It’s contagious and can be deadly for man’s best friend.
Parvovirus has appeared at the Quesnel SPCA after a litter of puppies tested positive.
District Branch Manager Colby O’Flynn shares what precautionary measures are underway to prevent the contagious virus from spreading.
“We decided to close the shelter for a few days so that we can really isolate those puppies and make sure that they aren’t spreading it to any of the other dogs in our care or also to volunteers that maybe come in to walk the dogs. So as right now it’s just precautionary; it’s not as if we have a full on outbreak but that’s what we’re trying to prevent.”
O’Flynn says although the shelter is currently closed at this time and is not accepting any animals, there are plans in place should anyone find a stray.
“We do have a large network of foster homes and what we’re hoping is that if somebody finds an animal we’ve requested that they just give us a call and give us all the information. First of all, we’ll go through our current missing animals that have been reported and hopefully we can just get them linked back up without them having to come into our care. If not, then we are willing to provide the finder or foster home to care for the animal(s) until the shelter is cleared.”
O’Flynn adds that if it comes down it volunteers, themselves may even take in strays.
Parvovirus which attacks rapidly dividing cells in a dog’s body mostly affects the intestinal tract. It can also attack canine’s white blood cells resulting in damage to the heart muscle and lifelong cardiac problems.