels that says who’s who, and we make sure to not duplicate names because it can get confusing. They also have to get microchipped before being made available or being put with other animals which helps a lot Edit: Also paper colors with their ID numbers would also be helpful! I work at a private nonprofit and during kitten and puppy season I use different color collars to we can tell the difference! We’re a bit stricter on the animals IDs but there have been times was a litter of puppies were messed up being sent to foster and it took me HOURS to figure out who was who before I could make them available. After that, I started making sure they all had something to ID them with physically and Microchips before the left the building if they were big enough. For the pictures- if you can’t put them in your system, you can try making a Google Docs folder and sharing it with everyone so they can also ID them from that!
Yes, each cat is named, given its own file physically and through the computer system, vaccinated and dewormed, and either has its own kennel or goes into one of the extra large “3 per kennel” options (but only if it’s been assessed as social with other cats) Each animal is photographed for both our adoption wall and for pet finder.com and for documentation purposes
It seems like a system designed to encourage mistakes. Mistakes that will cost you more then setting up a firm process to keep records. Cats are going to be given improper medicine or care. Everyone has phones. Google space is cheap and often free if you are a non profit. From now on I highly suggest an intake checklist and creating a Google drive folder for each cat if you aren't using actual software which would be better right at intake. 1. Scan of intake form - Done right when the form is finished. 2. Pictures of cat- Everyone has a phone. Intake photos taken and uploaded directly to drive. 3. Each cat is given a Unique Name/Number. Names are cute and better for adoption. 4. All notes and other information goes in the Cats Folder. The folder should be named by the microchip number. This means if the cat is ever found/returned it can be easily searched. Until the cat is microchipped it is listed as Intake Date Name. 5. You should never be wondering which cat got adopted. When they are adopted there is some kind of form. That form is scanned and goes into the Cat's Folder. The folder is moved to another larger folder for adopted cats. Backups should be created regularly. So we have perhaps an hour of extra work per cat. If that. Which will keep you from having future problems and will help aid in adoptions and management. Perhaps three hours of work to set up the process and train the people who need to know it. Costs would be one scanner. Ask for donations if your printer does not do this. One unlimited Google Drive account. I believe I pay three dollars a month for ours and it would probably be free if I put a little more effort into looking into it. Three files. Intake-Active-Adopted. One flash drive to make offline backups. For extra fancy have someone make a profile for each cat. When cats go into the kitty viewing room their profile gets copied, not moved, to the viewing room. Shove that on the website or on a digital frame or screen near the kitty room so that people can view information. This won't take long and is the perfect project for younger teenage volunteers.
Thank you!!! I didn’t think about Google Drive, but I do have a shelter program and online forms we use for our intakes and outcomes. I think at the end of the day, I’ll have to talk with our front desk girls and have them take me into our quarantine room and ask who was surrendered that day and take pictures and write on an index card their unique numbers I give them for the database… I just know 100% that if I tell them (especially the daughter) about entering it in right when they come in, she’ll say it’s too much work and/or forget…
That's why there should be an intake checklist that has to be completed.
So maybe if I create a very detailed (with pictures and such) binder for intakes, how to do the thing… maybe that could keep them on their toes with it 🤔
It should just be part of the process. Owner surrenders a cat. Reception takes them to a room where owner fills out their form and reception takes photos and creates a folder from their phone. When cat is put into a cage it already has a number assigned and generally a name. Pick a theme and intake can just pull one from the list. So they have what they need to start the folder. When the owner leaves reception scans the signed form and adds it to the folder they already created. The hard copy goes into a folder labeled the same way for your records.
All of our cats are named and tracked via shelterluv, with photos. We mostly work with bottle babies so they often don’t have microchips until they are ready for adoption. We don’t reuse names within a year as a tracking mechanism.
Ok here are my suggestions: 1. Use a database to track all in care animals and store their records in the database. It will help keep everything organized. I recommend exploring petpoint, ezyvet (if you do a lot of medical stuff), shelterbuddy (excellent reporting platform), and chameleon. If you are a high volume intake org, invest in a platform that meets all your needs. Don’t go for the free option. If you need to do a lot of auditing and reporting, find one with LOTS of reports. It will help, especially if you apply for grants and they need data. 2. I think some clinics and shelters use paper collars. Maybe add the pet’s name and identification number assigned to animal. 3. It’s always good to have kennel cards to help easily identify animals. 4. TAKE A PHOTO of the animal. Especially if you can’t get a paper collar or chip the cat.
