Tony Malone, the medical director at the Houston Humane Society said that distemper and parvovirus – another highly infectious viral disease spread through indirect or direct contact with an infected animal’s feces – despite being common, are two of the more dangerous viruses found in local shelters.ĭistemper affects dogs and wildlife, while parvovirus can infect older cats along with dogs and other animals. “These problems are only going to get worse as shelters continue to intake and stay populations continue to rise it’s not just cases of distemper or parvo, we are seeing mange, feline immunodeficiency viruses, ringworm and other upper respiratory issues all going up,” Fischer said.ĭr. Sugar Land’s animal shelter will remain closed for at least four to six weeks – the quarantine period – to ensure all dogs that have indirectly or directly been in contact with the active case can be tested, said Cindy King, interim animal services manager at the shelter.Īlongside distemper – a viral disease that attacks the respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems of dogs – cases of canine and feline parvovirus are on the rise, said Fischer.įischer said at the City of Pearland’s Animal Shelter they have treated three to four cases of parvovirus this year, which is more than they have seen in the last four years.

Since their initial closure, BARC has re-opened their shelter for services. Within just weeks of each other, both the City of Sugar Land’s Animal Shelter and Houston’s BARC Animal Shelter had to announce temporary closures after finding positive cases of distemper in their facilities. “Now, as a result of this happening during the pandemic and continuing, we are seeing that there is this sort of epidemic of diseases.” Photo by City of Sugar Land Animal Shelter “Stray populations were already left relatively unchecked during COVID-19 everybody closed their doors and weren’t doing any intake of these animals, so these animals bred and had more interactions with each other,” Fischer said.

Houston animal shelter