SPOKANE, Wash. — A mystery illness sickening and, in some cases, killing dogs across the country may be here in the Spokane area. That's the belief of Spokanimal, which has been closed for around two months after most of its shelter dogs came down with an unknown respiratory illness.
"Makes me want to cry,” Executive Director Dori Peck said.
"I know," Dr. Jessica Prewitt added. "It’s been very difficult. Very busy, but this is our number one priority.”
It's been difficult for staff at the animal shelter, providing the round-the-clock care to more than 50 dogs, including hand-feeding and providing breathing treatments.
It's also been difficult because they still don't know exactly what's wrong, according to Prewitt.
"Late September, early October, we had what we thought was a routine outbreak of kennel cough," Dr. Prewitt, one of Spokanimal's veterinarians, said.
But when 80% of the shelter dogs got sick and didn’t get better with routine treatment, the doctor knew this was anything but.
"They’re testing everything they could think that it is," she said of samples they've sent to labs across the country. "It’s largely coming up negative, which is hard.”
Spokanimal closed the shelter in mid-October and initiated quarantine protocol to stop the spread. They believe what they have is the same unknown respiratory illness infecting dogs nationwide. There have been reported cases in Oregon, New Hampshire, Colorado, and other western states.
According to Washington's Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for tracking such illnesses, there have been no confirmed reports in the state yet.
“We have not received any official reports from veterinarians nor any laboratory confirmations of this respiratory infection,” said Washington State Veterinarian Dr. Amber Itle per a press release Monday.
Dr. Prewitt says they have sent samples to labs leading the investigation into the unknown illness, including Cornell, a lab in Oregon, and WSU's disease diagnostics lab.
“On the phone almost every single day since it started with experts around the country," she said.
The good news, she said, is most of the infected dogs have recovered; only two died during the outbreak, one that was found to have an underlying heartworm infection.
Though they are now focused on alerting dog owners in the area to be watchful.
“We are seeing dogs that get sick, cough for a few weeks, develop pneumonia and pass away within 24-36 hours, so they decompensate quickly," she said of the disease.
With how quickly the disease can spread and worsen, SpokAnimal recommends pet owners look for any cough that doesn’t go away and get to a vet quickly. It’s also recommended pet owners keep their dogs away from high traffic areas like boarding kennels and dog parks.
"Any way we can minimize the co-mingling of dogs at this point," Dr. Prewitt said.
The Washington Department of Agriculture is urging vets to report suspected cases.
SpokAnimal issued the following statement on the suspected illness on Tuesday, stating:
"SpokAnimal is currently dealing with a highly contagious respiratory infection at its shelter. Sometime near the end of September or beginning of October, our shelter dog population experienced an outbreak of what we thought was routine kennel cough. All affected dogs were started on kennel cough protocol and the entire shelter population was then revaccinated. However, approximately eighty percent of the population became symptomatic and severl developed severe pneumonia.
Unlike typical kennel cough and routine causes of pneumonia, our established course of antibiotics and other treatment did not seem to be effective. Unfortunately, one such dog became sick enough, despite treatment, that humane euthanasia was elected for his own sake. At that time, with an abundance of caution in case something larger was going on, I elected to shut down our shelter to the public and stop any dogs coming in or going out of our shelter. This was to protect the public and the general population of dogs in Spokane. We then sent the dog to WSU for necropsy (autopsy) as well as samples on living dogs in hopes of obtaining some answers and to guide treatment going forward. Most of the diagnostics were largely negative, including the testing we have continued to do weekly.
However, one report identified Streptococcus Zo, a bacterial infection that can piggyback on top of the virus that originally was brought into our shelter.
We immediately started aggressive treatment for Strep Zo for all animals in our care. Significant improvement was seen and we are confident that the bacteria has been eradicated. In the last few weeks, we have seen most animals completely recover, however, we are still seeing some illness in our population from an unknown virus.
Since the beginning we have been working closely with the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Washington State University Veterinry Diagnostic Laboratory, Cornell Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, as well as being in constant communication with consultants specializing in infectious disease in shelters. We are still seeing a few dogs become sick, but the numbers of new sick dogs are few and getting lower all the time.
Our staff has been absolutely amazing during this time. They have been diligently deep cleaning our shelter 3 times daily and providing treatment including administering medications, fluids, and nebulizing every sick dog several times daily. During the peak of the outbreak, several staff members, including our Executive Director, were coming in every 2 hours throughout the night to hand feed our patients that were not eating on their own. Specialists with whom I have consulted have confirmed we are doing everything we can, and quick and thorough treatment likely saved many dogs who might not have made it.
Although we are seeing much improvement, the cause for the illness has yet to be identified. As such, for the safety of the dog population of Spokane, we will only open the shelter back up to the public after we are confident that all animals in our care are completely healthy. We have spoken to many other shelters and general practice veterinarians nationwide that seem to be experiencing the same type of as-yet unidentified respiratory illness that does not respond to normal treatment protocols.
While we do not know if this will affect owned dogs in the Spokane community, we highly recommend all dog owners keep their dogs up to date on annual vaccines, including the Bordetella (kennel cough) and DAPP (distemper/parvo) vaccines. Please seek veterinary care if their dog exhibits any signs of prolonged coughing, nasal discharge and lethargy. With the holidays approaching, we are aware that some owners may plan to board their dogs while they travel. If at all possible, we encourage dog owners to think about alternative care for their dogs like a dog sitter/house sitter to avoid any chances for illness from a high volume of dogs in one area."
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