Fort Wayne shelter fighting deadly dog virus

[DoozyDog]

Associated Press

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The city animal shelter has had dozens of dogs suffering from a deadly virus and has asked that no stray dogs be brought in for a week.

Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control also has stopped its dog adoptions through Friday so the staff can concentrate on scrubbing down the shelter in an effort to kill the virus.

The shelter typically sees a couple dogs infected with parvovirus, but has experienced a big jump in cases even though it is normally rare this time of year, director Belinda Lewis said.

"We think it's part of this stretch of mild weather," she said. Dogs are out more, and the virus is not dying off amid the recent warmer temperatures.

Peggy Bender, the shelter's humane education specialist, said that while parvovirus kills up to 85 percent of dogs who get the disease and are not treated, it can be prevented with a vaccine. The virus cannot be spread to humans or to animals other than dogs.

Bender said dogs can harbor the virus during an incubation period and spread it before they show signs of being sick.

"An animal can look perfectly healthy and break with vomiting and bloody diarrhea the very next day," she said.

Dr. Sandy Norman, of the State Board of Animal Health, said the outbreak appeared to be isolated to Fort Wayne and Allen County. She compared the outbreak to an illness that spreads in a school among students.

"You just keep mixing it here and making it worse," Norman said. "You just have to stop the flow."

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/13704697.htm

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

This is in my city. We're the second largest city in Indiana I believe, our shelter is huge and for our shelter to close their doors for any length of time tells me this is a large outbreak.

[Haven]

My mom told me this on the phone yesterday (my family is from Fort Wayne/Roanoke area). I was so sad to hear it. I know Indianapolis had a small outbreak last year, but they didn't end up shutting the doors for dog surrenders. They did shut down twice for cats due to bad outbreaks of panleukopenia last fall.

I have such mixed feelings about this because I've read research that says, overall, diseases like parvo spread spread much quicker in a community and cause many more deaths if shelters stop taking in animals. If there is an outbreak in the shelter, you can almost guarantee there is /will be an outbreak outside of the shelter. Turning dogs away means that people who might have taken an animal to the shelter often let the animal go free, or at the very least, are not likely to provide vaccinations or medical treatment for sick dogs. So now, you have more dogs running around exchanging the virus and infecting larger areas of the community. And these are the animals that will come in as soon as the shelter reopens it's doors - leading to another outbreak. Atleast in the shelter they have standards for cleaning and ability to provide treatment and vaccinations. Such a catch-22.