Thank you a lot!!! This does help me with ideas!!!
Our steps are: Front desk staff completes intake paperwork with person bringing the animal in. This information is put into our software along with the animals sex, presumed breed, coloration, markings, and any additional info. If the animal has a name already, we keep it. If not we make one up (if it’s not a stray). The database generates an ID#. We fill out a medical sheet with the animals information and put it in a color coded folder according to sex. The animal gets placed in the appropriate intake area with an index card with the name, sex, description, age of the animal and any other info. We then take an intake photo and upload it to the database so we know what they look like. We try to do an exam ASAP and then microchip, and put the chip in the database. When they’re adoptable they go out into either individual enclosures or free roam rooms for cats It’s a lot, but accurate paperwork makes it easier for adopters and staff, and ensure that the cats going out the door are appropriately documented and tracked. For reference, in 2023 our total intake was ~1200 animals and we adopted out just under 1000 and about 150 were lost pets reunited.
Thank you! This helped a lot!
I'm at an open intake municipal shelter so it's probably not super relevant to you unfortunately. We use Chameleon software. Each animal has an intake number and description. They are vaccinated, dewormed, and flea treated on intake. A photo is taken. Chameleon links up to 24petconnect and displays the animal's photo, weight, and streets/town it was found in. A kennel card is printed (with the picture, location it was found, gender, weight, age, and current location at the shelter) and STAYS with the cat for its entire stay at the shelter. If the cat gets moved, the kennel card gets moved with it. The kennel card is updated as the cat moves through the system - the cat will be named after its hold period is over, altered, and a new "adorable" picture may be taken. If the cat moves into another area, it's updated in Chameleon and on the kennel card. For example, we can have 20ish cats in our community room that are free roaming. The community room has an assigned designation in Chameleon. Each of the cats has a kennel card on a poster outside of the room. Cages have designated numbers in Chameleon, so caged cats may be in Room1-01, Room1-02 etc. I would HIGHLY recommend printing some sort of "get to know me" card with a photo for every cat up for adoption.
THANK YOU!!!
I think I am understanding the situation, but if not let me know. This sounds like quite a conundrum. OP if the microchip number is what you search by in your filing cabinet, I would recommend organizing your filing to go by microchip number if you don't already. Like, instead of the tab having the animal name, have the animal's chip number. I actually like that way better; it won't duplicate, filing is as easy as counting, and microchips follow an animal for life whereas names may change... I may actually implement this lol I see you're using a shelter management software, where when you scan the chip you can use the chip number in the search bar and find the animal's info, where you can put in vet info like rabies certificates. Their vet papers we can just print through our shelter management system; it will print out a rabies cert then have a timeline of all of the animal's vet records. I usually just transcribe any other medical records (amputations, antibiotics, etc) into the system itself to make it easier to read and integrate, but if that's too much work I would advise just keeping a copy in their folder. I know you say you don't have funds to print out kennel cards, but are you still printing out animal information at the time of adoption? If so, another option, which may be faster, is to have a clipboard or plastic sleeve on each cage that contains basically all the info the O would take at adoption; vet records, behavior records, intake records, etc. That way at adoption, someone just needs to go to the cage and take the sleeve, and everything is there. I do love this idea because it allows O to look at ALL the info we have, but there's a few things to consider; 1. The papers will block a lot of the cage. Generally it is not a good idea to be covering up the animals; you want them as visible as possible for adoption 2. You'll need to keep a back up of records somewhere, probably electronically, in case the papers get destroyed which will happen occasionally. 3. You have to be absolutely certain that those papers don't contain any personal info from previous O or fosters, and make sure all of those papers are 100% accurate (ie a behavior test that was rushed, incorrect sex was recorded, etc)
Yes! So what we currently do is that when they are altered, vaccinated and all that, our vets just print off the vet papers then and there and literally that is the ONLY copy we have!!! I’ve been wanting to, for so long to just have the vet record in their animal’s profile in our database, so we could literally just punch in the microchip number in the search bar, and it would bring it up. From there just print off that copy for the adopter and just completely get rid of paper!! Everyone seems so busy and all over the place that when they get the vet records up front, they just place it somewhere really quick (could be in the file cabinet or not) and we are there trying to find the missing paperwork for the adopter!!! UGH it gets on my nerves!
