Disinfecting between enclosures?

[roguemako]

When tending to my newts/sals (feeding, removing waste, misting, etc), what should I use to disinfect my hands between the enclosures as to not spread anything around or cross contaminate? Hand sanitizer? Antibacterial soap? Something else? What will be good to disinfect my hands, but not harm the animals?

 

[roguemako]

I read betadine scrub works well, anyone have any insights

 

[JoshBA]

I just rinse my hands with really hot water.
Hand sanitizer should work well, as its just alcohol so will evaporate pretty quickly (although you still should rinse your hands under water after this to remove any possible residue).

 

[Jan]

Soap and water with hands well rinsed. Use of separate equipment is advisable if it comes in contact with the animal(s) or their environment. If the enclosures are in the same room, there will be some degree of potential air-borne contamination.

 

[roguemako]

What should be used to disinfect hands after dealing with a potentially sick animal?

 

[evut]

General advice about hand washing is that the most important thing is to really scrub them for several minutes, the choice of product doesn't matter as much. Just make sure you use a good hand cream after you finish with the animals, otherwise such hand washing can really damage your skin.

 

[Jan]

What should be used to disinfect hands after dealing with a potentially sick animal?

If you are handling the animal and worried about cross contamination to another enclosure/animal, you can use well-rinsed vinyl non-powdered gloves and discard after each use. Latex and other types of disposable gloves may not be suitable: http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...57402-disposable-gloves-toxic-amphibians.html

For hand washing Eva is right. It doesn't matter what product you use. What matters is the mechanical action of scrubbing that removes microbes. Lather and scrub all hand surfaces including between fingers, back of hands, wrists, under nails, etc. for a minimum of 20 seconds.

 

[roguemako]

Would hand sanitizer (with ethyl alcohol) be safe to use between enclosures? I would not be directly handling the animals, just routine checking the enclosures and such.

 

[Kaysie]

As long as it contains no added ingredients and you allow it to dry fully, it should be fine.

 

[roguemako]

So it would have to be pure ethyl alcohol? Cause I am almost certain all hand sanitizers have other ingredients, the ethyl is just the active one.

 

[JoshBA]

I think hand sanitizer without the extra fragrance smell would be fine.