Practice Risk Assessments

Green Level Handling Risk Assessment

Animal - Argentine Horned Frog (Ceratophrys ornata)

Equipment/PPE Needed -

Steel toe capped boots - to prevent any damage to feet in the event that something heavy or hard that may be used or present in the room would fall onto your feet.

Boiler suit - to prevent the spread of any disease or parasites between animal to animal or from an animal to you, as well as protecting skin and clothes from damage or contamination

Long hair tied back - to prevent hair from getting caught anywhere that could cause harm, prevent contamination of hair and transmission and to ensure you can see properly

Latex gloves - can be worn to prevent the absorption of any chemicals that may be on your skin into the frog’s system as they absorb chemicals through their skin, as well as maintaining moisture to prevent dry skin for the frog

Potential Hazards -

Jumping out of hands - this could result in the frog harming itself from falling from a height if it were to fall on the floor or it being crushed in some way or escaping

Skin drying out - amphibians must maintain moist skin at all times to ensure their health as dry skin can impair respiration as oxygen and carbon dioxide can no longer transfer through the mucus membrane

Absorbing chemicals through skin - if the person handling the frog has chemicals on their skin such as a hand cream or if they are a smoker, these chemicals can be absorbed into the frogs system through the skin and cause major health problems

Dropping the animal - This could cause severe harm to the animal, especially if dropped from a height or onto the floor, where it could be stepped on or escape, or a surface with chemicals on it

Specific Precautions -

Wetting hands - keeping your hands wet when handling frogs to ensure the mucus membrane on the skin does not dry out to prevent health issues and harm

Holding the frog over a clean table - this ensures that if for some reason the frog was dropped, that it would not fall far enough to cause harm, it is in a controlled environment where it is visible and easy to catch, and would not be exposed to any harmful chemicals

Making a barrier of people around the table - this means that if the frog does fall onto the table it is unable to jump off the table and onto the floor, where it would be in a less controlled environment, before somebody could catch it

Wearing gloves - to prevent the transfer of any harmful chemicals or toxins on the skin onto the frog’s skin where they could be absorbed into the frog’s body and cause harm and to maintain a moist environment to prevent drying of the skin

Justification of Risk Assessment -

The Argentine Horned Frog is a safe level animal, however it still needs precautions, as it is highly able to jump away from people and work it’s way out of hands, which can result in harm from falling or being crushed, absorption of uncontrolled chemicals and escaping, as well as it possibly being at risk of it’s skin drying out which can cause issues such as impaired respiration. Because of these precautions such as wetting hands and wearing gloves, holding the frog over a table and controlling where it can go are put in place.

Amber Level Handling Risk Assessment

Animal - Ferret (Mustela furo)

Equipment/PPE Needed -

Steel toe capped boots - to prevent any damage to feet in the event that something heavy or hard that may be used or present in the enclosure would fall onto your feet.

Boiler suit - to prevent the spread of any disease or parasites between animal to animal or from an animal to you, as well as protecting skin and clothes from damage or contamination

Long hair tied back - to prevent hair from getting caught anywhere that could cause harm, prevent contamination of hair and transmission and to ensure you can see properly

Protective gloves - ferrets have sharp claws that they can scratch with, and sharp teeth, which when they bite with, they lock onto you, which makes their bites very painful and dangerous. Gloves prevent them from biting your hands and therefore also prevents the chance of infections

Potential Hazards -

Biting and scratching - ferrets have sharp claws and teeth that can break skin easily and when they bite they will latch on and can potentially tear at skin. This is a major risk for infection.

Tripping and head hitting - ferrets require large amounts of enrichment due to the amount of energy that they can experience but this can result in many tripping hazards and many possibilities to hit your head if these pieces of enrichment are not placed logically

Escaping - ferrets are very fast and agile, meaning that they can get past you easily and get through doors and out of restraints which can result in their escaping so they need specific enclosure design to prevent this from happening

Specific Precautions -

Wearing protective gloves - this is to prevent bites and scratches, especially if the ferret chooses to latch onto your hand, as these bites can cause infections if not prevented or properly cared for

Not putting enrichment in obstructive places - avoiding putting enrichment at head height, or elevated at all too close to the door, as well as thinking about where on the floor there is space for enrichment, and where would risk becoming a trip hazard

Limiting chances of escape - putting items that need to be removed frequently near the door, such as food and water, and toileting areas, so that they may be quickly and efficiently removed with less chance to escape

Double door system - adding in double doors means that there can always be at least one door shut in the enclosure to prevent the escape of the ferrets, resulting in them always being contained and controlled

Holding ferrets with a claw grip - this involves placing the index and middle fingers either side of the ferret’s head and using the remaining fingers to hold the front legs and body to control the ferret’s movements

Justification of Risk Assessment -

Ferrets are known to bite and scratch when handled, so it is important to ensure that precautions are put in place to protect the person who is handling them, by offering further PPE and different techniques, to prevent infections. As well as this, they often escape due to their agile nature, so precautions should be used when looking at enclosure design to limit the chance of this happening. Enclosure design should also take keeper’s needs into account to ensure that the layout doesn’t produce any hazards such as tripping.