Home Dialysis and Birds/hamsters help!

[saucyandpampered]

So I joined this forum in thoughts of maybe getting a little insight to a situation...

I am currently a "provider" and I clean 10 hours a week for a mentally challenged lady who is on 3 times a day Dialysis and has 14% of liver paranitis . 

My question/concern is this:  She has 3 hamsters (cages are wedged between her bed and the wall) and she lets these furry critters crawl all over her... AND she has 2 birds...

Last week was the 3rd time she's gotten paraentitus (sp?) The first time was constipation, 2nd was a tin pin prick in the tubing and now the 3rd they're saying is contamination...

They (her mom and nurse) think it's because I'm not using enough bleach, when the strongest bleach on the planet is only effective until she touches it again, and they don't know about the hamsters!

I know very little about birds and hamsters, but I do know that hamsters are rodents and leave a urine trail where ever they go (like a snail) and she lets these furry critters crawl on her! 

What do I do first and should I even mention the critters/birds and just ignore that they think that I'm not cleaning well enough?!?!?!  What contamination do birds and hamsters cause when using home Dialysis?!?!?!

[jeannea]

I assume you work for an agency. Report to them that you are cleaning but you know she has these pets and lets them crawl on her. You need to do that to protect yourself. Do it in writing if necessary. Other than that there is probably nothing you can do since your are not her nurse.

I don't know a lot about hamsters and birds but I think it is very possible that the pets are part of her problem.

[UkrainianTracksuit]

I don't know the scientific bacteria and contamination that these kind of pets can bring.  I know they have their own special bacteria but I'm just not a science-y person or willing to dig up all the info. However, I have a chinchilla (rodent) and birds indoors.  In the past, I've had hamsters and many more birds.  Therefore, when the need for dialysis education came up, I was very open that I would never give away my pets and the renal team would just have to deal with it.  For me, as I am sure it is the case for the lady, the pets provide a release in life and some love.  I've always said my special needs chinchilla (diagnosed with a chronic bacterial infection and I've been fine..) provides better healing than any medical team could.  Not only that, but I play with large livestock too.  I have a chest cath and I haven't had any infection issues.

Also, I don't know how much advice you can give to your employer.  So, I'm going to base this post on the idea that you can give suggestions to your employer (the mother) and nurse.

However, there are some problems in this situation that are not your fault.  It doesn't matter how much bleach you use on the cages, the cages should NEVER be kept where someone is doing their PD. (I'm inferring PD because all your points point to PD.)   When I had my PD training (although in the end I chose hemo), the nurse told me that pets are fine as long as there is a room dedicated to PD, the supplies and where a patient could do their dialysis away from the pets.  So, if the lady for whom you are cleaning is doing her PD in a room with pets, that is just infection waiting to happen.  If there isn't a room just for dialysis, it needs to be noted that the pets should be moved to another room in the home.  Bring that up with the lady's mother and nurse.  It's just simple common sense.

Secondly, is the lady washing her hands after every interaction with the pets?  That's common sense for any person not even on dialysis.  Don't just blame the hamster and bird species; if you have a dog, cat, kangaroo, bear, griffin, dragon or eel, wash your hands and use hand sanitizer after the pets are handled.  I wouldn't suggest letting the pets crawl all over her unless she has a top layer of clothing to remove and then sanitize her hands.  There are so many people on PD or home hemo that have pets; the difference is how the cleanliness is handled. 

So, my advice to you is to speak with the lady's mother and nurse about changing a room where the pets can live away from the dialysis treatment and to really up personal sanitation standards for the lady handling the pets.  The person who best connects with the lady (the mother?) can explain there have to be better standards when handling the pets.

[nursey66]

My hubby got a serious fungel lung infection last summer -aspegillosis . He was in the hospital for nearly 4 weeks. This is an over 50% fatal illness.He had to go off his immunosupressive drugs to help fight off the infection, lost his transplant[it was working poorly anyway, but still working] and had to go on dialysis. He feeds outside birds and squirrels and cleans the feeders and baths even though the transplant clinic told him NOT to feed bird ,because of a deadly fungel infection they and the bird food cleannings have. He has not stopped this animal feeding and I am real worried about when he gets his next transplant and goes back on the drugs, what will happen. Please tell people not to deal with animals, it's not worth the risk. Those who have done it without problems are just lucky, in my opinion. My Hubby fed bird & squirrels for 10 years before he caught the fungel pneumonia and nearly died.

[obsidianom]

I agree that most animals can be an issue with dialysis and the weakened immune systems that are part of it. That said, I think that perhaps the one species that is fairly safe are dogs. Humans and dogs have evolved together for thousands of years and at this point I beleive we and the dogs have created a sort of mutual  agreeable cooexistance like the "good bacteria' we have living in our gut that help keep us alive. 
I am not as sure about cats, especially indoor cats who use litter boxes. They can carry all kinds of bacteria and pathological organisms.
The other animals discussed are really not as domesticated as dogs. Dogs have eveloved and changed over thousands of years as part of domestication. Other animals as pets have not.   They still are fundimentally the same as before and can carry any number of problem organisms.
Depite all that we no longer have dogs. My wife and I used to raise and breed dogs and wolves but those days are over. With her dialysis it is easier without them ., I would be nervous with large German Shepherds in the house now.  They knock things over.  (we had 3 shepherds). But I would still consider them fairly safe.
Birds and rodents and other exotic pets are not as safe and as our friend THE TRACK SUIT wrote, you have to wash up after touching them all and keep them away from dialysis areas.  When in doubt, be safe.

[Simon Dog]

3 times a day Dialysis

PD I assume if 3x/day.    The animal contamination is definitely a problem, as evidenced by peritonitis.    Are you able to keep an 100% animal free room for the exchanges?