FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Broward County animal shelter has temporarily stopped taking in stray cats after at least two cats tested positive last month for a potentially deadly disease.
Now, the shelter is taking precautions after some of the felines at the facility were possibly exposed to the virus.
Laritza, a concerned resident, shared her experience outside Broward County Animal Care.
“I found her on the street,” Laritza said as a cat she rescued curled up around her neck. “I bathed her, gave her a flea bath, flea treatment, but I just can’t keep her.”
However, when she tried to surrender the cat to the shelter, she was turned away.
The shelter has temporarily suspended cat intake, as well as trap-neuter-return and return-to-field services. A sign posted to the agency’s quarantine room outlines the new policy to prevent the spread of feline panleukopenia.
“We took this measure in an abundance of caution to protect our cat population,” Zachary Rinkins, the shelter’s public information officer, said.
Staff are now wearing protective gear to enter each room to prevent cross-contamination.
“Each room, you need to put on proper PPE to make sure you are not contaminating from one room to another,” Vieira said.
They are working to prevent a community outbreak of feline panleukopenia from infecting other cats — and especially the kittens in their care.
“Many shelter environments see an uptick in panleukopenia during the summer months,” Rinkins said.
Vieira explains, “It is a very contagious disease that is very infectious to our younger cat population, to where they will become lethargic, have diabetes, (are) not eating and, unfortunately, it can kill kittens very quickly if not treated.”
Rinkins said there have been two different exposures, leading to multiple cats under quarantine.
With 170 cats currently in the facility—which is over its intended capacity—the agency is calling on the public to help.
“One of the ways the community can help us is by adopting animals and foster(ing) animals that gives them a second chance so they can thrive,” Rinkins said.
While humans can accidentally spread the virus from an infected cat to a healthy cat, which is why isolation and wearing PPE are so important, “there is no evidence that humans are infected,” according to the National Institutes of Health.
Dogs cannot get the virus, experts say.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has a resource on its website explaining how the virus is treated.
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