More parvo cases at SCRAPS keeps operations at minimum

Adult dog adoptions through the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service will not resume this week as hoped as the agency continues to grapple with an outbreak of a highly contagious virus.

Spokane County announced in a social media post Wednesday that the shelter will remain under limited operations after five additional cases of canine parvovirus were detected among the adult dog population since last weekend.

The agency paused adult dog adoptions in late December and implemented extra cleaning protocols after five dogs initially contracted the virus last month.

Three of those infected dogs were euthanized due to the severity of their symptoms, SCRAPS Director Ronnie Schlabs said Wednesday.

Of the two remaining dogs in the initial outbreak group, one appears to be on track for a full recovery, and the other has since been cleared of any infection, he said.

“They were retested and it came back negative, which we were glad to see,” Schlabs said.

Commonly referred to as “parvo,” the virus attacks an animal’s intestinal tract, leading to a loss of appetite, vomiting, dehydration, fever, lethargy and severe, often bloody, diarrhea. Parvo is highly contagious, and is transmitted through contact with infected dogs, surfaces they have touched, their fecal matter and the people who handle them. Research shows the virus can remain viable for months to even years, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Based on the recommendation of their contracted veterinarian, the agency plans to administer vaccine boosters to all dogs in the facility every two weeks to ensure “the highest level of protection possible,” the announcement states. Vaccination is the best form of protection against parvo, according to the veterinary association. There is not currently a treatment on the market that kills the virus in infected dogs.

Schlabs said the five dogs in the second wave of infection are responding well to treatment thus far. The agency’s employees were able to catch the symptoms early, which could prove crucial in their ability to make a recovery, he said.

Adult dog adoptions will remain on hold, and the bolstered sanitation protocols will continue for another two weeks. Operations will resume as normal if no new cases arrive in that time frame.

Cat and puppy adoptions, which are kept separately from the adult dog population, have been ongoing and will continue, the announcement states.

“So we do have some animals we can find homes for now, it’s just, unfortunately, our adult dog adoptions that are on hold,” Schlabs said.

Meanwhile, another shelter in town is still grappling with its own health concerns among its dog population. The nonprofit SpokAnimal has been contending with a respiratory infection affecting shelter dogs of all ages since the end of December, leading to the pause of adoptions and intakes since.

SpokAnimal executive director Dori Peck said a 10-year-old dog and a puppy have died of the illness, but that most of the roughly 15 infected dogs are responding well to treatment.

“We have dogs that are recovering, more that are recovered than not,” Peck said.

While the root cause of the illness has not been identified, some testing did come back positive for mycoplasma present in the dogs’ systems. Mycoplasma are unique wall-less, bacterialike cells that can assume a variety of shapes and spread throughout the body.

Peck said the deceased puppy was sent to the veterinarian teaching hospital at Washington State University for a necropsy, and that the results did not provide a clear answer on what’s plaguing the shelter.

“We’re just not going to get that for this, unfortunately,” Peck said. “It’s so frustrating, because it’s hard to fight when you don’t know what it is.”

SpokAnimal’s clinic, housed separately from the shelter, has remained open throughout the outbreak. Peck said cat adoptions are also ongoing, through the Kitty Cantina café, as well as at adoption centers within Petco and PetSmart locations.

As both shelters continue to grapple with disease, Peck stressed the importance of ensuring pets are properly vaccinated.

“I feel so bad for SCRAPS,” Peck said. “Parvo is just terrible, and there’s a very effective vaccine out there.”