Dog pound faces distemper breakout

ZANESVILLE – A deadly bout of distemper has broken out at the Muskingum County Dog Pound, and county officials are trying to decide whether they can save the lives of more than 30 dogs who have been exposed.

Distemper, a highly contagious virus that can cause seizures, paralysis and hysteria in some unvaccinated dogs while inflicting others simply with a high fever and nasal discharge, can easily become an issue in dog pounds.

Strays that are brought in can often expose the facility to the virus; carriers often do not exhibit symptoms until they have already spread the sickness.

"(An asymptomatic dog) is just as contagious as a dog that's dying," said Jody Murray, executive director at the Animal Shelter Society.

At least one dog at the dog pound has been confirmed as having distemper, said Dog Warden Bryan Catlin, but because of the latent capabilities of the virus, it is unknown how many of the others have been infected.

The Animal Shelter Society of Zanesville, which was not been affected by the distemper but is partnering with the pound in attempts to eradicate it, consulted with a veterinarian to present a plan of action to Catlin and the Muskingum County commissioners Thursday.

Officials have two options on how to deal with the distemper. The dogs could be brought to an off-site location for a 30-day quarantine and watched to see whether they develop any symptoms while the pound is sanitized. At the end of the quarantine, testing would reveal whether the virus had been eradicated.

The other option, simpler if not less humane, is to euthanize all 30 of the dogs.

"If you don't have an off-site location, you have to assume all the dogs are infected because they're in an infected facility," Murray said.

The county doesn't have a site at which to house the dogs, but kicked around the idea of keeping the dogs at the Muskingum County Fairgrounds for the quarantine. The dogs could possibly be kept in quarantine in one of the unused barns and cared for by the groundskeeper, who lives on-site.

The dogs wouldn't have heat, but they could be given boxes with straw in which to weather the remaining cold days.

"It's better than being dead," Commissioner Jim Porter said. "It's going to last forever if we don't do something."

In addition to taking action with the dogs, the pound also must take precautions in daily operations, sanitizing officers' vehicles between each dog pick-up, even if it means having to go back to the same area twice for what would normally be a double pick-up.

That is expected to slow down responses to dog calls significantly because the sanitation process takes up to 45 minutes each time.

The pound's facility also will have to be intensively cleaned twice, with 24 hours in between sanitation.

"The good thing about this virus is it's pretty easy to clean, but you have to clean it all at one time," Murray said.

Catlin and the commissioners have yet to decide on a plan, but Murray agrees a decision must be made quickly.

"It's one of those things where there's no good options," he said.

In the meantime, the Animal Shelter Society is not accepting any adoptable dogs from the pound and the commissioners ordered Catlin to shut the pound's doors to prevent cross-contamination.

"I think our goal is to get rid of this as quickly as we can," Murray said.

When the outbreak is dealt with, the pound will still have to contend with the danger bringing stray dogs in off the street, but it will at least have a plan of how to deal with the virus in the future.

"It's not just about protecting the shelter dogs," said Stephanie Hill, president of the board of directors. "It's about protecting all the animals in the community. ... It can spread so easily, so we don't want to end up with a communitywide, not to spread the panic here, but a communitywide outbreak."

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