Acute or chronic outbreaks of disease affect many shelters. Most of these can be readily attributed to several common causes, mostly infectious. However, some disease outbreaks may appear atypical, are not readily diagnosed, or fail to respond to prescribed therapy. The UC Davis Shelter Medicine Diagnostic program is targeted at such situations where additional expertise and laboratory assistance may be required. If you are experiencing an outbreak of an unknown infection causing severe disease or death in a shelter population and have already ruled out the usual causes, please contact us.

For routine diagnostics, such as PCR panels for canine and feline upper respiratory disease, infectious diarrhea and assorted other infectious agents, we suggest that you should contact IDEXX Reference Laboratories and inquire about their shelter surveillance program. These services are available on a fee-basis. We are happy to assist with interpretation of the results. We do not offer commercial diagnostic services through the UC Davis Shelter Medicine Program at this time. For more information about the shelter surveillance program please visit our IDEXX shelter surveillance program information page.

Why use diagnostic services?

Understandably, shelters are often reluctant to stretch tight budgets to include “herd health” diagnostic or consultation services. However, these services can save a considerable amount in the long run. An optimal vaccination or cleaning program can be both more effective and cheaper to implement. Specific indications for testing or consultation include

• Unusual severity or frequency of disease
• Outbreak of unknown disease
• Planned husbandry changes (e.g. before and after investing in new vaccines, etc.)
• Possible zoonotic infection
• Legal issues (e.g. investigation of possible hoarding or cruelty)

If you are interested in receiving a consultation or would like more information on the diagnostic services we offer please submit your inquiry on our "ask shelter medicine page."