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Distemper outbreak at an animal shelter
#1
There has been a distemper outbreak at an Ohio animal shelter. One dog that was euthanized last month tested positive for the disease. There were other dogs showing symptoms. In the end the shelter has euthanized 52 dogs (without testing them for distemper) and quarantined others. They may yet euthanize more dogs.

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0


This is a serious situation. Distemper is highly contagious and airborne. The shelter does have over 300 dogs.

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...999&at=dt0


It is hard to second guess the decisions that were made when we are not there to see what is actually happening.
I think the real tragedy is the fact that there were so many dogs in the shelter in the first place. They couldn't possibly properly quarantine animals coming in  when they have so many. Also, distemper is so preventable. The vaccine has existed for many years. No adult dog should have been able to get distemper. It should have been vaccinated as a puppy. All this was preventable.

I do hope the shelter reviews its infection prevention protocols and maybe looks for a way to reduce its numbers, perhaps by transfers to other shelters.
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Catherine

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#2
Another very sad dog situation.
You are right that we can't judge correctly about the euthanisation of all those dogs. It may have been because they had all been in close contact with dogs who tested positive. However, sadly, many of them might have been all right? We don't know.

Giving them their shots when they first came to the shelter might have helped. But we have to remember that in a shelter situation, they are taking in strays who have never been vaccinated, or belonged to people who never vaccinated them, and they could be bringing in the disease from outside.

The incubation period can be a week, but sometimes less. If dogs are coming in daily, they may have chance to spread the disease before thy are vaccinated.

And now of course, they won't be able to move any. I just hope many of the dogs will be safe, and not euthanised.

Bless all the dogs who passed.
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#3
I think shelters are overwhelmed by the numbers of dogs coming in. They will need to review their infection control methods.
Too  many dogs were exposed to the infected animal. Shelters need a quarantine area separate from the adoption area. They need some way to prevent the spread of any number of infections that dogs are prone to. 

I am sure some of the dead dogs didn't have distemper. Without tests they couldn't be sure.

This is such a preventable disease. Why are we still having outbreaks of diseases that we can so easily prevent.
We need a massive vaccinate your pet campaign.

It is not fair that a shelter is left to deal with the aftermath of people's failure to vaccinate. At most there should have been a handful of unvaccinated dogs. Instead it seems that many were not protected and so they contracted a serious illness and now they are dead.

I hate to hear about animals dying for reasons that were preventable.
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Catherine

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#4
My opinion is that all newcomers should be kept in an area quite apart from the other residents, until they are found not to have transmittable diseases or parasites.
Again, this is a question of shelter management.
I know funding will come into it, but that is the responsibility of management also. Even the most rudimentary separation of the dogs would have helped.
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#5
It usually takes a tragedy like this to get shelters to take quarantine seriously. They need small new intake rooms where no more than 5-6 dogs are exposed to each other.

In this case the infected dog must have been in a general population area. It would have spread the disease very quickly to any dog near it.

They also have too many dogs at once. I would have to look it up, but there are shelter guidelines that recommend no more than a certain number of animals at a time. It is recognized that over a certain number of dogs becomes unmanageable. It is impossible to prevent infections from spreading.

The over crowding is solved by transferring animals to other shelters. There is getting to be a good network of inter-shelter cooperation. There are groups that will arrange the transportation. Shelters need to draw on each other for help so that situations like this do not occur again.
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Catherine

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