Animal Shelter Recovering from Parvo Outbreak

January 22 - Hutchinson's first animal shelter opened for business earlier this month. Dozens of animals were brought in for adoption. Some of them were infected with parvo.

Just before the shelter opened, a litter of three puppies was found to have the parvo virus. They were taken to the vet where they later died. Then another litter of five puppies starting showing symptoms of parvo. The shelter had those puppies euthanized to keep the virus from spreading.

Another puppy outside of the two litters came down with the virus and also died. The shelter is now looking into their policies because the owner of that puppy was not notified before she came in to pick the animal up.

Parvo is a viral disease transmitted from dog to dog through blood, urine and feces. It is commonly found in animal shelters. There is a treatment for parvo but it is very expensive and the Hutchinson shelter just didn't have the funds to pay for it.

Shelter operators knew they would eventually have to deal with parvo, they just didn't think it would happen during the facility's opening week. Now that the outbreak is over, they're focused on giving all of the animals a good home.