| Re: I'm Fostering 6 puppies and mom
I no longer foster dogs or cats because of this issue. We had an entire litter of kittens die from parvo, while in our home being fostered. The shelter vet accidentally gave the wrong vaccine to the kittens or they were way too young to produce antibodies and they were already infected. I've also had adult foster dogs come to us with hideous worm infestations and skin diseases that were contagious. We've made the rounds of ringworm and every intestinal parasite.
Often times the shelter discounts diarrhea in recently surrendered animals since stress can cause this. We have had a few little ones (pups and small breed adults) die from intestinal parasites. I finally got to the point where I wouldn't take any animals unless they received worming medication. But then we had ringworm, a skin infection, which can also be transmitted to humans. The parvo case was the absolute worst and the last straw. Over the years we have spent hours. days at vet appointments with animals that seem to be sick all the time. These animals generally come from poor environments (construction sites, evictions, surrenders) and some of them never seem to recover from their imposed misery. My teenage daughter just couldn't bear the thought of losing any more animals. Getting up to feed and care for the animals every few hours 24/7, dispensing foul tasting meds, then holding them while they die is just too much.
All the years we fostered we never allowed interaction with our own pets or allowed the fosters anywhere in the house except the designated room, which was thoroughly disinfected (50/50 bleach to water and Lysol) every week, or more as necessary. However, just the thought of losing one of my own pets due to a foster animal is more than I can bear. So we no longer foster. | 
