With COVID on the rise again, please use common sense and follow RAMP and RVCS guidelines. We all know to ask pertinent COVID pre-screening questions in advance of a visit and to touch gates, head collars etc. as little as possible. PPE wearing should be relevant to each case, based on your ability to keep a 2m distance from any person on the yard on in a garden – during the entire session. Where possible, treat outside. If you are inside treating an animal, you must be sure to follow PPE and hygiene guidelines to the dot.
Take your own cleaning and sanitising products to your visits. Make sure your owners know that you have clean sanitized hands and arms before touching their animal (after you get out of the car). Don’t shake hands, as before. Take your own food and drink with you. And where possible, ensure that you have a change of clothes between visits, if you are not wearing protective disposable items that can be disposed of, in between patients. This is because COVID can last on material for up to 3 hours.
More recently it has been announced that professionals in close proximity to people outside their household must wear both mask and visor – even if teaching (as opposed to treating). So, if you cannot keep a 2 meter distance from your owners, you need to keep this in mind.