Exotics Case Study

Distinction 1: Exotics
Evaluate the systems and procedures in place at college to prevent the spread of disease. What improvements could be made to the unit?
• It is important to use god technique when washing your hands because you don’t want to have and germs on then that you may pass onto the animals you are handling. When washing your hands you must wash in-between your nails and your thumb as those are the parts mostly missed when washing. Use soap and rinse off with water.
• It is important to use colour coded equipment to prevent cross contamination to the other animals if they are ill or carrying disease. Blue equipment is for rodents, green equipment is for outside animals and red equipment is for reptiles.
• It is good to
This good coordination is enabling you to have a more effective unit.
• All staff are qualified so they know what to do if an animal is ill or injured and is in need of help. They should also be approachable so that a student doesn’t feel afraid to speak to them.
• All of the animals have a good diet with a variety of fruits and vegetables. They have regular food orders so that they never run out of food. The food is ordered before they run out so there is a supply, so the animals don’t go hungry.
• All of the animals are in the correct conditions, whether the temperature, UV light, humidity, the animals all have it right for them and they are maintained so that the animal is comfortable and isn’t missing anything that will alter their health.
• If the staff are getting a new animal, they will do research to find out as much information on that animal as possible. For example, what enclosure it has, what food it eats, what type of environment they would live in the wild. They will also want to know the background information of the new
You would mostly need one for exotics as they will know more about them and will be able to treat them better than a regular vet as they have to know about all animals.
• It is important to wear lab coats in the animal unit, this reduces cross contamination between your animals at home and the animals at college. It also prevents your clothes from getting dirty.
• There is PPE available to wear, for example, plastic gloves, plastic aprons, face masks. These are to be worn once then thrown away, these are an extra layer to avoid getting dirty and to prevent the spread of disease and germs to other animals. Face masks are used when cleaning out the birds, it stops you from breathing in the dust that is in their cages.
• There is good record keeping. This tells you how old an animal is, its weight, what gender it is, everything you want to know about that animal. This prevents inbreeding.
• There are 3 separate areas of where the animals live, these areas are exotics, outside animals and rodents. This prevent the animals from being stressed as they can’t see any predators that might eat