As a precaution, the Will County Humane Society has temporarily closed its dog kennel for viewing and is not bringing in additional dogs at this time, officials said.
“We decided as a preventive measure to close the shelter for two weeks, based on the direction from our veterinarian,” said Patricia Danko, president of the board of directors for Will County Humane Society. “We had four puppies in total that came from a kill-shelter down in the Kentucky area. Two of the puppies had come down with parvovirus.”
A short time later, the other two puppies developed parvovirus.
The dog kennel closed on Aug. 19. The cat viewing room remains open to the public as normal.
Danko said the four puppies have since been seen by a veterinarian and are doing well.
The rest of the dogs have been under quarantine, officials said.
“As a preventive measure, we wanted make sure that we close down so that we could carefully watch the dogs that we have,” Danko said. “We wanted to make sure that we could sanitize really well and make sure that we’re following all the procedures for cleaning.”
Danko said the shelter wanted all the dogs doing well “just to make sure that we’re not spreading it to anyone else.”
None of the other dogs developed parvovirus, officials said. Typically, puppies and elderly dogs are more susceptible to the parvovirus.
“We vaccinate all of our dogs, but because the puppies are so vulnerable, it takes time for them to get three rounds of immunizations,” Danko said. “They’re not old enough to have gotten all those immunizations, so it makes them more susceptible to the parvovirus. It’s a very common issue with puppies.”
At the Will County Humane Society, “our pets health and well-being is our No. 1 priority,” according to its website. The Shorewood facility is Will County’s oldest no-kill animal shelter.
The dog kennel is currently scheduled to reopen for viewing at noon on Saturday.