CINCINNATI — After a two month lockdown, Cincinnati Animal CARE’s Colerain Avenue shelter is back open to the public.
The shelter was plagued by canine distemper virus (CDV). The highly contagious virus causes multiple symptoms, including fever, cough, swelling of paw pads, nasal and eye discharge, gastrointestinal distress and more.
“It felt like the early days of COVID doing a lot of curbside service," said CAC Community Engagement Manager Ray Anderson.
Back in April, the shelter was forced to euthanize sicks dogs. Anderon says they have had to euthanize around 40 dogs.
“Because of the [CDV] specifically as in they were too sick for us to anything else I think about two dozen. Then we had a couple of others that were mix of they were pretty sick and there were some concerning behavior issues," Anderson said.
Officials said they were forced to euthanize dogs that were very sick because they didn’t have the space to house and treat them for the length of time they would need to be in isolation. Since the outbreak began, shelter officials have tested and retested more than 300 dogs and successfully treated nearly 100 infected dogs.
The animal shelter reached out to University of Florida Professor Cynda Crawford. Crawford is a part of the Shelter Medicine Program and specializes in infectious diseases and immunology. She has helped over 100 shelters navigate CDV outbreaks.
“It was an extensive widespread infection," Crawford said. “What has happened at [Cincinnati Animal] Care is very uncommon. Canine Distemper is not as prevalent in communities in the North Eastern section of the country like it is in the South."
She helped CAC develop a strategy to manage CDV. Crawford added she is still in touch with the shelter, helping them testing. She noted 30 percent of the tested population was infected, but shelter officials were able to save 70 percent of infected dogs.
“They did not choose to euthanize the infected dogs most shelters euthanize infected," Crawford said.
CDV mostly affects unvaccinated dogs and puppies. Dogs are routinely vaccinated for this virus, but if an unvaccinated animal comes into the shelter with the virus — which can lie dormant for roughly two weeks — the vaccine is not effective, Cincinnati Animal CARE said.
Shelter officials said it's still unclear where the outbreak originated and stressed the importance of vaccinating pets.
To help prevent this from happening again, CAC opened a new intake facility on Dane Avenue. Anderson said this location is not a second shelter. Currently, 80 dogs are in crates at Dave Avenue, which Anderson says is 30 to many. He said they would prefer to keep that number around 50.
“They’ll wait there 3-day stay hold there and then we bring dogs over from that location to here in batches," Anderson said.
He added they have stepped up their cleaning protocols and are not rotating kennels as often.
Anderson said they have between 24-30 dogs quarantined at a third location because they are still infected.
Cincinnati Animal Care Shelter Director Meaghan Colville said the dogs at the Colerain Avenue location are healthy and ready to be adopted.
“They are ready to go. They are ready for adoption, they’re ready to go to fosters, they’re ready to go to rescue and they’re ready to leave," she said.
To celebrate the shelter’s Colerain Avenue reopening, Cincinnati Animals CARE is hosting a “name your price” adoption event on Saturday, June 17 and Sunday, June 18.
Click here for more information.
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