Earlier this month, dogs at the Dane County Humane Society were diagnosed with a contagious illness, which prompted University of Wisconsin Shelter Medicine Program and Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory to work together to help the dogs.

DCHS workers noticed when symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge and lethargy began to spread throughout the shelter. Though a few dogs experienced more severe symptoms, the majority of dogs showed mild signs of illness.

Among the dogs, influenza was ruled out, although not without a bit of initial concern among UW Shelter Medicine Program staff. The symptoms of influenza and parainfluenza — a respiratory virus common among shelter dogs — are similar on a basal level so they are easily mistaken for one another.

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DCHS public relations coordinator, Marissa DeGroot, noted the dogs tested positive for parainfluenza and mycoplasma, a bacterium linked to kennel cough. Both are less serious than influenza and easier to treat.

“Cases of kennel cough are fairly common in shelter environments,” DeGroot said.  

Mycoplasma and parainfluenza, the causative organisms, likely traveled through the shared air, water and food of the dogs, DeGroot said. Similar to how the common cold is passed between humans, once the organism is inhaled by a dog, it will infect the cells inside the throat and cause the respiratory disease.

Keith Poulsen, the diagnostic case and outreach coordinator at the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, dedicates himself to helping animals in the Dane County area.

“Similar to how humans are tested for a common virus, we usually do a nasal or tonsil swab of the infected dogs and then run our tests,” Poulsen said. “It’s a quick turn around, we usually know the results within a few hours.”

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Supportive fluids and time were crucial to treatment to help the dogs, Poulsen said. Poulsen put a lot of time into watching the progress and recovery of the animals.

“The dogs felt crummy for a few days, and because this virus was highly contagious there was some concern about infecting young and elderly dogs who are more susceptible to infection,” Poulsen said “But with supportive fluids the dogs began feeling better within a few days time.”

The shelter took a number of precautionary measures to stop the spread of the infectious disease to both healthy dogs and other animal species living at the shelter.

“Not only did we close the shelter and stop dog adoptions immediately, we also contacted all recent dog adopters and informed them of the symptoms they should look out for in their new pet,” DeGroot said.

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Cautious actions have been put in place to minimize exposure to other animals by separating sick, exposed and newly arrived dogs into these three separate areas at the humane society, DeGroot said.

No other animals at DCHS or in the community have shown signs of the infection, Poulsen said. DCHS does not expect any more cases to arise because the situation was handled right away and many precautionary actions have been put into action.

The shelter did not see the illness as an overly concerning matter and treated it as they would any common virus, DeGroot said.

Now that the illnesses with the DCHS dogs is no longer of concern, DCHS along with UW Shelter Medicine Program and WVDL have moved on from the situation.