Not only is this the protocol that you should have, but I also have known people who lost animals due to illness coming in with new animals. Always try your best to Quarantine, If not you could end up going to the vet for thousands of dollars of bills or lose your beloved pets. If you can't, try your best to keep cross-contamination to a minimum, wash your hands between handling, and be cautious and go to the vet at the first signs of anything but the new home sniffles.
All animals should be kept in a room separate from other animals for 2 weeks of good health before introduction with the rest of the animals even if they’re just in the same room.
When you interact with one in quarantine animal you should wash your hands with soap and warm water and disinfect or change your clothes before you interact with another animal
If you are in a situation where a contingent or parasite has already gone through you're animals the road is tough but possible to get through. You will have to clean EVERYTHING. Let’s start with the cleaning solutions:
Bleach Disinfecting Solution - 1:4 Bleach to Water
To use first on all hard surfaces
Bleach soaking solution - 1 tablespoon bleach to 1-gallon water
To use for soaking dishes and hides. Hard surface soaking
Viniger disinfecting Solution - 1:2 Vinegar to Water
To use second on all surfaces and to use on soft or porous surfaces.
Soapy Water Solution - No more than 3 tablespoons to 1-gallon water.
To use as a final cleaning solution on surfaces, this helps remove the vinegar and bleach residue
Water Solution - Plain H2O
Used to rinse off all surfaces after cleaning.
All Hard objects (plastics and ceramics, rocks, and other nonporous surfaces) should go into a soaking tub with a 1 tablespoon bleach to 1-gallon water solution for an hour. Once cleared out the cages should be sprayed down with this solution and let sit for 15 minutes. All soft surfaces porous (fabrics and wood) should be put into a tub of vinegar solution to be left to soak overnight for wood but only an hour for fabric. After that, all machine washable toys and bedding should be put into the washer with a simple detergent and washed with hot water, then dried with hot air. You can speed up the drying process of hard surfaces via a hairdryer but also letting them air dry should be fine. Wood can be disinfected the classic way in the oven. Food and water containers can be put through the disinfection process or the dishwasher.
Rinse with warm soapy water and then normal plain water before returning to the cage.
FREEZE ALL BEDDING FOR 48h (minimum 24) to kill mites and lice.
Start with your carriers and whatever you're gonna put in them for the temporary time you clean the cages and food and water containers (takes about an hour). Disinfect those and put them in clean sanitized bedding (if you have not frozen your bedding for 48 hours (24 min) just use paper towels or toilet paper). Disinfect the cages than the animals and their food and water dishes. Return the cleaned animals to the empty disinfected cages and then start cleaning all their enrichment items and toys. Those may take up to 48 hours depending on the objects and what you can keep them in.
After complete disinfection; follow the beginning quarantine rules:
All animals should be kept in a room separate from other animals for 2 weeks of good health before introduction with the rest of the animals even if they’re just going to be in the same room after quarantine.
When you interact with one in quarantine animal you should wash your hands with soap and warm water and disinfect or change your clothes before you interact with another animal