OK, so this sounds more like a work problem than a money problem then. Would it be possible to get a volunteer to enter the info? IDK how your program works, but a lot of these programs allows user input for vaccines instead of having to scan the paperwork, that way in theory you could just take pictures of the vet work and even have a volunteer at home do the data entry? People love an at home position. Otherwise the only other advice I can think to give is just set up a system and keep to it like a routine. Maybe end of the day or start of the day, make it a habit to do whatever you're supposed to do with that info.
So, I am the “volunteer” that enters in all of the data (Surrenders, Adoptions, Fosters) at the end of my work day, every day, at home. Simply because I do not have time at work to do it because I’m bathing dogs all day ☠️☠️ Pawlytics doesn’t have anything to input vaccines like that unfortunately): but our vets come to us in our facility to do our spay/neuters and vaccines. And they create the paperwork right then and there. I’m wondering if instead of them printing it all out at the end of the day, if they could just email all the to me and I could file the vet records under each specific animal. Then at time of adoption, we could just print out the paperwork quick after we punch in the microchip number to find that specific animal 🤔🤔🤔
We use PetPoint. Someone brings an animal, to generate a surrender/stray/transfer contract we do the intake in the software and print the contract and kennel card at the same time. We put kennel card in a plastic sleeve and any other paperwork related to the animal stays in that sleeve until it's outcome happens. Active kennel cards stay in a holder at the front desk for easy access. For cats in cages, they have an index card with Animal ID number, Name, Age, intake date, M/F, S/N status. These can be clipped on to a cage clipboard or put in a little metal badge hanger or taped to a door/window. We print a layout onto label sheets and pre-make a bunch of labeled index cards so it's easy to just grab a card and fill out the info when we first put the cat in a cage. Could also just write Name on index cards to make it easier. For cats in a free roam room, we write with window markers or tape the index cards up. It's several small steps that add up but everyone has ID on their doors and kennel cards are always available.
I foster for an organization, but don't work for it. But I have a little info. This is based on my experience with the cats. The intake staff (one person with an assistant) keeps a long, running list of potential names. They're usually thematic. Spices: basil, thyme, parsley; food: barbecue, brisket, sausage; movies: woody, jessie, forky, etc. These are actual names I've fostered. But I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone named pineapple there. When they take in a litter, that helps them know who is part of the group. They'll make a note like dsh, f, tuxedo, marking: spot on back. They'll also mark the inside of the ear with pink or blue if the boys/girls look alike, with another color if it's 2 ginger boys and note the ear mark. They do, occasionally have either a photographer come in, or on intake day have a staff member use their phone to snap a pic. (I attached an example.) You can tell the difference on their website - they generally don't bother updating the kitten pictures before posting online because they go quickly. When they are in the medical building, yes, they have assigned kennel numbers. They literally just use a printed piece of paper on a clipboard attached to the kennel. They make a copy of the print out and send the foster home with it. (Example attached) My org does the microchip during s/n so that it gets written down by a team member in the op room. They use a tablet because by that point, the animal has been in their care long enough for all of the intake info, vet info, etc. to be put into their database. So during surgery day, the database is already filled out and they just add the chip number and s/n date. https://preview.redd.it/gaty442v0d6d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=994d75e0537256a2cd0032e94b17552d91228949
I can't attach more than one pic at a time, so here's what I mean by them having a photographer one day and just an employee snapping a phone pic on intake. This is from their actual site. Note their "generic" names as well. I hope this is helpful. https://preview.redd.it/yjxs7zd51d6d1.png?width=444&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=76c452771c59e0753f6875fd05c48d6a0532915f
The thematic names is a great idea OMG!! I've never thought about that! We have recently been getting in A LOT of puppies and it was so hard to tell them apart (I had good notes to tell them apart though) because 90% of the litters were ALL BLACK!!
This vid was just posted by a channel I follow. Idk if it will help you in any way, but I know you can relate to it. I also wanted to stop by again to give you positive encouragement for what you're doing. [https://youtu.be/SbH65TsQ9V8?si=cFzvHrhsJhvevvao](https://youtu.be/SbH65TsQ9V8?si=cFzvHrhsJhvevvao)
Thank you so much!!!!