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Office of Animal Care and Use
Phone: (919) 966-5569
Fax: (919) 966-8429
CB 7193
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7193
iacuc@med.unc.edu
The identification of sick animals is everyone's responsibility: investigators, research technicians, veterinary technicians, and laboratory animal technicians. Laboratory animal technicians are a very good source of identifying sick animals since they are the ones responsible for observing the cages daily and handling the animals when changing the cages. When a sick animal has been identified a green health check card is placed on the cage and the animal information is entered into the VET Care computer program. If the sick animal is an emergency, the lab animal technicians are to call the vet staff at 966-2906 or page them at 216-1235.
If an investigator or their staff finds an animal that is sick or injured, they should place a green health check card (located in the black card file in the animal room) on the cage with a note as to what the problem is. The investigator's staff must ensure that the veterinary technicians have been notified of a sick animal. They can either notify the husbandry personnel that they have found a sick animal and have it entered into the VET Care program, or notify the veterinary technician office themselves at 966-2906. The following information must be supplied: Investigator name, the building, room number and the rack where the animal is located. If it is an emergency, the veterinarian staff must be paged at 216-1235.
The veterinary technicians will examine the animal within 24 hours, contact the responsible person in the investigator's lab (or the person identified to be responsible in their absence) and discuss the animal's condition. If the animal's condition is severe, the veterinary technician will discuss the circumstances with the clinical veterinarians. A course of action will be determined.
If the course of action is euthanasia or using the animal experimentally, the green health check card is left on the cage for identification. When an animal is euthanized or used, the person who performs the procedure will date and initial the card. The card is to be left in the sleeve on the back of the animal room door for the veterinary technician. The date and resolution of the animal is entered into the computer log by the veterinarian technician.
If the course of action is treatment or monitoring then the veterinary technician will replace the green card with the red veterinary care card. A member of the vet staff will attempt to contact a member of the research lab to discuss treatment options. If the veterinarian deems that immediate treatment is necessary for the health of the animal, initiation of treatment will not be delayed beyond 24 hours. The vet staff will affix a treatment label to the red card. The treatment label will list details such as: Drug/amount, Route, Frequency, and Duration (start date to stop date). Each time medication is given initial the appropriate box.
If there is no indication that medication was administered on the first day, DLAM technicians will initiate treatment on the second day and continue the daily treatments as indicated on the label. A fee (approx $15-30 total/card) will be assessed for DLAM administered medications. If you have forgotten a treatment and wish to continue performing treatments, please contact the DLAM husbandry technician to make arrangements to resume responsibility for treatments. Please do not remove red cards from the cage. When the animal has been used in study or euthanized, make a note on the card (initials and date) and place the card in the sleeve on the inside of the animal room door. REMEMBER: The red card is a veterinary medical record.