More shelter dogs victims of parvovirus

[bigdoglover]

Daily Herald

By Caleb Warnock

Two more families that adopted from the North Utah County Animal Shelter say their dogs have died of parvovirus.

On Friday the shelter stopped all dog adoptions and called the three families who had adopted dogs since July 12 to warn them about a parvo outbreak, said shelter director Tug Gettling.

All three dog owners said their dogs were not sick, he said.

After a story in Friday's Daily Herald about an Alpine woman whose adopted dog had to be euthanized because of the disease, two more families contacted the paper, saying they had both adopted dogs from the North Utah Valley Animal Shelter in Lindon last week and both dogs died suddenly this week of parvovirus.

On Friday, Gettling said that since the first case, a third family had returned a parvo-infected dog to the shelter, which was euthanized.

Shelter employees will do a special sanitation of the shelter, expected to last until Tuesday, he said. Any dogs in the shelter that show signs of parvo will be euthanized. None of the dogs will be tested for parvo "because it is not something we do routinely," he said.

No immediate date has been set for adoptions to begin again, he said. The shelter has about 150 dogs on hand, and about 90 cats. Cat adoptions will continue as normal as cats are not affected by parvovirus.

Breana Greenwood of Highland said she and her sister adopted a lab-husky mixed puppy from the shelter on July 11, paying a $101 adoption fee that included a voucher for a checkup by a veterinarian. On Monday they used the voucher and the vet said the puppy looked fine. The checkup did not include a parvo test.

"Later on that night the dog was acting depressed and sad and we thought it was the heat," she said. "The next day it was as sick as could be and we took it in and it had parvo."

The puppy died the next day, Wednesday, she said.

"This is what makes me mad," she said. "I have two dogs of my own, one is a fully vaccinated adult and one is a puppy and she didn't have a parvo shot."

Her vet believes the puppy, which shared a water bowl and toys with the puppy that died, has a 90 percent chance of being infected with parvo, she said. The virus can incubate up to two weeks before showing symptoms.

Greenwood said she can do nothing but wait. She has ordered an herbal remedy from the Internet in the hopes that it will keep the puppy from becoming ill.

"The animal shelter should have called people because we took the puppy (that died) to the park and it played with other puppies and now we have no idea how to tell those people their dogs might be sick," she said.

She also said that while the shelter has offered to refund her $101 fee if she has proof from a vet that her dog had parvo, she had to pay $109 to find out her dog was infected.

"It has been a nightmare," she said.

Phil Buonomo of Pleasant Grove said he adopted his dog about July 7. It too was a lab-husky mixed puppy.

Buonomo said he did not understand his $101 adoption fee included a voucher for an exam by a veterinarian. He took his puppy to the vet on Monday, paying for the exam himself and the vet said the puppy looked fine.

That night the dog became ill and Buonomo took the dog back to the vet on Tuesday, he said. The dog died on Wednesday. He too has two more dogs at home that have potentially been exposed to the deadly virus, though neither have shown symptoms.

"Certainly they should have someone in there to make sure you don't give them $100 and then spend $150 to find out the dog had parvo and then watch him die," he said of the shelter.

The Daily Herald reported on Friday that shelter staff do not warn adoptive families to keep the animals in quarantine until they have been checked by a vet. In a later interview Gettling said that while there is no warning on paperwork given to families, staffers verbally warn families.

As of Friday, Gettling said the shelter had added a sign to the front lobby reading "Until a complete health exam can be performed by a licensed veterinarian, we recommend you keep new pets isolated from other animals."

"We do everything by the book and are trying to be very thorough and use the best industry practices," he said.

Animals that come to the shelter are held for five days for their owners to reclaim and then, if they pass a temperament test and are deemed adoptable, are given five more days to be adopted before they are euthanized.

The South Utah Valley Animal Shelter has had one parvo-infected dog returned after being adopted in the past week, said director Mike Morgan. Three other dogs have come to the shelter with parvo symptoms since June 26. All have been euthanized.

The south county shelter used to have a vet on staff but has discontinued the program in favor of a voucher program similar to the north county program, he said.