Idaho Falls Animal Shelter stops taking in owner surrendered dogs due to parvo epidemic

UPDATE 9/17/18: The Idaho Falls Animal Shelter has decided to temporarily halt taking in owner surrendered dogs until further notice.

The shelter said they made this tough decision due to the extremely contagious and deadly nature of the Parvovirus epidemic that has been occurring in the area.

The shelter will also be closing access to their dog kennels to the public until further notice.

“These decisions were not made easily, but we have to do everything we can to protect the animals in our care. We have had 3 Parvovirus cases in the shelter over the past 2 weeks, and we cannot risk spreading the virus to anyone else in our care or to people’s personal pets,” the Idaho Falls Animal Shelter said in a Facebook post Monday.

The Idaho Falls Animal Shelter is not the only facility dealing with the parvo outbreak in the area,

Officials said even previously vaccinated dogs seem to be contracting this particular strain.

“Please make sure your pets are current on their vaccinations, be cautious of where you are taking your pets and if you have a puppy please keep it at home until it’s had its entire series of puppy vaccinations- and even then be cautious,” the shelter said.

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Veterinarians and animal shelters are seeing an increase in parvo. A dog from the Idaho Falls Animal Shelter is in critical condition at a local vet hospital.

Parvo is a highly contagious disease in dogs. It usually affects puppies, but there have been cases in our area. The Humane Society has seen about six dogs with the condition in the last two weeks.

“It’s basically a disease that attacks the intestinal tract of the dogs and dehydrates them and can lead to death very quickly,” says Laramie Pancheri, Animal Control Officer.

“Many of them have to be bottle fed or syringe fed. They have to have fluids, some of them get bad enough that they have to be given fluids every hour, all through the night, all through the day. It’s very time consuming and painful to watch them go through that,” says Shannel Guzman, board member with Humane Society of the Upper Valley

Parvo can be prevented. Keep your dogs updated on their vaccines. It is a three series vaccine for puppies and then annual booster shots. Do not take unvaccinated puppies to public places.

The Humane Society is asking for help, they are accepting donations to help that dog from the Idaho Falls Animal Shelter. For more information about the dog and how you can help you can find that on their Facebook page. Here is the link.