How to Clean a Veterinary Cage

How to clean a veterinary cage? Harder than you think!

The cage at the veterinary hospital is a hotbed of dirt and disease. I personally have heard experience where a parvovirus puppy was hospitalized at a hospital and at discharge the veterinary cage was not properly cleaned. Fast forward one day later when another puppy with kennel cough was hospitalized in the same veterinary cage. The kennel cough puppy came down with parvovirus only one week later after it had visited the hospital. Likely it had contracted it by being in the same veterinary cage the parvo puppy had just 24 hours earlier.

Veterinarians Stainless 7 Cages

Step One:

• Wear Gloves! I often see veterinary team members cleanings veterinary cages with their bare hands. Veterinary patients carry plenty of zoonotic diseases, not to mention that bare-handling poop, urine or vomit is gross! You may think they left the veterinary cage "clean", but they were walking outside at the veterinary hospital which is a landmine of poop and urine. Yes, I do know a technician who got roundworms. Wear gloves when you clean any cage!

Step Two:

• How many sides do you need to clean? All of them! There are SIX sides to all veterinary cages: Four walls inside the veterinary cage (left, right, top, bottom) and then the front of the door and the inside (back) of the door.

• After you have put on gloves, grab paper towels and your hospital's disinfectant.

• Spray down ALL six sides of the veterinary cage. Remember that if you are spraying the front or back of the veterinary cage door make sure the spray doesn't get sprayed into a neighboring cage where a pet is housed. You may need to soak the paper towel with the disinfectant and then wipe down the bars of the cage door.

• Remember that you need to clean ALL areas of the veterinary cage. The corners in the large dog run (mopping the floor of a big kennel is a step that can be done in lieu of spraying), ALL the bars of a big veterinary cage (top to bottom), the latches and the handles.

Veterinary Cage

Step Three:

• Wait! Each disinfectant requires a certain amount of contact time. Too many times I see a veterinary team member spray and immediately wipe, not allowing for any contact time. Please check with the manufacturer of the disinfectant or read the instructions on the disinfectant to see what the appropriate contact time is for the product you have in the hospital.

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Step Four:

• Wipe up the residual or spray again to remove the "streaking" that the disinfectant left on the first spray.

Step Five:

• Close the veterinary cage door and it's ready for the next patient!

While there are not many steps, the steps that get often missed are:

• Cleaning all 6 sides (the door or top of the veterinary cage is often missed or barely done yet that's where pets put their noses through, paws through and breathe on)

• Wearing gloves

• Contact time

Veterinary Cage

Cleaning a veterinary cage properly takes 5-20 minutes depending on your disinfectant's contact time and the size of the veterinary cage. While it is easy to rush through the process, please remember the story of the parvo puppy. Proper cleaning would have prevented the second puppy from contracting parvo from the cage. It's simple to do, but also one of the tasks that rarely is done properly. Clean cages save lives.

Wondcon Veterinary Cages For Sale

At Wondcon, we provide a wide range of high-quality, sturdy vet cages (Large Pet & Animal Cages For Shelters, Dog Daycares, And Groomer) scrafted with heavy-gauge stainless steel. Our hand-welded, stainless-steel animal clinic cages are easy to clean, leak-resistant, and come in various dimensions for small and large animal clients. Wondcon animal holding cages are created in sturdy 16 or 18-gauge steel that will never warp and provide long-term security for several years ahead.

Kinds of animal shelters cages for sale:

Wondcon features a selection of small as well as large animal cages that meet the exceptional standards of animal treatment facilities, consisting of:

• Galvanized cages: Our solid galvanized steel cages are built to last and are easy to clean. We offer small and large animal cages with custom options for your convenience.

• Stainless steel cages: The cage will never fail you with its legendary toughness, audio absorption, leakage resistance, sturdy doors, and panels that withstand years of daily use without warping.

• Stacked cages: These kennels provide maximum room efficiency while giving an ergonomic design that is still comfortable for the pets inside.

In the Wondcon veterinary cages for sale list, you can see that there are various combinations of the number and layers of veterinary cages, four, six, seven, eight and thirteen veterinary cages in single, double and triple layer veterinary cages, and Wondcon supports your customization! Contact us now!